September 1, 2000
President Fidel Castro has requested a visa to head Cuba's delegation to the United Nations ''Millennium Summit'' of global leaders in New York next week, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
"The head of the Council of State and Cuban government communicated to the U.S. government his intention to travel to New York to take part in the meeting," a communique said.
It would be Castro's first trip abroad since a mid-1999 summit in Brazil, and is thought to be only his third visit to the United States since the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the ensuing end of diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana. Castro, now 74, was last in New York in 1995 for the 50th U.N. anniversary celebration.
"Now, everything depends on the attitude taking by the U.S. government," the Cuban communique added, referring to the formal visa application for Castro.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque brushed aside on Thursday reports that anti-Castro Cuban exiles were pressing the U.S. government to deny the Cuban president a visa or to arrest him for 'crimes against humanity'. There is no threat or risk that is capable of frightening anybody in our country," Perez told a news conference.
