Pope criticizes conditions in Cuba

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VATICAN CITY, March 29 (UPI) -- After a visit to Cuba, a meeting with Fidel Castro and criticizing the U.S. trade embargo against the island, Pope Benedict was back at the Vatican Thursday.

During his five-day tour of Cuba and Mexico, the pope denounced the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba just before boarding his plane at Havana Airport, ANSA reported.

CNN reported the pope also decried the violent drug war in Mexico, as well as Cuba's Marxist political system, saying it "no longer corresponds to reality."

"No one should feel excluded from taking up this exciting search by the limitations of their basic freedoms, or excused from this indolence or lack of material resources -- a situation which is worsened when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people," he said.

At an open-air mass in Revolution Plaza Wednesday, tens of thousands flocked to hear the pope's homily. At least three people fainted.