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From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 02:40:41 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Digest-03 May 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 03 May 2001
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*TRADE UNIONISTS PLAN GLOBAL OPPOSITION TO US ECONOMIC STRATEGY
*VIETNAMESE VICE PRESIDENT REFLECTS ON COMMON STRUGGLE OF VIETNAM, CUBA
*ECUADORAN SOLIDARITY GROUPS SOLIDLY DEFEND CUBAN REVOLUTION
*EX-ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL CONDEMNS FBI DECEPTION IN BIRMINGHAM BOMBING
*ACTIVISTS ACCUSE GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT OF RETURNING TO STATE TERROR
*REVELATIONS OF TORTURE AND ASSASSINATIONS BY FRENCH MILITARY IN ALGERIA
*Viewpoint: US PRESSURES TO ACCEPT NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION COULD BOOMERANG
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*TRADE UNIONISTS PLAN GLOBAL OPPOSITION TO US ECONOMIC STRATEGY
Havana, May 3 (RHC)--A program of action to oppose the Free Trade Area of
the Americas was approved by more than 600 delegates to the International
Tribune in Solidarity with Cuba and Against Neo-liberal Globalization.
Cuban President Fidel Castro attended the one-day meeting, held at Havana's
International Convention Center on Wednesday. Representatives of trade union
organizations from nearly 60 countries around the world took part in
discussions on how to prevent the imposition of a regional free trade area
-- which will only benefit the economy of the most powerful: the United
States.
The program of action was designed for trade unions throughout Latin America
and the Caribbean to build international coalitions and networks that can
seriously challenge Washington's strategy to devour regional economies.
Radio Havana Cuba's Lena Valverde spoke with several of the foreign
participants at Wednesday's gathering, including one member of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers, who observed that "for many people in Canada it was
sort of this unknown program of the government. People said: 'It sounds
pretty good; free trade sounds relatively fair.' But what we have seen over
the past few weeks, with demonstrations around Canada and actually around
the world, is that once again these so-called democratically elected
governments are refusing to listen to the people who elected them. I was in
Quebec City and ... they put a wall around a historic city in Canada. They
essentially kept our voices out of the process. But at the same time, large
corporations could pay several hundred thousand dollars to sponsor a lunch
with the 34 leaders of those countries and sit down to talk to them about
their plans and about their corporations' need to have these governments
privatize education, privatize health services.
"I think that more and more the people of Canada are seeing the hypocrisy of
what our leaders and the... leaders of the 34 other countries are saying
when they say that free trade will be good for us. More and more people are
realizing that free trade will only be good for corporate interests."
Another trade unionist from the U.S. agreed that "the FTAA is an outrage. It
is another attempt to integrate the economies of the world under United
States domination. We have seen the results of NAFTA in the United States,
Mexico and Canada. It has been disastrous for the working class in all three
countries. The so-called FTAA promises to be the same, involving even more
countries. It is very important what the delegates here from Latin America
and particularly from the United States were saying: that we have to develop
a joint, integrated struggle against the FTAA project."
During the plenary sessions of the meeting Osvaldo Martinez, Director of
Cuba's Research Center on the World Economy, stated that the proposed Free
Trade Area of the Americas is a project that will set up unequal commercial
trade between the powerful United States and much weaker countries of Latin
America. The Cuban economist said that the United States is known to have
the most powerful economy on the planet, while all the other regional
economies are characterized by their poverty and dependence on international
lending institutions.
Martinez emphasized that the United States has a Gross National Product at
least ten times that of all Latin American and Caribbean nations combined.
He has said that to come together in an economic association under such
circumstances would be "like putting a shark in a tank of sardines."
*VIETNAMESE VICE PRESIDENT REFLECTS ON COMMON STRUGGLE OF VIETNAM, CUBA
Havana, May 3 (RHC)-- Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh has been
awarded the medal of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes for her untiring solidarity
with Cuba and her extraordinary efforts in the struggle against U.S.
imperialism.
During a ceremony held at the Vietnamese Embassy in Havana, the visiting
Vietnamese leader was presented with the medal by Jose Ramon Balaguer on
behalf of the Cuban Council of State. Balaguer said her visit has
strengthened the long-standing ties of friendship and unity between Cuba and
Vietnam.
The life of Nguyen Thi Binh has been a source of inspiration for several
generations of Vietnamese, from the years of struggle against French
colonialism to the battle against Washington's war of aggression. Vice
President Nguyen also served as the Foreign Minister of the Provisional
Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam during the US war against that
Southeast Asian country from 1963 to 1975.
The Vietnamese vice president, interviewed by Radio Havana Cuba's French
service, said that the Cuban Revolution had been an example and a source of
encouragement during her country's very difficult struggle, something that
both Cuba and Vietnam have experienced and understand very well. From 1968
to 1976, during the US war against Vietnam, Radio Havana Cuba transmitted
the English-language program "Voice of Vietnam," which was broadcast to the
United States.
Vice President Nguyen conveyed her greetings to RHC on the occasion of the
station's 40th anniversary. "In the name of the people of Vietnam, I
congratulate you and hope that you will continue to contribute to the Cuban
Revolution, as well as to the world-wide progressive movement," she said.
The Vietnamese vice president visited several places of social and historic
interest in the Cuban capital on Thursday before returning to Hanoi late in
the afternoon.
*ECUADORAN SOLIDARITY GROUPS SOLIDLY DEFEND CUBAN REVOLUTION
Quito, May 3 (RHC)--The Ecuadoran Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba has
reiterated its unconditional support of the Cuban Revolution.
In a message sent to Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, the
Ecuadoran solidarity coalition, made up of some 20 organizations, praised
"the heroic resistance and anti-imperialist struggle" of the Cuban people.
