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From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 06:46:30 -0800
*IN VILLA CLARA, 50,000 CUBANS PROTEST WASHINGTON'S BLOCKADE
*GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT CONDEMNS DEATH THREATS AGAINST CUBAN DOCTORS
*HEAD OF CHINESE ARMY CONCLUDES VISIT TO CUBA
*CUBANS GEAR UP TO CELEBRATE 42ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION
*CUBAN INSTITUTE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THE PEOPLES TURNS 40
Viewpoint:
*CUBA'S ECONOMY CONTINUES TO IMPROVE
*CUBA WILL CONTINUE ITS STRUGGLE FOR A JUST AND MORE EQUITABLE WORLD
.
*IN VILLA CLARA, 50,000 CUBANS PROTEST WASHINGTON'S BLOCKADE
Villa Clara, December 30 (RHC)-- Over 50,000 Cubans gathered in
the municipality of Placetas, in the province of Villa Clara, to
demand the elimination of the U.S. anti-Cuba law known as the Cuban
Adjustment Act, as well as lifting Washington's blockade against the
island.
Just a few hours away from celebrations island-wide to mark the
42nd anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, local residents also
ratified the determination of 11 million Cubans to defend their
Revolution at whatever the cost.
Participants in the patriotic activity also demanded justice in the
case of well-known international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.
Carriles and five accomplices are still being held in a Panamanian
prison, after Cuba denounced a terrorist plot to assassinate
President Fidel Castro during the 10th Ibero-American Summit of Heads
of State and Government, held last month in that Central American
nation.
Of Cuban origin, Posada Carriles has plotted and carried out
numerous terrorist actions against Cuba and several other nations
with the tolerance, if not the direct support, of the U.S.
government. He was the mastermind of the October 1976 sabotage
bombing in mid air of a Cubana airline flight, killing all 73 people
on board.
Cuba has formally requested that Posada Carriles and his accomplices
be repatriated to stand trial on the island
*GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT CONDEMNS DEATH THREATS AGAINST CUBAN DOCTORS
Guatemala City, December 30 (RHC)-- Guatemalan President Alfonso
Portillo condemned recent death threats against Cuban health
professionals, offering their services in remote areas of the Central
American nation.
In his speech on Friday, to mark the 4th anniversary of the peace
agreements that put an end to 36 years of an internal armed conflict,
Portillo strongly criticized those who - in his words - "from the
shadows and anonymously are threatening the lives of foreign
professionals who are generously offering their expertise in a
country like Guatemala."
The Guatemalan president stressed that much remains to be done in
that country, especially in remote areas such as those where the
Cuban health professionals are working free-of-charge. He emphasized
that it is precisely those areas that have been totally forgotten by
the Guatemalan state, investors and even Guatemalan doctors.
President Portillo announced that he has instructed authorities to
actively contribute to an investigation to discover who is
responsible for such regrettable acts, which he said should had been
buried along with the armed conflict 36 years ago.
The Cuban medical brigade, made up of 459 professionals arrived in
Guatemala in November 1998 after Hurricane Mitch hit Central America.
In Guatemala alone, Mitch caused the deaths of 268 persons and
economic loses valued at several million dollars.
On December 2nd, an unknown group made death threats against Cuban
doctors working in Guatemala. Later, on December 10th, huge signs
with death threats were found in front of the house where the Cuban
professionals are staying in the Department of Quiche.
Since their arrival in late 1998, the Cuban professionals have
treated 2,000,000 people, including over 7000 children. They have
also performed over 11,543 surgical operations in 10 of Guatemala's
22 departments.
*HEAD OF CHINESE ARMY CONCLUDES VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, December 30 (RHC)-- The head of the Chinese People's Army,
General Fu Quanyou, concluded a visit to Cuba on Saturday.
For five days, Quanyou and the delegation accompanying him met
with high-ranking Cuban officials and toured military bases and
other installations, as well as the offices of Cuba's Ministry of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The Chinese dignitary's visit was also an opportunity to sign an
agreement with Cuban authorities to strengthen cooperation between
the two armies.
*CUBANS GEAR UP TO CELEBRATE 42ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION
Havana, December 30 (RHC)-- Cubans island-wide are gearing up to
celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the Revolution. On both January 1st
and 2nd, the Cuban people will commemorate the entrance of the Cuban
Revolution into a new millennium and the beginning of the 21st
century.
An editorial in today's edition of the newspaper Granma announces
that activities on January 2nd will be especially dedicated to
children, the continuers of Cuba's socialist project into the new
century.
