Cuba Hoy

Information on this blog

2006-08-16T12:43:00.000+02:00

We have stopped posting on this blog. The information continues on www.targets.org, an independent news site on international devellopments, where it has a special dossier.

Capitalism has no interest in abolishing ignorance

2006-06-14T10:42:00.000+02:00

MARIELA MARTIN—Granma daily staff writer—
Granma International June 12 2006 - "IF we teach people to read and write we will have hundreds of millions of revolutionaries, of fighters capable of changing the world," affirmed President Fidel Castro during the closing session of the International Literacy and Post-Literacy Seminar that brought together more than 700 delegates from 33 nations at the International Conference Center.

The leader of the Revolution stated: "Capitalism has no interest in abolishing ignorance. It can be confirmed that there is no will to educate people just as we can demonstrate that we want to and can combat ignorance," he assured.

Fidel condemned the consumerism being promoted by the media in the service of capitalism, which focuses more on commercials than looking at the army of the poor and illiterate or preparing the new generations to confront the challenges of this century.

He gave the example of Third World children not attending class because they do not have teachers or educational centers or because they are working in the worst occupations.

The usurpation of a large part of Mexican territory by the United States was noted by Fidel, who condemned the way in which the powerful empire is combating immigrants from that country, despite the fact that they are an essential element of the workforce in the development of the U.S. economy. Throughout history justice has never come or will come until it becomes a survival necessity of the human species and that time is now, he noted.

Thanks to the Cuban "Yes, I Can Do It" educational method more than 1.9 million people in more than 15 countries have become literate; however, Fidel stated that that was a modest merit of the Cuban people. "Our method is no better than the rest," he clarified, "but it has passed a test that validates it and we cannot wait until 2015 to reduce by 50% an illiteracy indicator in excess of 770 million persons.

The fact that the first 1,000 people have recently graduated via the Cuban method and another 120,000 are presently being taught was highlighted by the Cuban president, who affirmed that the goal is to end illiteracy in that sister country within 30 months.

He pointed to the aid loaned by Cuba in the field of health to the Latin American countries and the number of patients to undergo ophthalmological operations from the start of Operation Miracle to date.

Finally, he proposed a discussion on the issues of illiteracy, health and energy policies on sustainable bases at the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement Summit, to be hosted by the island.

HURRICANE SEASON BEGINS WITH TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO

2006-06-14T10:34:00.000+02:00

Granma International, June 13 2006 - MORE than 25,400 people were evacuated in the westernmost Cuban province of Pinar del Río due to heavy rains associated with the passing of Tropical Storm Alberto, the first of the current hurricane season, and which at the close of this edition was heading for the Florida peninsula.
Alberto, which formed during the morning of June 11 in the southeast part of the Gulf of Mexico, was moving away from Cuba’s coasts; however, the Defense Council in Pinar del Rio has instructed that all precautionary measures are taken to protect human lives and economic assets, and warned that the danger was not over, given the possibility of increased flooding in low-lying areas near reservoirs, according to reports by Granma daily correspondents in the province.

RAINFALL EXCEEDS 300 MM IN SOME AREAS OF PINAR DEL RIO AND THE ISLE OF YOUTH

According to information provided by Armando Caymares, a scientist at the Institute of Meteorology Forecast Center, accumulated rainfall in some areas of Pinar del Rio and the special municipality of the Isle of Youth was reported to exceed 300 millimeters during the 24-hour period between 8 a.m. on June 10 and 8 a.m. on June 11.

In the westernmost of the Cuban provinces, for example, the 445mm that fell in Rio Seco and the 398 in Sumidero were reported as the most significant, while in the Isle of Youth, 335mm was reported in Cuba-Francia and 301mm in Derivadora Jagua.

In Havana, while less than 300 mm was reported, 215mm fell in Playa Baracoa and 208 in San Antonio de los Baños.

The rains swelled rivers, cutting off communication by land in several parts of Pinar del Rio, and causing water supply problems and electric power shortages.

Engineer Ramón Pedrera, president of the Electric Company, affirmed that work was underway to reestablish complete service, and explained that the breakdowns were due to the poor state of electric cables, on which rehabilitation work began some months ago.

The province put its generating capacity to work, and 46 generating plants for economic enterprises were started up to keep the latter operating.

It was also reported that some municipalities were looking for alternative ways to pump water using diesel engines.

ABOUT 12,000 HECTARES OF CROPS FLOODED

In Pinar del Rio’s agricultural sector, it was estimated that about 905 12,154 hectares of crops were flooded. The most affected were yucca, plantain, squash and corn. At the close of this edition, no damage to tobacco had been reported.

Nevertheless, the situation has benefited Pinar’s reservoirs. Of the 31, 22 are flowing, and levels have risen to 86%.

From the Isle of Youth, it was reported that some families had been evacuated from the 26 de Julio residential area and that electric power was rapidly restored to Playa Bibijagua and the towns of La Victoria and Argelia Libre.

Losses were minimal, as a result of early and comprehensive protective measures, and were limited mainly to about 255 hectares of tubers and vegetables.

More than eight of the territory’s reservoirs were flowing, and their water levels had risen from 50% to about 90%.

Evacuees who had gone to relatives and families’ homes returned to their homes and public land and air transportation went back to normal operations, while maritime transit was being prepared to do so. Students were expected to return to school on Tuesday, June 13.

ALMOST 300 EVACUEES IN THE CAPITAL

A total of 285 people were evacuated by June 11 in Havana due to the rains associated with Alberto, which resulted in 40 partial and three total housing collapses, the AIN reported.

Lieutenant Colonel José Manuel Puente, vice president of the City of Havana government, explained that the evacuees were mostly residents of Old Havana, Cerro and La Lisa who live close to riverbanks, ditches or low-lying areas, and most went to the homes of relatives or friends.

The partial housing collapses occurred in Habana del Este, Central Havana and Diez de Octubre, and the total collapses were in Marianao, Cotorro and Cerro.

Water levels in the province’s reservoirs were rising, and one of them, La Coca, in Habana del Este, was overflowing.

Manolito Launches New Cuban CD

2006-06-01T11:08:00.000+02:00

Manolito Launches New Cuban CD
Havana, May 25 (Prensa Latina) Popular Cuban musician and band leader Manolito Simonet and his band, El Trabuco, have just launched "Hablando en Serio" (Talking Seriously), one of the most important events at the 10th International Cubadisco Fair this year.
Ten years ago, famous Cuban percussionist Tata Guines was not wrong when he told a reporter he liked Manolito´s music very much, especially because his music was not imitating anybody's musical style.
This new CD was launched at Casa de La Musica on Galiano Street, center city Havana, by EGREM.
Manolito Simonet was born in Florida, eastern Camaguey Province, and came to music with the Maravillas de Florida group. This group was very popular in the 60s, as were others like Aragon, Sublime, Sensacion and Estrellas de Chocolate.
Manolito Simonet began as a percussionist, but older musicians in the group persuaded him to go to school to become a better performer, which he reluctantly did.
Years later he became an arranger, composer and director of this Cuban group.
In the 90s he created his own group, Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco, and began making his own music, creating a peculiar sound that, as Cuban musicologist Elsida Gonzalez has said, "does not seem anyone else's sound."
This CD offers 11 cuts notable for their aggressive and polyrhythmic sound from keyboards and metal.

New Label Launched in Cuba

2006-06-01T11:07:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 27 (Prensa Latina) Rueda Entertainment label and the DVD "Bailar Casino es muy facil" were launched at the Friendship House in this capital, with the performance of famous Cuban group Moncada.
The new record company is a joint venture by Spain´s Mayab S.A and Cuba´s Representaciones Culturales S. A. (RECSA), and aims to promote dancing and a new type of non-violent, educative video-game for minors.
Jorge Gomez, member of Moncada Group, said the video-game presented is different from others in countries where profits prevail over human values and arouse violence.

Cuba, Ten Days of French Cinema

2006-06-01T11:06:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 29 (Prensa Latina) Nineteen French films, including “Merry Christmas” Oscar nominee this year, will be exhibited in Cuba June 3-13, and this time extending to other Cuban provinces, to provide a unique opportunity to interchange with European cinema.
The festival, annually welcomed by Cubans since the decade of the 60s, brings a varied film program with titles like “Russian Doll”, “Cold Showers” and “The role of his life”.
According to Christophen Barratier, heading the festival, some of the full-length films will be presented by their respective directors, and the audience will have a special chance to enjoy some relevant documentaries.
This edition will have a special variety and quality expected to contribute to breaking last year´s record of more than 100,000 attendees.

Cuban Chief Wins World Contest

2006-06-01T11:05:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 30 (Prensa Latina) Cuban sommelier and maître Yamir Pelegrino has won the most important world contest on gastronomic literature with his book “Mi Pasion Gourmet” in the category for food professionals.
The World Gourmand Awards, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, gathered 582 regional winners from 42 nations in 26 categories.
Pelegrino´s cookbook, which competed with other finalists from countries such Belgium, Brazil, China, UK, France and Germany, was the best rated by the jury.
The Cuban chief, who is president of the Cuban sommeliers, drew inspiration from family traditions using wine.
Mi Pasion Gourmet already won the Latin American Award in the Best Cookbook for Professionals category.
The competition published a yearbook that will be distributed in the main book fairs on the globe: Paris (France), London (UK), the US, Frankfort (Germany), Guadalajara (Mexico) and the Asian fairs.

US-Cuba Research on Humboldt National Park Presented

2006-06-01T11:04:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 30 (Prensa Latina) A study of US and Cuban researchers on the Alejandro Humboldt National Park is contained in a book presented today in Guantanamo.
Printed in the United States, the title "Biological Quick Inventory Number 14" has 368 pages referred to the Park located in the eastern provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba and Holguin, which has been recognized as Heritage of Humanity, reports Juventud Rebelde Tuesday.
Biological (and Social) quick inventories are actions to update knowledge on biodiversity in a certain natural area, which allow to adopt conservation measures of that place's value and the education of surrounding communities.
The Humboldt National Park keeps around one thousand plant species, one third of all those reported in Cuba and many endemic to this zone, representative of the Caribbean rain forests.
Its impressive and vast ecosystem is the best conserved in the country and practically virgin due to depopulation and difficult access to this zone.

Cuba, Lowest AIDS Rate in Caribbean

2006-06-01T11:03:00.000+02:00

United Nations, May 30 (Prensa Latina) Cuba was highlighted on Tuesday as the Caribbean country with lowest HIV-AIDS levels as well as for carrying out one of the most efficient programs in the world to prevent the transmission of the illness from mothers to children.
The recognition appears in the UNAIDS report on the world AIDS epidemics, presented on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York, and contrasts the Island with the panorama in neighboring Caribbean nations, which is today the most affected region in the world after Africa for this scourge.
Last year alone the pandemic took over 2.8 million lives in the world, and four more million people were reported to be newly infected.
The document says that in the case of Cuba, there was a 0.1 percent rate for adults by the end of 2005, with some 4,800 people living with HIV and fewer than 500 dead due to diseases associated with AIDS.
The Cuban program to prevent mother-child transmission of HIV has kept the number of newborn HIV children under 100 so far, the report praises

Evo Morales Highlights Cuban Solidarity

2006-06-01T11:01:00.000+02:00

Escoma, Bolivia, May 30 (Prensa Latina) President of Bolivia Evo Morales praised Cuba’s solidarity effort in helping his nation. At Tuesday´s opening ceremony of a hospital donated by Cuba, Morales said it is admirable that, despite being US-blockaded for more than 40 years, the Island offers solidarity support to Bolivia and many other countries.
“Sooner or later, when we are out of the economic crisis,” the Bolivian leader said, “we have to support the Cuban people, too.”
Earlier Cuban Ambassador Rafael Dausa ratified his country’s full support to the Bolivian process of changes and its leader, and reiterated that another 19 such health facilities will be inaugurated by late June.
Morales rejected attacks by traditional parties alleging the presence of foreign military forces in Bolivia. He said the only troops from abroad are the Cuban doctors, who have come to save lives.
He highlighted the difference between the labor of the Island’s health professionals, who have treated more than half a million patients and operated on more than 12,000, and the US forces, which were received years before to crush and kill the people.

Israeli minister wanted by FBI to meet Castro

2006-05-26T10:11:00.000+02:00

AFP May 15, 2006J ERUSALEM -- Israeli minister Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad spy who is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said on Monday that he would visit Fidel Castro in Cuba next week in a move that could anger the Jewish state's chief ally.

The 79-year-old minister of pensioner affairs said that he would be going to Cuba strictly for private business. "I will be visiting Cuba next week for private business," said Eitan, who entered parliament as leader of the newly-formed Pensioners party and became a minister for the first time following the March 28 elections.

Israel has no diplomatic ties with Cuba due to pressure by the United States, which has placed an embargo on the communist regime of President Fidel Castro since the 1950s.

Eitan, who became a successful businessman after he quit Israel's Mossad intelligence service, has several large-scale farms in Cuba and is a personal friend of Castro.

As a Mossad operative, Eitan handled Jonathan Pollard, a US marine analyst who handed thousands of top secret documents over to Israel in the mid-1980s. Pollard was sentenced to life in prison. As Pollard's handler, the FBI issued an arrest warrant against Eitan.

A senior Israeli government official said that "a private trip by a member of the government does not require the cabinet's approval".

The Cuban Foreign Ministeremphasizes importance of 15th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement

2006-05-26T10:00:00.000+02:00

Granma International, May 26 2006

HAVANA, May 24— During its Summit this September in Havana, Cuba hopes to reinvigorate the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that was formed in 1961 because that bloc "is more necessary now than ever before," affirmed Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

"The movement has been enjoying a strengthening process" causing "Cuba to inherit a situation in which the Movement has reactivated its work, but much still remains to be done," Pérez Roque said during an informal meeting with the press.

The minister emphasized that "the fact that there are no longer two blocs of countries as occurred during the Cold War (…) and a unipolar world has emerged, where there is only one superpower with more military might and technology than the rest, does not mean that the Movement is not needed."

"It is more necessary now than ever before, as a forum where the countries of the South define their positions and fight together for our rights, above all the right to peace and economic development," he commented.

Pérez Roque explained that during the meeting, planned for September 11-16, "a political declaration that updates the framework of action, principals, and proposals within which the Movement functions will be discussed, along with a plan of action for the next three years of Cuba’s presidency."

Cuba, which previously led the NAM between 1979 and 1983, will again assume the presidency following Malaysia, which has occupied this position since 2003. More than 160 delegations are expected to participate in the 15th NAM Summit.
"We expect the 114 member countries to attend, along with 27 other countries and observing organizations. We expect a high level of political presence, including no less than 60 heads of state and (…) we think that there will be massive representation from Latin America and the Caribbean," said Pérez Roque.

He added that at a ministerial meeting of the NAM in Malaysia next weekend, Cuba will present "an extensive report regarding the preparations and documents that must be presented to the heads of state in September in Cuba."

According to Pérez Roque, the NAM "complements" Cuba’s membership in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the project of integration promoted by Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, "that includes Latin America and the Caribbean (…), while the NAM has a more universal focus." (AFP)

Project seeks to pay tribute to slavery

2006-05-26T09:54:00.000+02:00

By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer Thu May 25

HAVANA - There's hardly a spot on Cuba untouched by its slavery past, not unlike most Caribbean islands. Ports where African slaves were brought in or taken away, fortresses built with their sweat and tears and sugar mills where they labored to fuel the economy dot the island. Later came the caves where runaway slaves found refuge and plazas that hosted rebellions.

An international effort sponsored by UNESCO aims to identify and preserve these sites in such places as Cuba, Jamaica, Aruba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The project, called "Sites of Memory on the Slave Route," hopes to turn the sites into cultural tourism destinations and show the world the influence Africans and their descendants have had in the region.

"The African mark is the one that defines Cuban culture," said Miguel Barnet, a renowned Cuban writer and ethnographer. "Of course we have a significant Spanish influence with the language and all, but what really characterizes us, what really makes us different, is, without a doubt, the presence of the African element."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization project "tries to recognize the history of the 20 million Africans who contributed their culture even though they came (to the Americas) as hostages," Barnet said.

Slavery sites have been identified across the Caribbean, nearly 800 in Cuba alone. Each country, however, must ultimately select just five sites for development.

Cemeteries, caves, temples and fortresses are on Cuba's preliminary list of 25 sites, as is the island's southern Valley of the Sugar Mills. Festivals and other Afro-Cuban traditions have also been included.

Cuba became the main Caribbean destination for slaves after the Haitian Revolution, the period from 1791 to 1804 when a half million slaves in what was then the French colony of Haiti rose up against their white owners.

Fear of a similar revolt in Cuba caused Creole elites to try to strengthen ties with Spain at a time when other colonies were trying to break free from their European rulers. Slavery was officially abolished in Cuba in 1845, though the trade continued illegally until about 1870.

The Cuban economy was driven by slaves, who provided the manual labor for the sugar industry, as well as on coffee and tobacco plantations.

"The Slave Routes project is truly a recognition of this heritage, which is such an inseparable part of us as Cubans," said Nilson Acosta, an official with the island's Cultural Patrimony office. "Talk of monuments usually glorifies the great, grand works of art ... but this is an opportunity for sites associated with our slavery past to be integrated as well."

Acosta presented the methodology Cuba is using to select its sites at a three-day conference in Havana last week for Caribbean academics, museum curators and others involved in the project.

Patricia Green, a participant from Jamaica, has been working on the project for several years as a consultant with UNESCO. In the early stages, she helped organize potential sites into categories, such as places of confinement, refuge or burial.
Now the project focuses on selecting and developing the sites. But a primary long-term goal is to turn the sites into tourism destinations, Green said.

"The Caribbean is more than just sand and sea," she said. "This is one way to enhance the tourism, to show the people for who they really are. These sites are a source of pride."

On the Net: http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/

Pakistan and Cuba agree to boost ties

2006-05-26T09:49:00.000+02:00

By Qudssia Akhlaque

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Cuba have expressed their resolve to keep working for consolidating bilateral ties that had been deepened by the Cuban humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the Oct 8 earthquake.

These sentiments were shared by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla at a meeting on Wednesday.
Mr Parrilla has been in Pakistan since October supervising Cuban medical relief mission in quake-affected areas. He is now returning to Cuba.

