Haiti‘s poverty an “embarrassment for our times“

“Haiti is an embarrassment for our times, in a world in which most people still are victims of exploitation and abuse,“ Castro wrote.

HAVANA, January 15, 2010 (AFP) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday said quake-ravaged Haiti's extreme poverty was an "embarrassment for our times," and called for real solutions now.

"Haiti is an embarrassment for our times, in a world in which most people still are victims of exploitation and abuse," Castro, 83, wrote in an editorial in official media.

The Cuban revolutionary leader, president for almost five decades, stepped aside in a health crisis in 2006 and but still is head of the Cuban Communist Party.

"Haiti is the perfect product of colonialism and imperialism, ... of military intervention and having its natural resources looted," Castro argued, saying that "it is time for real and true solutions for this brother nation" just to Cuba's east.

Both Cuba and Haiti have been occupied by the United States.

The United States said Friday it had been granted rare permission to use Cuban airspace for aid and evacuation flights in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake.