From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 01:25:53 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] RHC News Update-16 April 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 16 April 2001
.
*CUBA COMMEMORATES 40 YEARS OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
*VENEZUELA WILL VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION CONDEMING CUBA AND CHINA
*ARGENTINA STILL CONSIDERING ITS VOTE ON CUBA
*SOLIDARITY MESSAGE FROM COLOMBIA
*CUBA PROHIBITS MEAT IMPORTS FROM ARGENTINA AND EUROPE
*RACIALLY TROUBLED CINCINNATI LIFTS CURFEW
*SUSPECT GOES ON TRIAL IN 38-YEAR-OLD BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING
*Viewpoint: FORTY YEARS AGO
.
*CUBA COMMEMORATES 40 YEARS OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
Havana, April 16 (RHC)--On April 16th, 1961, as thousands of Cubans
accompanied the coffins of seven men killed during the U.S. bombardments of
two Cuban airports, Fidel Castro -- in an improvised speech -- declared the
socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, which he said was "of the poor,
by the poor and for the poor."
The air strikes against Havana's Ciudad Libertad airport and Santiago's San
Antonio de los Banos airport were the prelude to Washington's Bay of Pigs
invasion, launched two days later. The invasion was defeated in less than 72
hours as hundreds of thousands of Cuban militia and soldiers took up arms to
defend the country.
More than 100,000 converged at the corner of 12th Street and 23rd Avenue in
Havana, a block away from the cemetery where the victims were buried, and
where Fidel Castro delivered his historic speech. In a press release on the
occasion, the Cuban government said today's patriotic activity will be to
reaffirm the validity of having chosen the socialist path as humanity's only
alternative in the face of a uni-polar, neo-liberal and unjust world.
*VENEZUELA WILL VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION CONDEMING CUBA AND CHINA
Caracas, April 16 (RHC)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez asserted Monday
that his government will vote against the initiatives aimed at condemning
Cuba, China and other countries at the 57th Session of the UN Human Rights
Commission, underway in Geneva.
The Venezuelan President said that he informed Chinese President Jiang Zemin
of his government's position during their talks Sunday on the occasion of
the visit to Caracas by the Chinese President.
Chavez explained that his government considers the UN Human Rights
Commission an extremely politicized instrument which has unfortunately
lost the significance it once had.
Hugo Chavez reiterated that Venezuela defends respect for human rights, but
at the same time rejects unilateral and discriminatory decisions. The UN
Human Rights Commission began sessions March 19th in Geneva, Switzerland.
*ARGENTINA STILL CONSIDERING ITS VOTE ON CUBA
Buenos Aires, April 16 (RHC)--The Argentine government is still studying
its vote on Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission.
In statements to reporters in Buenos just 48 hours before the UN Commission
opens its debate, Argentina's presidential spokesperson Ricardo Ostuni said
the Argentine vote is still under consideration.
Ostuni avoided saying whether or not his government's position will be
announced before the vote, as it happened last year when it was only
released at the moment Argentina voted against Cuba.
Ostuni said he had not yet talked with President Fernando de la Rua or with
Foreign Minister Adalberto Rodriguez, but he did not discount the
possibility Argentina's decision would be announced on Tuesday.
Last week, the Argentine foreign minister said "what's done is done,"
referring to the Argentine decision adopted last year in favor of the
U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning Cuba for alleged human rights
violations.
*SOLIDARITY MESSAGE FROM COLOMBIA
Barranquilla, April 16 (RHC)--Colombia's Caribe House in Solidarity with
Cuba sent greetings Monday to President Fidel Castro and the Cuban people on
the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Socialist
character of the Cuban Revolution.
According to the document sent by the organization, the defeat of U.S.
imperialism at the Bay of Pigs 40 years ago proved that the United States is
not invincible before the unity of an entire people.
The Caribe House stressed the courage, dignity and humane values of the
Socialist Revolution which, despite Washington's economic war and blockade
against the island, continues to defend its major achievements.
The United States has offered economic favors to certain nations in return
for their vote condemning Cuba at the current session of the UN Human Rights
Commission, slated for Wednesday, April 18th. The solidarity statement said
it was cynical and ridiculous for nations to serve Washington by supporting
its resolution against a government and a people who deserve homage because
of the way they honor human rights to education, health, culture, sports and
recreation.
Those who signed the message emphasized the absence on the island of
children who sleep on the streets, those who use drugs, are forced into
prostitution, forcibly disappeared, tortured or murdered. The Colombian
solidarity organization said it is important for countries to consider their
positions before playing the double standard by condemning the U.S. blockade
and and simultaneously criticizing Havana for alleged human rights
violations.
*CUBA PROHIBITS MEAT IMPORTS FROM ARGENTINA AND EUROPE
Havana, April 16 (RHC)--Cuba has banned imports of beef, pork and lamb as
well as meat derivatives and milk products from Europe and Argentina, two
nations affected by the mad cow disease.
Cuba's Chamber of Commerce explained that the prohibition, adopted after new
preventive measures were announced by Havana, will be enforced immediately
and in a strict manner at all Cuban airports and harbors.
In a communiqué addressed to subsidiaries of foreign companies based on the
island, Cuban authorities explained that if any person or entity does not
abide by the import regulations their products will be incinerated.
Cuba's Veterinary Medicine Institute says that the island adopted emergency
measures last week to counter the threat posed by mad cow and hoof and mouth
diseases.
According to the Institute, the Cuban government has created a work group
made up of 15 state agencies, aimed at reinforcing preventive measures and
the country's control and surveillance systems against the diseases.
