From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 07 June 2001
.
*5th CUBA-U.S. BUSINESS SUMMIT OPENS IN HAVANA
*CUBA JOINS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
*PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE LEADER THANKS ALARCON FOR SUPPORT
*WASHINGTON DENIES VISAS TO THREE MORE CUBAN OFFICIALS
*CUBA SUCCESSFUL IN PREVENTING HIV INFECTION IN NEW BORN CHILDREN
*ARGENTINA: CARLOS MENEM UNDER ARREST IN ARMS-TRAFFIC SCANDAL
*NO RACISM IN U.S. DEATH SENTENCES, SAYS ASHCROFT
*SPANISH CITIZEN ACQUITTED IN RETRIAL AFTER 3 YEARS ON USA'S DEATH ROW
Viewpoint:
*GUATEMALAN PEOPLE CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
.
*5th CUBA-U.S. BUSINESS SUMMIT OPENS IN HAVANA
Havana, June 7 (RHC)--The 5th Cuba-U.S. Business Summit opened today in
Havana with the participation of executives from close to 50 U.S. firms.
Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Minister Marta Lomas noted that
this is the first US-Cuba business gathering to be held solely in the Cuban
capital, giving participants more time to observe the Cuban reality.
Previous events were held either in Cancun, or with Cancun as a co-site,
with participants spending only a few hours in Havana. Lomas told the guests
that they have arrived in a country with an economy in recuperation, a
country that has relations with 170 nations, cooperation agreements with
160, and with more than 400 joint ventures.
Deputy Economy and Planification Minister Alfonso Casanova said that at the
end of this year, Cuba will reach 90 percent of the Gross Domestic Product
that the island registered in the best years prior to the economic crisis of
the 1990s. First Deputy Foreign Trade Minister Orlando Hernandez pointed out
that in the year 2000 Cuba's exports grew by 14 percent, while the nation
has signed investment protection and promotion accords with 54 countries.
Kirby Jones, president of Alamar Associates, the consulting firm
co-sponsoring the event, called on the U.S. business executives to leave
behind their political prejudices and preconceived notions when considering
investment opportunities in Cuba. The cost of the executives' stay in Havana
is being financed by the Italian firm Cristobal, the other co-sponsor of the
meeting, which allows the guests to override the U.S. blockade restriction
on spending U.S. dollars in Cuba. The event will be running until Saturday.
*CUBA JOINS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Havana, June 7 (RHC)--Cuba has been elected to the Executive Council of the
World Health Organization and will serve for three years on the body along
with 32 other nations.
The appointment was made in recognition of the island's advances in the
field of public health and the medical teams that Cuba sends to Third World
countries to help their struggling health care systems.
One of Havana's principal international health concerns is the intense
publicity that transnational food production corporations continue to make
relating to the use of powdered milk for newborns.
Cuba's national policy is one of persuading mothers to breast feed their
babies, by far a healthier choice. Unlike mother's milk, powdered milk is
not only deficient in nutritious elements; it is also mixed with water that
is very often not sterile. The result is that many children die each year of
infections found in the water added to the powdered milk. This has been an
issue for decades; the Swiss corporation Nestl� was first being taken to
task for it in the 1980s.
The WHO, which supports Cuba's position in most areas of public health, has
announced that its director, Norwegian Gro Harlem Brundtland, will be
visiting the island in the near future.
*PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE LEADER THANKS ALARCON FOR SUPPORT
Havana, June 7 (RHC)--Puerto Rican independence leader Julio Muriente
Wednesday thanked Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarc�n for his support
in the fight against U.S. military exercises on the island of Vieques.
Alarc�n had hoped to travel to Puerto Rico for the 35th anniversary of the
opening of the Puerto Rican Mission in Cuba, but, along with two other
colleagues, was denied a U.S. visa. The Mission promotes closer ties between
the two Caribbean islands.
In a ceremony at the Mission, Muriente embraced the Cuban official and gave
him a Puerto Rican flag. In statements to those present, Alarc�n said that
the example that Puerto Ricans were giving in standing up to the dictates of
Washington was a lesson for all of Latin America, especially in light of the
U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Last month, President Fidel Castro led a rally of many thousands of Cubans
in protest against the U.S. Navy's presence on Vieques.
