From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 03:57:40 -0500
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Radio Havana Cuba-19 December 2001
Radio Havana Cuba-19 December 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 19 December 2001
.
*GROWING INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH MIAMI 5 PRISONERS
*CUBAN PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
*CUBA STRONGLY CONDEMNS CHILD ABUSE AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
*HUMBOLDT NATIONAL PARK PROCLAIMED WORLD HERITAGE SITE BY UNESCO
*ABU-JAMAL SUPPORTERS APPLAUD OVERTURNING DEATH SENTENCE, DEMAND HIS RELEASE
*FOOD RIOTS CONTINUE TO SPREAD IN ARGENTINA
*UNICEF CALLS FOR INTERNET CENSORSHIP AGAINST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
*INDIANS SLAM USA FOR URGING RESTRAINT IN REPRISALS AGAINST PAKISTAN
*NEW CONCERNS THAT BUSH PLANS END-RUN AROUND CONGRESS ON NOMINATIONS
Viewpoint:
*HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE THEM
*BUSH WILL NEGOTIATE FTAA USING A "FAST TRACK" WITH STRICT SPEED LIMITS
.
*GROWING INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH MIAMI 5 PRISONERS
New York, December 19 (RHC)-- The movement in solidarity with five
Cuban patriots imprisoned in Miami is growing around the world.
Committees to Free the Five have been organized and demonstrations
are taking place in numerous cities of the United States, France,
Italy, Spain, Ecuador and Australia.
Speaking to demonstrators in front of the Manhattan Federal Building
on Monday, Reverend Lucius Walker -- Executive Director of the
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and
Pastors for Peace -- said that it was a travesty of justice to
imprison those who were fighting against terrorism.
Another speaker at the rally and informational picket in New York,
Teresa Rodriguez from the International Action Center, noted that
criminals like Orlando Bosch are freely walking the streets of Miami.
Bosch was the mastermind of the sabotage bombing of a Cubana airliner
in October 1976, killing all 73 passengers aboard.
During an event at a downtown Miami hotel to honor relatives of the
five Cuban political prisoners, speakers also addressed the issue of
terrorism. Max Lesnick -- one of the organizers of the event, along
with the Antonio Maceo Brigade and other groups opposed to
Washington's policies against Cuba -- said that those who plant bombs
in Havana are ironically called "heroes" and "patriots" by Miami's
right-wing Cuban-American community. Lesnick affirmed that the true
heroes and patriots are behind bars -- convicted and sentenced to
long prison terms for trying to stop terrorist actions against their
country.
*CUBAN PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Havana, December 19 (RHC)-- Cuban Minister of Education Luis Ignacio
Gomez presented an extensive report to the National Assembly of
Peoples Power on the educational programs undertaken by the Cuban
Revolution. Lawmakers, meeting at Havana's International Convention
Center, analyzed and discussed the report -- dealing with audiovisual
programs, teacher's training courses and investigative studies.
The island's minister of education emphasized that there have been
significant advances over the past year in the areas of school
materials and supplies, as well as actions to raise the level of
classroom quality. The report noted that while there are still
problems with an insufficient quantity of textbooks and other
supplies, distribution has greatly improved in recent months.
Following the report on education and a wide-ranging discussion,
Cuban lawmakers heard from the head of the Sugar Ministry, Ulises
Rosales del Toro. The detailed report pointed to changes in the style
and methods of work since the last sugarcane harvest -- expressing
optimism that "la zafra," or the harvest, will soon reestablish
itself as a solid economic base.
*CUBA STRONGLY CONDEMNS CHILD ABUSE AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Yokohama, December 19 (RHC)-- During the Second World Congress
Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, underway in
the Japanese city of Yokohama, Cuba strongly condemned the commercial
use and sexual abuse of children.
The head of Cuba's delegation to the congress, Vilma Espin, called on
all countries of the world to guarantee the rights of children --
including the right to health care, education, protection and love.
