Luciano Benetton, an Italian senator and president of the international Benetton clothing chain, has offered Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a job should he tire of running the country. In a letter released to the media, Benetton invited Castro to head an art school for youths worldwide. "Many of us have not forgotten the idealistic vision you offered your country... your hope for a change which inspired generations," he wrote. Benetton told Reuters he plans "a revolutionary kind of school without teachers and books, and what better than having a revolutionary as its head?"

In 1993, Benetton opened several outlets in Havana. Like many such Cuban enterprises, only tourists are allowed to shop there.

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