Obama can’t fix US capitalism: Fidel Castro

CUBA: Former president Fidel Castro said Sunday US President Barack Obama and all his men will not be able to put US capitalism back together again, as Obama prods Congress to pass a massive stimulus plan for the ailing US economy.

“Obama (White House chief of staff Rahm) Emanuel and all the brilliant politicians and economists they’ve brought together won’t suffice to resolve the growing problems of the US capitalist society,” Castro said in an article published in official media.

Fidel Castro, 82, has been increasingly critical of the new US president even after he praised him for his electoral victory on November 4.

As Obama this week eagerly awaits the US Senate’s approval of an 800 billion dollar economic stimulus bill he says the US economy desperately needs to avoid disaster, Castro said the US economy’s recovery depends on the entire world chipping in.

“All the other countries will have to pay for the colossal waste of money (of the US) and guarantee, first and foremost in this increasingly polluted planet, American jobs and the profits of the country’s big multinationals,” Castro wrote. It was Castro’s fifth article on Obama in less than two weeks. His tone has become increasingly critical of the new US leader.

On Friday, Fidel Castro said Obama’s policy was “losing its virginity” because he had lost interest in the plight of the Cuban people, choosing to focus instead on the Cuban-American community who voted for him. Ailing after major intestinal surgery in 2006 but still head of the Communist Party, Fidel Castro said he feared Obama, trapped in the capitalist system, would not be able to change US policy given “his role in a system that is the very opposite of every just principle.”

Havana, Monday, AFP