The newspaper also notes that to assure that children, along with
their parents, enjoy a broad program of activities organized in their
honor, Cuban authorities decided to declare next Tuesday, January
2nd, a national holiday -- together with the already traditional
January 1st, which marks the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.
*CUBAN INSTITUTE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THE PEOPLES TURNS 40
Havana, December 30 (RHC)-- Sergio Corrieri, President of the
Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), praised the
decision by Cuban authorities 40 years ago to create that friendship
and solidarity institution.
On Friday evening, Corrieri participated in the traditional Flame
of Friendship activity, held at Havana's Lenin Park - marking the
40th anniversary of ICAP. Also on hand were members of the diplomatic
corps accredited in the Cuban capital, as well as solidarity
activists making up the 34th Contingent of the Nordic Brigade.
Reviewing ICAP's work in 2000, the Cuban official stressed the
creation of 80 committees to demand the return to Cuba of six-year-
old Elian Gonzalez in 60 nations. The president of ICAP also pointed
to the participation of over 4000 solidarity activists from all over
the world during the Second Meeting of Friendship and Solidarity with
Cuba, held last month here in the Cuban capital.
Viewpoint:
*CUBA'S ECONOMY CONTINUES TO IMPROVE
Although the Cuban economy will face difficulties at the beginning of
the year 2001, the country's Gross Domestic Product will surpass five
percent by the end of this year.
During the last year of this century, Cuba has faced severe problems
such as serious droughts and the recent rise in oil prices but the
economy continues to grow in a modest but steady way as a result of
the readjustment package implemented by the Cuban government over the
past decade.
As a result, Cuba's production is now more efficient and its
industries are better organized while foreign investments in sectors
like tourism continue to have a positive impact on the country's
economy.
Although the agricultural sector has made considerable advances, it
has not yet been able to meet the major demands of the population.
This has forced the island to spend funds on food imports instead of
developing investment plans in dynamic sectors.
Added to this panorama is the upcoming ultra- right US
administration, which has already announced its stiffer and more
aggressive policy towards Cuba. That policy includes the adoption by
the new administration of measures strengthening Washington's
economic and financial blockade of the island.
Although the unilateral measure has considerably affected Cuba's
social and economic development, it has reinforced the Cuban people's
will to live under difficult conditions by developing relations with
most other countries of the world.
No new anti-Cuba measure taken by the new U.S. administration in
order to deepen the difficulties of the Cuban people could be worse
than the ones already taken thus far by Washington, unless there are
thoughts of a direct military aggression.
Cubans are simply dedicated to continue working the way they have
done so far, maintaining national unity and political and ideological
firmness, which have allowed them to survive over the past four
decades of Revolution.
Cuba faces the upcoming year with faith and optimism, with full
confidence in its moral strength and determined to share, as it has
always done, all its victories and triumphs with the sister nations
of the Third World.
*CUBA WILL CONTINUE ITS STRUGGLE FOR A JUST AND MORE EQUITABLE WORLD
The Cuban people are gearing up to see in the New Year, the new
century and the new millennium with festivities all across the
island. There are more than enough reasons to celebrate.
Over the past 42 years, Cuba has not only resisted all kinds of
aggressions from the biggest economic, political and military power
ever, but it has also carried out a social work that is without
precedent in the history of small, underdeveloped countries.
On the threshold of a new millennium, the United States still refuses
to recognize Cuba's sovereignty and self-determination -- longing for
a return to the past, when the island was a mere U.S. neo-colony.
Washington continues to ignore the Cuban people's courage,
intelligence and patriotic feelings as well as their decision to die
if necessary to defend their independence.
The work of the Cuban Revolution goes well beyond the country's
boundaries. Since the very triumph of the revolutionary process in
1959, Cuba has developed a foreign policy based on friendship and
solidarity with all the nations of the world, particularly the Third
World. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban doctors, teachers, sports
trainers, soldiers, scientists and other specialists have rendered
their services in dozens of countries and many of them have even lost
their lives during those internationalist missions.
Not even the world's richest and most developed countries have done
anything similar in the history of the human race. They have not been
able to eliminate the Third World within their own boundaries, not to
mention their lack of interest in the critical economic and social
conditions facing the majority of the world's population.
Under these circumstances, it is our duty to receive the new century
with a renewed spirit and with a firm decision to continue the
struggle for a just and more equitable world that is worth living in.
(c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-16714 2000-Dec-31 11:48:05 " JC
