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Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 06:55:02 -0500
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Subject: Radio Havana Cuba-24 December 2001
Radio Havana Cuba-24 December 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 24 December 2001
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*NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE MEETS IN HAVANA
*NEW TROPICANA CABARET OPENS IN MATANZAS
*CUBAN LOBSTERS MAKE A SPLASH ON INTERNATIONAL MARKET
*NEW ARGENTINE GOVT TO RESPECT REQUESTS TO EXTRADITE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS
*ARGENTINA VICTIM OF AN OVERDOSE OF FREE MARKET NEO-LIBERALISM - CHAVEZ
*AFGHANISTAN: KARZAI APPOINTS UZBEK WARLORD DOSTUM DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER
*DEATH THREATS FORCE COLOMBIAN LABOR LEADER INTO EXILE
*INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TRAVEL BAN ON YASSER ARAFAT
*"NEWSWEEK" SAYS US PLANS TO ATTACK IRAQ AND OVERTHROW SADDAM HUSSEIN
*WATCH GROUP WARNS OF RACISM ON THE RISE IN EUROPE
.
*NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE MEETS IN HAVANA
Havana, December 24 (RHC)-- The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the National
Committee of the Young Communist League (UJC) began sessions in
Havana yesterday and continued to meet on Monday.
Otto Rivero Torres, the First Secretary of the UJC, told reporters
that delegates to the meeting discussed the organization's work over
the past year, as well as future projects.
The head of the Young Communist League said that the organization has
carried out intense work over the past several months, increasing its
membership by more than 30,000. Otto Rivero Torres noted that the UJC
currently has some 96,000 members.
*NEW TROPICANA CABARET OPENS IN MATANZAS
Matanzas, December 24 (RHC)-- The third Tropicana Cabaret opened
over the weekend in Matanzas -- joining the world famous nightclub in
Havana and another in Santiago de Cuba. The cabaret was inaugurated
at the Barcelo Solymar Hotel, located just outside Matanzas on the
road to the Varadero Beach Resort.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and other dignitaries were on hand
for the opening Saturday night. He told reporters covering the event
that the island will continue developing tourism -- noting that Cuba
will end this year with 37,000 hotel rooms, of which 3600 are new.
The new Barcelo Solymar Hotel is a joint venture under the management
of the Spanish Barcelo hotel chain and Cuba's Gran Caribe. The hotel
has 525 rooms and 120 bungalows.
With an initial investment of 11 million pesos and six million
dollars, the Tropicana Matanzas will be an excellent source for
revenue in the months and years to come.
*CUBAN LOBSTERS MAKE A SPLASH ON INTERNATIONAL MARKET
Havana, December 24 (RHC)-- Cuban lobsters, in high demand, will
soon make their appearance on the international market.
Over 570 tons of lobsters have been caught by the Central Trinidad
Lobster fleet, which recently took advantage of excellent weather
conditions off Cuba's southern coast.
Hurricane Michelle, which slammed into the island on November 4th,
practically paralyzed lobster captures near Trinidad, but workers
soon recovered from the effects of that devastating storm and
increased their catch. The Trinidadian fleet alone brings in more
than 700 tons of lobster each year and at present is made up of only
13 boats.
Cuba exports fresh and live lobsters to Asia, Europe, Latin America
and some Caribbean countries, including Martinique and Guadalupe.
*NEW ARGENTINE GOVT TO RESPECT REQUESTS TO EXTRADITE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS
Buenos Aires, December 24 (RHC)-- Argentina's new government has
announced its willingness to cooperate with requests of extradition
against former dictatorship officials. Argentinean Attorney General
Alberto Zuppi Monday affirmed that the country's new authorities will
repeal a decree signed by former President Fernando de la Rua denying
international extradition requests from foreign governments.
Zuppi said those whose extradition is requested would either be
turned over or tried in Argentina. The announcement came as new
interim President Adolfo Rodriguez gathered with prominent human
rights activists in an effort to dispel any apprehension regarding
his reputation as a hardliner who as governor of San Luis province
didn't respect human rights or the independence of the judiciary.
The designation of Zuppi as justice minister is seen as one of
several efforts to dispel that reputation. Zuppi has been active with
human rights organizations, and was an advisor to foreign embassies
in the extradition of nazi war criminals who had sought refuge in
Argentina. Rodriguez has reportedly designated human rights lawyers
in key positions within the Justice Ministry.
One of Argentina's most radical human rights activists, Hebe de
Bonafini, remarked that she and her colleagues hadn't been invited to
the presidential palace since 1984. Bonafina asserted that the new
interim president has also agreed to send to Congress a draft bill
that would drop all charges against some 2,000 people. arrested
during last week's social explosion.
*ARGENTINA VICTIM OF AN OVERDOSE OF FREE MARKET NEO-LIBERALISM - CHAVEZ
Caracas, December 24 (RHC)-- In on-going reactions to the situation
in Argentina, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday affirmed that
Argentina was injected with an overdose of free market
neo-liberalism. In his weekly radio program "Alo Presidente," Chavez
said that the sister Latin American nation's crisis is the result of
uncontrolled privatizations and excessive confidence in the free
market.
He said everything was privatized in the belief that the invisible
hand of the market was going to fix it all, adding that the biggest
threat to democracy and stability in Latin America are hunger,
poverty and the dangerous inequalities between a rich minority and
the poor majority. Chavez stressed that only a wealth-distributing
revolution, as he is attempting to promote, can defuse such a social
and economic time bomb.
