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subject: Radio Havana Feb 9. Cuba can never be an enemy-LatinAm
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fi
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 09 February 2001
.
*7th INTERNATIONAL PEDAGOGY 2001 CONGRESS WINDS UP IN HAVANA
*US DECEPTION CAMPAIGN PROMOTES A MYTH OF "FLEXIBILITY" TOWARD CUBA
*RECORD SALES DURING HAVANA'S INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
*CUBA-PANAMA INTERPARLIAMENTARY MEETING CONDEMNS TERRORISM
*SOLIDARITY VISIT TO CUBA BY MEXICAN DELEGATION FROM ZACATECAS
*NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE ATTACK AIDS DRUG COMPANIES
*COLOMBIAN PEACE PROCESS ADVANCES UNDER GREAT OPTIMISM
*ECUADORE ANSWERS TO THE IMF FOR ITS ECONOMIC CONCESSIONS
*DANGEROUS CHILEAN WEAPONS PURCHASE COULD DESTABILIZE LATIN AMERICA
Viewpoint:
*CUBA WILL NEVER BECOME THE ENEMY OF ANY LATIN AMERICAN PEOPLE
.
*7th INTERNATIONAL PEDAGOGY 2001 CONGRESS WINDS UP IN HAVANA
Havana, February 9 (RHC)-The 7th International Pedagogy 2001 Congress
winds up on Friday. More than 6,000 delegates from 42 countries
attended the island's most important educator's conference.
The last day's sessions included two conferences on instilling moral
values in schools, art, nation and identity.
A round table discussion was also held which focused on children's
access to education in the Third World.
On Thursday delegates participated in an open air rally in Havana
Jose Marti Tribune on the city's Malecon seaside drive during which
participants denounced the negative impact of neoliberal policies on
the quality of education in Latin America. Cuba's president, Fidel
Castro, also attended the rally. The 5-day event officially ends late
Friday afternoon.
*US DECEPTION CAMPAIGN PROMOTES A MYTH OF "FLEXIBILITY" TOWARD CUBA
Havana, February 9 (RHC)-The President of the Cuban Parliament,
Ricardo Alarcon, has charged that there is a U.S. campaign underway
to make the world believe that Washington is softening its 40-year
blockade against Cuba.
On Thursday, Alarcon gave a special to conference to the
International Pedagogy 2001 Educators' Congress which met over the
last week in the Cuban capital.
The Cuban lawmaker, charged that Washington's is manipulating
information regarding a supposed "flexibility" of its blockade
against Cuba, when Cuba is the only country in the world that cannot
buy foods or medicines in the United States, or from U.S.
subsidiaries in third countries. He pointed out that the manipulation
is such that two weeks ago U.S. Senator Byron Morgan introduced a
bill in Congress to end the prohibition on sales of foods
and medicines to the island and the major media outlets have not
bothered to report it.
Another example of U.S. manipulation, said Ricardo Alarcon, is the
criticism waged against Cuba for alleged human rights violations
which is aimed at creating internal uprisings and the destruction of
the Revolution.
*RECORD SALES DURING HAVANA'S INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIR
Havana, February 9 (RHC)- Thousands of Cubans and visitors have
already purchased some 250,000 books in the popular Havana
International Book Fair with another full day to go before the fair
ends late Saturday.
Cuban Book Institute vice president Edel Morales made this
announcement while underscoring the importance of the participation
of the island's 35 publishing houses in the fair. Morales noted that
the island's publishing industry has received praise for the quality
of its texts and designs.
The Book Institute official added that the Havana Book Fair has
made possible a re-birth of the Cuban book industry which had come to
a virtual halt in the early l990's as a result of the island's
economic difficulties.
The fair is being held in the picturesque 18th Century La Cabana
fortress which sits across the bay from Havana high on a bluff,
providing fair goers with a breathtaking view of the capital. Scores
of shuttle buses and ferryboats have been pressed into service to
carry book lovers back and forth across the Bay to the fair
inexpensively. Hundreds of titles in Spanish are on sale to Cubans at
low prices in the national currency.
On Friday the fair presented a conference on the Cuban Decima, a
ten syllable verse which is sung, and a presentation of a variety of
books by prestigious writers, including Cuba's Jose Lezama Lima and
Ariel Dorfman of Chile.