During the farewell call on the president, Mr Parrilla said that Cuba had extended the assistance with a sense of duty. He said the Cuban medical team was returning home with immense gratification and would leave behind all the field hospitals it had established here.

“President Pervez Musharraf expressed profound gratitude of the government and people of Pakistan for the substantial assistance provided by Cuba in the relief and rehabilitation work,” a foreign ministry statement said.

He particularly appreciated the goodwill gesture of President Fidel Castro and lauded the spirit and services of the Cuban medical personnel.

“The president said that Cuba’s contribution to our relief efforts would always be remembered by the people of Pakistan,” the statement said.

The Cuban mission had set up 32 field hospitals and two relief camps in the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, staffed by more than 2,400 doctors, paramedics and physiotherapists. Tons of medicines and medical equipment were also dispatched by Cuba over the past seven months. About 30 amputee patients received treatment in Cuba.

The head of the Cuban relief mission in Pakistan, Ambassador Ivan Mora Godoy, and Chief Medical Officer Dr Juan Carlos accompanied Mr Parrilla.

Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority deputy chairman Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed was also present on the occasion.
Courtesy DAWN

http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/May06/25/06.htm

Malaysia And Cuba To Resolve Outstanding Issues In NAM

2006-05-26T09:45:00.000+02:00

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will be working closely with Cuba in resolving the outstanding issues within the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum said Thursday.

He said it was hoped that Cuba would be more active in addressing both political and economic issues confronting the organisation."Malaysia is very active in NAM and is behind it throughout these three years.

We will play a more important role in helping Cuba to address issues concerning NAM members."We hope that we have done great things during our tenure as NAM chair," he told Bernama at the 43rd Africa Day celebrations here.

Malaysia took the helm as NAM chair from South Africa when it hosted the 13th NAM Summit in Kuala Lumpur in February 2003 and revitalising the movement was one of the priorities set by Malaysia then.

Cuba with a population of 11.3 million people will take over the NAM chairmanship from Malaysia in September when it hosts the 14th NAM Summit from Sept 11 to 16 under the leadership of President Fidel Castro.

The NAM Coordinating Bureau (NAM-CoB) ministerial meeting in Putrajaya from May 27 to 30 will discuss among others the preparations for the Havana Summit besides reviewing the implementation of decisions on the 13th Summit.

Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba to sign eight cooperation agreements

2006-05-26T09:41:00.000+02:00

Granma International, May 26 2006

LA PAZ, May 24 — Eight cooperation agreements covering a variety of areas that will strengthen the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) are to be signed during a meeting between Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela.

Bolivian presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said the agreements are to be signed next Friday, PL reported.

Contreras said that part of the agreements already negotiated deal with cooperation in the fields of education and health, Cuban strengths now being shared with Bolivia and Venezuela.

Agreements will also be signed between La Paz and Caracas for joint development projects between the state-run hydrocarbon enterprises of both nations.

By virtue of those agreements, as well as three asphalt factories, natural gas production plants will be established, which will make it possible, Contreras said, for Bolivia to stop being simply a gas vendor and begin to export derivatives.
An agreement will also be signed for the establishment of a bi-national enterprise, Minera de Sur (Minersur), which according to Walter Villarroel, minister of mining, will develop projects in a number of regions.

Villarroel left open the possibility that Minersur would operate in the giant iron mine in Mutún, near the border with Brazil, where the government is putting out to tender internationally the establishment of an iron and steel industry.

Hugo Salvatierra, minister of rural and agricultural development, noted the importance of an agreement for $100 million in credit that Venezuela will provide a support fund for small producers, which will be decisive to the agricultural sector.

Other agreements will facilitate the establishment of centers for the legal industrialization of the coca leaf and the development of agribusiness projects for coffee, tea and soy, he added.

Thumbs Up Castro: British Lawmaker Praises Cuba

2006-05-26T09:33:00.000+02:00

In Cuba Visit, British Lawmaker George Galloway

Defends Castro As a 'Lion' of World Politics

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

HAVANA May 25, 2006 (AP)— An outspoken British lawmaker appeared on Cuban television praising Fidel Castro as a "lion" of world politics and defending the Cuban leader against a magazine report naming him one of the world's wealthiest rulers.

George Galloway, on an unannounced visit to Havana, showered Castro with praise in his Wednesday night appearance on the communist government's daily public-affairs program "Mesa Redonda," or "Round Table."

"No responsible person in the world believes that Fidel Castro has a personal fortune of $900 million," Galloway said, referring to the wealth Forbes magazine attributed to Castro.

The lawmaker, who formed the Respect Party after he was thrown out of the Labor Party for urging British soldiers not to fight in Iraq, himself has been the target of financial allegations. He has denied persistent accusation that Saddam Hussein's regime allocated millions of barrels of oil in his name as part of a huge fraud in the prewar U.N. oil-for-food program.

Investigators of the oil-for-food program and a U.S. Senate subcommittee inquiry both accused him of receiving money.

In its May 5 "Fortunes Of Kings, Queens And Dictators" article, Forbes put Castro seventh in a list of 10 world leaders with "lofty positions and vast fortunes."
Forbes said it assumed Castro has economic control over a network of state-owned companies, including El Palacio de Convenciones, a convention center near Havana; the retail conglomerate Cimex; and Medicuba, which sells vaccines and other pharmaceuticals produced in Cuba. The article also referred to rumors of Castro having "large stashes in Swiss bank accounts."

Castro has called the report "rubbish" and said he'll resign the day critics prove he has money in foreign accounts.

Castro sat in on Wednesday night's "Round Table," which lasted seven hours. He again defended himself, in what's becoming a full-fledged government campaign to discredit the report.

"The Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name," Galloway said.

Forbes said Thursday that it stood by its reporting, and had not factored possible foreign bank accounts into its estimate.

Southcom general: Cuba policy needs a fresh look

2006-05-26T09:25:00.000+02:00

BY PABLO BACHELET

WASHINGTON - In unusually frank criticism of U.S. policy on Cuba by a top military officer, the outgoing head of the Miami-based Southern Command said Thursday he favors a top-to-bottom review of the policies, including a long-standing ban on most contacts between the U.S. and Cuban militaries.
The comments by Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock came just days before President Bush is to receive a major report on U.S. policies toward the island, coordinated by the State Department but with input from other agencies, including the Department of Defense.

''One of the things that we as a government probably don't do well is to review our policies and our laws routinely, based upon the conditions in the world changing,'' Craddock said in response to a question about Cuba during a briefing for a small group of reporters.

''My judgment is we need to relook laws, policies more often to ensure that they still make sense, given the changing conditions in the world,'' he said, adding, ``I don't want to make a judgment on whether or not to change [the Cuba policy], but I think it needs to be re-looked.''

Craddock added that it's time to review the laws ''stem to stern'' and not just the long-standing ban on military-to-military contacts beyond the regular talks on purely local issues between U.S. and Cuban military officers along the fence surrounding the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo.

CONTRASTING VIEWS

Proponents of the broader contacts have argued that the U.S. military should have regular contacts with Cuban officers to allow for reliable communications in case of instability on the island and because the Cuban military is seen as the only institution that can maintain order in a post-Castro Cuba.

Opponents of the military-to-military contacts say they would do more harm than good. The Cuban military would likely continue the communist system on the island, and meetings would expose U.S. officers to Cuban intelligence penetration.

''We have nothing to gain in such an encounter,'' said Roger Noriega, a former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere in the Bush administration. ``Unfortunately, the record is that the U.S. military is manipulated by the Cubans. The Cubans put up their most disciplined, ideological people on that account.''

HEADED TO NATO

Craddock is expected to become NATO commander at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe this summer. Navy Vice Adm. James Stavridis, a close aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has been nominated to replace Craddock.
Other Southcom commanders have questioned the lack of contacts with the Cuban military, but only after retiring. Gen. Charles Wilhelm, a predecessor of Craddock, said in September 2002 that Cuba was a ``47,000-square-mile blind spot in [our] rearview mirror.''

''Sounds like [Craddock] is stepping in the policy realm pretty heavily,'' said Glenn Baker, director of the U.S.-Cuba Cooperative Security Project at the World Security Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes research on defense issues and has arranged trips to Cuba by retired U.S. officers.

U.S.-Cuba exchanges usually take place through diplomats posted in the Interest Sections, the quasi-embassies in each other's capitals. The two sides have had no formal talks since June 2003, when they discussed migration.

Eric Watnik, a State Department spokesman, declined to comment on Craddock's remarks. Army Col. Bill Costello, Southcom's chief public affairs officer, said Craddock's comments reflected the views of the command but not necessarily those of the Defense Department.

pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com

Cuba: Heavy Rains Kill Seven

2006-05-26T09:14:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 25 (Prensa Latina) The torrential rainfall in Havana left seven dead people and considerable damages, an official note said Thursday.
On Tuesday, nearly 120 millimeters of downpour in barely two hours mainly flooded the low-lying areas near the Quibu and Almendares rivers, whose water levels reached 7 and 3 meters, respectively.
The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources informed the rainstorms also drenched 8 of the 15 municipalities in this capital. In some localities 290 millimeters of rain fell.
That phenomenon forced the closing of Linea and the 5th Avenue tunnels and affected the gas service in Marianao and Playa municipalities.
It resulted in 348 irregularities in the power service, now almost all restored, total and partial collapses in warehouses and schools and contaminated cisterns of some hospitals, work centers and houses.
According to the note, the authorities are currently assessing the damage in the economic and housing sectors and working to restore normality in the hit areas.

ALBA Generates Great Expectation

2006-05-26T09:12:00.000+02:00

La Paz, May 25 (Prensa Latina) Great hopes have been generated for Friday´s meeting of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela to contribute with the consolidation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), through the signing of important cooperation agreements.
Bolivian and Venezuelan Presidents Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez will attend the agreement signing in Sinahota, in the central Bolivian region of Chapare, revealed an official note widely headlined on Thursday.
The meeting will center on the integration agreements signed by the three nations in a summit in Havana on April 28 on the occasion of ALBA’s first anniversary.
President of the state Bolivian Tax Oilfield enterprise, Jorge Alvarado, highlighted the importance of the expected agreements with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), which will benefit Bolivia with 51 percent of net profits.
According to local media, the Bolivian-Venezuelan agreements will allow implementation of more than 200 projects, including the creation of the south’s bi-national oil company (Minersur).
Other joint projects will count on Cuban participation and relate to the industrialization of coffee, tea and soy, as well as exchanges in the fields of health, education, sports and culture where Cuba exhibits outstanding results.
“Separately we are small countries compared to the great transnational corporations, but together we can boost our national resources,” asserted Victor Alvarez, Venezuelan minister of Basic Industries and Mining.

Morales Expresses Admiration for Cuba

2006-05-26T09:09:00.000+02:00

Sucre, Bolivia, May 25 (Prensa Latina) President of Bolivia Evo Morales has ratified his respect and admiration for the Cuban people and their President Fidel Castro.
In his speech Thursday at the opening ceremony of Operation Miracle’s fifth ophthalmologic facility in Sucre, Morales described the center as the best 197th anniversary of independence gift for the poor who cannot afford such ophthalmologic operations.
He revealed that in initial talks with Cuba in December, the materialization of such a project seemed so difficult to him that now it is like a true miracle.
He highlighted that Cuban doctors have so far treated more than 10,000 Bolivian patients as part of Operation Miracle, plus another 2,000 who have been operated on in Cuba, and thanked the Cuban people for that.
I give my respect and admiration to the Cuban people and their commander, said Morales, and stressed that Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela are building Latin American unity among sovereign peoples.

Cuban Delegation Welcomed in Turkey

2006-05-25T11:07:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Turkey´s Foreign Relations Minister and Assistant Prime Minister Abdullah Gul welcomed a Cuban delegation in Ankara Wednesday, led by Cuba´s Assistant Foreign Minister Eumelio Caballero.
During the three-day official visit, the Caribbean delegation will meet with representatives of the Justice and Development Party, Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, and the Friendship with Cuba Parliamentary Group.
The ceremony to name one of the country’s streets after Cuban National Hero Jose Marti stood as a very special moment where participants recalled important historic coincidences between both nations, as well as the anti-imperialist ideas of Marti and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Republic of Turkey.
The interchange has contributed to strengthen the existing good ties between Cuba and Turkey. The Cuban visitors have corroborated the great sympathy and feelings of friendship the Turkish people feel toward the Cuban revolution and its leaders, a Cuban Foreign Ministry note reported.

Cuba Eliminates Radio & TV Zones of Silence

2006-05-25T11:01:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Cuba's first satellite platform for radio and TV broadcast will cover five channels and five radio stations and bring telecommunication to new zones of the country for the first time, especially in mountain areas.

Recent investments allowed installation of satellite receptors and parabolic antennas in social institutions with joint work by Radio Cuba and Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA).

Specialist Maria Cristina Bravo, of Copextel Marketing and Communications Division, said the platform airs broadcasts of Cubavision, Cubavision International, Tele-Rebelde, Canal Educativo and Educativo 2.

Radio Rebelde, Radio Progreso, Radio Taino, Radio Habana Cuba and Radio Reloj will be the stations broadcast.

The platform also helps with reception of TV and radio signals from throughout Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean and most of North America.
She added that these changes modernize broadcasting via information technology that secure quality signals and enhance TV transmission and mid-wave services.

Developing the modulated frequency will also improve quality and allow automation and installation of distance-management to control and supervise all transmitter centers.

Radio Cuba will be in charge of securing international, national, provincial and local radio broadcasts, as well as national and provincial TV broadcast.

Cuba Extends Telecommunication Network

2006-05-25T10:59:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Cuba’s Telecommunication Enterprise (ETECSA) is present in 206 points with at least 12 ports devoted to internet connection, part of the Cuban “informatization” project, bringing internet to the Cuban public.
According to experts of the Computing and Communications Ministry, those figures illustrate Cuba´s model of prioritizing social services in facilitating and developing network access.

Since 2004, ETECSA has implemented a development plan to increase social connection services throughout the country.

The goal is to provide clinics, schools, youth computing clubs, and state entities with the possibilities for data bases and information exchange, which entails greater computerization and harmonic economic development.

The increase of data transmission through Internet in territories so far excluded from that service, and the extension of the satellite network to remote areas stand as some of the priorities for ETECSA this year.

Fidel Castro Repeats Forbes Challenge

2006-05-25T10:56:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Repeating his demand that Forbes financial magazine prove its allegation that he has a huge personal fortune, Cuban President Fidel Castro said Wednesday "it has been challenged and cannot remain quiet".

The Cuban head of State has described Forbes as a libelous publication and today declared, in a TV broadcast attended by top government officials and other guests, it (Forbes) is in a dead-end alley, it has fallen in its own trap, and scored a self-goal.

Ten days ago the statesman challenged US President Bush, the CIA, all 33 US intelligence agencies and the thousands of banks in the world to prove those lies, and if they could find even one dollar in one account in his name, he would resign.

Wednesday he insisted that Forbes executives be forced to respond to that challenge or apologize to the world public for the slander they published, according to which he is one of the world´s ten richest leaders.

President Castro criticized the US government for using defamation, slander and lies as "one of the worst weapons against everything that is progressive in the world, against everything hat is just."

Fidel Castro noted that Forbes´ defamations "can be proven", and referred to opinions, which he described as encouraging, by Cubans and friends of the island, who have expressed confidence in the honesty and probity of the Revolution´s leadership.

There is a great deal to be said and a lot to be discussed, he said, adding that it is necessary to dismantle the tall stories with which world public opinion has been deceived.

Also present at the TV studio Wednesday were Central Bank Minister-president Francisco Soberon, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Culture Minister Abel Prieto, scientist Agustin Lage, and the director of Juventud Rebelde newspaper, Rogelio Polanco.

'Simplemente a lo Cubano'

2006-05-25T10:47:00.000+02:00

A model presents 'Simplemente a lo Cubano' from designer Isabel Santos during an 'Art and Fashion' show at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Cuban models twirled turquoise-colored ribbons and flaunted papier-mch tops and bright crocheted jumpsuits in a fashion show that paid homage to the art behind Cuba's long tobacco tradition.(AP Photo/ Javier Galeano)

U.S. BASE IN GUANTANAMO:Illegal twice over

2006-05-24T23:38:00.000+02:00

Granma International, May 24 2006

A collective suicide attempt by prisoners at the Guantanamo naval base was reported by the authorities of that prison, located on Cuban territory illegally occupied by the United States. There, 460 individuals of various nationalities are still being held without any evidence against them and with no legal rights.
Official records show that there have been 41 suicide attempts since the prison opened in January 2002. Released prisoners say that due to a lack of appropriate instruments, some detainees have tried to kill themselves by biting their own veins, an act considered extremely desperate.

On this most recent occasion, several prisoners using improvised means tried to protect those who prefer to abandon this world instead of continue undergoing the humiliations and abuse to which they are being subjected.

The fact that they have no legal rights is confirmed in a ruling issued by the UN Committee against Torture, which not only requested that the U.S. government close that arbitrary prison, but also urged it to change what they euphemistically called interrogation techniques, because they amount to torture, as well as a halt to brutal treatment such as what is called the "submarine technique," in which the prisoner’s head is submerged in water to the brink of asphyxia.

This was a method, by the way, used by the military dictatorships of the Southern Cone in the 70’s and 80’s, possibly because those criminals were taught by U.S. instructors. It appears that they have continued to use these methods.
After detailed investigations, including a deposition in their own defense by representatives of the Bush government, the UN committee’s final report reaffirmed the existence of secret prisons. What would Javier Solanas say now, after claiming that there were none?

That working group has obtained reliable information about U.S. prisons on foreign soil, and in response to Washington’s allegations that international conventions do not apply in the case of war, the UN experts reconfirmed that torture cannot be justified under any circumstances.

It is possible that the United States only fulfills the most visible parts of international requirements given that even its closest allies are demanding a bit of decorum, but only that, a little composure. Sadly, not much else. It is probable that such kindness has given rise to the Bush government’s statements, via Condolezza Rice, that it will maintain its prison in southeastern Cuba.

However, not only should this enclave be closed, the United States should also completely get out of the territory that does not belong to them and that they use in such a degrading manner. (E.C.)

