From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 12:28:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-25 May 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 25 May 2001
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*FIDEL CASTRO PRAISES WORK OF UN DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE
*ROUNDTABLE REPORT: "PUERTO RICO WILL ONE DAY BE FREE"
*CENTRAL AMERICAN RIGHTS GROUP TO DETAIL ACTIVITIES OF POSADA CARRILES
*BRAZIL, CUBA STRENGTHEN AGRICULTURAL RELATIONS
*US SENATOR'S DEFECTION CELEBRATED BY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS
*CUBAN AMBASSADOR DENOUNCES XENOPHOBIA OF REACTIONARY VENEZUELANS
*EXCESSIVE SENTENCES FOR VIEQUES ACTIVISTS IN US FEDERAL COURT
*Viewpoint: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
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*FIDEL CASTRO PRAISES WORK OF UN DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE
Havana, May 25 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro has praised the United
Nations Decolonization Committee, which works for the independence of
colonial territories. The Cuban leader spoke with reporters Thursday night
following a reception for participants of the Regional Session of the
Committee, which wrapped up its three-day meeting in Havana on Friday. Fidel
Castro said that while he was unable to attend sessions of the meeting due
to time constraints and prior commitments, he was aware that everyone has
been pleased with the session in Havana.
The leader of the Cuban Revolution said that he was particularly interested
in the fact that the independence of Puerto Rico was on the agenda. He
recalled that many years ago, as a university student, he was active in
solidarity with efforts toward Puerto Rican independence as well as the
independence of the Malvinas Islands. And Fidel Castro said that the Cuban
Revolution is, by nature, anti-imperialist -- and promotes the independence
of all colonial territories.
Speaking with reporters following his meeting with members of the UN
committee, the Cuban leader said he greatly admired the bravery of the
demonstrators who protest against the U.S. Navy on Vieques. And he noted
that the Puerto Rican people have resisted U.S. attempts to destroy their
language, culture and national identity during more than 100 years of
Washington's domination.
Fidel said that he spoke with Puerto Rican delegates to the Havana meeting
-- assuring them that they are perhaps closer to independence for their
country, given the upcoming onslaught of the so-called Free Trade Area of
the Americas. He said the U.S.-promoted regional free trade zone is nothing
more than an annexationist plan to absorb the economies of Latin America and
the Caribbean. All of the Americas are being threatened by Washington's
annexationist designs, he said, adding that he is increasingly convinced
that the economic order imposed on the rest of the world by the United
States is unsustainable.
The 11th Regional Session of the United Nations Decolonization Committee met
in the Cuban capital on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Experts from the 24
member-nations of the UN agency examined the issues of self-determination
and sovereignty.
On Wednesday, during the opening session held at the Hotel Nacional, Cuban
Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon called for the total and definitive
independence of Puerto Rico. The Cuban parliament leader said that the
struggle for Puerto Rican independence has more significance than ever,
given the battle to prevent the absorption of the continent by the United
States through the implementation of the FTAA.
Among the participants at the regional meeting of the UN Decolonization
Committee was Juan Mari Bras, a veteran fighter for Puerto Rican
independence. Speaking with reporters during a break in the closed-door
meeting on Thursday, Mari Bras pointed to the growing movement to throw the
U.S. Navy out of Vieques -- and called for a renewed commitment to work for
the total liberation of all colonial territories under foreign rule.
On December 14, 1960, the United Nations General Assembly approved
Resolution 1514 -- calling for the independence of all colonial countries.
The Decolonization Committee, formed one year later in 1961, was designed to
help monitor the independence process. Of the 72 territories under colonial
rule when the Committee was created 40 years ago, 17 have not been granted
independence and are still directly ruled by a colonial power.
*ROUNDTABLE REPORT: "PUERTO RICO WILL ONE DAY BE FREE"
Havana, May 25 (RHC)--A special roundtable discussion was aired live on
Cuban radio and television Thursday evening -- examining the question of
Puerto Rico's status as a colony of the United States and the growing
movement to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques. With Cuban President Fidel
Castro in the audience, panelists noted that despite Washington's efforts to
wipe out the island's cultural and national identity, the Puerto Rican
people continue to resist.
One of the panelists, an attorney for protesters recently arrested on
Vieques -- Wilma Reveron -- told the radio and TV audience that the United
States has violated the civil and human rights of Vieques residents as well
as those imprisoned for peacefully demonstrating against the island's use as
a bombing and target range.
Another panelist on the roundtable was Juan Mari Bras, a veteran fighter for
Puerto Rican independence. Mari Bras thanked the Cuban government and people
for their long history of solidarity with the cause of independence for his
homeland. And he added that he is convinced that Puerto Rico will one day be
free.
