Livingstone praises the Cuban revolution

Ken Livingstone is a fan of Cuba's revolution

- Search: Ken Livingstone
- Search: Cuban revolution
- Search: Living standards in Cuba
- Blog: Have your say

London's mayor praised the Cuban revolution and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in his first stop on a visit to Latin America.

Ken Livingstone called Fidel Castro's communist revolution "one of the high points of the 20th century'', and said he came to Cuba to learn more about its successful programmes, particularly athletic ones.

Cubans "created the best education and health care system anywhere in the Third World... and they've done that in the face of an incredible blockade - quite an illegal blockade - by America,'' he told journalists, referring to the US's decades-old trade embargo against Cuba.

"And though Cuba's only got a fifth of the population of Britain, it gets as many medals in the Olympics as we do,'' Livingstone said after the closing event of a sports congress in Havana.

"So clearly they're doing something right here about engaging their young people in sport, and that's what I'm really interested in finding out about.''

London hosts the 2012 Olympics. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Britain and Cuba came in 10th and 11th place, respectively, both with nine gold medals.

The mayor arrived to Cuba on Thursday night. He will attend a cricket match and meet sports officials and the mayor of Havana before leaving for Venezuela.