IOC president to attend Sport For All congress in Havana

2006-05-24T23:35:00.000+02:00

BY Anne Marie García - Granma International May 23 2006

JACQUES Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is to attend the 11th Sport For All Congress, scheduled to take place in Havana next October. Pedro Cabrera, press director at the Cuban Sports Institute (INDER), said that Rogge has confirmed he will attend the IOC-sponsored event from October 31 to November 3.

"It is expected that more than 2,000 people representing 100 countries will take part in the IOC-sponsored congress which, for the first time, will be held in Cuba," commented the Cuban official.

During the press conference for the congress, Rogge recalled that the event acknowledges that "sport forms part of social development and that physical activity constitutes an essential element to guarantee a healthy body and mind."
For his part, José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, stated that the central theme of the Congress is "Physical activity: benefits and challenges."

Fernández indicated that the event will provide a space to reflect on sports programs and activities, new research and advances in the concept of Sport for All.

Healthcare and sports specialists from Brazil, Canada, the United States, Finland and South Africa, as well as Cuba, will give seminars on the subject.

The Sport for All Congress is also sponsored by the World Health Organization and the General Association of International Sports Federations. It has taken place every two years since its inception in 1986 (in Frankfurt, Germany) and was last held in Rome, Italy in 2004.

Many Olympic and world champions are members of IOC’s Sport For All organization including former Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska and current world champion javelin thrower Jan Zelezni from the Czech Republic.

(For further information, contact: www.sportforallcuba2006.com)

Grand jury in El Paso investigating Posada

2006-05-24T23:32:00.000+02:00

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International—
WITH absolute discretion - a total secret that the U.S. media apparently respected scrupulously - a grand jury in El Paso, Texas began a formal investigation "last week" into Luis Posada Carriles’ illegal entry into the country over than a year ago.

The news supposedly reached Miami via the very terrorists – who are frequently sources for the local media – implicated in the crime, two of whom have been the only witnesses to date in the legal proceedings that could culminate in Posada being charged with a crime that he has repeatedly committed over the years.

In the May 22 edition of the newspaper El Nuevo Herald, it is revealed that Posada’s "controversial entry" into the country is being investigated, and that "at least two Miami residents were subpoenaed to give testimony." It cites two "exiles." Ernesto Abreu and Generoso Bringas, "both associated with Posada and members of the Foundation for the Protection of Caribbean Marine Ecology (FPEMC)," the fake owner of the shrimping boat Santrina, in which the old terrorist carried out his clandestine trip.

"They had to appear before a federal court in El Paso last week," the article says, adding that they did not know about the investigation.
The article later refers to José "Pepín" Pujol, the Santrina’s owner, who says, "Those two were called to Texas by a grand jury, but I don’t know anything about the investigation.

The supposed environmentalist Abreu – who knows as much about ecology as George W. Bush does – is president of the FPEMC, a cover for carrying out criminal activity. He declined to make any comments, the newspaper says, specifying that it was impossible to locate Bringas. "Both could be obeying a gag order by the court," the article says.

On June 4, 1998 the same newspaper announced that a group of terrorists from the so-called Revolutionary Recovery Movement (MRR) had landed the previous week in northern Pinar del Río province.

The father of Ernesto Abreu, now implicated in Posada’s legal proceedings, was the leader of the counterrevolutionary "commando."

According to the newspaper itself, Abreu, 73 years old, "led the MRR for years, and during the 19950-1996 period, presided over the international leadership of the Cuban Patriotic Council (Junta Patriótica Cubana)," another organization that preaches and practices terror.

El Nuevo Herald then identified the MRR "chief" as... Generoso Bringas, the same individual summoned to El Paso.

However, it does not specify that Abreu was an "eminent" member of the People’s Protagonist Party (Partido Protagonista del Pueblo), led by Orlando Bosch, as he later confessed.

Abreu was arrested several days later with the only member of his supposed group, and confirmed to Cuban authorities that he had been recruited in Miami by Bringas.

The boat used at that time had a commercial cover, not an "environmentalist" one, given that it was registered under the name of the company Emanuel Boat and Fishing, located on 6320 92nd Street SW in Miami, the residence of another criminal, Oscar Salas. Ernestino Salas was freed in 2002 for humanitarian reasons.

Ernesto Abreu, Ernestino’s son, was in Panama with Osvaldo Mitat during Posada’s trial there. At that time, Santiago Álvarez did not dare enter that country for fear of Interpol. That same individual is now organizing public protests on behalf of Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat, his accomplices.

ATTORNEY SOTO CAN’T IMAGINE WHY

On May 21, Posada’s attorney, Eduardo Soto, confirmed that the grand jury had been convened, given that he was up-to-date. "I really can’t imagine what they’re looking for," he told El Nuevo Herald, as serious as could be.

In spite of all the testimony regarding Posada’s presence in the FPEMC’s "school-boat," the mafiosi lawyer continued to "firmly believe" in his client’s lies about his entry into the United States, "in an automobile across the Mexican border," although he is preparing a strategic retreat: "At this point, it no longer matters whether or not he traveled on the Santrina," he says.

Until recently, U.S. legal authorities admitted that Posada Carriles entered Miami illegally on the Santrina. After 13 months of silence, that was confirmed by FBI documents presented by the U.S. Attorney to the federal court that tried Santiago Alvarez and Osvaldo Mitat.

According to a meticulous investigation by the Mexican newspaper Por Esto! the Santrina picked up Posada Carriles on March 14, 2005 from Isla Mujeres to take him secretly to Miami. On that same boat, other passengers were Miami "promoter" and terrorist Santiago Álvarez and CIA operative José Hilario "Pepín" Pujol, the boat’s "captain," along with Rubén López Castro, Gilberto Abascal and Oswaldo Mitat.

A few months ago, "Pepín" Pujol admitted to journalists that he had been trained by the CIA, and also acknowledged that he had "made a lot of incursions" into Cuban territory, describing himself as an "expert" at infiltrating Cuba by sea.
Rubén López Castro, 67, is the owner of the house where Posada stayed for at least six weeks while he was hiding in Miami, and where he was arrested on May 17. This same Cuban-American extremist participated on October 4, 1973, in a terrorist attack that resulted in the death of Cuban Luis Torna Mirabal.

Not Santiago Alvarez, nor Mitat, nor Pujol, nor López Castro, nor
Abascal, all linked to the most fanatic terrorist circles of Miami, have been summoned by the grand jury in Texas.

Prime Minister of Saint Lucia praises Cuban assistance

2006-05-24T23:26:00.000+02:00

Through Operation Miracle, 14,000 low-income people have been attended free of charge in that eastern Caribbean island and another 1,800 have received treatment in Cuba to recover their vision

Granma International, May 24 2006
IN Havana, Saint Lucia Prime Minster Kenny D. Anthony praised aid received from Cuba, especially via Operation Miracle, through which 14,000 low-income people have been attended in that country, free of charge, and another 1,800 have received treatment in Cuba to recover their vision.

The hearts of St. Lucians have been moved by this tremendous support, declared Anthony upon arriving in Cuba on May 22 for a visit, during which he is to hold talks with President Fidel Castro and other leaders, and tour sites of scientific, economic, cultural and social interest.

The Prime Minister’s stay is an expression of mutual interests in building closer political ties and cooperation, and strengthening the existing excellent relations between the two countries, according to a daily Granma article.
When asked by reporters, Anthony pointed out that in his meeting with Fidel he hopes to strengthen ties in public health and sports.

Cuba and Saint Lucia established diplomatic relations August 23, 1979 and since then Cuba has shown appreciable collaboration with that eastern Caribbean island principally in the spheres of health and in the formation of human resources.

MORE THAN 200 ST. LUCIAN STUDENTS IN CUBAN SCHOOLS

By virtue of that cooperation, 235 Saint Lucian scholarship students are enrolled in Cuban educational centers, 214 of them in higher education. Currently, 162 more are taking courses in areas of health, sports and other university disciplines.

In his address, the Prime Minister also thanked Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for having included his country in the PetroCaribe agreement, which he recognized is vital, given that small economies are the most affected by the rise in oil prices.

Anthony, who holds the Order of José Martí, presented to him by Fidel in 1999 in accordance with Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, traveled accompanied by his wife and a large government delegation from his country.

Elected Prime Minister on May 23, 1997 and re-elected for a new mandate in November 2001, the distinguished visitor is also minister of finance and of economic affairs and information, as well as leader of the Labour Party of Saint Lucia.

Saint Lucia, the second of the so-called Windward Islands in the eastern Caribbean, is situated 40 kilometers south of Martinique and 32 km northeast of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its territory extends over 616 square kilometers, and its population numbers 164,791.

Cuban Prima Ballerina Receives Brazilian Honor

2006-05-24T23:15:00.000+02:00

Rio de Janeiro, May 23 (Prensa Latina) Director of the Cuban National Ballet, Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, was awarded the Pinheiro Order, official degree, in homage to her life and work, and “to her capacity to keep on and not give up.”
The recognition, consisting of a medal and a diploma, was given by the governor of the Brazilian state of Parana, who praised her great contributions to universal dance and her brilliant professional career.
This order, he remarked, is a homage to the Cuban people, “who have faced economic adversities, defends diversity with their example and join the world’s mobilization against globalization.” Thanks for your life and for being here, he concluded.
Alicia Alonso’s company is touring Brazil and is to perform in Belo Horizonte, the Amazon, and finally in Sao Paulo.

Bis Music Scores Big at Cubadisco

2006-05-24T23:14:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 23 (Prensa Latina) The “Interactive Group”, salsa singer Paulo FG, troubadour singer-songwriter Gerardo Alfonso, jazz musician Cesar Lopez and rapper Papo Record helped their record company Bis Music score eight awards in Cuba´s Cubadisco 2006 competition.
Bis Music, which produces the albums for these prizewinning artists, and had 15 nominations and a Grand Prize, expressed pleasure at the overwhelming success of Cubadisco’s 10th edition.
In a press conference Tuesday at the Hispano-American Culture Center, Interactive Group director Roberto Carcases, Cubadisco grand prizewinner, said his project reflects “its members´ fusion and love for music.”
Papo Record, leading the category of Rap, highlighted that his album reflects the things he sees, feels and thinks can improve society.
For Gerardo Alfonso, winner in the troubadour division, his CD “Race” means a look at racial pluralism through music, while Paulo FG admitted this award sets him at the threshold of a genre devoted to feelings and love beyond his beloved salsa.
Musician Cesar Lopez, former member of Irakere and presently known as the most outstanding Cuban sax player, stated he has just trying to pay homage to jazz and he definitely succeeded.

Chinese Symphony Director Performs in Cuba

2006-05-24T23:12:00.000+02:00

Holguin, Cuba, May 23 (Prensa Latina) Zhang Yi, director of the Chinese National Ballet Orchestra, will conduct the Holguin Symphony Orchestra (Cuba) in this northeastern Cuban city this weekend.
Together with Zhang Yi, Liu Hongling (China’s National Opera Theater) soprano and baritone Wang Limin will perform arias from several operas.
The Holguin Symphony Orchestra was founded in 2000 by pianist and music professor Cecilio Gomez, and has been conducted by other prestigious guest directors, such as Leo Brouwer, Bernard Rubinstein (USA) and Rafael del Pozo (Spain).
This presentation at La Periquera Provincial Museum Hall coincides with an international conference in Havana on the Chinese cultural traditions of Chinese overseas communities, their integration and the IX Chinese Abroad Festival.
Recently, the Culture Ministries of Cuba and China signed an agreement for 2007-2009, to deepen and widen bilateral links.

Buena Vista Opened Musical Doors

2006-05-24T23:10:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 23 (Prensa Latina) A relevant expert in a music recording forum in this capital praised the importance of the project Buena Vista Social Club (1998) for spreading traditional Latin music.
Ciro Benemelis stated "Buena Vista´success had recordings of the traditional gender in the first session of the International Symposium Cubadisco Fair".
"This explosion nominates 11 discs in that category," the official said to the Cuban journalist Pedro de la Oz.
Some participants in the Ry Cooder CD (Compay Segundo, Omara Portuondo, Eliades Ochoa, Ruben Gonzalez) had records that did not succeed because of the problems in the international distribution, according Benemelis.
The director of the National Record Office stated that after that "colonizers and discoverers" arrived from abroad and "there were people among us that wanted to be saved and discovered."
This executive said such problem brought as a consequence a traditional explosion and groups that work in tourism started to record traditional themes thinking only of making a buck.
Ciro Benemelis confessed to liking folk music, but at the same time he believes in innovations, success and fashion.

USA Heads New Caribbean War Games

2006-05-24T22:28:00.000+02:00

Willemstad, May 23 (Prensa Latina) NATO troops, led by the United States, began the 2006 Joint “Caribbean Lion” military maneuvers on Tuesday, based in Curacao, just 31 miles from Venezuela.
Some 4,000 soldiers from the United States, Holland, Belgium, Canada, and France will be deployed in the Caribbean for 23 days, in addition to the 1,500 other soldiers that the Pentagon sent to the area in early April.
Although Holland claims to be the training leader, regional social and political groups and governments have called attention to the exceptionally strong US military presence, and attribute threatening objectives to it.
After ordering departure of three military ships from Norfolk, Virginia, the US Southern Command reported that actions Wednesday will be conducted by Amphibious Squadron Comdr. Donna Looney.
With reconnaissance flights, depth measurements, and terrain analysis, the United States could be assessing possibilities of succeeding in a military aggression on a country in the area, experts agreed.

Heavy Rains Flood Havana

2006-05-24T22:25:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Some of the main routes in the hart of Havana were affected by 12 hour showers along western Cuba.
Several areas were flooded by 120 millimeters downpour in barely two hours, forcing the Civil Defense and firemen to evacuate residents.
Both the Almendares river and Havana Bay tunnels were blocked, although the latter has already opened, as well as segments of 5th Ave.
While the authorities still assess the scope of the damages, storm clouds cover the skies and the National Meteorology Institute confirmed foul weather and more rain every day through Saturday.

45,000 Foreigners Received Cuban Degrees

2006-05-24T22:23:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer reported that 45,352 foreign youth from 129 nations have graduated in Cuba since 1961, including 30,109 from sub-Saharan Africa and 8,718 from Latin America, and 17,495 are presently studying in the Island.
Balaguer also pointed out that, since 1962, 104,437 Cuban health personnel have helped people in 101 countries, and 29,223 are presently working in 68 nations in various continents.

The Caribbean island has helped built 11 Medical Science faculties in Third World nations, and 305 teachers are currently teaching in 24 medical schools in 17 countries, according to the minister.
He referred to Operation Miracle, which President Fidel Castro has been spearheading and fostering, to provide medical assistance for millions of poor people suffering from curable eye afflictions.

Under that program that so far has targeted 23 Latin American and Caribbean states, 284,750 people with economic difficulties –including 56,000 Cubans- have been operated on since 2004.

Cuba has sent 27 medical brigades to over 15 nations that have been rocked by natural disasters, and a 1,564-strong health contingent worked in Pakistan after a furious quake hit that territory. That brigade built 32 hospitals, treated 1.65 million Pakistanis –including 6, 391 major surgeries- and helped 960,226 people with technical rehabilitation projects.

Cuba Suffers Late May Downpour

2006-05-24T22:17:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Although awaited anxiously by most Cubans, the May rainy season started late this year, but when it came it came with a vengeance, causing mixed reactions for the recipients.

At once grateful for the rain needed to ease the severe drought some eastern provinces have suffered for years, Cubans, especially in the capital, reported damage to buildings from the flash floods caused by the five inch of rain that fell in two hours Tuesday.

Central Havana and other areas near the Malecon seawall had flooding three feet deep enter low-lying residences, necessitating some evacuations, because the sewers and drainage systems were unable to absorb the powerful currents.

Authorities reported that the rain cut-off traffic through the Bay and Fifth Avenue tunnels, main arteries to and from center city.

The River Quibu flooded western Havana, affecting areas from Marianao and La Lisa to parts of Playa, and the sewage system collapsed in Miramar.

The Civil Defense, Special Rescue and Salvage Command went into action rescuing flooded-out residents, and trying to help them protect household goods such as bedding and refrigerators.
Beyond the damage to homes, parks and streets, the rains also enraged baseball fans; the waters forced postponement of the National Baseball Championships Finals.

St. Lucia, Cuba Fortify Teamwork

2006-05-24T22:13:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) The official visit St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny D. Anthony is making to Cuba has contributed a step forward in the development of bilateral collaboration, after official talks with President Fidel Castro.
When meeting Tuesday at the Revolution Palace, the two leaders analyzed the state of bilateral relations, established at the diplomatic level on August 23, 1979.
The visitor also toured the Ramon Pando Ferrer National Ophthalmologic Institute and the Marina Hemingway Hotel-Hospital, where he was informed about the Operation Miracle project.
Over 1,800 patients from St. Lucia have had free eye operations in Cuba so far as part of that program, which is the result of a joint effort by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. With this project, six million Latin American and Caribbean low-income patients will have their vision recovered free of charge over a ten-year term.
Cuba and St. Lucia are fostering fruitful cooperation in key fields such as public health and training of human resources.
A total of 235 St. Lucian students graduated from Cuban schools from 1961 to 2005, and another 162 are currently studying at the university level.

Cuban Music in World Ears

2006-05-24T22:06:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24(Prensa Latina) Cuba is trying to focus on its international musical work by collaborating with alternative record companies, according to reports Wednesday in this city.
Ciro Benemelis, President of the International Cubadisco Fair from May 20-28, said "Despite our limitations we have notable experience that allows us to lead projects and dreams."
Those initiatives could be directed by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a project of emancipation and solidarity headed by Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, according to the high-ranking official, who is also a musician.
"It is necessary to create an Internet side of Latin and Caribbean music," Benemelis said.
He said there are experienced entities like the Casa de las Americas, Center for Popular Music Development and Research and the Cuban Association of Authors Rights.

Cuban Rum Enchants Japan

2006-05-24T22:05:00.000+02:00

Habana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban rum Arecha is a great hit at Japan's Foodex International Fair, termed the largest display in Asia and the fourth most important trade expo in the world.
International marketing experts from the Union of Beverages and Soft Drinks at the Cuban Food Industry Ministry stated that not only Arecha rum but also the Cuban beer Tinima "have had great acceptance from Japanese people," according to reports Wednesday by Opciones economic website.