*WASHINGTON DENIES VISAS TO THREE MORE CUBAN OFFICIALS
Havana, June 7 (RHC)--According to an announcement released by the Center
for International Policy, the U.S. government has denied visas to three
Cuban officials who had been invited to participate in a Conference on the
Rights of Intellectual Property.
The Cubans denied the visas are America Santos, head of the Office of
Industrial Property, Pablo Rodriguez, head of the Legal Division of the
Foreign Ministry and lawyer, Danise Vasquez.
The Conference, which is set to begin on Thursday in Washington, will deal
especially with the U.S. position that refuses to recognize trademarks
originally registered in Cuba, whose rights in some cases have been assumed
by European companies.
The European Union has filed a complaint against Washington before the World
Trade Organization (WTO) relating to intellectual property. The most public
case has been that of the French company Pernod-Ricard that sells the Cuban
rum Havana Club everywhere except the United States, where the Bacard�
company is able to market a product with this name. Pernod has accused
Bacard� and the U.S. government of trademark violation.
The main organizer of the Conference, Wayne Smith, deplored the State
Department's decision, commenting that the free expression of ideas is the
basis of the U.S. political system -- a fact that seemed to be ignored in
this case.
*CUBA SUCCESSFUL IN PREVENTING HIV INFECTION IN NEW BORN CHILDREN
Havana, June 7 (RHC)--Cuba has not registered any HIV infection in newborn
children over the past three years, thanks to the application of medical
tests to pregnant women.
However, according to epidemiologist Dr. Roberto Torres of the National
Program for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, these encouraging results do not
mean that new HIV cases in newborns won't appear in the future, and that the
nation's defenses should not be lowered.
All pregnant women in Cuba undergo prenatal tests including HIV detection.
If a woman is HIV positive, measures are immediately be taken to protect the
unborn child, including medication. AZT taken by pregant women has been
proven worldwide to prevent infection of the fetus. Cesarean sections are
also usually carried out on HIV positive women as this greatly reduces the
risk of infection at time of birth.
Dr. Torres stressed, however, that the HIV virus can be transmitted through
the placenta or by breast-feeding as well.
The Cuban national program against AIDS was begun in 1986. Since then, eight
newborn babies have been registered HIV positive, among them a girl who is
about to celebrate her 15th birthday.
>From 1986 to late May 2001, Cuban authorities have diagnosed 3481 people HIV
positive -- 887 of whom have died of AIDS.
*ARGENTINA: CARLOS MENEM UNDER ARREST IN ARMS-TRAFFIC SCANDAL
Buenos Aires, June 7 (RHC)--Former Argentine President Carlos Menem has been
placed under arrest in a case of illegal weapons trafficking during his
mandate.
Federal Judge Jorge Urso had ordered Menem to appear in court today for
interrogation and placed the former president under arrest when he refused
to respond to questions from the judge and the district attorney in the
case.
Urso has stated that there is sufficient evidence to open an investigation
of Menem as the leader of an illicit association that promoted the
contraband of 6,500 tons of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador between 1991 and
1995. At the time, Croatia was under an international arms embargo, while
Ecuador was at war with Peru; Argentina served as one of the mediator
nations in the conflict.
Menem is the fourth former official arrested in the case, following the
incarceration of one of his former advisors and brother-in-law and one of
his a former defense ministers. On Wednesday a former army chief was also
charged. Menem is 70 years old, and was placed under house arrest due to If
convicted for a crime that can bring 5 to 10 years in prison without
possibility of parole, the former president will also be able to serve his
sentence in his or a family residence.
*NO RACISM IN U.S. DEATH SENTENCES, SAYS ASHCROFT
Washington, June 7 (RHC)--Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has asserted that there are no racism in
the application of the death penalty in the United States.
Speaking Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Ashcroft claimed
that, in 950 death row cases investigated by his department, no evidence of
racial discrimination surfaced -- contradicting recent official government
studies that found the opposite.
Last September, a U.S. Justice Department report revealed that
African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians have received 74 percent of the
death sentences issued since 1995. Janet Reno, then Attorney General,
ordered an investigation of 200 further cases. The findings were identical.
As a result, President Bill Clinton granted a stay of execution for a
convicted Mexican drug trafficker Raul Garza.