Speaking before more than 3000 delegates from 138 countries, Vilma
Espin pointed to the efforts being made in Cuba to provide adequate
care for its youngest citizens. As an example, she noted that in
Cuba, 98 percent of those under the age of 14 are in school. She also
pointed to the low rate of infant mortality, as well as health and
social programs put into place by the Cuban Revolution.
During the inaugural address of the Second World Congress Against the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, the Executive Director of
UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, said that governments must take the primary
role in the fight against the sexual exploitation of children.
Bellamy specifically mentioned Cuba, noting that Havana was one of
the first countries to ratify a special UN protocol against child
prostitution and pornography.
*HUMBOLDT NATIONAL PARK PROCLAIMED WORLD HERITAGE SITE BY UNESCO
Havana, December 19 (RHC)-- Cuba's Humboldt National Park, located
between the eastern provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo, has been
proclaimed a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The decision, made during a meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage
Committee in Helsinki, was based on the unique, hard-to-find flora
and fauna of the site, which makes the park an excellent model of
Caribbean bio-diversity.
Marta Arjona, President of the Cuban Culture Ministry's National
Heritage Council and a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee,
said Cuban authorities were praised for their interest in preserving
each and every species in the park.
The proclamation of Humboldt National Park as a World Heritage Site
allows for more coordinated international efforts to protect and
preserve existing resources at the park, in order that its beauty can
be appreciated by generations to come.
The Humboldt National Park has now been added to a list of other
UNESCO-proclaimed World Heritage sites in Cuba. Among them: Old
Havana and its fortifications, central Trinidad City, the San Pedro
de la Cabana fortress, the Villages of Vi�ales and Valle de los
Ingenios or Sugar Mills Village and the Granma Yacht Landing Park
located at the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
*ABU-JAMAL SUPPORTERS APPLAUD OVERTURNING DEATH SENTENCE, DEMAND HIS RELEASE
Philadelphia, Paris, December 19 (RHC) -- A US federal court
decision overturning a death sentence against African-American
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has drawn criticism from his
supporters who say he was a victim of a corrupt and racist judicial
system and should be set free. US District Judge William Yohn, while
overturning the death sentence and ordering another sentencing
hearing, refused to grant Abu-Jamal another trial.
Yohn said his ruling was based on erroneous instructions given to
jurors concerning the consideration of mitigating and aggravating
circumstances when deciding on a death penalty verdict, in violation
of a 1988 Supreme Court ruling. But Pam Africa, leader of the
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, said
the judge has sufficient factual evidence on trial proceeding
irregularities to release the death row prisoner.
Numerous pieces of evidence hves surfaced over the past 20 years
concerning the police coercion of witnesses and the withholding of
evidence. Several witnesses changed their stories, Abu-Jamal was not
permitted to defend himself and was instead given a court-appointed
lawyer with no interest in the case and no experience in capital
punishment trials.
Prosecutors used against him his political writings as a member of
the Black Panther Party, something that the Supreme Court had ruled
against in another case. The state trial proceedings were also
presided over by Judge Albert Sabo, a member of the Philadelphia
Order of Police who is widely called the hanging judge.
Sabo has sentenced to death more, mostly African-Americans, than any
other sitting judge. The prosecution was also unable to positively
trace the bullet that killed a Philadelphia police officer to the
legally registered gun in Abu-Jamal's possession. Larry Frankel,
executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in
Philadelphia, said the ruling reinforces concerns about the fairness
of the process in Pennsylvania's state court system.
Human rights activists in France, grouped in the organization
Together Against the Death Penalty, stated that the ruling is
positive because it should save Abu-Jamal's life, but that it still
doesn't establish the truth about the racism that permeated his first
trial. Mumia's case, and his writings on the deep-seated racism in
the US judicial system, have attracted supporters around the world.
Local government authorities in Paris recently granted him honorary
citizenship of that French city.