This emblematic rum has carved out a space in the Japanese market, due to characteristics, and has currently showed a trend to the consumption of dark rums," sources stated. Since its first edition in 1976, the Foodex Fair has enjoyed an increasing prestige among traders from several regions of the planet, giving last-minute information on food and drinks, and opportunities to expand trade links among exhibitors and visitors.

Cuba Names New Audit Minister

2006-05-24T22:03:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Following a proposal by the Political Bureau of the Communist Party´s Central Committee, Cuba´s Council of State has appointed Gladys Maria Bejerano Portela as audit minister.
Portela had been serving as vice minister of that sector since 2001, and will replace Lina O. Pedraza Rodriguez, who will be promoted to other responsibilities at the Central Committee, Granma daily reports Wednesday.

Cuba to Host World Sugar Congress

2006-05-24T22:02:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 24 (Prensa Latina) The 14th International Congress on Sugar and its By-products, "Diversificacion 2006," will be held in Havana June 19-22, with debates on the current situation in the sector.
The event will include a workshop on the uses of sugar cane´s ethanol, with analysis on prospects of that product, which has been increasingly used as motor fuel.
Experts from Cuba, Brazil and other countries will attend the workshop, and debate the ethanol world market and current technology used in its production.
Diversification 2006 will session at the Habana Libre Tryp Hotel, and is sponsored by the Cuban Sugar Ministry, the National Sugar Cane Research Institute (ICIDCA), and the World Sugar Organization, among others.

Report to advise Bush on post-Castro Cuba

2006-05-24T21:50:00.000+02:00

By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) Tue May 23 - A U.S. commission is preparing to advise President George W. Bush' on how to inject democracy into a post-Castro Cuba, but critics say Washington's 40 years of isolating the island may limit its chances of heading off a communist succession.

The report by the Commission on Assistance to a Free Cuba, expected in the next few days, will suggest ways Washington can influence Cubans to turn away from communism and move to democracy and a free-market economy when veteran President Fidel Castro exits, U.S. officials said.

Critics of the U.S. policy, whose cornerstone is a four-decades-old embargo which failed in its aim of forcing the collapse of Castro's government, say Bush's focus ironically has left Washington, not Havana, isolated.
This was reflected in a 182-to-4 United Nations vote last November condemning the embargo, which has failed to unseat Castro, 79, despite tougher enforcement under the Bush presidency.

Bush followed recommendations in the commission's first report in 2004 and severely restricted travel to the island and remittances from Cuban Americans, ignoring calls from some that opening contacts would hasten communism's downfall.

The second report was expected to recommend some tightening of the embargo and emphasize stricter enforcement but officials said it was not likely to include drastic moves. Its focus would be on preparations for the day Castro leaves office.

Bush critics, including some U.S. Congress members, foreign governments and political analysts, say Washington should engage Cuba to encourage better human rights and political change, as with other communist-run countries like China.

The head of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, said it was valid to wonder why Bush had created the office of the Cuba transition assistance coordinator, who writes the report.
"There's no transition and it's not your country," he said.

Bush's hardline policy on Cuba was partly aimed at shoring up support in the Cuban exile community in Florida, a key political state.

IDEOLOGICAL FOES

Reps. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, and William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, who head a 50-strong bipartisan group in Congress opposing the U.S. policy, offered preemptive criticism of the report.
"Any hope that an ever-tightening American embargo could force political change has been wiped away," they said in a statement.

"No one can predict how Cuba's political future will evolve. But we can predict that regardless of America's size and economic weight, our deliberate lack of contact and communication will reduce American influences," they said.

With the American food industry allowed to export to Cuba, Flake has proposed legislation that would further loosen the embargo by permitting energy companies to partner with Cuba to drill in the waters of an island roughly 90 miles from the United States.

The Bush administration wants to hold firm against its ideological foe.

"The purpose of the embargo is to prevent Fidel Castro's dictatorial regime from using commerce and trade to fund and strengthen his regime so that he keeps his hold on the Cuban population," Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said this week.

But Philip Peters, of the Virginia-based thinktank the Lexington Institute, said U.S. ambitions for an overhaul of the political and economic systems are counterproductive because they heighten fears in Cuba of turmoil after Castro.

"Cubans want change but they don't want revolution," Peters said.

Gov. Bush ready to sign bill barring professors, students from Cuba travel

2006-05-24T21:47:00.000+02:00

By Mark Hollis Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE, May 24 2006 - Gov. Jeb Bush indicated Tuesday he will sign a bill that would forbid professors and students from visiting Cuba and other nations accused of supporting terrorism.Bush's backing of the legislation, sponsored by state Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who represents a portion of Broward County, would make Florida one of the most restrictive states for travel by scholars.

The bill bans faculty and students at public universities and community colleges from using ``state or non-state funds'' to travel to any country deemed a sponsor of terrorists. Five countries would be considered off-limits: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.The bill does not specify penalties for violators.The proposal, which easily cleared both chambers of the Florida Legislature earlier this month, has been sharply criticized by academics as an infringement on their rights that would impede important research, especially in Cuba.

These critics said it would impede advancement in a wide variety of studies, including agriculture and public health..Damian Fernandez, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, warned that the proposal will undermine efforts to recruit scholars who study in Florida and abroad.

Wayne S. Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., said the legislation would block potentially valuable research for Florida, and that there is little political justification for such a ban.Bush downplayed the criticism, saying he thinks public and private money should not "go to countries that are our enemies."

He also said he is skeptical that much legitimate research is conducted during travel to those countries.Rivera has said the recent case of a Florida International University professor being indicted on espionage charges involving travel to Cuba, all supposedly paid for by private funds, demonstrates the importance of the travel ban.

Mark Hollis can be reached at mhollis@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-fcuba24may24,0,4381853.story?track=rss

U.S. report on Cuba delayed by details

2006-05-24T21:41:00.000+02:00

Granma International
WASHINGTON, May 24, 2006.— A long-awaited update from the Commission of President Bush's policies on the island, will not be delivered to the White House as scheduled on Cuban independence day Saturday, but should be in Bush's hands by month's end, U.S. officials say .
The commission's initial report in 2004 led to a severe curtailing of travel and remittances by Cuban Americans to the island.

U.S. officials have declined to comment on what changes the commission might recommend in its new report, although some Cuba-watchers in Washington have been speculating that the panel will recommend even tighter restrictions on trips by U.S. academic and religious groups.

The new report was to have been delivered to the White House on Saturday, but officials said the date has been pushed back to later in the month because some of its details are still being worked out. Bush is expected to take some time to review the new recommendations and decide which ones he will implement, U.S. officials say.

The commission is officially headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but the day-to-day work to write the new report has been coordinated by Caleb McCarry, the so called department's Cuba transition assistance coordinator.

The commission's new report was drafted through an inter-agency process that included input from the Departments of State, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Justice and Energy, among others.

After receiving the commission's 2004 report, Bush cut back Cuban Americans' family visits to the island from once a year to once every three years and tightened the list of those on the island who can receive cash remittances and packages from the United States. Bush also called for spending an extra $45 million over the following two years to ''hasten'' and prepare for his plans in Cuba.

India, Norway join Spain in Cuba oil prospect

2006-05-24T21:36:00.000+02:00

Reuters
Havana, May 24, 2006 - Spanish oil company Repsol YPF teamed up on Tuesday with Norway's Norsk Hydro and India's ONGC Videsh to explore six offshore blocks in Cuban waters where good-quality oil was found two years ago, the companies said.

The prospect of finding commercial quantities of oil in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico at a time of soaring prices has set off a political debate over whether US companies, sidelined by American sanctions against Cuba, should be allowed to explore there.

Under the deal signed with Cuba's state-owned Cuba Petroleo (Cupet), operator Repsol will have a 40-per cent share in the project, while Norsk Hydro and ONGC Videsh will each have 30 per cent.
Exploration plans include 1,158 square miles (3,000 sq km) of three-dimensional seismic studies to be completed in June, said Egil Gloppen, Hydro Oil & Energy international business development director.

But drilling is not expected to begin until 2008 due to a tight market for deep-water exploration rigs as the world's search for oil intensifies to take advantage of tight demand and high prices for crude.
"2008 is probably the earliest, unless we come across a rig that can be used immediately, but that is not very likely," Gloppen said. He said there were only 20-30 rigs in the world than can drill at such depths.

Repsol found good-quality light oil in mile-deep (1.6-km) waters of Cuba's economic exclusion zone in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, but not in commercially viable quantities.

Billions of barrels of oil

The US Geological Survey estimated last year that the North Cuba basin could contain some 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels.

"Our technical people see this as a good prospect," said Uttam Sengupta, senior vice president of ONGC Videsh, the overseas subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's largest integrated oil and gas company.

US companies are barred from looking for oil in Communist Cuba under trade sanctions enforced against President Fidel Castro's revolutionary government since 1962.

Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, last month complained that energy-hungry China could gain access to oil "within spitting distance" of the United States. He introduced legislation that would seek an exception to the trade embargo for US oil companies so they could drill in Cuba.

"The US industry thinks it is too bad they cannot compete so close to their own turf," Gloppen said.
China's giant oil and gas company Sinopec Corp signed an agreement last year to produce heavy oil with CUPET in Cuba's western-most Pinar del Rio province from on-shore wells.

China is renting towers for directional drilling in oil fields run by Canadian companies Sherritt International and Pebercan Inc along a coastal oil belt producing heavy oil and gas used to generate electricity.

Cuba produces 60,000 barrels per day of poor-quality oil and is dependent on its ally Venezuela for imports of about 90,000 bpd of oil and derivatives.

Legislators from Florida, where anti-Castro Cuban exiles are politically powerful, are seeking to block Cuba drilling near the Florida coast on environmental grounds and penalize executives of foreign companies that help Cuba look for oil and gas.

But US sanctions should not apply to foreign companies exploring off-shore in Cuba because they would not be using American assets expropriated after Castro's 1959 revolution, oil industry executives said.

U.S. piano tuner strikes chord against embargo, doctors instruments in Cuba

2006-05-23T11:31:00.000+02:00

Anita Snow, Canadian PressPublished

HAVANA, Monday, May 22, 2006 (AP) - When American piano tuner Benjamin Treuhaft first visited Cuba in 1993 he found that years of neglect, humidity and termites were ravaging the island's dwindling piano population.

Thirteen years on, Treuhaft has helped send 237 old pianos donated by Americans to the communist-run island, filling a void in a musical country by providing instruments used for practising piano concertos, accompanying tenor soloists and rehearsing ballet dancers.

"Most of the pianos here were Soviet-made: many of them from Moscow and Estonia, so they weren't that great to begin with," Treuhaft said during a visit this week. "Then, they met the Cuban termites. And then, they met the Cuban pianists, who are great, but strong, and can really destroy an instrument."

Treuhaft keeps returning to survey donated instruments and tune and restore others, striking an insistent chord against the U.S. trade embargo. After nearly 20 trips to the island - some without U.S. approval - the jocular former hippie, who sports a bandanna on his head and likes to tune pianos barefoot, is now a personality in some Cuban music circles.

When Treuhaft repaired Jorge Lopez Marin's dilapidated Russian piano, the Havana composer wrote a traditional Cuban song for him called El Medico de Piano - or The Piano Doctor. The tune is now widely performed by a popular women's musical group.

"What he has done is very important for the music community in Cuba," said Julia Diaz, a Cuban piano tuner who has known Treuhaft for 12 years. "He is very much beloved here."

Cubans admire Treuhaft's dedication to his craft, and delight in his playful personality.

"I'm on vacation," Treuhaft insisted, clad in black jeans and a T-shirt, and scrunched up under an old American baby grand at Havana's Superior Art Institute. "I still might get to go to the beach, if they'd stop finding pianos for me."

Treuhaft said he has U.S. Treasury Department approval to legally visit Cuba to check on the donated pianos. He said he exported the donated instruments with approval of the U.S. Commerce Department which, curiously, granted a licence through its the Office of Missile and Nuclear Technology.

But for this trip, he said, "I left my licence at home."

Treuhaft said he isn't worried about the possibility of being fined for his latest trip to Cuba, which he described as an "act of civil disobedience" against American rules he says violate his constitutional right to travel.

Treuhaft was contacted by Treasury officials after an unauthorized visit in 1994 and fined $10,000 US, dropped later to $3,500, which he refused to pay. The case remains open.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise declined to comment on Treuhaft's case because of privacy issues.

Although Treuhaft doesn't consider himself political, he said his defiance of the U.S. embargo may be explained by his background.

Cuba offers 1000 scholarships for Pakistani medical students

2006-05-23T11:26:00.000+02:00

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD, Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Cuba has offered 1000 fully funded scholarships to Pakistani students studying medicine from September this year. The scholarships will be fully funded by the Cuban government, including a return air ticket.

This agreement was finalised in a meeting between the Cuban First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodrigues Parrilla and the Federal Education Minister Lt Gen (r) Javed Ashraf.The Education Ministry said that volunteers would be selected through a screening exam conducted by the National Testing Service, under the supervision of the Education Ministry, which would determine the merit for selection.

After approval, they will be requested to provide the required documents including the deed of agreement under which they would commit to return to the Pakistan after completion of studies.The 1000 scholarships will be distributed among provinces and the regions. The students from the October 8 earthquake affected areas and the low-income families would be allocated special quota, after approval by the authorities, said a spokesman for the Education Ministry.

The academic year will start in September 2006 and the students will be required to travel to Cuba in July and August 2006. The degree consists of one year learning of the Spanish language, balancing the knowledge acquired in high school and getting acquainted with the medicine course. This would be followed by five years of studies of medicine, to graduate on general comprehensive medicine.The candidates could be high school graduates, less than 25 years of age, from low-income families from all around the country.

Talking to the Cuban delegation, the federal minister said that Pakistan valued relations between the two countries and the relief activities by the Cuban paramedics in the quake-affected areas would be always remembered by Pakistan. He said that Cuban medical and humanitarian assistance to the victims of the October 8 earthquake had been recognised not only in Pakistan but the world over.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5c05%5c23%5cstory_23-5-2006_pg7_26

Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia to inaugurate joint trade fair

2006-05-23T10:23:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 2006 - CUBAN, Venezuelan and Bolivian companies are to participate in the 1st International Fair of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the People’s Trade Agreement (TCP), set for May 25 and 26 in the Bolivian city of La Paz.
The Ministry of Production and Small Businesses in Bolivia, which is organizing the event, said that it would serve for the exchange of information on supply and demand possibilities in the three countries and the potentiality of productive sectors, particularly for micro- and small businesspeople.
According to Prensa Latina, participation is expected by 25 Bolivian companies and an as yet unknown number of Cuban and Venezuelan ones, said Gustavo Barbery, Bolivian deputy minister of trade and exports.
The fair is framed in the integration agreements covered by the ALBA and the TCP, signed on April 28 in Havana by Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Five charges against Robert Ferro, but not one on terrorism

2006-05-23T10:20:00.000+02:00

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International—

Havana, May 22 2006 - ROBERT Ferro, the Cuban-American arrested in California in possession of 1,571 machine guns, grenades and rifles – the biggest arms cache seized in U.S. history, according to that country’s federal authorities – has been formally indicted on five counts of illegal weapons possession, the Los Angeles Times reported on May 20.

However, federal prosecutors have not brought any charges of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, in spite of confessions by the suspect, who told investigators that he was preparing an armed attack on Cuba.

Charges of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism have been brought recently against other suspects. But, scandalously, Bush’s federal prosecutors have not been capable to date of taking to the courts the masterminds behind acts of terrorism against Cuba, or individuals who preach the use of terror or support terrorism against the island.

Ferro, a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, has admitted belonging to the terrorist group Alpha 66. The 61-year-old is currently being held without bail at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga. A hearing has been set for Wednesday, May 24, in U.S. district court in Riverside.

Several of the weapons seized were illegal. Each count of possession carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The (tolerated) terrorist group Alpha 66, from Miami, has denied that this individual appears "on their list of 50,000 members" (sic). However, Ferro’s defense lawyer, Wayne M. Rozenberg, has said on several occasions to the local media that the group took that stance because it is a "secret" organization.

The terrorist Cuban-American group, with offices in Miami, has a long history of carrying out criminal actions against Cuba, including in California, where the group has an "official representative," Miguel Talleda.

Several well-known Miami-based terrorists, including René Cruz Cruz, Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez, Eusebio de Jesus Peñalver Mazorra, Angel Francisco D'fana (or De Fana) Serrano, Jorge "Guiro" Barrego Amat, Alfredo Menocal, Frank Castro, Orlando Atienza, Rafael Rodríguez, Ramón Rodríguez and Guillermo Novo Sampol, have been implicated in terrorist attacks committed on the U.S. west coast.

Peñalver Mazorra, who was also implicated in a conspiracy to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, died on May 18 in Miami, at the age of 71.

Ferro himself was charged in the early ‘90s with running a paramilitary camp on a chicken farm in Pomona, California to "train some Mexicans to invade Cuba."

This time, Ferro affirms categorically that Alpha 66 paid for the weapons, according to a legal document submitted to the court.

Robert Ferro’s indictment comes at the same time as a Florida court’s announcement that it would not consider the charges against mafioso ringleader Santiago Álvarez and his buddy Osvaldo Mitat, charged with possessing several automatic weapons. Their friend and accomplice, Luis Posada Carriles, has changed strategies, and has now refused to testify before federal Judge Cohn.

Since the death of its former leader, Nazario Sargen, Alpha 66 has been led by Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez, 66, who continues, with impunity, to call for the use of violence against Cuba, in open violation of U.S. and international laws against terrorism, without any intervention by authorities.

Several international agreements ban not only the perpetration of terrorist acts and conspiracy to commit them, but also the raising of funds or resources for carrying out terrorist acts, or even simply support of organizations dedicated to such actions on a national or international scale, something that occurs every day with impunity in the United States, particularly in the state of Florida, when it has to do with Cuba.

The U.S. president himself sent a thank-you letter for "support" to the terrorist organization Alpha 66, on June 2, 2005, and invited several of its members to participate in meetings at the White House.

Meanwhile, five Cubans who infiltrated groups, which the Bush clan has given protection to, continue to be abducted, held in five different U.S. prisons.