*CUBA-PANAMA INTERPARLIAMENTARY MEETING CONDEMNS TERRORISM
Havana, February 9 (RHC)-Representatives to the Sixth Cuba-
Panama Inter-parliamentary Meeting on Thursday condemned
international terrorism and called for parliaments around the world
to join in the fight against terrorism.
Both delegations demanded the extradition to Cuba of Cuban- born
terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles for planning to assassinate Cuban
President Fidel Castro during the Ibero- American Summit in Panama
last year.
The Vice- President of Panama's Legislative Assembly, Mateo
Castillero said the Panamanian Parliamentarians will do all they can
to see that Posada Carriles is extradited to Cuba.
A joint declaration reiterated Cuba and Panama's rejection of the
anti- Cuba Helms-Burton law and new U.S. measures that tighten
Washington's blockade against the island.
*SOLIDARITY VISIT TO CUBA BY MEXICAN DELEGATION FROM ZACATECAS
Havana, February 9 (RHC)-A Mexican delegation from the state of
Zacatecas which is currently visiting the island, will tour social
and scientific places of interest to get a first hand look at the
Cuban reality.
On Thursday the delegation placed a floral wreath at the base of a
statue of Benito Juarez, the Mexican patriot, which stands on
Havana's Avenue of the Presidents.
The Mexican delegation from the state of Zacatecas will also visit
the Carlos J. Finlay Science Institute and the Pedro Kouri Tropical
Medicine Institute.
The Mexicans arrived in Cuba on Tuesday as part of a delegation aimed
at expressing solidarity with the Cuban people.
*NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE ATTACK AIDS DRUG COMPANIES
Havana, February 8th (RHC)-In the footsteps of a hard-hitting article
on AIDS by The New York Times, the high profile, mainstream U.S.
magazine Time has surprisingly spotlighted a global ill that few
thought it capable of doing.
The corporate tycoons of Time have effectively attacked the
corporate tycoons of the pharmaceutical world for their inaction in
combating AIDS on the African continent. Without actually naming
names -- which media experts say would be going too far -- Time
explains that poverty equals death when faced with the HIV virus.
Poor people simply cannot afford the drugs in spite of the fact that
it has been proven that generic drugs can be made at a fraction of
the cost imposed by the multi-national drug companies
which vigorously enforce patent rights against any company that
attempts to make AIDS drugs available to Africa by copying them. Time
reporter Johanna McGeary commented that both India and Brazil have
manufactured generic copies of AIDS drugs, selling them at deeply
discounted prices.
On Jan. 28, the New York Times published an article by Tina Rosenberg
in which she said that countries that have tried to manufacture
generic medicine have fallen under debilitating pressure from
pharmaceutical companies and from Washington. She named the firms of
Glaxo Wellcome, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and Pfizer. Explaining
that since 1997 Brazil has managed to manufacture and supply the AIDS
drugs needed for virtually everyone needing treatment, she said that
Brazil has shredded all excuses about why poor countries cannot treat
AIDS.
The Time article has caused a storm of public protest against the
desire of multinational drug companies to protect profits at the cost
of millions of mostly African lives, of whom 17 million have already
succumbed to AIDS.
*COLOMBIAN PEACE PROCESS ADVANCES UNDER GREAT OPTIMISM
Havana, February 9th (RHC)-In an atmosphere of optimism, Colombian
President Andres Pastrana and rebel leader Manuel Marulanda today
concluded a second day of crucial talks on the future of the rebel-
government peace process and agreed to meet again on the 14th
February. International observers will be invited to attend.
Right before beginning Friday's talks, the leader of the
Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces told journalists covering the
event that his personal contact with Pastrana has lifted both their
spirits. He said today they would finish discussing all themes --
those put forth by the rebels and those put forth by Pastrana.
The Colombian President said that everything is proceeding as
planned. Observers saw as a positive sign Pastrana's decision to
sleep in the demilitarized zone Thursday evening and continue talks
Friday, instead of leaving his High Commissioner for Peace, Camilo
Gomez, to take over and returning to Bogota.
The eyes of the nation and the world were focused on a small town
in southern Colombia where Marulanda and Pastrana have now managed
to reactivate a peace process suspended almost 3 months ago, and that
in more than 2 years has failed to produce any concrete results.
In a joint declaration after Friday's talks, the two leaders said
that they both wanted to continue the peace negotiations with the aim
of developing a nation of social justice.
