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Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 05:19:02 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-13 August 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 13 August 2001
.
*FIDEL CASTRO RECEIVES ONE OF VENEZUELA'S HIGHEST DISTINCTIONS
*VENEZUELA PAYS TRIBUTE TO VISITING CUBAN PRESIDENT ON HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY
*ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY EXECS IN TROUBLE OVER TRIP TO CUBA
*FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER MALMIERCA DIES AT AGE 70
*VENEZUELAN MOTHER GRATEFUL FOR CUBAN HEALTH CARE OF HER SON
*POPULAR ENGLISH MUSIC GROUP DONATES GUITARS TO CUBAN MUSICIANS
*JAPAN'S NEIGHBORS CONDEMN PRIME MINISTER'S TRIBUTE TO WAR CRIMINALS
*GLOBAL SUMMITS REMAIN A HOT TOPIC IN ITALY
*PRIOR TO CHILE SUMMIT, CHAVEZ WARNS AGAINST "ILL-CONCEIVED" GLOBALIZATION
*Viewpoint: SOME GOOD NEWS TO BEGIN THE WEEK
.
*FIDEL CASTRO RECEIVES ONE OF VENEZUELA'S HIGHEST DISTINCTIONS
Caracas, August 12 (RHC)--On Saturday, Cuban President Fidel Castro received
one of Venezuela's highest distinctions: the Angostura Order, an award
intimately tied to Latin America's 19th century struggle for independence
and unity.
In his words of appreciation, the Cuban leader stressed that he did not
merit such a high distinction, saying that he accepted it only in the name
of the Cuban people, a heroic people, he added, who have demonstrated that
the dreams of Latin American independence leaders Simon Bolivar and Jose
Marti are possible.
In reference to the 1819 Angostura Constituent Assembly organized by Simon
Bolivar to relaunch the continent's independence struggle, Fidel Castro said
that in the two centuries since, no one could have foreseen the region's
dismal future which, he added, would not have been necessary had Bolivar's
dreams of unity become reality.
The Cuban leader noted that in 1829, one year before his death, Bolivar
warned that the United States seemed destined to plague the continent with
misery. At the time, said President Castro, no world power had absolute
control over international financial institutions, nor possessed such
gigantic transnational firms that, like octopuses, have sucked up Latin
America's natural resources and cheap labor.
He said no one imagined that the US dollar would start to become the
national currency of a number of Latin American countries, that the region
would have such a colossal foreign debt, or that there would be a
hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal aimed at consummating
the annexation of Latin America and the Caribbean to the United States.
In reference to Fidel Castro's modesty upon receiving the Angostura Order,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez disagreed. Chavez said the Cuban leader
came to honor Venezuela and that he was deserving of much more than the
distinction with which he was awarded. The Venezuelan president said that in
1958, one year before the Cuban Revolution, so-called "democracy" was
installed in Venezuela following the demise of the Marcos Pirez Jimenez
dictatorship.
Chavez said that while Venezuela was plundered and destroyed in the name of
that democracy, Fidel Castro can still proudly look into the faces of his
people. President Chavez and Cuban President Castro were to revise today the
extensive bilateral cooperation agreement signed by the two countries last
year.
*VENEZUELA PAYS TRIBUTE TO VISITING CUBAN PRESIDENT ON HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY
Caracas, August 13 (RHC)--Venezuela paid tribute on Sunday to visiting
Cuban President Fidel Castro on the Cuban leader's 75th birthday today.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez organized a dinner in his honor Sunday
evening at the Macagua Club on the shores of the Caroni River in the
southern state of Bolivar.
Chavez said it occurred to him that President Castro should be home on this
day, but said he was certain the Cuban people understand that their leader
also belongs to all of Latin America. Earlier, the two heads of state signed
a supplementary bilateral accord on tourism, adding to the extensive
cooperation agreement between the two nations that went into effect last
October.
The Venezuelan president said he spoke with the Cuban leader about Cuba's
social use of the media, pointing to the island's goal to have a TV and
video in every classroom. President Chavez termed as invaluable Cuba's
experience in more than 40 years of struggle against free market
neoliberalism.
On Sunday the Cuban leader also travelled by canoe through the Canaima
National Park in Bolivar, famous for its Salto Angel waterfall -- the
highest in the world -- and for the diversity of its flora and fauna. Today,
President Castro participated along with Chavez and Brazilian President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the inauguration of an electricity project that
will provide energy to Bolivar and to the northern Brazilian state of
Roraima.
*ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY EXECS IN TROUBLE OVER TRIP TO CUBA
Havana, August 13 (RHC)--The United States Treasury department is
investigating the visit of a group of prominent Hollywood producers and
executives who travelled to Cuba last February.
Although the group -- which included the heads of CBS and MTV television
networks -- obtained the necessary Treasury Department permission to travel
to the island before leaving the US, they have been accused of having too
much fun on their visit. They flew to Cuba on a private jet just after U.S.
President George W Bush was elected to office. Most political observers
recognize that the new president had a debt to pay to the Cuban-American
community that was responsible for electing him in Florida, urging him to
strengthen the four-decade-long blockade against Havana.
According to Tasia Scolinos from the Treasury Department, U.S. authorities
want to know if the parties and outings the group attended were covered by
the license they were granted. They are the most well-known of any visitors
the U.S. government has openly investigated for violating the 1963 Trading
with the Enemy Act and the subsequent Helms-Burton Law that strengthened the
Act.
Group participants said that they were confused as to why they were being
investigated for a trip that was pre-approved by the very people doing the
investigating. The Treasury Department has begun to regularly threaten fines
against those U.S. residents returning from Cuba without having obtained a
license to travel there in the first place. They are routinely issuing
letters assessing fines of $7,000, according to those who have been
prosecuted.
According to the Treasury Department the questioning of the entertainment
executives could not be construed as "an investigation" but rather a
"clarification of their activities."
*FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER MALMIERCA DIES AT AGE 70
Havana, August 13 (RHC)--One of Cuba's most respected elders in the
diplomatic world has died at the age of 70.
Isidoro Malmierca Peoli was one of the founders of the Cuban daily "Granma"
and was the island's Foreign Minister for more than 15 years. When very
young he joined the Popular Socialist Youth movement and after the triumph
of the Revolution helped to build the new Communist Party, becoming a member
of its Central Committee.
*VENEZUELAN MOTHER GRATEFUL FOR CUBAN HEALTH CARE OF HER SON
Havana, August 13 (RHC)--As Cuban President Fidel Castro enjoyed his 75th
birthday in Caracas as the guest of the President and People of Venezuela, a
Venezuelan woman was thanking Cuba for what it has done for her child's
health.
Mar�a Alvarez is in Cuba for the second time for treatment that the island
is giving her two-and-a-half-year-old son who suffers from Wess Syndrome,
which manifests itself in multiple convulsions.
Alvarez said that she had returned to Cuba because the island's medical
system was very good and its doctors excellent. She said that Cubans
everywhere were willing to give her a hand and to help in her struggle
against the child's affliction. Her son has some 15 convulsions a day and is
under the watchful gaze of the island's CIREN or National Center for
Neurological Restoration.
the child is one of a total of 856 Venezuelans who have been receiving
medical care from Cuba's public health system under an agreement signed last
year in which Cuba receives preferential oil tariffs from Venezuela in
exchange for providing Cuban health and sports know-how.Some 27 Cuban health
institutions are involved in the program so far, which has received a great
deal of support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
*POPULAR ENGLISH MUSIC GROUP DONATES GUITARS TO CUBAN MUSICIANS
Havana, August 13 (RHC)--The popular English music group Manic Street
Preachers is once again in the news here in Cuba. In February of this year
the group made a splash with its new album "Know Your Enemy" which it
performed before President Fidel Castro.
Over the weekend, the group donated three guitars to Cuban musicians who
received them from British Council director Michael White. They then gave a
short concert using the instruments.
*JAPAN'S NEIGHBORS CONDEMN PRIME MINISTER'S TRIBUTE TO WAR CRIMINALS
Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Pyongyang, August 13 (RHC)--China, North Korea and
South Korea have deplored and condemned Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's visit to a monument that pays tribute to Japanese war criminals.
Koizumi moved forward his visit, originally planned for the 56th anniversary
of Japan's surrender on August 15th, in an effort, he said to avoid a
confrontation.
This is the second official visit of a Japanese prime minister to the
Yasukuni Temple since the names of 1,068 war criminals were inscribed in the
monument in 1978, including 14 high-ranking Japanese military officers who
were condemned to death. Among them was the Japanese Prime Minister during
World War Two, General Hideki Tojo, who was sentenced to hang by allied
forces.
Even members of Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party attempted to persuade the
prime minister to not visit the monument.