Prime Minister of St. Lucia arrives in Cuba

2006-05-23T10:18:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 2006 - Kenny D. Anthony, the prime minister of St. Lucia, begins an official visit to Cuba this Monday, during which he will hold official talks with President Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, as well as visiting sites of scientific, economic, cultural and social interest.

The visit constitutes an expression of the reciprocal willingness to continue widening political and cooperative links and will contribute to strengthening the excellent relationship which already exists between the two countries, confirms a note published May 22 in Granma daily.

Anthony, who was awarded the Order of José Martí by Fidel in 1999, in agreement with the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba, is accompanied by an important delegation from his country’s government.

Elected as prime minister of his country on May 23, 1997 and reelected for a new mandate in November, 2001, the eminent visitor also holds the portfolios for Finances and Economic and Information Affairs.

He is also the leader of the Labor Party of St. Lucia.

The two nations established diplomatic relations on August 23, 1979 and from that date, Cuba has offered considerable cooperation to St. Lucia, principally in the fields of healthcare and human resources training.

By virtue of this cooperation, 235 St. Lucian scholarship students have been enrolled in Cuban educational centers, 214 of them at university level. There are currently 162 students undertaking courses in the areas of health, sports, and other disciplines.

At the same time, more than 1,700 patients from St. Lucia have received operations in Cuba as part of Operation Miracle; a joint project between Cuba and Venezuela which gives poor citizens from Latin America and the Caribbean the possibility of regaining their sight.

St. Lucia is the second largest of the Barlovento Islands in the East Caribbean, and situated some 40 kilometers south of Martinique and 32km northeast of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The island has a land mass of 616 square kilometers and a population of 164,791.

Demonstrators in Miami reject travel restrictions to Cuba

2006-05-23T10:16:00.000+02:00

MIAMI, May 21.— Last Saturday, more than 160 people - principally Cuban émigrés - assembled in the center of this city to protest against restrictions preventing them from traveling to Cuba to visit relatives and other loved ones.

The protesters waved Cuban and US flags and carried placards bearing the slogans “The family is sacred”, “Politics, no! Family, yes!”, “Bush, have respect. Don’t mess with my family” and “We’re going to travel.” The demonstration, organized by the Association of Christian Women in Defense of the Family, took place outside the federal building which houses the Treasury Department’s offices and was deemed a “success” by organizers.

This was the first in a long series of public events protesting all the travel restrictions promoted by the Bush administration over the last three years.

DEMONSTRATORS IN WASHINGTON DEMAND AN END TO THE BLOCKADE AND FREEDOM FOR THE FIVE

In Washington, hundreds of people demanded an end to anti-Cuba measures, and rejected the actions by the government of George W. Bush against the revolutionary processes in Venezuela and Cuba.

A march near the White House made a stop in front of the Cuban Interests Section in that city, according to a report by the TeleSUR news network.

The demonstrators’ main demands included: an end to the economic blockade of Cuba; freedom for the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorism; and the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, the man responsible for the mid-flight explosion of a Cuban airliner with 73 people on board in the mid-1970s.

The demonstration was called by civic organizations in the United States. On the same day, a group of demonstrators in Madrid rallied in front of the U.S. embassy to demand “hands off” Cuba and Venezuela’s internal affairs.

2006 CUBADISCO AWARDS

2006-05-23T10:13:00.000+02:00

"Añoranza por la conga" wins Song of the Year

Grand Prize split by Interactivo and Chucho Valdés

Prize of Honor to the People’s Republic of China

BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA—Granma International staff writer—

Havana, May 22 2006 - "AÑORANZA por la conga," by Ricardo Leyva and Sur Caribe (EGREM) carried off the Song of the Year Award, established for this 10th international festival of CUBADISCO 2006.
On awards night, at the Karl Marx Theater, the judges announced that the Grand Prize would be shared for the albums Goza Pepillo, by Interactivo (Bis Music) and Cancionero Cubano, by Chucho Valdés (EGREM).

Leyva and Sur Caribe with their CD Credenciales (which contains "Añoranza por la conga") also received awards in the categories of Design (Tomás Miña) and Video (Orlando Cruzata -Rudy Mora).
The CD by Interactivo (a group of 26 musicians, including Robertico Carcassés, Telmary Díaz and Yusa) also received honors in Debut Album and Fusion, while that of maestro Chucho Valdés took the prize for Anthology and Sleeve Notes (María Elena Mendiola).

BIS MUSIC was the recording label to receive the most awards this CUBADISCO, due to its meticulous work in various genres.

In addition to those already mentioned for Interactivo, the recording label also won these titles: Song, for the CD Ilusión, by Paulito FG y los boleros; Jazz, for Andante, by César López;
Trova/Pop/Rock, for Raza by Gerardo Alfonso; Contemporary Dance Music for the CD Mi linda habanera, by Adalberto Alvarez; Rap/Dance/Hip hop for Cabiosile, by Papo Record and DVD for Yumuri Live (from the CD with the same name).

It is not surprising that the label Colibrí, created to represent musical areas that other Cuban recording houses have forgotten, won four awards: Traditional Popular Music for the CD Vuelo a la vida by Guamá (from Holguín province); Vocal music, Camina fino, by Alma; Choral, CD De todo Coro son, by Digna Guerra and the National Choir; Trova, for the CD Víctor Quiñones by the artist of same name; and Documentary, for Homo Ludens (by Angel Alderete), about the CD by maestro Leo Brouwer.

The Unicornio label won in the categories of Compilation (El dulce abismo), Instrumental (Mano by obra, Ernán López Nussa) and DVD (Jazz Cuba Today, by Roberto Carcasés, Alexander Brown and Elmer Ferrer).

The largest national recording label, EGREM, obtained the most awards with Cancionero cubano, by Chucho Valdés (Grand Prize, Sleeve Notes, Anthology) and Credenciales (Song of the Year and Video) and also with the CD Cantar la trova, Miriam Ramos and Pancho Amat (Traditional Trova).
The City Historian’s Office was awarded for Children’s Music, with the ever-present Liuba María Hevia, on this occasion for the CD Atentos...traigo un regalo and in Chamber Music for the CD by Ars Longa Juan Gutiérrez Padilla. Música de la Catedral de Puebla de los Angeles.

One prize each was taken by the recording studios Tumi Music for the CD Noche de la rumba, by Clave y Guaguancó, and Ahí Nama for Best Recording (Orestes Aguila-Jon Fausty) for the CD Soy Yo, by Maraca y Otra Visión, while ICAIC obtained Best Soundtrack award for Afílame el lápiz (Edesio Alejandro), from the film Perfecto amor equivocado.

The special prizes of the festival were for: Doce boleros míos (Unicornio), by Marta Valdés; musicology by Miriam Escudero for the CD Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Música de la Catedral de Puebla de los Angeles (Office of the Historian); Cinco leyendas of la música cubana (in five volumes by EGREM, dedicated to Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo, Ibrahím Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa and Rubén González) and Homenaje a Noel Nicola, by the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center.

Given that CUBADISCO was dedicated to dance this year, special awards were given to Compañía Danza Contemporánea of Cuba and the Conjunto Folclórico Nacional.

Abel Prieto, minister of Culture, presented the 2006 CUBADISCO Prize of Honor to the head of the important delegation from the People’s Republic of China, to which the event was dedicated.

Havana to Host Poetry Festival

2006-05-23T10:06:00.000+02:00

Havana May 22 (Prensa Latina) The 11th International Poetry Festival, this time devoted to the Slavic countries and expected to be attended by outstanding Russian filmmaker Evgueni Evtushenko, will take place in the Cuban capital from May 30 through June 3.
As part of the event, organizers will hold a World Committee of Poets in Defense of Humanity expected to join Cuban intellectuals with similar objectives and intended to create an international network.
The move to take poetry out of the closet and put the audience in direct contact with it through exchanges in neighborhoods, schools, squares and scientific institutions, will be among the singularities of this edition.
Special recognitions will go to Hondura’s National Poet Roberto Sosa and the famous Senegalese writer Leopold Senghor.
Participants will enjoy poetry reading, concerts, fine art and stage exhibitions in the complementary venues of Cumanayagua, Playa Larga, Ciego de Avila, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos.

Catalonia Prez Meets Cuba Ambassador

2006-05-23T10:03:00.000+02:00

Madrid, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Government of Catalonia President Pasqual Maragall held animated talks on Monday with Cuban Ambassador Alberto Velazco San Jose in Barcelona about Cuba´s latest economic achievements, among other topics.
The ambassador informed the president that this year Cuba registered a higher growth than last year, and also gave information on social and international health programs, such as Operation Miracle that has healed tens of thousands of poor people with eye afflictions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Maragall was interested in many issues related to Cuba and conveyed warm greetings to its leaders, government and people.
The Cuban ambassador is also slated to meet with local authorities and representatives of social and solidarity organizations.

Botswana Highlights Cuban Solidarity

2006-05-23T10:02:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Visiting Minister of Labor and Internal Affais of Botswana, Moeng Rabasimane Pheto, on Monday highlighted Cuban relations, solidarity and collaboration towards his country.
Cuba has made a substantial contribution to develop our human resources, as well as in the fields of health and education, he said.
We continue stepping up our struggle against AIDS with Cuban support and experience, he added.
We also want to increase our collaboration in sports, Moen Rabasimane Pheto said.
On Monday, the official from Botswana met with Cuban Minister of Labor and Social Security Alfredo Morales, at the Havana-based ministry headquarters.
Morales expressed appreciation for Botswana’s support of Cuba in international forums, including the UN General Assembly and the International Labor Organization, as well as its denunciation of the US blockade against the Cuban people.

Brazil Reiterates Solidarity with Cuba

2006-05-23T10:01:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) A visiting delegation of Brazilian deputies, mayors, town councilors and officials from Sao Paulo State reiterated on Monday their country’s solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.
The 25-member mission is headed by Deputy Renato Simoes, who is president of the Parliamentary Front of Friendship with Cuba within Sao Paulo’s Legislative Assembly.
As a first point on their agenda, they visited the National Assembly of People’s Power (Cuban Legislature), where they were welcomed by Secretary of the Cuban Assembly, Ernesto Suarez, and deputy Diana Martinez, deputy chairwoman of the Latin American Parliament Health Committee.
They also visited the Foreign Investment and Collaboration Ministry and the Jose Marti Memorial, as well as meeting with officials from Cuba’s Communist Party Central Committee.
Their agenda includes meetings in different Havana municipalities as well as in other provinces, and tours of the School of Social Workers, scientific entities, and Havana´s Historic Center.
They will stay in Cuba until May 28.

China and Cuba Sign Agreement

2006-05-23T10:00:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Chinese and Cuban Culture Ministries signed an agreement on Monday for 2007-2009, to extend and strengthen relations between both nations.
Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto and China´s Chen Xiaoguang signed the exchange agreement.
According to the text, both countries “will encourage participation of artists, groups of artists, and experts in different cultural and artistic expressions in festivals and international events organized by the other side.”
They will support cooperation among their artistic-research institutions, through protocols and bilateral agreements for carrying out joint projects, exchange of teachers, students, academics, information, and publications.
The document highlighted that the Chinese will analyze the possibility to facilitate outfits, wardrobes, theater makeup, musical instruments, visual material, and up-to-date bibliography in Spanish about diverse subjects.

Brazil Politicians in Cuba to Learn

2006-05-23T09:58:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) An extensive delegation made up of deputies, mayors and councilors from several municipalities of Sao Paulo, Brazil, is in Havana on an invitation from the Cuban National Peoples' Power Assembly (Congress).
Renato Simoes, deputy of the legislative assembly in that Brazilian state, told Prensa Latina that the aim of the visit is to learn of Cuba's development, broaden and foster economic, political and cultural relations and visit the country's several provinces.
"During our one-week stay here, we are also expected to meet with congresspeople and officials from the Tourism, Basic Industry, Foreign Investment and Foreign Affairs Ministries," stated Simoes.
Simoes came accompanied by representatives of the state secretariats of Education, Health, Tourism and Energy, where Cuba is developing important projects.

Cuba, Botswana Cement Bonds

2006-05-23T09:57:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Cuba and Botswana are expanding bilateral ties, cooperation and solidarity by opening on Monday in Havana the 9th Session of their Intergovernmental Mixed Commission.
That commission will be in session until May 24 at the Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration Ministry.
Also on Monday, Botswanan Foreign and International Cooperation Minister Mompati S. Merafhe, who is leading his delegation at the two-way encounter, laid a wreath at Jose Marti monument at the Revolution Square.
Havana and Gaborone´s diplomatic relations, established on December 1977, have been strengthened in the last years by the Cuban collaboration in health, education, sports and construction.
Nowadays, 14 Botswanan young people are training on the island while a 94-strong medical brigade has cured over 1,300 people and given more than 192,000 consultations in that African nation.

Chinese Celebrate in Havana

2006-05-23T09:56:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Cultural traditions in the Ultramar Chinese communities will be on the table at the International theoretical conference that will be from May 25-29 in this capital.
As part of Ultramar IX Festival of Chinese People, Peruvian academics will discuss the development of stage arts, especially theatre and the contemporary vision of visual arts, National Information Agency (AIN) reported.
Music and dance will be analyzed as expressions of tradition, integration, literature, religion, linguistic studies and public areas.
The Chinese folk group will act on the Festival inaugural day, with headquarters in Chinese Center for Arts and Tradition, which will open a collective exposition of tradition, color and fantasy.
There will be mahjong competitions, a ceremony in the Min Chi Tang Society, a Qiyuan cultural evening and Chinese-Cuban culinary exhibition parallel with the academic days from May 26-8.
The Tongging Gala closing ceremony, followed by a trip through Chinatown and the Historical center of San Cristobal de La Havana will be held on May 29 at six in the theatre Astral.

France-Cuba Senates Meet in Havana

2006-05-23T09:55:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Bernard Piras, vice president of the France-Cuba senatorial friendship group, is in Havana, invited by the Cuban parliament.
According to reports to Prensa Latina on Sunday, the aim of the visit is to develop and strengthen relations with the island"s authorities, and facilitate exchange between both countries.
"We have to make progress in cultural, trade, economic and political relations for a total approach, and I think this second visit to Cuba will be very profitable," stated Piras.
The delegation will be in the Caribbean nation until May 28, and is due to meet with officials from the Cuban parliament, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and ministers from several State organizations.

Cuba Loses Eminent Doctor

2006-05-23T09:54:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Cuba bid farewell Monday at the Cristobal Colon Cemetery to the distinguished doctor Eduardo Bernabe Ordaz Ducunge, who died yesterday in Havana.
Ordaz, commander of the Rebel Army, was founder of the National Assembly of the People´s Power and member of other important social and scientific entities.
For over 40 years, the outstanding scientist was in charge of the prestigious Psychiatric Hospital, where he was involved in occupational therapy.

US Jury Probes Posada Carriles

2006-05-23T09:34:00.000+02:00

Washington, May 22 (Prensa Latina) International terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is under the sights of a US federal jury that is investigating his arrival on US territory, national mass media reports Monday.
The controversial entry of the confessed criminal to US territory is under investigation by a panel of jury in Texas and at least two residents in Miami were called to testify, sources linked to the case told El Nuevo Herald newspaper.
Ernesto Abreu and Generoso Bringas, both tied to the murderer and members of the Marina Caribe Ecology Protection Foundation, appeared before a federal court from El Paso, Texas, last week, the daily states.
"They were called by the jury, but I am not aware of that investigation,"
said to the daily, Jose "Pepin" Pujol, skipper of a boat that brought Posada to this country.
According to La Florida daily, Posada's lawyer Eduardo Soto confirmed the jury's summons and admitted the investigating process seems to involve his client.
The boat, called "Santrina," is a crucial point in the case of Posada, 78, accused by Cuba and Venezuela of the explosion in the air of a Cubana airplane with 73 passengers in October 1976.
Cuba asserts that Posada illegally entered the United States aboard the Santrina, after being picked up in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

The European boat needs a change of crew

2006-05-22T11:49:00.000+02:00

Conversation with Josef Pernerstorfer,
president of the Austria-Cuba Friendship Association

"The foundations and principles that gave origin to our integration have been forgotten, and now we have become a bloc servile to Yankee designs."

BY ALBERTO NUÑEZ BETANCOURT AND JOSE M. CORREA (Photo)—Granma daily special correspondents

VIENNA, Austria, May 10 2006 — "My heart is younger than my hair." That comment from Josef Pernerstorfer, president of the Austria-Cuba Friendship Association, raised a laugh from the audience, but it contains much symbolism. His totally gray hair is a sign of his many years of traveling around Latin America and Europe, like someone striving to unite the old with the new knowing perfectly well that there is virtue in each. His heart has become the finest weapon against any adversary that would destroy his spirit.

"I see the future in Latin America," he affirmed; "it encourages me to witness the optimism and creativity of the people, like back when the masses elected Salvador Allende president of Chile.
Today the examples are being given by Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil. The first country has the unique experience of a people would not allow power to be snatched from them in the August 2004 referendum. Not even the powerful press, with all its manipulation could confuse the humble sectors.

Josef lamented that such a positive moment for Latin America is not being accompanied by an intelligent and appropriate policy in the European Union. "The foundations and principles that gave origin to our integration have been forgotten, and now we have become a bloc servile to Yankee designs."

To turn this around, the European governments must distance themselves from U.S. policies. The European boat needs a change of crew."
The president of the Austria-Cuba Friendship Association has another reason to maintain his high spirits: new Austrian recruits are joining his group, interested in learning about Cuba’s realities. It is like a guarantee that this just cause will be carried on forever, he emphasized.

And upon his departure, he proved that his heart is still young. Josef announced that soon he is to be a member of a new solidarity brigade that is visiting Cuba. This would be the eleventh time that our veteran friend has come to our island, "to once again be captivated by the friendliness of the Cuban people," as he put it.

Congressmen from Bush’s party present bill to facilitate oil investment in Cuba

2006-05-22T11:42:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 13 2006 - TWO Republican Congressmen presented a bill on May 12 that would make it possible for U.S. companies to make investments for oil prospecting in Cuban waters, according to the AFP.

