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From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 00:38:37 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CubaNews] RHC News Update-23 April 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 23 April 2001
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*CUBAN FINANCE MINISTER KICKS OFF TOUR OF CHINA
*VENEZUELAN NAVY DELEGATION WINDS UP VISIT TO CUBA
*CUBA TO HOLD EXHIBIT OF SERVICES AND PRODUCTS IN MEXICO CITY
*CUBA TO EXPAND CELL PHONE SERVICE IN AGREEMENT WITH SPANISH COMPANY
*KIDNAPPED AND DISAPPEARED CHILDREN IN NICARAGUA SOLD ON THE BLACK MARKET
*SANDINISTA LEADER DANIEL ORTEGA LEADS IN THE POLLS
*MORE QUAKES AND TREMORS IN EL SALVADOR CAUSE SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS
*VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST PARTY CONGRESS TARGETS CORRUPTION, BUREAUCRACY
*Viewpoint: SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS ENDS WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT RESULTS
.
*CUBAN FINANCE MINISTER KICKS OFF TOUR OF CHINA
Beijing, April 23rd (RHC)--In China, a top government official expressed
satisfaction Monday over Cuba-Chinese relations. Speaking in Beijing with
visiting Cuban Finance Minister Manuel Millares, Chinese Prime Minister Zhu
Rongji described the recent visit to the island by Chinese President Jiang
Zemin as an important step in the consolidation of those relations, noting
that it opened new doors to bilateral cooperation and friendship.
Cuban Finance Minister Manuel Millares arrived in Beijing Saturday for an
official visit. Millares briefed the Chinese Prime Minister on the situation
in Cuba and Zhu Rongji, for his part, spoke about the performance of the
Chinese economy during the first quarter of the year.
Finance Minister Millares extended Zhu Rongji an invitation to visit Cuba,
which the Chinese Premier accepted. Present during the meeting were also
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Li Zhaoshing and other Chinese officials,
plus the complete Cuban delegation and the island's ambassador to Beijing
Alberto Rodriguez Arufe.
Cuban Finance Minister Manuel Millares met as well with his Chinese
counterpart Xiang Huai, with whom he analyzed opportunities for bilateral
cooperation between both ministries, including the training of personnel,
exchange of experiences in the areas of budget and treasury.
Manuel Millares will visit places of historic and cultural interest in
Beijing. He is expected to also meet with other Chinese government
officials, such as Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Minister, Shi
Guangsheng. Millares is also scheduled to visit Shanghai.
*VENEZUELAN NAVY DELEGATION WINDS UP VISIT TO CUBA
Havana, April 23rd (RHC)--A Venezuelan Navy delegation has concluded an
intensive exchange program in Havana and left Monday for the Dominican
Republic and Puerto Rico.
Just before his departure, Vice-Admiral Hector Ramirez, General Staff Chief
of the Venezuelan Navy's Higher Academy, announced the upcoming visit to
Cuba next July 24th of the Venezuelan Navy's School ship Simon Bolivar. The
visit will mark the 178th anniversary of the historic naval battle at Lago
Maracaibo, he added.
During its stay on the island, the Venezuelan official naval mission visited
Havana's Government Office and the Armed Forces Ministry. They also visited
Havana's International Health Center where a group of Venezuelan patients
are currently receiving medical attention.
Also on the itinerary were the General Maximo Gomez Armed Forces Academy and
the Granma Naval Academy as well as the National Defense School where
visiting Venezuelan military and Cuban navy sailors shared a baseball game.
*CUBA TO HOLD EXHIBIT OF SERVICES AND PRODUCTS IN MEXICO CITY
Mexico, April 23rd (RHC)--Some 40 Cuban companies will participate in a
service and products exhibition in Mexico City next May 7th through the
11th.
According to Orlando Romero, the Commercial Attach� at Cuba's embassy in
Mexico, the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the diplomatic mission will
organize the exhibit. The event will include lectures on business
opportunities on the island.
Romero explained that the exhibit is aimed at letting Mexican entities know
about trade opportunities in Cuba as well as the development of the island's
economy and industry. The exhibit will include products and services from
the Cuban sectors of construction, technology, perfume, sports, sugar and
pharmaceutical industries. Also present will be representatives from
institutions offering opportunities for academic exchange, explained the
Cuban diplomat.
