- HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. director
Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" was shown
on prime time Cuban state-run television on Thursday after playing to packed
cinemas for a week.
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- In a country with a deep-seated distrust of U.S. governments,
the film has generated widespread public interest and added to a recent
barrage of official criticism of President Bush.
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- Cubans have stood in long lines to buy tickets to see
rough DVD copies projected at 120 cinema theaters across the island to
unfailing applause.
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- "We hope this film will lead Americans to see the
reality of their government, and not only deny Bush reelection but put
him on trial for the harm he has done to humanity," said retired worker
Armando Rodriguez.
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- "The film is a work of love for humanity. It confirms
what many of us believe, that George W. Bush is a real threat to the world,"
said University of Havana professor Arnaldo Coro Antich.
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- Hostility between Washington and Havana dates back four
decades since President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, but relations have
become very tense since Bush launched a plan to undermine Castro's communist-run
government in May.
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- Restrictions put into effect by the White House on June
30 to cut back visits and cash remittances to Cuba by relatives living
in the United States have annoyed Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.
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- In a speech on Monday, Castro portrayed Bush as a "sinister"
religious fundamentalist bent on destroying Cuban socialism and lengthily
discussed the U.S. president's past drinking problems as the root of his
"bellicosity."
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- Castro drew laughter from his audience quoting Moore's
book "Stupid White Men" which questions Bush's reading abilities.
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- Cuban dissidents who saw "Fahrenheit 9/11"
praised the United States for its freedom of expression and lamented that
such criticism of a president was not allowed in Cuba where the one-party
state controls the media.
- © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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