The solidarity message took note of the "moral victory recently won by Cuba
at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva" when the United States used
unprecedented pressure and blackmail to push through its anti-Cuba
resolution.
The Ecuadoran Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba vowed to continue the fight
against Washington's genocidal economic blockade of the island and work
toward the building of an even broader movement of solidarity with Cuba in
Ecuador.
*EX-ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL CONDEMNS FBI DECEPTION IN BIRMINGHAM BOMBING
Havana, May 3 (RHC)--A former Birmingham, Alabama Attorney General has
condemned the FBI for witholding evidence in the 1963 bombing of a black
church that claimed the lives of four African-American girls.
In the aftermath of this week's conviction of one of the four suspects, 38
years after the crime, The New York Times on May 3rd published an Op Ed
article by former state Attorney General Bill Baxley, excoriating the law
enforcement agency for allowing murderers to walk free for decades. Baxley
stated that in 1977 was he finally able to prosecute Robert Chambliss, after
years of begging the FBI for evidence it had obtained the year of the
bombing. Chambliss died in prison eight years after receiving a life
sentence.
Baxley said the FBI gave up some of its evidence only when Jack Nelson, then
chief of the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, threatened to
publish a story on the FBI's refusal to turn over the information it had. He
said it wasn't until 1997 that Alabama Attorney General Doug Jones was able
to obtain FBI evidence that allowed him to bring charges against Thomas
Blanton, convicted this week, and another suspect who has been exempted from
trial due to senility.
Baxley said he was livid to discover more than 20 years later that the FBI
had taped conversations that incriminated the two suspects -- but which the
Bureau had always denied possessing, and disgusted by the inaction of
higher-ups in the US Government who did nothing about it.
[Baxley's Op Ed piece can be accessed at the NY Times website or on NY
Transfer's Justice newsfeed.]
*ACTIVISTS ACCUSE GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT OF RETURNING TO STATE TERROR
Havana, May 3 (RHC)--Prominent human rights activists in Guatemala have
accused the government of resorting to the illegal repressive measures and
intimidation that characterized the country's institutions during its
36-year civil war.
The denunciation comes on the heels of another case of breaking and entering
against a humanitarian organization.
For the fourth time in the past year, unidentified individuals Tuesday
evening broke into the offices of the organization CEIBA, which collects and
publishes information on compliance and non-compliance with the 1996
rebel-government peace accords. Valuable equipment was reportedly stolen; a
similar theft occurred in the same office just last February.
Renowned Guatemalan human rights activist Frank La Rue, director of the
Human Rights Legal Action Center, stated that this act of intimidation, and
many others against the headquarters of humanitarian organizations, is part
of a systematic government and Interior Ministry plan to silence them.
Another prominent activist, Mario Polanco -- director of the Mutual Support
Group -- observed that in the first trimester of this year attacks and
threats against activists, journalists and judicial officials have increased
significantly.
Guatemalan indigenous leader and Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu
warned that Guatemala is perilously close to returning to the era during
which clandestine groups organized by government institutions and agents of
the state illegally persecuted and repressed anyone who questioned their
authority and procedures.
*REVELATIONS OF TORTURE AND ASSASSINATIONS BY FRENCH MILITARY IN ALGERIA
Paris, 3rd May (RHC)--A retired French army general has admitted to
practicing torture and political assassinations during the French colonial
war in Algeria in the 1950s. The admission has caused widespread controversy
across France.
General Paul Assaresses, who is 83, has affirmed that he was at the head of
a death squad during the Algerian War. He says that he doesn't regret his
actions and that the French government of the time knew about and condoned
his actions.
The revelation comes in a book written by the retired general, excerpts of
which were published Wednesday in the French news daily "Le Monde."
The retired general said torture is "efficient" and that he has "no
problems" with his conscience. Among the 24 Algerian independence fighters
who Aussaresses admits to having tortured and killed are Algerian National
Liberation Front leader Larbi Ben M'Hidi and attorney Ali Bumendjel. Both
were assassinated in 1957. French authorities at the time attributed both
deaths to suicide.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin condemned what he called the retired
general's repugnant cynicism, but declined comment on whether any legal
action might be taken by the government against him. Last November, Jospin
rejected calls to establish a parliamentary commission to investigate the
practices of the French military.
Andre Rousselet, a member of the French Justice Ministry at the time, denied
that then-Justice Minister, and future president, Francois Mitterand knew of
the atrocities, as Aussaresses insists in his book.
*Viewpoint: US PRESSURES TO ACCEPT NEOLIBERAL GLOBALIZATION COULD BOOMERANG
The United States government has entered the new century and millennium
with tremendous material power but with out-dated policies and opinions.
Though the U.S. controls information worldwide and owns the giant
communications transnationals, it appears to be living in the last century
and insists on repeating its past errors.
The French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique editorializes that the United
States today has the capability to know everything that is being said around
the world -- that its agents can deliver messages on anything happening any
place in the world in the air, the land or at sea. However, the United
States appears not to realize what is happening under its nose -- or perhaps
it has simply decided that given its tremendous power, it can change any
situation at will. And U.S. leaders fail to realize that that attitude is
rapidly losing the nation international respect.
Cuban president Fidel Castro has repeatedly warned Washington of the dangers
presented by Washington's current international policy of neoliberal
globalization. The US is seemingly unaware of the growing resistance is
economic policy is generating against the United States itself.
Washington's latest maneuver is promoting the Free Trade Area of the
Americas -- an agreement with a nice name but with dire consequences for
Latin Americans. It is an accord that is clearly aimed at achieving the
annexation of Latin America in one fell swoop. It is a pact made with the
devil that is guaranteed to strip Latin Americans of their independence,
their sovereignty and their identity and it will certainly turn them against
those who, at the moment, appear to be their benefactors.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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