From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 23:09:51 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-11 Sept 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 11 September 2001
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*POLITICAL LEADERS WORLDWIDE CONDEMN ATTACKS AGAINST US
*CUBA WILL CONTINUE INFILTRATING AGENTS INTO USA TO PREVENT TERRORISM
*CUBA REACTS TO US ACCUSATION OF TRAFFICKING IN HUMANS
*SALVADOR ALLENDE REMEMBERED IN CUBA 28 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH
*US INTERESTS SECTION REMAINS OPEN IN HAVANA IN WAKE OF TERRORIST ATTACK
*HEAD OF ANTI-CUBA MIAMI GROUP ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION IN SPAIN
.
*POLITICAL LEADERS WORLDWIDE CONDEMN ATTACKS AGAINST US
Washington, September 11 (RHC)--Political leaders worldwide have
reacted with shock, consternation and horror following what is being
called the most devastating terrorist attack in US history,
comparable only to the surprise Japanese bombardment of Pearl Harbor
in 1941. Civilian airliners, apparently hijacked by suicide
attackers, crashed into and destroyed the Twin Towers of New York's
World Trade Center, while one other airplane crashed into the
Pentagon and a fourth, reportedly aimed for Camp David, was forced
down or crashed. A powerful car bomb exploded in front of the State
Department, throwing Washington and New York into chaos. Authorities
in New York said the number of victims was likely be horrendous. The
United States is practically isolated from the rest of the world
following the closure of all the country's airports and the
cancelling of all flights to the US from abroad. US military forces
have been placed on maximum alert.
In Cuba, President Fidel Castro called the attack a human and
political catastrophe. He said that the people of Cuba shared the
pain of the losses incurred by the people of the US and that Cuba was
at the disposition of the people of the US for whatever modest help
the island could offer -- medical or humanitarian. The Cuban Foreign
Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, strongly condemned terrorism in any
form and against whomever it may be. He said that Cubans had a good
understanding of terrorism having suffered four decades of it, and
could relate to what their neighbors were going through. At the time
of the attack, the Cuban authorities offered to allow any planes in
the area to make unscheduled landings on Cuban territory should the
need arise.
*CUBA WILL CONTINUE INFILTRATING AGENTS INTO USA TO PREVENT TERRORISM
Havana, September 11 (RHC)--Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque has insisted that Cuba will continue infiltrating agents into
the United States to prevent terrorist actions against the island.
Perez Roque said that Cuba's only option is to continue seeking out
information using its own methods, in response to questions from
journalists regarding the arrest in late August of another two
Cuban-Americans suspected of spying on behalf of Cuba.
The Cuban Foreign Minister denied, however, that Cuba's agents are
spying against the US government, reiterating that Cuba seeks
information concerning the activities of Cuban-American exile groups
responsible for terrorist attacks like the 1997 bomb explosion in a
Havana hotel that claimed the life of an Italian tourist.
He added that Cuba not only has no other option, but also has the
right to seek out pertinent information due to the impunity enjoyed
by exile groups, principally in Miami, engaging in terrorist
activities. Perez Roque said the most recent arrests constitute a
maneuver aimed at influencing the sentences to be dictated against
five other Cubans wrongly convicted of spying against the US
government.
Federal authorities arrested in late August the Cuban-American couple
George and Marisol Gari, who have resided in the United States for
the past 10 years. Cuban authorities have repeatedly insisted that
those arrested in the United States for attempting to prevent
terrorist actions against Cuba are considered heroes and patriots
here on the island.
*CUBA REACTS TO US ACCUSATION OF TRAFFICKING IN HUMANS
Havana, September 11 (RHC)--Cuba has strongly denied reports coming
out of the United States media that the island is responsible for
promoting or allowing illegal trafficking of human beings.
In statements on Cuban TV Monday evening, Randy Alonso, the presenter
of the nightly roundtable, commented that in fact the great majority
of the traffickers originate in the US and quoted figures of those
arrested to prove it. Since 1998, of the 111 people arrested by Cuban
authorities for trafficking in humans, 3 were US citizens, 18 were
permanent US residents and 87 temporary US residents. Most are
serving sentences ranging from 10 to 30 years.