*CENTRAL AMERICAN RIGHTS GROUP TO DETAIL ACTIVITIES OF POSADA CARRILES
Havana, 25th May (RHC)--The Central American Human Rights Defense Commission
has charged that Central America has become famous as a refuge for
terrorists, human rights violators and corrupt officials.
The organization, known by its Spanish acronym CODEHUCA, has announced the
upcoming publication of a 24-page document detailing the activities of
the Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently under
arrest in Panama in connection with an assassination plot against Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
CODEHUCA said the report reviews Posada Carriles' activities as advisor
to governments in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, as well as his
terrorism in the region. Among his activities in Nicaragua, where he was
based in the city of Esteli, he planned to sabotage Aerosegovia Airlines,
which has direct flights between Managua and Havana. The report also details
his logistic operations in El Salvador with the support, among others, of
former Salvadoran Security Minister Hugo Barrera and former Interior
Minister Mario Acosta.
The report also reports on efforts by fugitive Vladimiro Montesinos, the
former Peruvian intelligence chief, to seek political asylum in Panama; and
the presence in Nicaragua of former Mexican government official Alfredo
Espinoza, accused of corruption in Mexico. In addition, CODEFUCA reviews the
history of a former Argentine army lieutenant and torturer during that
country's dictatorship who -- with the money he stole from those he forcibly
disappeared -- established profitable business enterprises in El Salvador.
The CODEHUCA does not include other cases, such as those of former Haitian
dictator Raoul Cedras or Ecuador's ex-President Abdala Bucaram, accused of
corruption, both of whom reside in Panama.
*BRAZIL, CUBA STRENGTHEN AGRICULTURAL RELATIONS
Rio de Janeiro, May 25 (RHC)--Cuban Minister of Agriculture Alfredo
Jordan Morales is in Rio de Janeiro at the invitation of his Brazilian
counterpart, Marcos Vinicius Pratini de Moraes. The Cuban official arrived
earlier this week and has been visiting farms, cattle ranches and
agricultural areas throughout the country.
Shortly after his arrival, Alfredo Jordon toured the Brazilian State of Mato
Grosso, where he visited the area's vast cotton plantations as well as local
agro-industrial centers. Cuba's agriculture minister and his accompanying
delegation are also studying technological and trade exchanges. On Friday,
during the Cuban delegation's visit to Rio de Janeiro, it was announced that
business representatives from Mato Grosso would soon travel to Cuba to
explore commercial trade and business possibilities.
Brazil has shown great interest in Cuba's biotechnological achievements and
advanced genetic experiments with cattle.
*SENATOR JEFFORDS' DEFECTION CELEBRATED BY US ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Havana, 25th May (RHC)--Environmental activists in the United States are
celebrating the new Democratic Senate majority following the defection of
former Republican James Jeffords.
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said that Senator Tom
Daschle's new leadership as a result of the defection will be crucial in
blocking the Bush administration's assault on the quality of air, water and
land. The former Senate leader, Republican Trent Lott, staunchly opposed
ecological
conservation projects.
Jeffords will probably preside over the Senate Environment Committee, while
Democrat Tom Harkin is likely to head the Senate Agriculture Committee. Both
legislators have long promoted environmental protection measures. This week
Harkin presented a $4 billion draft bill to pay farmers to limit erosion and
protect fauna and water sources. Fred Hoefner, of the Coalition for
Sustainable Agriculture, said that Harkin will transform conservation into a
priority issue.
Jeffords has promoted programs for renewable energy sources, a reduction of
dependence on fossil fuels, and the protection from oil drilling of the
Arctic Wildlife Refuge -- which has come under assault from the Bush
administration. Mark Helm, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, said
Jeffords' announcement of his defection should send a clear message to the
president that he cannot impose an agenda that is contrary to a clean
environment, sensible energy policies and an equitable tax policy.
*CUBAN AMBASSADOR DENOUNCES ANTI-CUBAN CAMPAIGN OF VENEZUELAN REACTIONARIES
Caracas, May 25 (RHC)--Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela, German Sanchez Otero,
has denounced an anti-Cuba xenophobia campaign among reactionary Venezuelan
sectors. In an interview Friday with the local news daily El Universal,
Sanchez Otero said the campaign does not have its origin in Venezuela, but
rather in Miami.
In reference to a protest in front of the Cuban embassy in Caracas Saturday,
called by former right-wing Venezuelan presidential candidate Alejandro Pena
Esclusa, the Cuban ambassador said those denouncing the so-called
"cubanization" of Venzuela are the same forces who spread the lie during the
country's electoral campaign that 1,500 "Cuban intelligence agents" were
working in Venezuela. Now, he said, they are attempting to "miami-ize" a
sector of the reactionary opposition in Venezuela.
