Cuban President Fidel Castro has requested a visa to head Cuba's delegation to the United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York on September 6-7. This follows the US government's refusal last week of a visa application from Ricardo Alarcon, leader of Cuba's National Assembly (see accompanying article). It would be Castro's third visit to the US since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
Cuba's foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque responded to reports that anticommunist Cuban emigres are pressing the US government to deny Castro the visa or to arrest him by saying, "There is no threat or risk that is capable of frightening anybody in our country".