Havana has requested that US authorities provide any proof they may
have that traffickers are operating out of Cuba and Havana will
immediately take measures to arrest the individuals involved.
However, said Alonso, Washington tolerates much of what goes on from
the state of Florida and the speedboats that constantly run between
Cuba and the US grow in number. The profits are enormous -- at $5,000
to $8,000 per head -- for a boat loaded with some 40 people. Most of
the money comes from relatives in Florida, paid in cash to
representatives of those operating the speedboats.
This trade in human beings began in earnest after the signing of the
1994 and 1995 migratory accords between Cuba and the United States
which stated that any Cubans intercepted at sea would be repatriated.
This effectively put an end to slow, homemade craft and opened the
way for the speedboat hustlers.
The Cuban Adjustment Law of 1966 allows any Cuban reaching dry land
to remain in the US. This has made the rapid launch method very
popular with those who seek to leave the island for economic reasons
and who have family to pay for the trip. The United States runs an
annual lottery of 20,000 resident permits, but the complicated
approval process and the continual denial of visas often force those
who want to go to the US to use an illegal route.
The charge that Cuba is responsible for the human traffic is absurd,
say authorities in Havana. They point to the fact that the US
promotes illegal immigration by the stupidity of its laws and that
Cuba has by far and away the better record of capture and
incarceration of those responsible for the traffic.
*SALVADOR ALLENDE REMEMBERED IN CUBA 28 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH
Havana, September 11 (RHC)--The Salvador Allende School for primary
school teachers, founded in Havana in 1974, today honored the memory
of Chilean President Salvador Allende, who died 28 years ago in a
coup staged by General Augusto Pinochet with CIA backing.
The school, which trains 3,500 teachers, has recently been restored
and was reinaugurated today on the anniversary of Allende's death.
Wreaths were also laid at the statue of Allende that can be found in
the Vedado section of the city along the Avenida de los Presidentes.
A major city artery is also named after the Chilean socialist.
Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile in
1970 and was forcibly removed in a coup staged by Pinochet with US
backing three years later. He died in the fighting defending the
presidential residence in Santiago de Chile, La Moneda Palace. A
subsequent purge of his supporters resulted in the deaths of
thousands -- many of them tortured beforehand. Pinochet is currently
under investigation having been charged with overseeing the so-called
Caravan of Death in which a squad of his troops toured prisons in
Chile summarily executing political prisoners.
Salvador Allende was well liked by Cuban President Fidel Castro and
his death defending the freedom of his people was received with
consternation in Cuba.
*US INTERESTS SECTION REMAINS OPEN IN HAVANA IN WAKE OF TERRORIST ATTACK
Havana, September 11 (RHC)--In the wake of the terrorist acts
mounted Tuesday against the United States, the Havana US Interests
Section was one of the few Washington diplomatic offices across the
world to remain open.
Cubans waiting to enter the Interests Section were not subjected to
any more delay than usual and no extra security was in evidence.
Roads around the Interests Section remained open and the only concern
was shown by Cubans for the innocent people killed in New York and
elsewhere in the worst attack against the US since Pearl Harbor in
1941.
Foreign diplomats doing service in Havana have often said how much
safer Cuba is than almost anywhere else in the world both on an
official as well as a personal basis.
*HEAD OF ANTI-CUBA MIAMI GROUP ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION IN SPAIN
Madrid, September 11 (RHC)--Political opposition and labor
organizations in Spain have demanded government participation in a
court case in Miami in which Jorge Mas Santos is accused of
corruption.
The leader of Miami's ultra-right wing Cuban-American National
Foundation has been accused in a federal court of financially gutting
the Spanish firm Sintel, which he bought in 1996. Spain's United Left
coalition, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, and the labor
organizations Workers Commissions and General Workers Union recalled
that not only some 2,000 Sintel workers were affected, but so, too,
was the Spanish government, which has had to play a bail-out role in
the bankruptcy.
Mas Santos is accused of pocketing seven million dollars and leaving
the firm's workers without paychecks or jobs. The Spanish government
was forced to assume the cost of back pay and severance pay to the
tune of 160 million dollars.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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