*FOOD RIOTS CONTINUE TO SPREAD IN ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires, December 19 (RHC) -- Food riots have continued to
spread in Argentina, in what are being called the worst such
disturbances of this type in more than a decade. TV news footage
showed hundreds of people looting supermarkets in Concepcion del
Uruguay, in Entre Rios province - and other cities - as police stood
by and watched.
But in other food riots police used force to disperse looters, as
occurred in several suburbs on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos
Aires, where some forty supermarkets and grocery stores were broken
into and emptied. Sporadic looting began last Friday in several
Argentinean cities, gradually spreading and threatening to lead to a
nationwide social explosion amid Argentina's dramatic economic
crisis.
At the same time, police in the provincial capital Cordoba clashed
with angry city workers who virtually destroyed municipal
headquarters while protesting layoffs and delays in payments of their
salaries. An undetermined number of people were wounded and arrested
as police firing tear gas and rubber bullets were met with a shower
of rocks and small homemade bombs.
Cordoba Governor Jose Manuel de la Sota stated that Argentina is not
only a ship with no life jackets that is sinking, but also one in
which the captain doesn't know to plug up the hole through which it's
taking on water. He said there has never been such a lack of
authority or such anarchy. Opposition Senator Eduardo Duhalde stated
that this situation is the logical consequence of an economic model
that has led to the brutal impoverishment of the population.
In related news, Argentinean President Fernando de la Rua was
insulted and targeted with eggs and rocks as he entered and as he
left a social emergency gathering called by the Catholic Church. De
la Rua was called a thief and worse as his visibly nervous bodyguards
rushed him into the building and rushed him out when the meeting was
over, speeding away as the rocks and eggs thrown by the crowd on the
street and people on their balconies pounded his automobile.
Political, business and labor leaders participated in the meeting,
where the Argentinean president reportedly defended his Economy
Minister, Domingo Cavallo, who came under fire from diverse sectors.
During the gathering, one ruling party legislator reportedly called
for a national salvation government with a cabinet chief elected by
Congress to put in place a new economic plan.
*UNICEF CALLS FOR INTERNET CENSORSHIP AGAINST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Tokyo, December 19 (RHC) -- The United Nations Children's Fund has
called for greater censorship of the internet to combat the explosion
of child pornography sites on the world wide web. Participating in
the Second World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation
of Children - taking place near Tokyo - UNICEF executive director
Carol Bellamy said concerns about freedom of expression should take a
back seat to the urgent need to protect minors from child porn sites
that are a breeding ground for international pedophile rings.
Bellamy said there is no need for a philosophical discussion when it
comes to child pornography, that there has to be control of what is
available on the internet. During Tuesday's workshops at the
congress, delegates called for the establishment of a new
international organization to pursue child pornographers across the
borderless internet, whose growth, they added, has far outpaced
police and legal powers.
Delegate John Carr, of the Bangkok-based End Child Prostitution,
Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes -
an international network of groups - stated that that the internet
has internationalized and expanded the trade in child pornography in
a way that was simply unimaginable as little as six year ago. Carr
said that while child pornography explodes, Interpol is hard pressed
to find more than 20 or so countries in the world with the personnel
and the technical capacity to participate in the coordinated hi-tech
action that these crimes demand.
During the first congress on the sexual exploitation of children,
held in Stockholm, 1996, Japan was identified as the world's biggest
producer of child pornography. By while Tokyo is still a hub of the
trade, since Japan enacted legislation on child pornography in 1999,
it has been overtaken by Russia, Cyprus, Taiwan and the United
States.
According to a recent study by Interpol, the United States is now the
main source of websites offering sexual images of minors. American
producers are said to have filmed a million children, generating an
industry reported to be worth two to three billion dollars a year.
