Castro: Globalization can't go on

Published Sunday, July 5, 1998, in the Miami Herald

Castro: Globalization can't go on

HAVANA --(EFE)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has warned Latin American economists that globalization is ``unsustainable'' and would plunge the world into an ``inevitable'' crisis.

Speaking as an economic congress closed Friday, Castro said politicians should have ``a minimum of knowledge, or if possible, maximum knowledge of the economy.''

Delegates issued a statement saying globalization involved ``free self-determination of the paths which people may want to follow to achieve their full development'' -- and need not allow the strong to dominate the weak.

During the congress, Carlos Moneta of Argentina, permanent secretary of the Latin American Economic System, warned that the worsening Asian crisis will ``be felt in 1998'' in Latin America. Already it has slowed growth in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, he said.