sipila
Sun, 25 Mar 2001 08:41:56 -0800
RHC Weekend-24/25 March 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 24/25 March 2001
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*PREPARATIONS GOING WELL FOR UPCOMING INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION MEETING
*THOUSANDS IN SANTA CRUZ DEL NORTE DEMAND AN END TO USA'S CRIMINAL MANEUVERS
*GOVERNOR OF RIO DE JANEIRO WRAPS UP VISIT TO THE ISLAND
*SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI TO ARRIVE IN HAVANA MONDAY
*ARGENTINEANS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF 1976 MILITARY COUP
*POLITICAL VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RISE IN GUATEMALA
*FOX CLOSES ANOTHER MILITARY BASE IN CHIAPAS, RELEASES 5 ZAPATISTA PRISONERS
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*PREPARATIONS GOING WELL FOR UPCOMING INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION MEETING
Havana, March 24 (RHC)--At least 120 of the 140 member nations of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union have confirmed their attendance at the upcoming
meeting of the organization in Havana. The 105th Conference of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union will be held in the Cuban capital from April 1st
through the 7th.
Speaking with reporters in Havana, the President of the International
Relations Commission of the Cuban Parliament, Ramon Pez Ferro, stated that
more than 1500 delegates will gather for the important international
meeting. Pez Ferro said that among the delegates will be at least 36
presidents of national parliaments -- from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The head of the Cuban Parliament's International Relations Commission said
that Havana would promote a resolution on the struggle against terrorism in
all its forms. Other resolutions include a call for the lifting of the U.S.
economic blockade against Cuba as well as an end to neoliberal economic
policies.
The previous conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, held in Indonesia
last October, dealt with suggestions to improve the organization's work.
Organizers of the conference in Havana said that similar resolutions would
be discussed during next month's meeting.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union was founded in 1889 and is one of the oldest
political organizations in the world. Aside from its 140 members of national
parliaments, a number of regional parliamentary organizations are associate
members -- including the European Parliament, the Andean Parliament and the
Latin American Parliament, known as PARLATINO.
*THOUSANDS IN SANTA CRUZ DEL NORTE DEMAND AN END TO USA'S CRIMINAL MANEUVERS
Havana, March 24 (RHC)--More than 40,000 gathered in the municipality of
Santa Cruz del Norte this morning, to demand an end to the U.S. economic
blockade against Cuba and the elimination of Washington's infamous Cuban
Adjustment Act.
Community leaders spoke out against the criminal policy followed by the
United States for more than four decades, asserting that while the tactics
have changed over the years, the intention is the same: to destroy the Cuban
Revolution.
Speakers also called for the extradition of internationally notorious
terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is being held in Panama and charged with
plotting the assassination of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Singers and musical groups also performed during the Open Tribunal in Santa
Cruz del Norte, which has become a weekly event -- held in different areas
of the country each Saturday morning.
*GOVERNOR OF RIO DE JANEIRO WRAPS UP VISIT TO THE ISLAND
Havana, March 24 (RHC)--The Governor of the Brazilian state of Rio de
Janeiro wrapped up a five-day official visit to Cuba on Saturday.
During his visit, Anthony Garotinho Matheus de Oliveira was accompanied by a
delegation of 30 mayors from cities and towns in Rio de Janeiro. They toured
a number of family doctor clinics in an effort to learn first-hand about the
Cuban model of community doctors. Cuban physicians are also working in Rio
de Janeiro to help develop the recently established Family Doctor Program in
Brazil.
Matheus de Oliveira met with Cuban President Fidel Castro on Wednesday, when
the two leaders discussed a wide range of regional and international issues.
On Friday, the governor of Rio de Janeiro signed bilateral cooperation
agreements with Cuban officials in the areas of health and biotechnology, as
well as the creation of a joint venture to produce computer software.
Matheus de Oliveira and his delegation will return to Rio de Janeiro on
Sunday.
*SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI TO ARRIVE IN HAVANA MONDAY
Havana, March 24 (RHC)--South African President Thabo Mbeki will arrive in
the Cuban capital on Monday, March 26th, to begin an official visit to the
island.
Accepting an invitation from his Cuban counterpart, President Fidel Castro,
the South African leader will meet with high-ranking officials and tour
places of social and political interest during his three-day stay.
An announcement of the upcoming visit, which appeared in Saturday's edition
of the daily Granma, calls the visit "an expression of the commitment to
continue strengthening and broadening the historic relations of friendship
between our two peoples."
*ARGENTINEANS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF 1976 MILITARY COUP
Buenos Aires, March 24 (RHC)--Argentineans throughout the country were
commemorating today the 25th anniversary of the 1976 military coup. More
than 100 organizations, with the slogan "memory, justice and truth,"
convened a massive demonstration at Plaza de Mayo, the broad square in front
of presidential headquarters, and in front of congressional headquarters.
TV and radio stations dedicated part of their Saturday programming to
remembering the military takeover with images and texts. Friday evening,
30,000 Argentineans crowded into a stadium in Buenos Aires to listen to a
concert in memory of the disappeared during the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship.
Performances were given by Argentinean singer and song writer Victor
Heredia, Spain's Joan Manuel Serrat, Uruguayan Jaime Ross and Cuban Pablo
Milanes. During one of the emotion-packed moments of the concert, Chilean
actor Patricio Contreras read the open letter sent to the dictatorship by
writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh on the first anniversary of the coup
denouncing the regime's crimes, which led to his subsequent disappearance.
The proceeds of the concert will go to the construction of a headquarters
for the organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who for years publicly
denounced the disappearance of their children and grandchildren in front of
presidential headquarters.
*POLITICAL VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RISE IN GUATEMALA
Guatemala City, March 24 (RHC)--In Guatemala, unidentified assailants
opened fire Friday evening on the residence of the president of the
country's Constitutional Court, in yet another manifestation of rising
political violence in that Central American nation. Judge Conchita
Mazariegos was not home during the attack, which caused no victims and
little damage.
Following the attack, Mazariegos revealed for the first time that she has
received anonymous threats through phone calls that play funeral music. She
said she hadn't denounced the threats before this, so as not to affect the
image of Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo.
The attack came three days after Mazariegos struck down a legislative reform
that would prevent Parliament president and former dictator Efrain Rios
Montt, of the right-wing Guatemalan Republican Front, from being stripped of
his immunity in relation to a corruption scandal. Just two days earlier,
assailants lobbed two hand grenades into the lobby of the home of Judge
Jazmin Barrios, who is participating in trial proceedings against three
members of the military accused in the 1998 assassination of Catholic Bishop
and human rights activist Juan Gerardi.
The trial opened Friday without incident, and is expected to continue for at
least several weeks. Numerous judicial authorities and witnesses in the case
have received death threats, some opting to flee the country.
*FOX CLOSES ANOTHER MILITARY BASE IN CHIAPAS, RELEASES 5 ZAPATISTA PRISONERS
Mexico City, March 24 (RHC)--Mexican President Vicente Fox has announced
that another military base in Chiapas has been dismantled and that five
Zapatistas in federal prisons have been released. This is the fifth military
base closed in the Zapatista stronghold; the indigenous rebels have
demanded, as one of three conditions to renew the Chiapas peace process,
that all seven be shut down.
The announcement came late Friday, following the Zapatista acceptance of an
offer to address members of Congress concerning legislation on indigenous
rights, autonomy and culture. Fox said he has also signed a decree to
dismantle the remaining two military bases, one of which controls access to
the town of La Realidad, where Zapatista headquarters is located.
The Mexican President said the cases of seven other imprisoned Zapatistas
will have to be studied by the Secretary of the Interior. An editorial in
the Mexican news daily "La Jornada" observed that the indigenous
representatives, who began their movement with an armed uprising, have now
achieved access to the country's highest tribune, and called their success
historic.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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