The disquiet of the Republican majority in U.S. Congress assumed a distinct form this past week, which stems from reasonable U.S. business interests affected by the group of Cuban-Americans associated with the Bush family. The powerful nation’s policy on Cuba is hostage to such spurious objectives, in spite of the fact that five years ago, the majority of federal and state legislators expressed their determination for change, approving bills aimed at facilitating economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Senator Larry Craig of Idaho said that the U.S. people would be surprised and amazed if they knew that the country was suffering a serious energy crisis while foreign oil companies like "China, India, Norway, Canada and Spain have already…bought the rights to undertake exploratory drilling in the North Cuba Basin," just 50 nautical miles from the U.S. coast."

Fellow Republican and U.S. Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona said that there needs to be a "convincing reason" why U.S. companies cannot explore energy resources so close to home, and "I’m not sure that a 45-year-old embargo that has failed should be mentioned as a convincing reason," he said, according to the AFP.

The bill would allow U.S. companies to effect any transaction necessary and travel for business reasons without specific authorization from the U.S. government, unlike what that country’s laws currently require.

Craig also mentioned environmental problems in the Florida Strait, which are prevent oil prospecting along the coasts of that peninsula due to its importance for tourism.

The bill comes at a time when gasoline prices are rising dramatically and a growing number of Congress members are referring to Cuba’s incipient oil exploration program, and seeking to elude these prohibitions. Reference is made to the prospecting being carried out in Cuba by companies like Repsol of Spain and Sherritt of Canada, in spite of the threat of the Helms-Burton Act.

It is time to change the law and allow U.S. industries to explore and extract resources in "our own region" before foreign companies monopolize potentially profitable resources, he added.
With this bill, both Congressmen were responding to legislation proposed in Congress recently by supporters of Cuban-American Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican representative from Florida.
This group of legislators proposed intensifying even more the blockade against Cuba, refusing entry visas to employees of foreign companies involved in the Cuban oil program, and sanctioning individuals and companies who invest in that sector.

In another development, Senator Bill Nelson stated a few days earlier that he was planning a measure that would prevent Cuba from drilling in waters up to 50 miles off Key West. The Florida Democrat affirms that his bill would prevent President George W. Bush from renewing an international agreement allowing Cuba to carry out commercial activity in waters near its coast, close to the Florida Keys, unless the U.S. government obtains another agreement preventing Cuba from installing drilling platforms near Florida.

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico were divided into economic exclusion zones between the United States, Mexico and Canada under an agreement signed by James Carter’s administration in 1977.
Since 1999, when Cuba submitted to tender 50 sea blocks from that area, various foreign companies have carried out oil prospecting in its waters in association with Cuba’s state-owned enterprise Cupet.

Repsol has contracts for six blocks, covering a surface area of 10,702 square kilometers, and where the first drilling was carried out in 2004.
During that time, the Spanish company found oil about 30 km from the coast, but said at the time that its quality was not commercially acceptable.

Later, Repsol began accepting partners for sharing the financial risk, which was materialized with the incorporation of other companies into the project, assuming a percentage of the costs.
Coincidentally, Granma daily announced this week that a national record for oil drilling was broken this past week in a new well located in Varadero, 150 kilometers east of Havana.
Cuba has invited U.S. oil companies to participate, but they are prevented from doing so because of the blockade.

In February, a group of U.S. businesspeople interested in the issue met in Mexico with officials from Cupet. However, Cuban-American groups who are enemies of the Havana government got the Santa Isabel Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City to evict the Cubans from the hotel, under extraterritorial application of the Helms-Burton Act, which provoked strong criticism in the media and by Mexican politicians. The meeting was finally held in another hotel.

President Bush’s national and international policies have been causing him to rapidly lose support in the country, causing great disquiet in Republican Party ranks in a year of partial elections.

Latin America-EU Summit rejects blockade and Helms-Burton

2006-05-22T11:38:00.000+02:00

BY ALBERTO NUNEZ BETANCOURT—Granma daily special correspondent—

VIENNA, May 11. – The contents of the Declaration approved by the foreign ministers and to be adopted today by the heads of state and government is a victory for the Revolution and the positions we defend, affirmed Carlos Lage, vice president of the Cuban Council of State, during a press conference with accredited media at the event.

Lage added that this outcome, achieved after intense discussions during the ministerial meeting on Thursday, May 11, is fruit of the prestige enjoyed by the Revolution and the support provided by Latin American and Caribbean countries.

For the first time in this kind of summit, the final document acknowledges that there is no single model of democracy and that this is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of citizens to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural system.

The leader of the Cuban delegation added that our Revolution signifies a profound social change in the lives of its citizens, and noted that the United States and the European Union are the one who have tried to impose a single model, which is also quite imperfect.

Another aspect also being accepted for the first time in the final statement issued by these meetings is related to the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba, and states: "We firmly reject all unilateral coercive measures with extraterritorial effects that are contrary to international law and the regulations commonly accepted under free trade. We agree that this type of practice constitutes a grave threat to multilateralism. In that context and recalling Resolution 60-12 of the United Nations General Assembly, we reaffirm our well-known positions on the application of extraterritorial regulations of the Helms-Burton Act."

Paragraph 19 of the document urges "all states to prevent safe refuge being given to terrorists and to investigate and duly try those accused of terrorism, or to give rapid consideration to requests for extradition of individuals suspected of having committed acts of terrorism, in line with national law and the applicable international law, including bilateral agreements."

Prisoners in Guantanamo rebel

2006-05-22T10:51:00.000+02:00

WASHINGTON, May 20 2006 — A group of prisoners in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo rebelled and used various objects to attack guards who were using force to neutralize a prisoner, NBC reported today according to PL.

The revolt occurred after the soldiers entered the common cell where a prisoner was trying to commit suicide.

According to news reports, on the morning of Thursday, May 18, three other prisoners also tried to kill themselves by ingesting medication they had been hoarding in their cells.

According to NBC, in one of the U.S. prison’s medium-security sections, with rudimentary items, the rebellious prisoners attacked soldiers who were trying to stop the prisoner who was attempting to kill himself.

“It was the fourth suicide attempt of the day,” stated Commander Robert Duran.
On Friday, May 19, the UN Committee Against Torture asked the United States to close its secret prisons in the world, including the one on its naval base in Guantánamo, occupied Cuban territory.
The Committee also accused Washington of allowing its guards to torture prisoners in those illegal prisons, spread throughout a number of countries, and of violating international law.

With those petitions, the UN body ended 15 days of sessions and discussion on the report presented by the United States on its implementation of the International Convention Against Torture, which it signed in 1994.

The Committee specified that it possesses reliable documents showing that these illegal prisons exist, that U.S. soldiers carry out those practices and that they apply cruel and inhuman treatment in those prisons.

In the prison in Guantanamo, on occupied Cuban territory against the will of the authorities and the people of Cuba, the United States maintains more than 500 individuals, arrested after the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001

Cuban doctors prevent a second waveof deaths in Pakistan

2006-05-22T10:48:00.000+02:00

• Affirms Health Minister Nazim Khan, adding that his government would like to broaden collaboration with the island •

Almost 2 million patients attended by Cuban physicians

Havana, May 20 2006 - NAZIM Khan, health minister of Pakistan, affirmed that President Pervez Musharraf and his government would like to broaden and strengthen bilateral cooperation with Cuba in areas such as the pharmaceutical industry and professional exchange.

In a meeting with directors of the Cuban state mission in Pakistan, Nazim Khan recalled how after the earthquake, which left more than 75,000 people dead, a second wave of deaths caused by epidemics and the arrival of winter had been feared but was prevented – he pointed out — by international help, especially that provided by the Cuban medical brigade.

For her part, Zobaida Jalal, minister of social security and special education, called for the development of cooperation in strengthening the basic infrastructure of the medical field and in training paramedic personnel, which is an urgent need in Pakistan.

THANKFUL FOR CUBA’S GESTURE OF DONATING REHABILITATION EQUIPMENT

The minister thanked the Cuban government’s gesture of donating all the rehabilitation equipment used by the physical therapists during their stay in that southeast Asian nation and assured that it will be used in the continuing treatment of the thousands of individuals left disabled by the earthquake in October 2005.

During the meeting, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, first deputy minister of foreign affairs, described the work done by the Cuban physicians in Pakistan as a heroic humanitarian deed.

Rodríguez Parrilla bid farewell to a group of Cuban medical personnel who returned to Havana after completing missions in the three hospitals set up by Cuba in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Abbottabad.

Upon the arrival of that group on May 18, which was received by Rolando Gómez, director of cooperation for MINREX, the Cuban Medical Brigade concluded its aid work in Pakistan with more than 1.7 million patients attended, 49.1% of which were women.

In his farewell address, Rodríguez Parrilla praised the work of the Mission’s Logistics Group, “the bravest and most selfless,” and of the Cuban medical personnel charged with training that benefited more than 700 Pakistani medical students.

Likewise, he commended the work of 670 Pakistani specialists already underway at the same sites where the Cuban mobile hospitals were located.

Cuba to acquire new laboratories for genetic medicine

2006-05-22T10:37:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 12 2006 - CUBA is to acquire 12 new laboratories for genetic population studies, announced Doctor Beatriz Marcheco, director of the National Center for Genetic Medicine, during the TV and radio "Roundtable" program attended by President Fidel Castro.
Doctor Marcheco explained that these facilities will expand the center’s ability to investigate Downs Syndrome and mental retardation in the early stages of pregnancy.

Cuba already has an equal number of laboratories for cytogenetics, which have supported the program of diagnostics, management and prevention of those pathologies and defects transmitted from parents to children.

During the "Roundtable" discussion, prominent individuals in Cuban medicine participating in the 1st Congress of Community Genetics meeting in Havana showed the persistent efforts by geneticists who are working for better quality of life for the people.

The examples abound for demosntrating the value of the island’s medical system, which is capable of carrying out unprecedented feats, such as cochlear implants for 53 children (35 deaf and 18 deaf-mute), in spite of the fact that each operation costs about $50,000.

Doctor Odalis Batista, of Ciénaga de Zapata, and Doctor Juan Miguel Barrero, of Holguín, described as very positive the studies carried out by the Cuban state with the goal of better treatment for people with those severe limitations.

That analysis throughout the island in 2003 made it possible to determine that factors such as alcoholism, kinship, and environmental problems influence on children’s chromosomal disparities, to the extent of being born with severe disorders.

Antonio Paz, one of the Cuban surgeons to have performed the cochlear implants, noted the role of the multidisciplinary group that is participating in those operations to improve the conditions of these children, and emphasized that Cuba is an advanced position in that discipline worldwide.
More than 140 years after Austrian Juan Gregorio Mendel discovered the mysteries of genetics, the Cuban Revolution has carried out one of its most noble projects, and achieved results as incredible as giving hearing to the deaf and eyes to the blind. (AIN)

Cuban doctors reduce infant mortality

2006-05-22T10:33:00.000+02:00

In areas where they are working, the rate has gone down from 30.8 to 10.1 per 1000 live births

BY LILLIAM RIERA — Granma International staff writer—

Havana, May 17 2006 - "DOCTOR, a woman’s coming in who can’t deliver!" Maydelín Fernández González heard through her window in Vado Ancho, Danlí, Honduras. The "messenger" had run ahead of robust men who took turns transporting the hammock where a woman lay, dying with her baby inside her.

They were coming from the hills, their way lit with flashlights. But that night there was no misfortune to mourn. Months before, invited by a midwife, the Cuban, although used to other types of emergencies in the Pepe Portilla Pediatric Hospital in Pinar del Río, had attended her first birth in that Central American nation.

It is very difficult for Honduran village women to go to hospital to give birth. It is more expensive than using midwives and there are many women who do not want to descend the hills and leave their homes.

Dr. Fernández explained to Granma daily that these midwives have received training and equipment: iodine, gloves, gauze, forceps, scissor... , but "not all of them use them or are aware of their limitations" and there are difficult cases in which it is necessary to have a doctor present.
In Honduras, the infant mortality rate is 30.8 per 1,000 live births and the maternal death rate 48.1 per 10,000 live births. With the arrival of the Cuban doctors in the country, beginning when Hurricane Mitch hit the region in 1999, these indices have been reduced to 10.1 and 22.4 respectively, in the areas where they are working.

The Cuban collaborators, currently numbering around 200, lend their services in public hospitals in rural areas.

Minerva Revilla Rodríguez, coordinator of the Cuban brigade in El Paraíso department, comments that the work is intense, because "sometimes you have to go on house calls for pregnant women, since not all of them can make it to the clinic. One has to travel, examine them, educate them, convince them¼ and do the same with the midwives and nurses."

For those who are accumulating experiences inconceivable in the 21st century, like the case of women tie up their fists and hanging, begin to push, what is most important is "to insure that the birth is safe."

The specialist emphasized that the statistics achieved by her particular group in this context are encouraging: infant mortality dropped from 16.4 per 1,000 live births in 2004 to 2.77 in 2005.

OPERATION MILAGRO EXTENDED TO HONDURANS

For months, doctors Mercedes Cabrera Espinosa and Amarilis García Rodríguez have been touring Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, El Progreso, Copán, Ceiba, Olancho, La Mosquitia... enduring all kinds of weather and using the most unusual transportation, including a "pipante" (a Honduran canoe for navigating remote rivers and lakes), to assist thousands of patients and to diagnose ophthalmologic conditions that can be surgically corrected through the Operation Miracle program.

This Cuba-Venezuela program covers free operations and treatment of poor people with visual problems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Cabrera and García, specialists in General Medicine, who have passed an intensive course in Clinical Ophthalmology given there by Cuban doctors, say that at times they have seen more than 100 individuals in a day.

At the Corpus health center, where it is just another working day for them, there was a long line waiting: the Cuban doctors will arrive soon "to look at our eyes."

"My name is Guadalupe Reyes and I don’t see well," the first patient, a woman in a flowered dress, told Cabrera. She has been diagnosed with cataracts. Therefore, Guadalupe has come to the Cuban clinic, where they will explain to her what to do to have an operation in Cuba.

In contrast to other nations of the region benefiting from Operation Miracle, in Honduras patients have to pay for the internal paperwork involved in leaving the country, which amounts to about $70, a fortune for most.

It pains the Cuban doctors each time someone cannot travel for this reason, but the sadness is alleviated when Doña Flora, who has returned from Cuba says: "I didn’t know how I was going to go, but I have no complaints about anything. Hey, I wasn’t even scared." Her operation was a success. "Now what she needs is glasses," Dr. Cabrera pointed out.

Cuban doctors aid more than 1 million Pakistanis

2006-05-22T10:31:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 2006 - THE Cuban Medical Brigade in Pakistan is ending its cooperation effort in that Central-Asian country having attended to more than 1.7 million patients, of whom 49.1% were women.
At the farewell event, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, first deputy foreign minister, described the work carried out by these health professionals as a heroic humanitarian feat.
Likewise, he pointed to the efforts now underway by 670 Pakistani specialists in the same places where the Cuban Comprehensive Field Hospitals (HCIC) were set up.
He said that the important factors were the excellent treatment administered, the affection and the love that the Cubans had provided in the areas affected by last year’s October 8 earthquake, reported Juventud Rebelde in its May 17 edition.
Rodríguez emphasized that the work carried out by the Mission’s Logistics Group was the "bravest and most selfless," as well as that realized by the doctors and nurses charged with education, which benefited more than 700 Pakistani medical students and 32 nurses.
Representatives of the HCIC in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra and Abbottabad met with Health Minister Nassir Khan, and Zobaida Jalal, minister of social welfare and special education.
The health minister said that the Pakistani government wishes to strengthen its relations with Cuba in the area of consultancy, vaccine exchange and teacher training.
For her part, Minister Jalal expressed thanks to the Cuban personnel, who dealt with very difficult conditions in the affected regions, where they lived among the people and broke through language and climate barriers.
Bruno Rodríguez thanked both ministries for the support provided over the seven months of the mission, without which the outcome would have been impossible: 1.7 million patients attended and 166,000 in rehabilitation and physical therapy, 32,000 of them children.
These meetings were also attended by Iván Mora, deputy chief of the Cuban Mission; Gustavo Machín, Cuban ambassador in Pakistan, and Juan Carlos Dupuy, head of the Henry Reeve Contingent, among other dignitaries. (AIN)

THE TRIALS OF SANTIAGO ALVAREZ AND POSADA CARRILES

2006-05-22T10:23:00.000+02:00

And what happened to Bosch?

"You brought down the plane in 1976?" Juan Manuel Cao asked him on Miami Canal 41. Bosch cynically answered: "If I say that I was involved, I am confessing, and if I tell you that I did not participate in the action, you will say I am lying. So, I am not going to answer either way."

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD —Special for Granma International—

Havana, May 16 2006 - ON May 4, 2005, Orlando Bosch was one of the first people in Southern Florida to confirm that Luis Posada Carriles was in Miami, a fact that Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Latin America at the time, refused to recognize.

In an interview with a Miami radio station reported on May 9 by The New York Times, the terrorist said, without much protocol, that he had spoken by phone with Posada and that he was in that city: Bosch announced at the same time that he refused to reveal where his old partner was hiding.
Speaking clearly, Orlando Bosch Avila, a criminal convicted by the U.S. courts, labeled terrorist by the FBI, free on parole, knew where or how to communicate with Posada but did not indicate that he would collaborate with authorities to speed up his arrest even though it was obvious that he had entered the country illegally, a serious crime, with the help of his friend and accomplice Santiago Alvarez.

While Posada is refusing to testify in the case of his partner Alvarez, on the contrary Orlando Bosch, his accomplice in the mid-flight sabotage of the Cubana airliner, is still boasting about having committed acts of terrorism, is preaching terrorism and freely claiming that he was involved in the death of 73 individuals in the airliner sabotage off Barbados.

In the case of Posada, federal judge James I. Cohn will allow him to have recourse to the Fifth Amendment, but in the case of Bosch, who brags about his crimes, everyone in Miami seems to have forgotten that he confessed his complicity with Alvarez and Mitat.

Bosch was aware of Posada’s presence in the U.S. before his arrest, but he did NOT assist the authorities to locate him and, since his release on parole in 1990 he has never complied with the conditions of his release, and even worse, has blatantly mocked the authorities that granted him that status.

In 1987, Bosch returned to the United States—after his wrongful release from a Venezuelan prison— with the help of Otto Reich, who was the U.S. ambassador in Caracas. Upon his arrival he was arrested for violating his previous parole conditions in 1972, when he left the United States after having been convicted of firing on the Polish ship Polanica with a bazooka.