*INDIANS SLAM USA FOR URGING RESTRAINT IN REPRISALS AGAINST PAKISTAN
New Delhi, December 19 (RHC) -- Many legislators in India Wednesday
slammed the United States government for urging restraint in the
conflict with Pakistan, asking why is Washington as supportive of
India's concerns about terrorism as India was in backing the US's war
in Afghanistan. Said to be caught in the cross-currents, Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government is under intense pressure
to choose a course of action following last week's terrorist attack
against the Indian parliament that New Delhi says was organized by
Pakistani intelligence services.
India has blamed the organizations Army of the Pious and Soldiers of
Muhammad, two Pakistani-based groups involved in an armed
insurrection by Muslim militants to drive India out of Kashmir - a
disputed Himalayan region claimed by both countries. The two groups
are among several Muslim organizations fighting in Kashmir with
Pakistan's support, which, charges New Delhi, includes providing them
with weapons and training to carry out cross-border terrorism.
One controversial option Indian authorities are considering is
sending security forces across the border and striking at the
training camps in Pakistan, which surveys indicate is supported by 85
percent of the population. But such strikes could easily escalate
into a full-blown war between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
*NEW CONCERNS THAT BUSH PLANS END-RUN AROUND CONGRESS ON NOMINATIONS
Washington, December 19 (RHC) -- Rumors are again afloat the
President George W. Bush may act on his own to install controversial
nominees at the Labor and State Departments if the Democratic Senate
refuses to vote on them this week. Quoting anonymous administration
officials, Associated Press White House correspondent Ron Fournier
reported Tuesday that Bush is exploring ways to give Otto Reich and
Eugene Scalia temporary appointments during Congress' end-of-the-year
recess.
Reich, Bush's choice for secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was
accused as an official of the Ronald Reagan administration of running
an illegal, covert domestic propaganda effort against Nicaragua's
Sandinista government and in favor of the Contra rebels. Scalia's
father, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, voted against Vice
President Al Gore in the case that determined the 2000 presidential
election.
Under the Constitution, the president has the right to make a
one-year appointment bypassing the usual confirmation proceedings,
but Democrats controlling the Senate are reportedly considering
skipping the recess, citing the war on terrorism, to block Bush's
plan. According to observers, a recess appointment, which would
inflame relations with Senate Democrats, would reflect the Bush
administration's determination to make aggressive use of all
presidential powers - as has been his tendency since he assumed
office.
Viewpoint:
*HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE THEM
The Dreyfus affair that rocked the national conscience of France at
the end of the 19th century, involved the set-up and sentencing of a
young French officer, Alfred Dreyfus, to life imprisonment for
purportedly passing along secret documents to the German embassy in
Paris.
The entire process of accusation, arrest and conviction became a
national and international scandal in which the renowned writer,
Emile Zola, wrote his famous condemnation of the affair, entitled
"J'Accuse", in which he proved that racism and politics underlined
the arrest of Dreyfus and that his innocence could not and would not
be covered up forever.
One hundred years later five young men were similarly railroaded in a
politically charged case in which they were falsely accused of spying
against the United States. Their conviction for conspiring to
penetrate US military installations and failing to register as
foreign agents was, as with the Dreyfus case, rife with injustice and
hypocrisy.
"This accusation of espionage is possibly one of the most ridiculous
in the history of the US" said Gerardo Gonz�lez before a Miami court
that moments later condemned him to life imprisonment. He and his
colleagues had attempted to infiltrate Cuban-American organizations
engaged in perpetrating terrorist acts against Cuba such as the 1997
hotel bombings in Havana that resulted in the death of a young
Italian tourist.
Ram�n Laba�ino, also sentenced to life, commented in court that Cuba
didn't go to the United States to invade, attack and commit terrorist
acts of all types - as is the case vice versa. "On the contrary", he
added, "Cuba has every right to defend itself, which is what we were
doing without harming anybody".
Where in the US mainstream press are questions raised as to the
impropriety and hypocrisy of condemning these five Cubans when in the
name of combating the very same type of terrorism that these men were
fighting, the US Congress has given the green light to the CIA to
strengthen its spy network to protect their nation?
