Cubans celebrate Venezuelan president's return to power, compare botched coup to Bay of Pigs

 



  HAVANA - (AP) -- Thousands of Cubans celebrated Venezuelan 
President Hugo Chavez's return to power at a rally Tuesday, 
likening the failed coup against the Cuban ally to the 
disastrous U.S.-backed effort to overthrow Fidel Castro's 
government 41 years ago.

  About 4,000 Castro supporters -- workers, students, housewives 
and retirees -- gathered on the streetcorner where the Cuban 
leader declared the country socialist in a speech on the eve of 
the April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by an American-trained 
exile army.

  ''This commemoration acquires special relevance this year,'' 
said Jorge Arias, a top local Communist Party official.

  He said it was a ''beautiful historic coincidence'' that the 
celebration came so soon after Venezuelans ``have written a page 
of dignity and honor by going out into the streets to overthrow 
the coup attempt.''

  Both Castro and Chavez are leftists who see themselves as 
revolutionary leaders.

  Castro considers Chavez a friend and his closest political ally 
in the region, and their close ties have rankled the United 
States.

  Cuba was swift to denounce the Venezuelan president's ouster 
Friday -- reversed two days later when Chavez was reinstated by 
loyalist military officers after demonstrations calling for his 
return.

  The Bush administration brushed aside suggestions Tuesday that 
it quietly encouraged the removal of Chavez.

  At the Bay of Pigs, a CIA-trained force of about 1,500 exiles 
invaded in an effort to overthrow Castro's government, which had 
seized power 28 months before. The attempt failed, and about 100 
of the invaders were killed and 1,000 captured.