Despite the campaign waged in Miami in favor of the old assassin, on July 23, 1989, Joe D. Whitley, U.S. deputy Attorney General, presented a detailed memorandum before an immigration court that concluded by asking for the permanent expulsion of Bosch from the United States for terrorism.

In his conclusion, Whistley wrote:
“For 30 years, Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of acts of terrorism against numerous targets including nations friendly towards the United States and their high officials. He has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death. His actions have been those of a terrorist, unfettered by laws or human decency threatening and inflicting violence without regard to the identity of his victims.”

Nevertheless, combined pressure from the CIA, the anti-Cuba mafia and the more extreme Republican circles —headed by the then candidate to Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, her campaign director Jeb Bush, and Raúl García Cantero, the nephew of… Fulgencio Batista, whom Jeb later appointed to the Florida Supreme Court— managed to get him released.

It should be recalled here, as Reinaldo Taladrid mentioned a few days ago in Granma, that when the attack on the Cubana airliner occurred in 1976, George Herbert Walker Bush, father of the current president, was director of the CIA and “handled information regarding this first hand.” He was perfectly well aware of Bosch’s involvement in the crime.

Since the criminal sabotage of the La Coubre vessel, crimes committed against Cuba have almost always been monitored and directed by the White house and the CIA, with the criminal complacency of the FBI.

July 18, 1990, Bosch was released under a directive from then President George Bush Sr. to the Immigrations and Naturalization Services, in which he did not grant a pardon as such, but did order the court to release him, grossly humiliating prosecutor Whitley who has remained silent about the case to date.

A federal judge, William Hoeveler, then released three pages of strict conditions under which Bosh could temporarily remain in the United States until a location for asylum could be established—a disturbing similarity to the Posada case. As an additional condition, Bosch had to swear to explicitly abstain from involvement in acts of violence.
He duly swore that before the court.

Nevertheless, once free, Bosch scornfully described this solemn promise as a “farce” and “ridiculous” and added with grotesque irony: "They bought the chain but they don’t have the monkey."
“YOU HAVE TO DOWN AIRPLANES”

Since his conditional release, Bosch has systematically violated the restrictions imposed upon him by launching numerous calls for terror.
Among other cases, on October 12, 1991, he urged more than 1,000 fanatics gathered in Miami to finance terrorism on the island and to provide arms and explosives. "The time is ripe for the exile (movement) to send the mix that the Cuban builders need for the insurrection," he said. He retook that stance on several occasions.

On October 16, 1993, Bosch announced the creation of a political party whose task was to raise funds to buy arms and other military supplies. The terrorist Partido Protagonista del Pueblo (People’s Protagonist Party) is located at 6850 Coral Way, without any harassment at all.

On September 13, 1997, he applauded the campaign of attacks on tourist installations in Cuba plotted by his buddy Posada, but denied, always with doublespeak, any link with them. “We have nothing to do with these attacks,” he assured, but then added: “if we did have something to do with it, we would still deny it.”

The latest of his numerous boasts, many of them made with the cooperation of his radio and television accomplices, occurred last May 5, when he was interviewed by Juan Manuel Cao of Miami’s Channel 41.

One only needs to read some of his comments to wonder why this professional assassin is not being brought to trial, if the word “justice” has any meaning.
“You brought down the plane in 1976?” Cao asked him.

Bosch answered: “If I tell that I was involved, I am confessing, and if I tell you that I did not participate in the action, you will say I am lying. So, I am not going to answer either way.”
Cao reminded him: “73 people died in this action, do you have a heavy conscience?”
A heavy conscience: Bosch doesn’t even know what that means. “No, in a war, man, like we have (…), you have to down airplanes, you have to sink ships, you have to be prepared to attack whatever is in your reach,” he said.

Cao insisted: “But, for those who died there, for their families, don’t you feel a little…”
Could Bosch have a flash of humanity? No. He resorted to fantasy, to lies in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable: “This plane came from Angola… Who could have been in that plane?... Four members of the Communist Party, five North Koreans, five Guyanese…”

Now, it just happens that in the Alvarez/Mitat case that opens before Judge Cohn, for the first time the prosecution not only recognizes the role played by Alvarez in Posada’s arrival in the United States but also specifically states that Posada admitted to being the author of the Barbados crime and that the accused conspired on various occasions to commit acts of terrorism against Cuba including in April 2001, with the failed infiltration by Ihosvany Suris and his accomplices.

In the document deposited before the Federal Court judge of the southern Florida district, March 27—the content of which just became known thanks to Radio Progreso of Miami— the prosecutor specified that his documented argument was “in opposition to the defendants' motion to exclude extrinsic-acts evidence. In other words, to explain to the judge why the defendants' previous criminal actions were relevant to the current charges of weapons possession and why those actions should be admitted in evidence.

"Evidence of the former criminal activity is vital to understanding the government's case against Defendant and is inextricably intertwined with the government's proof of the charged offense," the document states. "The evidence explains the crime in its entirety and provides the trier of fact with a chain of events explaining the crimes committed by the defendant.
Without the evidence of the former criminal activity, the jury will be unable to make a proper determination as to the defendant's guilt or innocence."

Who better than Orlando Bosch, the obstinate assassin who is grossly positioned above U.S. and international law, could constitute for the prosecutor, the live proof that Alvarez and Mitat are part of a monstrous universe of terror and death?

Campesinos produce majority of tobacco, tubers, fruits and vegetables

2006-05-22T10:21:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 2006 - IN 2005, Cuban campesinos and agricultural cooperative members contributed to the nation 94% of its tobacco, 62% of its tubers, 61% of vegetables, 71% of fruits, 77% of beans, 20% of sugarcane and 59% of coffee, informed Orlando Lugo Fonte, president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).
During the event celebrating the organization’s 45th anniversary, presided over by Esteban Lazo, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba in the Ernesto Che Guevara Plaza in the center of Santa Clara, Lugo sent a message to Fidel and Raúl, whom, he said, the campesinos will never let down.
He added that the women and men of Cuba’s countryside are outraged by the crude lies of the U.S. magazine Forbes, according to which the Cuban president is one of the richest rulers in the world. "He has dedicated his entire life to the cause of the poor, and that is his greatest wealth," Lugo affirmed.

Forbes: libel at the service of the empire

2006-05-22T10:13:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 16 2006 - The infamies and lies concerning the Cuban president spread by Forbes magazine in an act of libel at the service of the empire were blown apart by the irrefutable truths laid out on the evening of May 15 by a group of prominent individuals who accompanied Fidel during a special presentation broadcast on television and radio from Havana.

It was clearly revealed that the publication and its editor-in-chief had conspired with the anti-Cuban obsession of President George W. Bush and the U.S. intelligence agencies, and how the media is servile to Washington’s dictates.

With solid arguments and reasoning, each one of the participants in the “Roundtable” program demonstrated that the empire is angered by the advances of a Revolution that is immaculate, honest, just and transparent, like the one that is taking place in Cuba.

Beginning his special presentation, Fidel admitted that he felt repugnance at the malicious lies about him in that libelous publication, which placed him on a list of rulers who have amassed personal fortunes, including monarchs and dictators.

A little more than a year ago, on March 17, 2005, he alluded to that despicable publication, but at the time he preferred to focus his speech on explaining an extremely important event for our people: the revaluation of the peso.

He recalled that on another occasion, when he was responding to the false statement made by the U.S. president to his buddies in the Cuban-Miami mafia regarding the idea that trade with Cuba “would do nothing more than fill the pockets of Castro and his henchmen, he said, among other things, “I was not born totally poor. My father possessed thousands of hectares of land. When the Revolution triumphed, that land was handed over to workers and farmers. I have the honor of being able to say that I do not possess or have a single dollar to my name. My entire fortune, Mr. Bush, could fit in the pocket of your shirt. If some day I should need it to put it in a place that is quite safe from preventative or surprise attacks, I would kindly ask you to lend it to me, and if it is a lot I will donate it to you beforehand as a hire charge.”

He also recalled how this past year, Bush and the U.S. authorities have been caught in the serious offense of giving protection to terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and it was with great difficulty – not Bush, but other officials – that they were forced to admit that the revelations made by Cuba about the shelter given to that criminal in the United States were true and irrefutable.

The invective hurled by the magazine Forbes was recently reiterated and the powerful media dependent on the empire echoed it. Fidel had warned that they would get a soaking, and used baseball terms to describe the task of deflating their lie with a powerful hit against a limp pitch that would send the ball over centerfield.

Fidel explained that in order to unmask the libel, he thought: “Am I going to stand up in front of the people in order to defend myself from this garbage?” He considered, nevertheless, that it would be appropriate to have several prominent individuals speak to illustrate various aspects related to the issue: Francisco Soberón, minister president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), whom he described as one of the most honest men he knew; Abel Prieto, minister of culture, who has been in permanent contact with social movements and intellectuals who are resisting the empire; scientists Concepción Campa, the main creator of the vaccine against meningitis Type B and Agustín Lage, who as head of the Center for Molecular Immunology was developing promising anti-cancer pharmaceuticals; and historian Eusebio Leal, promoter of the enormous task of the rescue of Old Havana and an international authority on the subject of the restoration of historic cities.

CONSPIRACY BETWEEN THE ULTRA-RIGHT AND THE CIA

Soberón offered a very precise sketch of the magazine’s owner, Steve Forbes: a man of the ultra-right associated with former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. in the destabilization of the former European socialist bloc. A rich U.S. businessman, extremely interested in sniffing around the origins of other people’s fortunes, but reluctant to publicly state the origins of his own, estimated at $1.839 billion.

In demonstrating the crude and totally inconsistent methods of those who claim to be calculating the non-existent fortune of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, the president minister of the BCC suggested among other examples that Forbes could attribute to George W. Bush about 10% of the $500 billion in money from drug trafficking and organized crime that U.S. banks annually launder with impunity launder, or an identical percentage in bribes of the $280,456,000,000 that U.S. taxpayers have shelled out for the aggression against Iraq.

Instead of devoting itself to spreading a colossal lie which it hopes to use to stain the untainted file of the Revolution’s leader, the libelous magazine should investigate and publish facts on Bush’s shady maneuvers to increase his fortune, like the proven case of the buying and selling of the Texas Rangers baseball team and its stadium; his responsibility for the financial irregularities of the Harken Energy oil company; and his ties to the Enron Corporation, the perpetrator of the most enormous fraud in recent U.S. history.

As resounding evidence of the confidence in the Cuban Revolution that many people in the world share, the BCC minister president announced that recently the institution was able to place an issuance of bonds totaling 400 million euros on the London Stock Exchange, payable in one year at 7% interest, which were purchased in their entirety by foreign and Cuban banks on the same date they were issued.

Over the last nine years, Soberón noted, Cuba has paid for imports worth $44 billion, including those received in hard currency by CIMEX via the sale of vaccines, plus funds raised by the International Conference Center and other income that has gone into our accounts for the nation’s expenses, including education, health, social welfare, domestic defense and reserves for dealing with climactic contingencies or epidemics that are natural or introduced by the enemy.

“With absolute moral authority and looking our people and public opinion in the face, we affirm that their top leader is an example of dignity and impeccability,” the bank minister said as concluded his presentation.

LIES AS WEAPONS OF THE MEDIA

“They made a million-dollar mistake,” was Abel Prieto’s ironic comment on the attempt by Forbes magazine to include Fidel on its list of ruling magnates. The culture minister referred to the extensive list of calumnies and lies that imperialism has consistently used to discredit those who do not bow down to its hegemonic plans.

Among the many and illustrative examples of using lies as a weapon of the media’s power, Abel compared the fuss in 1986 resulting from the invention of the case of the “supposed poet and supposed invalid,” the common terrorist Armando Valladares, whom Reagan awarded with the post of U.S. ambassador to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, with the silence that prevented the exposé of what Salvadoran activist Herbert Anaya uncovered on crimes and torture committed in the La Esperanza prison: none of the big-business media wanted to publish the report or broadcast the video with testimony by the victims.

That practice of misinformation has taken on uncommon proportions during the current U.S. administration, as can be seen by the lies used to justify the aggression against Iraq, and the murder in Baghdad of photographer José Couso and other photographers.

Prieto noted that in spite of the lies, the road to truth and emancipated thought keeps opening up more and more. In that sense, he said he thought it would be very useful to read the book Cien horas con Fidel (One Hundred Hours with Fidel), containing conversations with Ignacio Ramonet, who was among the guests in the studio where the “Roundtable” presentation was being broadcast. The Cuban edition of the book has been launched in Havana.

WE DON’T NEED TO DEFEND OURSELVES, WE ARE HERE TO BRING CHARGES

“We came to charge those who steal and those who lie,” was how outstanding scientist Agustín Lage summed up the purpose of the special televised presentation. “We don’t need to defend ourselves; Fidel is defended by his work, his ethics, the consistency of his whole life,” he emphasized.

In the opinion of the likewise deputy of the National Assembly of People’s Power, the most recent calumny reflects the line of conduct followed for decades by the Revolution’s ideological enemies, and constitutes a real insult to the Cuban people, given that one would have to assume that we had become a country of fools or cowards to imagine that the Cuban people have no historic memory and that we would allow someone to lead the country who is capable of stealing and enriching himself. This people fought with weapons to defeat the corrupt politicians of capitalism, and Fidel was one of the first to rise up in arms to put an end to those outrages.

Lage, who heads one of the investigative centers of western Havana’s scientific complex, emphasized that the article published by Forbes first of all shows a total lack of knowledge of Cuba’s reality, because to start with, the MEDICUBA enterprise, mentioned as one of the supposed sources of the president’s wealth, does not include the sale of any medicine overseas among its activities, nor the sale of any other biotechnology product.

What can be read between the lines in the article of the abovementioned libelous publication, he said, is that they are acknowledging that the biotechnology industry created and developed by Cuba has a significant income, when many companies in the world are unable to make profits. That is the case in the United States, where 70% of the sector’s businesses survive and obtain profits through financial speculation and other businesses.

Not one single cent of the income from that sector goes to fattening anyone’s personal fortune. Just between 1980 and 1990, more than $1 billion was invested in biotechnology infrastructure. Moreover, production plants using Cuban technology have already been assembled in India and China, Agustín Lage noted.

The scientist explained that hard currency obtained through the sector has also made it possible to fund public health programs. If that were not the case, he noted, it could not be said that all Cuban children are protected against 13 diseases by vaccines administered free of charge, or that all AIDS patients have access to the triple therapy medications.

The income that comes from sales abroad also supports the development of scientific research, which requires very expensive equipment, made more expensive by the extraterritorial laws dictated by the U.S. government and the constant persecution on the part of its authorities of any company disposed to do business with Cuba.

At this time, there is investigation underway on more than 150 projects, and there are already more than 900 patents as a consequence of scientific work in this field, Lage explained. In addition, the biotechnology industry continues to increase its contributions to the state budget.

“The enemy is perverse, but not stupid,” Lage commented. “He knows that because Cuba is an example, she should be isolated and her successes should be prevented at all costs. The attack on Fidel is an attack on the Revolution, on the foundations of our political system, on the Cuban concepts of economic development.”

THE WEALTH OF VIRTUE

Eusebio Leal, City of Havana historian, contributed unprecedented testimony regarding the generosity and lack of interest in material wealth that characterize Fidel. For years, he has not said a word about those personal experiences, and only now was he going to disclose them: between 1991 and 1995, he carried out the personal assignment given him by Fidel of distributing 11,687 gifts from 133 nations received by the president of the Councils of State and Ministers. They included paintings, jewelry, precious stones, marble objects, valuable tapestries, antique weapons, clothing, furniture, cameras, personal items...

In spite of insistence on the part of Leal, who as a historian would have preferred to showcase those items as a collection related to Fidel, the president – Leal recounted – gave the express order that they should be turned over to cultural centers and persons in need, without a single public reference to the donation. Only the registries of museums and other centers that received them included the elemental consignment on their origins.

If it were not for the latest imperialist calumny, Leal surely would not have related either that the Numismatic Museum recently inaugurated in Old Havana contains samples equal to 1,000 ounces of gold donated by Fidel, including 920 coins from different historical periods.

Eusebio noted that this sense of austerity and personal example have been distinctive traits of Fidel throughout his life; that was true for the insurrectional period, when he decided to pawn personal items to help pay for combat before asking for money from others or using his parents’ resources. The Castro Ruz family maintained a similar attitude when the Revolution triumphed, when during the first months of 1959, it ceded its lands in the Birán region.

Fidel’s example of austerity, selflessness, personal generosity, and ethics encouraged other young people who decided to join him at that time, and who are disposed to do so now and in the future, Leal affirmed. His value as a human being is also demonstrated by the fact that he has never abandoned anybody who was his comrade-in-struggle, his high demands on himself and his special efforts to safeguard the country’s patrimony, which is outstandingly evident in the work being carried out to materially, socially and spiritually restore Old Havana.

According to Doctor Concepción Campa, member of the Political Bureau and director of the Finlay Institute, the lies published by Forbes demonstrate that “our enemies are incapable of understanding those who have never held and never will hold money as a god.” Fidel has taught that the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least, she said. But that would be hard to understand for the masterminds of wars of aggression who leave long-lasting scars like those suffered in Vietnam, where babies are still being born with congenital deformations due to the use of Agent Orange more than 30 years ago.

The outstanding researcher reflected on Cuba’s selfless aid to many nations through supplying vaccines, without any importance given to the political positions of the governments of the moment in those countries. One example of that, she said, was the donation made to the Uruguayan people in 2002 to counteract an epidemic of meningitis Meningococcia, when the authorities of that South American country had lent themselves to the empire’s game of trying to have Cuban condemned in the UN Human Rights Commission.

One Hundred Hours with Fidel: defense against defamation of Cuba

2006-05-22T10:03:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 18 2006 - REVELATIONS by Cuban President Fidel Castro contained in the book by Spanish writer Ignacio Ramonet comprise a new defense against the old chain of calumnies against the Cuban Revolution and its leader.

The book Cien horas con Fidel (One Hundred Hours with Fidel), published by the Office of Publications of the Cuban Council of State, captures in 715 pages essential chapters of the island’s history, the world of the 20th century and that of the 21st century to date, based on analysis faithful to real history.