The whole case was a political vendetta organized by the Miami right
wing with its obsessive hatred against Cuba and its socialist form of
government. To have held the trial in Miami with, incredibly,
well-known Cuban-American terrorists sitting and smiling like
Cheshire cats in the courtroom was a disgusting travesty of justice.
Referring to the almost 3,000 Cubans killed in terrorists attacks
since the beginning of the Revolution, Ren� Gonz�lez, who was
sentenced to 15 years, said "We are a people that chose our own path
and have been able to defend it with success - although at enormous
sacrifice".
Rather than take satisfaction in the brutality of the sentences
handed down to Gerardo Hern�ndez, Ram�n Laba�ino, Ren� Gonz�lez,
Fernando Gonz�lez, (who received 19 years) and Antonio Guerrero (who
has yet to be sentenced), the Miami right-wing should reflect that
their twisted cause will simply go down in history as one of ignominy
and viciousness.
The French War Minister, General Mercier, who for political reasons
sought to ensure Dreyfus' conviction, was denounced at the time and
subsequently by history as a liar, hypocrite and brute. Similar words
have been used and will be used in the annals of history relating to
the conduct of those who used political expediency to destroy the
lives of five men whose only crime was to seek to protect those they
loved.
*BUSH WILL NEGOTIATE FTAA USING A "FAST TRACK" WITH STRICT SPEED LIMITS
In yet another demonstration that after September 11th relations with
Latin America are no longer a priority for Washington, the U.S.
Congress has conceded George Bush the right to negotiate Free Trade
Area of the Americas treaties. However, the president will be working
under serious limitations because the he is excluded from employing
the so-called "fast track" in the case of agricultural products.
This restriction on the speed of negotiations is of vital importance
because it is precisely agricultural products that countries like
Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, among others, urgently need to place on
the international market, due to the drastic drop in prices over the
past few years.
Brazil was the first nation to react to the news, announcing that it
will not participate in FTAA negotiations under such limitations or
it will, at the very least, block the importation of U.S. electronic
products.
Like Brazil, Latin American governments will discover little by
little, if they don't already know it, that Washington's interest in
the Free Trade Area of the Americas has nothing to do with its claims
that the agreement will generate development and create a commercial
block that is both supportive and solid.
The truth is that what the White House needs is a region that is
completely open to its products; A region that provides low cost
fuels and guaranteed offer, as well as job priority for U.S.
citizens, rather than Latin Americans.
In the area of political relations however, the US government
continues looking towards the European Union, Russia and the
developed Asian countries rather than Latin America.
This is occurring at a time when the region's economies are
experiencing a severe crisis caused by a long history of pressures
exerted by international financial institutions like the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund. The principal victims have been
Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.
For the countries of Latin America, which are the presumed
beneficiaries of the FTAA, commercial association with the North only
serves to emphasize even more the differences in growth and
development. That is something that doesn't enter into commercial
negotiations but it was constantly referred to in the recently held
summit of the Association of Caribbean States in Margarita Island,
Venezuela.
For example the region's spiraling foreign debt, which now stands at
740 billion dollars, must not be forgotten. That shocking figure
represents nearly two times the exports of all Latin America's
economies. At the same time unemployment is constantly rising and the
flight of capital in the last fiscal year reached nearly 60 billion
dollars.
In 2001, the average regional economic growth rate will be less than
two per cent, compared to the four per cent achieved last year and
international trade continues frozen.
Faced with such a bleak economic picture it doesn't make sense to
insist on negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which is
obviously not the answer to the economic woes of Latin America and
the Caribbean. That is graphically illustrated by the great
difference in development between the North and South as well as by
their different interests.
And, if anyone wants more proof, they should simply take another look
at the odd "fast track" granted by the U.S. Congress to negotiate the
agreements: It's like a freeway with school zone speed limits. Just
try and drive on such a speedway. You certainly won't get very far.
(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]
=================================================================
nytcari-12.20.01-03:57:34-31048