*ECUADORE ANSWERS TO THE IMF FOR ITS ECONOMIC CONCESSIONS
Havana, February 9th (RHC)-The government of Ecuador has admitted
that the Internationa Monetary Fund is dismayed over the agreement to
bring an end to the country's indigenous uprising.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller stated that it was his
hope, nevertheless, that the agreement helps the IMF to understand
the social drama unfolding in the region. He said that hopefully
Ecuadoran Economy Minister Jorge Gallardo, currently in Washington to
negotiate another IMF economic program, can make the lending
institution understand President Gustavo Noboa's decision to
partially reduce some of the drastic price hikes that went into
effect on the first day of the year under the IMF's directives.
These partial reductions will reduce Ecuador's fiscal income by tens
of millions of dollars. The accord with the Ecuadoran Confederation
of Indigenous Nationalities also forced the government to postpone,
for the second time this year, a 12 to 15 percent increase in added-
value sales taxes, and to begin a national debate on this issue.
Indigenous leaders have admitted that the agreement only
constitutes patchwork and that it does not go to the roots of
Ecuador's acute socio-economic crisis. But they termed as a
significant victory having forced Noboa to sit down at the
negotiation table and make revisions to his economic policies when he
had originally refused any type of about-face.
*DANGEROUS CHILEAN WEAPONS PURCHASE COULD DESTABILIZE LATIN AMERICA
Havana, February 9th (RHC)-The Washington Post has asserted that the
Chilean military is about to embark on what it called the senseless
purchase of weapons from the United States that could well spark an
arms race in Latin America.
An editorial in today's edition of the U.S. capital's most
influential newspaper stated that despite the absence of any serious
threat, Chilean army generals are planning to buy 12 F-16 fighter-
bombers at a total cost of 600 million dollars. This will be the
first sale of U.S. military aircraft to Latin America since 1981, and
the first introduction in the region of such a sophisticated
warplane.
The Washington Post pointed out, moreover, that Chile wants to buy
missle systems for the aircraft that are far more sophisticated than
any owned by its neighbors. The news daily denounced former President
Bill Clinton's lifting of a 20-year embargo on the sale of
sophisticated military equipment to Latin America which, it wrote,
was a favor granted to the Lockheed Corporation. It called on current
President George Bush to reinstate that embargo. But at a press
conference on Thursday, Chilean Interior Minister Jose Miguel Insulza
-- also temporarily occupying the Defense portfolio -- said that if
Washington doesn't want to make the deal, they'll simply buy military
aircraft somewhere else. Sweden is one of the countries hoping
to step into the breach if the U.S. sale falls through.
*Viewpoint: CUBA WILL NEVER BECOME THE ENEMY OF ANY LATIN AMERICAN
PEOPLE
Only Cuba's enemies are pleased that political and diplomatic
differences have arisen between the governments of Havana and
Argentina. The cause of the problem is rooted in pressures exerted by
Washington to break the unity that is so vital among the countries of
the region. Latin American and Caribbean solidarity and unity have
been the major obstacles blocking the policy of domination practiced
by the United States.
Cuba's struggle for liberty and sovereign self-determination has been
long and arduous. Cuba's national hero Jose Marti once said that the
price of liberty is dear, but one must either pay it or give up
liberty. Marti also said that the great battles must be won with
thought and this is precisely what Cubans are doing, knowing that
ideas are and always will be the most effective weapons in social
struggles.
The Argentinean people, like the rest of Latin Americans, have always
been like brothers and sisters to Cubans and we have no
irreconcilable differences with them. What has arisen between our two
governments is the result of a permanent conspiracy on the part of
the United States, whose last ten governments have maintained a
criminal economic blockade against Cuba, the longest in the world.
The well-known intent of this draconian measure is to make life so
difficult for the Cuban people that they turn against their own
government and allow a neo-colonial regime to return to power.
For the past 42 years, Washington has been intent on destroying
the government that finally gave the Cuban people the dignity, the
liberty and the social justice which is still lacking in most of the
Third World, which is drowning in underdevelopment and misery.
As far as Argentina, we have reason to suspect that the current
government in Buenos Aries will attempt to alleviate its runaway
economic crisis by signing on to the U.S. 's anti-Cuba policy. There
is no other explanation for the public declarations made in
Washington, D.C. by Argentinean leaders. We Cubans are the first to
lament such a situation, not because of its political consequences,
since we have already suffered the worst, but rather because we, as
fellow Latin Americans, must remain united if we are to maintain our
sovereignty.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-27002 2001-Feb-09 20:40:43 " JC
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