Orlando Romero said that the event would include an entrepreneurial meeting
to deal with current trade opportunities with Cuba. There will also be
lectures by Cuban government officials on issues such as tariffs,
Mexican-Cuban bilateral commercial relations, transport and exports.
On May 8th the Cuba-Mexico Joint Commission will hold sessions attended by
representatives from Cuba's Foreign Trade Ministry and Mexico's Economy
Ministry. Both parties will discuss prospects of bilateral commercial
relations which, the Cuban diplomat noted, are aimed at expanding the
bilateral cooperation agreements signed by both nations some years ago.
Cuba-Mexico bilateral exchange in the year 2000 reached 300 million dollars.
*CUBA TO EXPAND CELL PHONE SERVICE IN AGREEMENT WITH SPANISH COMPANY
Havana, April 23rd (RHC)--Cuba has signed an agreement with a Spanish
company in order to expand its cellular phone service.
The accord was signed by Spain's Soluciones mobile phone company and Cuba's
Caribbean Cell Telecommunications enterprise C-COM. First technical tests
will take place next month, while clients will begin to receive services by
the end of April, said Communications and Informatics Minister Ignacio
Gonzalez Planas.
The document also includes a roaming agreement. The cell phone service will
use the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard and roaming,
which will allow those who come to the island with their own phones to be
able to use them without renting the service at a commercial office.
In its first stage, the new service will cover Havana city and the highway
from the capital city to central Matanzas province, including Varadero
Tourist Resort. All other Cuban tourist centers will be covered by the cell
service during a second stage.
*KIDNAPPED AND DISAPPEARED CHILDREN IN NICARAGUA SOLD ON THE BLACK MARKET
Managua, April 23 (RHC)--More than 400 children have disappeared in
Nicaragua since 1998, according to reports from the national police.
Speaking with reporters in Managua. Carlos Emilio Lopez, a special
investigator assigned to find missing children, said that Nicaragua has
become one of the main countries for the trafficking of children in Latin
America.
Lopez told journalists that in recent years, there has been a marked
increase in child kidnappings -- for sexual exploitation, the trafficking of
organs or illegal adoptions.
He said that many Nicaraguan children are taken from school playgrounds,
parks, shopping malls or hospitals -- then sold to families in Europe or the
United States. In other cases, according to Nicaraguan authorities, the
children are killed and their organs cut out and sold on the black market.
Police officials in Managua reported another disappearance last week in the
Nicaraguan capital. A woman posing as a nurse took a three-year-old boy from
a local clinic. The child's mother told authorities that she had taken her
son to the clinic because he complained of an upset stomach. She said that
the next thing she knew, he was gone. Police are concerned that the woman at
the clinic will sell the three-year-old to the highest bidder.
*SANDINISTA LEADER DANIEL ORTEGA LEADS IN THE POLLS
Managua, April 23 (RHC)--According to a recent survey, 33 percent of those
responding to a poll in Nicaragua said they would vote for Sandinista
candidate Daniel Ortega if the elections were held today. The opinion poll
was carried out among 1800 people of voting age in Managua, the Nicaraguan
capital.
Although the Sandinistas lead in the poll, the ruling Liberal
Constitutionalist Party -- the PLC -- comes in with 25 percent. Enrique
Bola�os, Nicaragua's current vice president and PLC candidate for Nicaraguan
president, appeared concerned that the Sandinistas may come out on top
during the next elections.
Bola�os said that his party will begin a reorganization process in May, with
its sights on the general presidential elections set for November 4th. He
reminded journalists that the electoral campaign doesn't officially get
underway until August -- emphasizing that there is still time for the
governing party to make a comeback in the polls and defeat the Sandinistas
in November's elections.
*MORE QUAKES AND TREMORS IN EL SALVADOR CAUSE SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS
San Salvador, April 23 (RHC)--A moderate earthquake registering 3.8 on the
Richter scale shook El Salvador over the weekend. There were no reports of
injuries or major damage -- but eye witnesses say the relatively powerful
tremor served to remind those in the Central American nation of the more
intense quakes of January and February.
Since the devastating quakes of several months ago -- registering 7.6 and
6.6 on the Richter scale -- there have been thousands of smaller
after-shocks. As many as 8,000 tremors have been reported and, while causing
little or no damage, Salvadorans are constantly reminded of the more than
1,000 dead and 8,000 injured as a result of the larger quakes.
