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GV: crowd in Havana.
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GV: Cuban President Fidel Castro and Sandinist leader walking onto platform.
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GV: crowd waving flags.
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GV: Fidel Castro applauding; Sandinista leader waving. (2 shots)
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GV: Nicaraguan delegation headed by Ortega
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Nicaraguan Ortega and Castro waving. (2 shots)
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LV: Nicaraguan speaking to crowd in Spanish and Nicaraguan leaves platform (12 shots)
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SV: Castro embraces Sandinista Ortega
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CU: Castro in Holguin addressing mass rally in National day celebrations (9 shots)
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TELERECORDING

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Cuba are pledged to sending doctors and teachers to Nicaragua. Cuban President Fidel Castro gave his public backing at a National Day ceremony marking the anniversary of the Cuban revolution in the eastern city of Holguin last night (26 July). Several Nicaraguans, including Daniel Ortega, a member of the new five-man junta were at the rally.

SYNOPSIS: Crowds in Havana gave the Nicaraguan delegation a heroes welcome. This is the first official trip abroad by members of the new Nicaraguan government and Cubans came out to greet them. Their emotion recalled a memory of their own revolution twenty years ago.

In Havana and Holguin Fidel Castro stressed the difference between the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions. "There are no two equal revolutions', he repeated. Cubans will go to Nicaragua to work and not to make propaganda. Our teachers will be influenced by the spirit of the Sandinistas, he added.

The Nicaraguans, moved by their welcome, thanked the Cubans for their moral and material support. But they are going to need all the help they can get. The banks are empty and food is in short supply. The new five-man junta has already passed emergency powers allowing to recruit labour without payment and to commandeer vehicles. But the Red Cross has promised international help on a vast scale to cope with all the homeless. The Nicaraguan leaders appear to be keeping a low profile trying to avoid personality cults. The junta has decreed that no member of the Junta or Government official may have any street or place named after him.

In Holguin the Cuban leader welcomed the new alliance among democratic Latin American countries prepared to defy the United States and to support the Nicaraguan revolution. He made an urgent appeal for continued solidarity against what he termed the 'bloody tyrants' of the continent though he did not specify to whom he was referring. He called on all countries to come to Nicaragua's aid. Cuba itself has already sent a medical brigade to Nicaragua but has promised up to five hundred more doctors if necessary.

Other countries have also responded to Nicaragua's plight, including the United States which has sent massive food aid.