There are currently 20 federal convicts on death row. Of them, 14 are
African-Americans, 3 Hispanics -- including Garza -- and 3 whites, including
convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh. Besides recent government studies,
numerous independent organizations have found systematic racism at every
tier of the U.S. justice system.
*SPANISH CITIZEN ACQUITTED IN RETRIAL AFTER 3 YEARS ON USA'S DEATH ROW
Washington, June 7 (RHC)--In the USA, the acquittal of a Spanish citizen in
a second trial, after he spent 3 years on death row, has sparked harsh
criticism in Spain of the U.S. judicial system.
Joaquin Jose Martinez had been sentenced to die in 1997 for the murder in
Tampa, Florida of a suspected drug trafficker and his girlfriend -- but the
trial was plagued with irregularities. A forensic expert, under pressure
from authorities investigating the crime, altered his estimate of the date
of the killings so they coincided with a date in which Martinez had no
alibi.
One of the most important pieces of evidence was a video of extremely poor
visual and audio quality, in which the accused allegedly confessed to the
murders. And authorities used the testimony of a jealous wife who denounced
her husband 3 months after the crime.
During the second trial, the prosecution did not risk calling the wife to
testify again. Political parties, social organizations and media outlets in
Spain have asserted that a good defense is only possible in the United
States with sufficient money to pay a good attorney. Martinez's attorney
charged half a million dollars, mostly paid by sympathizers in Spain.
According to Esteban Beltran, of Amnesty International leader in Spain,
Martinez case is just another manifestation of the arbitrary and unjust
nature of the death penalty in the U.S. He recalled that during the past 25
years, 86 inmates on death row were found to be innocent, adding that it's
not known how many innocent prisoners have been executed.
The Spanish news daily "El Mundo" wrote Thursday that even the slightest
possibility than an innocent person can be executed should be sufficient to
cause repugnance in the conscience of the American people. The "ABC" news
daily asserted that the Martinez case has sparked a growing lack of
confidence in a system capable of sending a man to his death so lightly, and
of having such little esteem for human life.
Viewpoint:
*GUATEMALAN PEOPLE CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
In Guatemala, the Hercules of Justice has not been able to cut off the many
heads of the Hydra of Impunity that protects mass murderers and corrupt
politicians. The powerful tentacles of the monster -- money and corruption
-- leave little or no real chance to law and justice.
But the Guatemalan people will never forget. On Wednesday, human rights
organizations in Guatemala filed a lawsuit against retired General Efrain
Rios Montt, former dictator and current President of the country's National
Congress, accusing him of genocide during his rule in the 1980s.
The suit was brought before a Guatemalan court of justice by the President
of the Association for Justice and National Reconciliation, Anselmo Roldan.
The attorney represents survivors and families of victims of a "scorched
earth" policy carried out by the Guatemalan army during the dictatorship.
In the lawsuit, Rios Montt is charged with genocide, war crimes and others
crimes against humanity. Human rights activists recall that tens of
thousands of indigenous civilians were murdered at the hands of military
officers and over one million others were forcibly displaced as a
consequence of the army's ethnic cleansing campaign.
According to eyewitness reports, Mayan indigenous people -- including women
and children -- were massacred during the regime of Rios Montt from March
1982 to August 1983.
In December of 1999, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu filed a
lawsuit against Rios Montt before a Spanish court, accusing him of genocide,
torture and state terrorism. A year later, the court declined to take
action due to the lack of Spanish jurisdiction over crimes committed in the
Central American nation.
In May last year, survivors and family members of victims from nine
communities across Guatemala filed another lawsuit, also on charges of
genocide, against Army General Romeo Lucas, who ruled the nation between
1978 and 1982. Lucas is accused of ten massacres and the subsequent murders
of more than 900 indigenous people. The plaintiffs have presented the
testimony of over 100 survivors.
According to the document "Guatemala: Never Again," the internal armed
conflict in that country left 150,000 people dead, 50,000 disappeared and
more than one million exiled. The well-documented report presents results of
athorough investigation conducted by the Guatemalan Catholic Church on human
rights violations committed in the Central American country between 1960 and
1996. Nine of every ten victims were unarmed civilians, mostly indigenous,
and according to the investigators, in eight of every ten cases, the mass
murders were carried out by the Guatemalan army or paramilitary groups.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=================================================================
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