Ambassador Sanchez Otero noted that Cuba has 2,300 health professionals
providing health care for 12 million patients in 15 nations -- including
Guatemala and Haiti -- and that Venezuela is the only country where the
presence of Cuban doctors has led to charges of "cubanization."
In related news, Venezuelan Defense Jose Vicente Rangel has asserted that an
ad published this week in the U.S. news daily The Washington Times, calling
for the resignation of President Hugo Chavez, was paid for by the Venezuelan
bankers who gutted the country's financial system in 1994 and then fled to
Miami.
The ad was signed by the so-called "National Emergency Junta," an
organization whose existence and membership is unknown in Venezuela. It
accused Chavez of opening his country to a "communist invasion" of Cubans
and Chinese. The Washington Times, which published the advertisement, is
owned by the controversial and rabidly anti-communist South Korean
millionaire Sun Myung Moon.
*EXCESSIVE SENTENCES FOR VIEQUES ACTIVISTS IN US FEDERAL COURT
San Jose, 25th May (RHC)--The New York Times has characterized as excessive
the prison sentences imposed by a U.S. federal court in Puerto Rico against
four New York activists and political leaders who participated in a recent
civil disobedience campaign in Vieques.
Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton was sentenced to 90 days in prison,
while three local political leaders of Puerto Rican origin in New York were
sentenced to 40 days each. The New York Times editorial noted that the four
simply penetrated a restricted military zone in Vieques and held a 20-minute
protest against U.S. military target practice in the Puerto Rican
island-municipality.
The U.S. Federal Prisons Office has confirmed that the four detainees have
been transferred from the U.S. Guaynabo Federal Prison in Puerto Rico to a
prison in New York City, though declining to say exactly where they are now.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rican religious leaders have announced a massive
demonstration Monday in front of the Guaynabo Penitenciary in support of the
dozens of other pro-Vieques activists incarcerated there.
*Viewpoint: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Just four months after right-wing George W. Bush took over the White House,
frustration and disagreement have surfaced in the Republican Party. Senator
James Jeffords announced on Thursday that he is leaving the Party, a
statement that sparked a veritable political earthquake in Washington,
because it gives Democrats control of the Senate for the first time
since l994.
Jeffords, a Republican for 27 years, said that he believes
Bush is leading the country in the wrong direction. In his resignation
speech, the senator from Vermont insisted that he wasn't bothered by the
criticism leveled against him by Republicans when he voted against Bush's
fiscal packet; rather, his disagreement with the president was over
government programs.
Though he has declared himself to be an "independent," Jeffords said that he
would affiliate himself with the Democrats, giving them 51 votes to the
Republicans' 49. In case of a tie, the vice-president, Dick Cheney, would
have a vote.
Leaps from one party to another are not uncommon in US politics (Jeffords is
the 18th senator to defect from his party), but this is the first time that
such a move has shifted the balance of power in the upper house of Congress.
According to experts, the turnaround endangers approval of Bush's
conservative agenda and will complicate his plans in the area of energy,
defense and foreign policy, since the Democrats will now be heading key
Senate committees -- especially the Foreign Relations Committee, where
ultra-conservative Jesse Helms will give way to liberal Joseph Biden.
Bush has managed to push through the crown jewel of his legislative
priorities -- a package of tax cuts -- but his education programs,
healthcare "reform" and other projects opposed by Democrats are still making
their way through the Congress.
What's more, the nominations of dozens of judges and high-ranking federal
officials are still at stake. Among them is Bush's controversial choice for
Undersecretary of State for Interamerican Affairs, right-wing Cuban
American Otto Reich, whose suitability for the job is highly questioned by
many Democrats.
Certainly, a Democratic Senate will resist increased use of oil and nuclear
power plants and it may even obstruct the costly and dangerous plan to
create a national anti-missile shield, which Bush claims is "the best option
for peace," although the rest of the world regards it as the beginning of a
new arms race.
The United States Ambassador to Vietnam, Douglas Peterson, has announced his
plan to resign in July to return to Florida, where he is expected to run for
Governor of that state. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Peterson
disagrees with the current administration's policy toward Hanoi.
It is likely, therefore, that the administration nominally headed by George
W. Bush will have to reconsider both the content of their legislative
proposals, as well as their tactics to advance them in the Senate, which so
far have been characterized as "unilateral." As an anonymous Republican
senator recently commented to the Washington Post, "This White House is
acting too macho."
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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