Cuban health authorities have officially reiterated that none of the two
diseases affecting animals are present on the island.
*RACIALLY TROUBLED CINCINNATI LIFTS CURFEW
Cincinnati, April 16 (RHC)--Authorities in the racially troubled U.S. city
of Cincinnati have decided to lift a curfew declared amid disturbances last
week following the police shooting of an unarmed black youth. More than 230
people were arrested over the weekend for curfew violations, though
Saturday's funeral of slain 19-year-old Timothy Thomas occurred virtually
without disturbance.
In the only incidentt, authorities have opened an investigation into the
apparently unjustified police attack, with rubber bullets, against two women
and three children near the Baptist Church where the funeral ceremony was
held. Meanwhile, the New York Times today published an article that said
the beginning of an investigation into the Cincinnati Police
Department was a vicious circule.
City residents interviewed by the news daily stated that it's a common
practice to open an investigation when an African-American is gunned down,
then hold hearings and later drop the matter. The New York Times article
suggested that investigators can begin by reading the 1968 Kerner Report on
racism is U.S. cities; the 1979 conclusions by a community panel in
Cincinnati concluding that authorities do not pay sufficient attention to
reports of police brutality; the 1981 Civil Rights Commission study on the
Cincinnati Police Department's discriminatory practices and the 1995 study
-- following a case of police brutality against a black student --
asserting that racism persists in that police department.
*SUSPECT GOES ON TRIAL IN 38-YEAR-OLD BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING
Birmingham, April 16 (RHC)--As the eyes of the nation and the world are
focused on charges of racism in Cincinnati, trial proceedings opened today
in Birmingham, Alabama in the case of a terrorist bomb that killed four
black girls 38 years ago. In September 1963 -- at the height of the civil
rights movement -- a bomb explosion in a black church claimed the lives of
four girls between the ages of 11 and 14.
At the time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified four suspects,
but then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover blocked the investigation. Fourteen
year later, in 1977, a former member of the racist organization Ku Klux Klan
was finally tried and convicted; he died of natural causes in prison either
years later. In 1980, the U.S. Justice Department published a report
blasting the FBI's role in the cover-up, but it wasn't until 1997 --
following the emotion-packed documentary "Four Little Girls" by filmmaker
Spike Lee -- that the FBI decided to reopen the investigation.
Another of the suspects died of cancer in 1988, confessing his
participation; while a third has been declared incapable of being tried due
to senility. The fourth suspect, 62-year-old Thomas Blanton, appeared in
court today for the jury selection process. Black leaders in Birmingham,
including the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, said the trial is a step in the
right direction, but that justice has been too late in arriving. During the
1950s, bomb attacks against the civil rights movement in Birmingham became
so common that the city was popularly known as "Bombingham."
*Viewpoint: FORTY YEARS AGO
Today, April 16th, is the 40th anniversary of one of the most important
events in the history of Cuba -- the declaration by Fidel Castro of the
socialist nature of the island's Revolution.
In the days preceding the U.S.-sponsored Bag of Pigs invasion in 1961,
bombing runs were made on airports in Santiago de Cuba, San Antonio de los
Baños and Havana. In a gathering outside Havana's cemetery after the funeral
of those killed in the raids, the Cuban leader spoke to a crowd who were
armed in preparation for what everyone knew was coming: an invasion.
"This Revolution is not defended with mercenaries," he said, in reference to
the pilots hired with Washington's money who had conducted the bombings.
"This Revolution is defended by men and women of the people."
"Who has the weapons?" asked Fidel Castro to the crowd at the now-famous
intersection of 23rd and 12th streets. "Are they in the hands of the
exploiters?" The famous photographs of the people raising their guns and
shouting "NO!" quickly answered that question. "Are the working people a
majority? Is it democratic to have a revolution in which the working people
have the weapons? Fellow workers and farmers, this is the socialist and
democratic Revolution of the working people, with the working people and for
the working people!"
The rest, as they say, is history. The invasion failed on a massive scale
with the entire mercenary force captured or killed.
The lesson was not lost on Cuba. Forty years later, following scores of
bombings of cane fields and towns, following the bombing of a Cuban airliner
with the loss of life of all on board, following the hundreds of
assassination attempts on the leaders of the nation and the military,
economic and biological warfare carried out against its population by
Washington and its fanatics in Miami, this island still stands as an example
to the oppressed of this world.
Despite enormous odds, despite the continued overt aggression of its
powerful neighbor and the enormous social problems that have resulted, the
sovereignty and independence of Cuba remain intact. The Revolution
unashamedly continues to be a socialist one providing health care, education
and housing as rights and not privileges. Food staples continue to be
subsidized by the state and the "homeland" that the bitter and very
dangerous megalomaniacs in Miami decry as "lost" is now a truly genuine
homeland. On the day that this radio station was founded, May 1st 1961,
Fidel Castro said that the type of homeland that such people spoke of was
one of the parasite who lived off the labor of the majority. Of the few who
exploited the many. He said that the new homeland was one where Cubans had
won the right to control their destiny and the right to construct their own
future that would of necessity be better than that of the past.
Whatever political beliefs others may have against the Cuban Revolution, the
right of a people to determine their own destiny and the fact that this
right continues to be exerted by a small island in the face of the most
powerful nation on earth should command respect -- and given the fearsome
odds that this country has confronted in maintaining its hard-won social
program -- admiration. Citing the dreadful treatment of African Americans
that was going on in the US in those days, Fidel Castro ended his May Day
speech 40 years ago with a cry that rings through to today: "If Mr. Kennedy
does not like socialism, well, we do not like imperialism!"
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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