Colombian presidential candidate Horacio Serpa Monday stated that
Argentina is an important lesson for the neo-liberal school of
economic thought, which, he charged, disregards the social aspects of
structural adjustment reforms.
Media outlets in Mexico unanimously agreed that international credit
institutions must assume their responsibility in Argentina's economic
and social bankruptcy. "El Financiero" asserted that Argentina's
disaster constituted the last nail driven into the coffin of the
neo-liberal model, affirming that it's not Argentina that came
crashing down, but rather, pernicious financial globalization.
Mexico's "El Universal" news daily said that trying to collect from
someone who can't pay will lead to similar crises in other countries.
For his part, the President of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito
Mejia, called on the region to look at itself through the Argentinean
mirror.
*AFGHANISTAN: KARZAI APPOINTS UZBEK WARLORD DOSTUM DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER
Kabul, December 24 (RHC)-- Afghanistan's new interim prime minister,
Hamid Karzai, is trying ease ethnic tensions in the country by naming
Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum a deputy defense minister. Dostum, whose
troops control Mazar-I-Sharif - the most important northern Afghan
city - had threatened to boycott the interim government.
He was reportedly furious that three crucial ministries, defense,
interior and foreign relations, went to the minority Tajik ethnic
group of the Panjshir Valley. Considered a mercenary who is expert at
changing sides in armed conflicts, Dostum has his own large and
well-trained army. He also has a long history of human rights abuse,
including selling the wives of men he's executed.
In his first statement as government official, the Uzbek warlord said
that an international peacekeeping force would only be welcome for a
six-month period, but Prime Minister Karzai rushed to clarify that
the force would be welcome for as long as it's needed. The
clarification has sparked widespread commentary to the effect that
Afghanistan's ethnic and political disunity will not be easy to
overcome.
*DEATH THREATS FORCE COLOMBIAN LABOR LEADER INTO EXILE
Bogota, December 24 (RHC)-- Colombian labor leader Wilson Borja has
been forced to flee the country amid death threats from right-wing
paramilitaries. A year ago Borja, president of the National
Federation of Public Services Workers, was wounded by gunfire in an
assassination plot and has not fully recovered.
A retired army sergeant has been charged with the attempted murder,
while an army major and five other individuals are under
investigation. In an open letter to Colombian Interior Minister
Armando Estrada published in local media outlets, the labor leader
affirmed that authorities have not provided him with sufficient
security.
In related news, death squads Sunday murdered labor leader Jairo
Chiva in Antioquia, capital of Medellin province, nearly 700
kilometers north of the capital, Bogot�. Chiva was also a member of
the National Federation of Public Services Workers, which charged
that there is a plan to exterminate the union. Some 150 members of
the labor organization have been killed in recent years.
*INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TRAVEL BAN ON YASSER ARAFAT
Ramallah, December 24 (RHC)-- Despite criticism from the entire
international community, Israel has maintained its order prohibiting
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from participating in Christmas Eve
services in Bethlehem. Tel Aviv continues insisting that Arafat is
not acting to dismantle Palestinian terror groups or stop terror
attacks against Israel, despite armed confrontations with the Islamic
militant groups Hamas and Jihad that have cost lives and threatened
Palestine with civil war.
Israeli authorities have confined the Palestinian leader to Ramallah
since the beginning of the month, when Israel launched a series of
military strikes in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing
that killed more than two dozen people. He has been denied use of an
airstrip and Israeli tanks and troops are guarding all roads in the
region.
Besides criticism from Europe, Washington and the Vatican, members of
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's own government have reportedly
expressed opposition to the ban, including Israeli President Moshe
Katzav, Foreign Minister Simon Peres and Defense Minister Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer.
*"NEWSWEEK" SAYS US PLANS TO ATTACK IRAQ AND OVERTHROW SADDAM HUSSEIN
Washington, December 24 (RHC)-- "Newsweek" magazine reports that
Washington is drawing up plans to invade Iraq from the north and the
south to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. According to the
publication, citing unnamed government sources, it's not a question
of whether the U.S. will attack, but when.
The unidentified source told the "Newsweek" edition that began
circulating Monday, that the U.S. army has drawn up a plan to deploy
50,000 soldiers north of Iraq and another 50,000 south of the country
to simultaneously march on the capital, Baghdad. But some military
leaders are reportedly insisting that overthrowing Hussein will
require a military force at least the size of that used in the 1991
Desert Storm operation, when 169,000 troops were deployed to drive
Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.
*WATCH GROUP WARNS OF RACISM ON THE RISE IN EUROPE
Brussels, December 24 (RHC)-- A prominent human rights organization
in Europe has reported that racism was on the rise in the year 2000
in Germany, Spain, France, Sweden and Great Britain. The European
Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia reported significant increases
in racial violence, anti-Semitic attacks, and racist threats and
intimidation in these countries in comparison to 1999 -- particularly
in Germany and Great Britain.
Racist crimes grew 33 percent in Germany, while they doubled in
Britain. The report highlighted the disturbances in Spain, when
hundreds of Spaniards attacked the immigrant Moroccan population in
the Almeria province -- calling it one of the most serious racist
events of that year.
The European Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia also reported
growing activity of neo-Nazi groups in Finland, Sweden and Spain --
noting that in Germany, the number of racist Web sites doubled
between 1999 and 2000.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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