In related news, the number of Salvadorans with respiratory problems has
risen to more then 341,000 since the first quake struck in January. The head
of the San Salvador Epidemiology Clinic, Dr. Rolando Hernandez, told
reporters that the greatest number of those with symptoms of respiratory
disease are children under the age of five.
The medical specialist said it was difficult to avoid such problems due to
the conditions left by the major quakes that hit El Salvador. Dr. Hernandez
stated that the dust from the quake's ruins has caused the greatest damage
-- affecting more than 12,000 with pneumonia and other bronchial problems.
Experts noted that the situation has worsened due to the lack of adequate
medical facilities in El Salvador to care for those affected. And observers
report that many people are still living in the open -- either in tents or
on the streets -- because the administration of President Francisco Flores
has not provided them with temporary housing, as promised by the government.
*VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST PARTY CONGRESS TARGETS CORRUPTION, BUREAUCRACY
Hanoi, April 23 (RHC)--The Ninth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party
came to an end over the weekend, with a renewed commitment to tackle
corruption and bureaucracy in that Southeast Asian nation.
According to reports from Hanoi, the key word now in Vietnam is
"renovation." The 9th Party Congress moved to reduce the number of members
in the Political Bureau from 18 to 15, and also to reduce the number on the
Central Committee from 170 to 150.
Participants at the 9th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party voiced
concern over growing reports of corruption and burgeoning bureaucracy and
vowed to work for the elimination of all social problems in the country.
In other news from Vietnam, four people were killed over the weekend when an
unexploded bomb, dropped during the U.S. war of aggression, blew up as it
was being handled. According to news agencies in Hanoi, three of the four
were members of the same family.
These latest victims of the Vietnam War discovered the explosive device
while farming in a field near Hoa Thang, located in the southern part of the
country. The bomb -- which had been embedded in the field for nearly 30
years -- detonated when several of the curious farmers picked it up.
Hundreds are killed or injured each year in Vietnam -- the victims of a war
that continues to haunt the nation.
*Viewpoint: SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS ENDS WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT RESULTS
The so-called Summit of the Americas -- held over the weekend in Quebec,
Canada under the direction of the United States -- was a true failure. On
Washington's orders, Cuba is not a part of that organization or any other
international institution under U.S. domination.
The Quebec Summit will be remembered for two things: the so-called "Free
Trade Area of the Americas," known as the FTAA, and the brutal treatment by
Canadian police of the thousands of demonstrators against the FTAA, the
Summit, globalization, free market economies and damage to the enviornment
caused by these policies.
Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, shocked by the images of police attacking
demonstrators in Quebec with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets,
sent a message to Quebec.
"We have just seen on television", said the Cuban leader, "images of the
brutal way in which Canadian authorities attacked peaceful demonstrators who
were protesting against the proposed crime against the policital and
economic rights of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean".
President Castro also pointed out how the same governments that attempt to
deceive the world into believing that they are "defenders of human rights",
actually treat their own citizens. "This is how they try to clear their
consciences of the millions of women and men of all ages who die every year
of hunger and preventable diseases", he said in the letter.
On Friday, Cuban economist Osvaldo Martinez explained on national television
that the Free Trade Area of the Americas is really nothing more than a U.S.
plan to create an area of free trade between the U.S.'s rich and powerful
economy and the underdeveloped, indebted economies of Latin America, the
total sum of whose domestic national product is nearly ten times less than
that of the United States. "It is like an integration project between a
shark and sardines", said Martinez.
Meanwhile, U.S. political analyst Noam Chomsky rightly points out that the
FTAA is not about trade, nor is it free. According to Chomsky, those who are
designing the agreement are not in favor of free trade. If they were,
everything could be contained in one page. Rather, says Chomsky, it consists
of a series of detailed documents which are a combination of liberalization
and protectionism. He warns that the proposals are designed to allow the
"private tyrants" -- the corporations -- to control services, so that
health, education, water, and environmental matters end up in private hands.
Cuba has long opposed such agreements and has been a vocal opponent of the
neoliberal globalization that has swept the continent. The island has called
for true integration, and will continue to, because it is only with
integration that the world's underdeveloped nations can face the giant
"shark" of the North.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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