The controversial visit comes amid an on-going dispute in the Asia
concerning Japan's textbooks on World War Two, which neighboring nations say
glorify Japan's imperial past and downplay the crimes committed in occupied
countries.
*GLOBAL SUMMITS REMAIN A HOT TOPIC IN ITALY
Rome, August 13 (RHC)--Controversy continues in Italy over the hosting of
international gatherings that could generate protests similar to those that
occurred during the G-8 Summit in Genoa.
The Deputy Mayor of Naples, Rocco Papa, has suggested that an upcoming
gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, scheduled for next
month in that Italian city, be held on Capri Island in the Bay of Naples.
In recent days, Mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino rejected holding the NATO meeting
in Naples, stating that she will not militarize or seal off her city. Deputy
Mayor Papa said the concerns of his city are justified, especially since
Canada has decided to host next year's G-8 Summit in a remote town in the
mountains.
*SENEGAL SCORNS THE IDEA OF REPARATIONS FOR SLAVE TRADE
Conakry, August 13 (RHC)--At least one African nation has come out against
reparations for slavery leading up to the Durban, South Africa International
Conference Against Racism. The President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, has
asserted that no amount of money could compensate the horrors of three
centuries of the slave trade.
Wade termed as absurd and insulting the demand for reparations, stating that
there aren't enough millions of dollars to calculate the financial cost of
three centuries of subjection of an entire people. The Senegalese head of
state nevertheless expressed his support for defining the slave trade and
colonialism as crimes against humanity, and said that he will participate in
the Durban conference.
Last Friday negotiators in Geneva failed to reach a consensus on the issues
of the slave trade, colonialism and the Palestinian question, with Europeans
and the United States threatening to boycott the conference, partly because
of fears that a strong statement against slavery and colonialism could lead
to demands for reparations.
*PRIOR TO CHILE SUMMIT, CHAVEZ WARNS AGAINST "ILL-CONCEIVED" GLOBALIZATION
Santiago de Chile, August 13 (RHC)--Leading up to the Rio Group gathering
this week in Chile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reiterated his warning
against what he called an ill-conceived globalization process. The Rio
Group, to gather next Thursday in Santiago de Chile, was established in 1986
and comprises 19 nations in South and Central America and the Caribbean.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on Chilean TV, Chavez said that if the
concept of Latin American integration was possible during the epoch of 19th
century independence leader Simon Bolivar, today it is imperative for the
region. He said today's globalization process does not integrate, but
rather, depredates, pointing to high rates of poverty, exclusion and
corruption.
Rio Group heads of state reportedly plan to discuss a number of issues,
including globalization, education and popular participation in the
decision-making process in light of the growing lack of credibility of
political leaders and the region's so-called democratic governments. But
observers believe that most of the gathering's attention is going to be
focused on the acute crisis affecting Argentina.
*Viewpoint: SOME GOOD NEWS TO BEGIN THE WEEK
The week has begun with good news for Cuba.
First, the nation's president, Fidel Castro, is enjoying himself immensely
on a trip to Venezuela that is further cementing relations between the two
nations. On his 75th birthday Monday, the Cuban leader has found himself
surrounded by well-wishers of all levels of Venezuelan society. As a
birthday present, his host President Hugo Chavez offered him the rifle he
has kept with him since he was 17 years old. It was given to Fidel Castro
with the promise to build a just, united and internationalist Venezuela. The
two countries have never been so close in their struggle for regional
integration, reflecting the hopes and aspirations of Simon Bol�var and Jos�
Mart�.
Second, the tremendous support given to Cuba by the delegates of the 15th
Youth and Student Festival currently taking place in Algiers, Algeria, to
which the island sent a multinational delegation of 750 participants. The
messages of solidarity have come in thick and fast as young peoples' global
representatives work to provide a better world. They powerfully condemn the
US blockade on Cuba and the impact it has had on the island's economy and
the health of its inhabitants.
Third, the successes of Cuba's athletes in the Edmonton World Athletics
Championship which have brought great excitement to those of us watching the
event on television here in Cuba. This is a small but proud nation, and the
advances in sports it has been able to achieve have an uplifting effect on a
people who are still undergoing economic hardships.
Although the plight of the five political prisoners held in a Florida prison
is never out of the mind of Cubans, the week has begun well -- something we
can be thankful for given the events of previous weeks. We can afford to be
optimistic on this day, the birthday of Cuba's president, but by the same
token we never let down our guard.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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