Ramonet affirmed that one motivation for producing the book of his 100-plus hours of conversation with the Cuban president was to provide thoughtful and truthful political material to the world’s young people, who are today combating globalization and neoliberalism.
These new generations, above all in Spain, do not have sufficient "critical distance" to resist "hate campaigns" against Cuba, he said.

It is important for young people to know about the realities, break through the curtain of hate and the demonization campaigns, he added, noting that it is a particularly valuable weapon for the Cuban people.

Without evading thorny issues, including some that at one time were taboo for Cubans, Cien Horas con Fidel was presented as a lasting book, which goes beyond immediate situations and allows the interviewee to respond to criticism of the Revolution.

"He never told me ‘I’m not going to answer that question;’ he was never concerned about what my questions would be," noted Ramonet, who is also the author of Propaganda Silenciosa (Silent Propaganda), a book on the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

According to Pedro Alvarez Tabío, editor and head of the Council of State’s Office of Historical Affairs, what distinguishes the book is the "incisive and sometimes provocative" nature of many of the questions.

Ramonet raised honest doubts with Fidel regarding Cuba’s reality prevalent among European intellectuals, but he also intentionally raised questions – uncomfortable for some – which are usually fostered by anti-Cuban campaigns.

Grand dreams, aspirations, struggles, setbacks, heartaches and disappointments for someone whom the author defined as "an uncommon leader" are interwoven in what many see as the broadest and deepest overview of Fidel Castro’s life.

The leader’s childhood, the forging of a rebel, the death of Che Guevara, lessons from a guerrilla fighter, Cuba and Africa, the immigration crises and the collapse of the Soviet Union are all included in the book’s 26 chapters.

Difficult moments for the Revolution, such as the Ochoa case (1989) and the death penalty; other betrayals by former revolutionaries; the arrests of political mercenaries in March 2003 and the hijackings of airplanes and boats in April of that year are also included in the book.
The book concludes with a chapter on "After Fidel, then what?" – a suggestive title, with a nevertheless clear response from Ramonet.

"Fidel is a man who has only uncommon ideas, but that is how history is made and victory achieved, because revolution is believing that mountains can be moved. After Fidel, there will not be another Fidel," affirmed the anti-globalization activist. (PL)

President of Cuban Parliament condemns anti-immigrant xenophobia

2006-05-22T09:58:00.000+02:00

• Criticizes U.S. militarization on its southern border toprevent the entry of undocumented immigrants •

U.S. Senate approves construction of new wall along Mexican border

Havana, May 19 2006 - RICARDO Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, has condemned the xenophobic, racist and fascist anti-immigrant tendencies of the Republican administration of George W. Bush.

The Cuban parliamentary leader spoke on May 17 at the international World Population Issues in the 21st Century seminar, which is currently taking place in Havana, and where he also referred to the immigration phenomenon as one of the most crucial in today’s world.

In that sense, he harshly criticized Washington’s most recent escalation against immigrants – who form the basis of labor for important sectors of the U.S. economy –, which is most cruelly expressed in the militarization of the country’s southern border in order to prevent illegal entry into U.S. territory.

On this question, he referred to a study by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which in December 2000 announced its assessment of migration’s impact on the European Union, where profound changes are predicted for that region’s culture by the year 2015, something already evident in U.S. society.

After noting that this is a reality of today’s world that is not addressed in an appropriate manner, or in its political aspect, he said that industrialized nations need immigrants’ labor.
The Prensa Latina news agency reports that the U.S. Senate has approved the construction of a 600-kilometer wall along the country’s border with Mexico.
The bill, passed on a vote of 83-16, also provides for 800 kilometers of barriers being raised to prevent cars from entering.

During the Senate debate, hundreds of demonstrators protested near the Capitol demanding rights for immigrants, other news agencies reported.

Three further launches of One Hundred Hours with Fidel

2006-05-22T09:56:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 19 2006 - IN the past few hours, eminent French intellectual and journalist Ignacio Ramonet has presided over a further three launches of his book Cien horas con Fidel (One Hundred Hours with Fidel), at venues of particular symbolic value for our people: in the Birán area of Holguin province; outside the replica of Fidel’s birthplace, and at the former Saturnine Lora Civil Hospital in Santiago de Cuba where, on October 16, 1953, the leader of the Revolution gave his famous speech "History aWill Absolve Me."

Last Thursday, after visiting the Ernesto Guevara memorial in Santa Clara, where the remains of the national hero and his comrades from the guerrilla war in Bolivia are located, Ramonet presented his work at the Central University of Las Villas.
According to correspondent Alexis Rojas, over 500 people attended the meeting in Birán with the editor of Parisian monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, who stressed that the real author of his book was his interviewee.

In Santa Clara, Ramonet stated that visiting the mausoleum was "an emotional experience because Che represents an extraordinary symbol for mine and successive generations, even today," reported correspondent José Antonio Fulgeiras.

The author added that during the writing of the book, Fidel had confirmed that Che was the political figure who had impressed him the most throughout his life, and provided details of his revolutionary qualities, including how they had met and struck up a friendship.

Cubans resident in Europe condemn hostile anti-Cuba policy

2006-05-22T09:53:00.000+02:00

BY ALBERTO NUÑEZ BETANCOURT AND JOSE M. CORREA
—Granma daily special correspondents—

PARIS.— The First Encounter of Cubans Resident in Europe Against the Blockade came to a close in this city with a final declaration condemning the hostile policy adopted by the United States and European governments against our country.

The motion, which was passed by representatives from around 20 different countries, states that feelings of justice and respect towards the homeland predominate amongst the Cuban community on this continent. The vast majority acknowledge their roots and identify with the values of the nation.
The statement also calls for a halt to the aggression against and pressure on Cuba, for the blockade to be lifted and for normal relations to be established between Cuba and the U.S.
Another demand included in the statement calls for an end to the terrorist attacks which have caused thousands of deaths and maimed countless victims for over 45 years.
A special resolution was also circulated to demand the immediate release of the Five, political prisoners of the empire and true anti-terrorist fighters. The initiative calls on the European people to support this just demand.

In the final session of the conference, delegates held a meeting with Irma González, daughter of René, and Camilo Rojo, son of Jesús Rojo, a victim of the Barbados bombing.
Convened by members of Raíces Cubanas, an organization of Cubans resident in France, those present at the conference committed themselves to mobilize their compatriots in Europe in order to defend the homeland in the face of threats and slander by its enemies.

Likewise, they made the decision to declare October 10 – a historically significant date for the Cuban nation – as Cuba in Europe Day, as well as scheduling the second conference of this kind to take place in 2007 in the German city of Berlin. Delegates also agreed to send copies of the final declaration to the European Commission, the European Council, the European parliament, the governments of its member countries and national parliaments.

In the closing speech, Deputy Foreign Minister Eumelio Caballero stressed how important it is for Cuban citizens, wherever they may be resident, to demand the release of the Five, because their struggle is universal.

He added that the conference demonstrates the need to coordinate an international network in Europe of Cubans who are willing to work and fight for their homeland.
He reaffirmed the position of our government and people not to buckle under pressure from the EU, and despite the fact that it may impose sanctions time and time again, it should be Europe that relinquishes it alignment with the United States against Cuba.

FIDEL REFUTES FORBES

2006-05-22T09:49:00.000+02:00

"I call on them to prove that I have one single dollar!"

BY MARIA JULIA MAYORAL, PEDRO DE LA HOZ AND JOSE DE LA OSA
—Granma daily staff writers—

PRESIDENT Fidel Castro has challenged and called on Bush, the CIA, the 33 U.S. intelligence agencies, the thousands of banks in the world and the "servants" of Forbes magazine, which claims that Fidel has a fortune of $900 million, to prove that he has even one dollar in an overseas account.

In exchange for just one shred of evidence, he said that he would offer them everything that they have tried and failed to do over almost half a century, during which time they have tried to destroy the Revolution and assassinate him via hundreds of conspiracies. "I’m giving you everything you’ve tried," he said, "and don’t come with your foolishness and wayside stories. Show me an account, of just one dollar," he emphasized.

"If they can prove that I have one single dollar, I will resign from all my responsibilities and the duties I am carrying out; they won’t need any more plans or transitions, if they can prove that I have one single dollar," the revolutionary leader said emphatically.

"They’ve gotten themselves in a real fix with those lies, and that Gordian knot must be broken, and we’re going to break it, without the slightest doubt," he affirmed, referring to the U.S. publication attributing him with all the returns of the country’s public enterprises.

"Why would I want money, if I’m soon to be 80 and I didn’t want it before?" Fidel asked, adding that during his life he had entrenched himself in principles and had never abandoned them.
He said that he had been calculating the number of suitcases it would take to carry around that amount of money, and commented that it would be about 1,000. "Who took them? On what airplane? Who carried them, who escorted them? How could I be taking out money for so many years? They are stupid, aside from the moral arguments that could be brandished."

"It’s simply an insult," he added. He accused them of wanting to make him look like one of the thieves that they nursed. "Where is Mobuto’s money? Where is the Somoza family’s money?" Fidel said that in the United States, there are hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars stolen via U.S. banks. "There they are: bring out the lists, publish them," he said.

Fidel said what was much more horrible than "painting" him as a thief was making him seem to be betraying the dead, those who died in the Moncada attack, aboard the Granma, in the Sierra Maestra, in the Escambray, in the Bay of Pigs, on internationalist missions or defending the country from terrorist attacks. It would be like betraying entire generations who have fought, he emphasized.
The president added that what the Forbes "bandits" should publish is his Olympic record, throughout history, of being the person whom the most powerful empire on Earth has tried to assassinate the most times.

He noted the contrast that while those infamies against Cuba and its leaders are being churned out, the country is working on a program that will enable millions of Latin Americans to receive restorative eye surgery.

Referring to the thousands of patients who have benefited from Operation Miracle, Fidel asked what those people would think when they read the newspapers talking about his personal wealth. "It is a campaign to make me look like a thief," he said, adding that it had a goal: to destroy Cuba, to make Castro look like a crook so that nobody will acknowledge anything that is done to benefit others, even though we are a country that has some 25,000 health professionals working free of charge in a large number of countries.

"And that is because we have human capital, and we certainly can rely on $100 billion in human capital," he commented.

He read what had been published by several media agencies echoing the libel published by Forbes, and noted that while deliberate lies were being published, nothing has been said about the almost 20,000 Latin American medical students studying in Cuba, or the fact that this country will be educating almost 100,000 doctors over the coming years.

Cuba continues preparations for dealing with disasters

2006-05-22T09:47:00.000+02:00

Experiences accumulated over the last five years are described as useful, when after several large-scale hurricanes, more than 7 million people were evacuated on the island, with total safety guaranteed

THE Meteoro 2006 exercise, which has the objective of preparing the population and leadership bodies at all levels for dealing with disaster situations, will take place May 20-21, a few days before the start of the hurricane season, during which 15 tropical organisms are expected to form, nine of which are expected to reach hurricane status, and at least one of which could affect Cuba.
In statements to Granma daily, Colonel Angel Macareño, second in command of the Civil Defense National General Staff, described as "useful" the experiences accumulated during these exercises over the last five years, after the direct or indirect passage of 10 tropical hurricanes, including several of great intensity, which made it necessary to evacuate more than 7 million Cubans, with their total safety guaranteed.
He said that during Meteoro 2006, the exercise on the 20th will be aimed basically at analyzing objectivity, the degree of security, and enforcement of all disaster mitigation measures, including in the documents drawn up by each agency, in line with what is established by Directive No. 1, and leadership bodies will be participating in that.
On the 21st, activities will mainly take place in the morning, and their objective will be to increase training for the population with respect to measures aimed at reducing the effects of disasters on the community, in line with the risks assessed in each territory and to effect actions to mitigate vulnerabilities identified during a risk study.
The colonel also noted the importance of working hard on the stages that make up the cycle of disaster reduction: prevention, preparation, response and recovery.

MARTI’S UNFINISHED LETTER TO HIS FRIEND MANUEL MERCADO

2006-05-22T09:40:00.000+02:00

"I have lived in the monster and I know its entrails"

• On May 18, 1895, the day before his fall in combat fighting for the independence of the island, José Martí, the Cuban National Hero, wrote this unfinished letter to his intimate friend Mexican Manuel Mercado and it is considered his political testament, in which he expresses his anti-imperialism and his struggle to prevent "the United States from spreading through the Antilles as Cuba gains its independence, and from empowering with that additional strength our lands of America."

Dos Rios Camp, May 18, 1895

Mr. Manuel Mercado
My dearest brother: Now I can write, now I can tell you how tenderly and gratefully and respectfully I love you and that home which I consider my pride and responsibility. I am in daily danger of giving my life for my country and duty for I understand that duty and have the courage to carry it out-the duty of preventing the United States from spreading through the Antilles as Cuba gains its independence, and from empowering with that additional strength our lands of America. All I have done so far, and all I will do, is for this purpose. I have had to work quietly and somewhat indirectly, because to achieve certain objectives, they must be kept under cover; to proclaim them for what they are would raise such difficulties that the objectives could not be realized.

The same general and lesser duties of these nations-nations such as yours and mine that are most vitally concerned with preventing the opening in Cuba (by annexation on the part of the imperialist from there and the Spaniards) of the road that is to be closed, and is being closed with our blood, annexing our American nations to be brutal and turbulent North which despises them-prevented their apparent adherence and obvious assistance to this sacrifice made for their immediate benefit.

I have lived in the monster and I know its entrails; my sling is David's. At this very moment-well, some days ago-amid the cheers of victory with which the Cubans saluted our free departure from the mountains where the six men of our expedition walked for fourteen days, a correspondent from the Herald, who tore me out the hammock in my hut, told me about the annexationist movement. He claimed it was less to be feared because of the unrealistic approach of its aspirants, undisciplined or uncreative men of a legalistic turn of mind, who in the comfortable disguise of their complacency or their submission to Spain, half-heartedly ask it for Cuba's autonomy. They are satisfied merely that there be a master- Yankee or Spanish- to support them or reward their services as go-betweens with positions of power, enabling them to scorn the hardworking masses-the country's half-breeds, skilled and pathetic, the intelligent and creative hordes of Negroes and white men.

And that Herald correspondent, Eugene Bryson, told me more: about a Yankee syndicate, endorsed by the customs authority who are too closely associated with the rapacious Spanish banks to be involved with those of the North, a syndicate fortunately unable, because of its sinewy and complex political structure, to undertake or support the idea as a government project. And Bryson continue talking, although the truth of his reports could be understood only by a person with firsthand knowledge of the determination with which we have mustered the revolution, of the disorganization, indifference, and poor pay of the untried Spanish army, and of Spain’s inability to gather, in or out of Cuba, the resources to be used against the war, resources which it had obtained the time before from Cuba alone. Bryson recounted his conversation with Martinez Campos at the end of which Martinez Campos gave to understand that at the proper time, Spain would doubtless prefer to come to terms with the United States than hand the island to the Cubans. And Bryson had still more to tell me: about an acquaintance of ours whom the North is grooming as a candidate from the United States for the presidency of Mexico when the term of the president now in office expires.

I am doing my duty here. The Cuban war, a reality of higher priority than the vague and scattered desires of the Cuban and Spanish annexationists, whose alliance with the Spanish government would only give them relative power, has come to America in time to prevent Cuba's annexation to the United States, even against all those freely used forces. The United States will never accept from a country at war, nor can it occur, the hateful and absurd commitment of discouraging, on its account and with its weapons, an American war of independence, for the war will not accept annexation.

And Mexico, will it not find a wise, effective, and immediate way of helping, in due time, its own defender? It will indeed, or I shall find one for it. This is a life-and-death matter, and there is no room for error. The prudent way is the only way worth considering. I would have found it and proposed it. But I must have more authority placed in me, or know who has it, before acting or advising. I have just arrived. The formation of our utilitarian yet simple government can still take two more months, if it is to be stable and realistic. Our spirit is one, the will of the country, and I know it. But these things are always a matter of communication, influence and accommodation. In my capacity as representative, I do not want to do anything that may appear to be a capricious extension of it. I arrived in a boat with General Máximo Gómez and four others. I was in charge of the lead oar during a storm and we landed at an unknown quarry on one of our beaches. For fourteen days I carried my rifle and knapsack, marching through bramble patches and over hills. We gathered people along the way. In the benevolence of men's souls I feel the root of my affection for their suffering, and my just desire to eliminate it. The countryside is unquestionably ours to the extent that in a single month I could hear but one blast of gunfire. And at the gates of the cities we either won a victory, or reviewed 3,000 troops in the face of an enthusiasm resembling religious fervor. We continue on our way to the center of the island where, in the presence of the revolution which I instigated, I laid aside the authority given me by the settlements abroad and acknowledged by the island, and which an assembly of delegates from the Cuban people-revolutionaries in arms-must replace in accord with the new conditions. The revolution desires complete freedom in the army, without the obstacles previously raised by a Chamber without real sanction, without the distrust of its republicanism by a suspicious faction of the young, and without the jealousy and fears, which could become too great a threat in the future, of a punctilious or prophetic leader. But at the same time the revolution is eager for a concise and respectable republican representation-the same decent spirit of humanity, filled with a desire for individual dignity in representing the republic, as that which encourages and maintains the revolutionaries in this war. As for me, I realize that a nation can not be led counter to or without the spirit that motivates it; I know how human hearts are inspired, and how to make use of a confident and impassionate state of mind to keep enthusiasm at a constant pitch and ready for the attack. But with respect to forms, many ideas are possible, and in matters of men, there are men to carry them out. You know me. In my case, I defend only what I consider a guarantee of, or a service to, the revolution. I know how to disappear. But my thoughts will never disappear, nor will my obscurity leave me embittered. The moment we take shape, we will proceed; trust this to me and the others.

And now, having dealt with national interests, I will talk about myself, since only the emotion of this duty could raise from a much-desired death the man who, now that Nájera does not live where you can see him better and cherishes as his heart's delight that friendship with which you fill him with pride.
I know his silent gestures of annoyance, after my voyage. And however much we told him, from the bottom of our hearts, there was no response! What a fraud he is, and how callous that soul of his, that the honor and tribute of our affection has not moved him to write one more letter on the paper of the maps or newspapers that fill our day!
There are affections of such fragile honesty…

• On the following day, May 19, 1895, Martí fell in combat in Dos Ríos.

Cuba supports literacy campaign in Bolivia

2006-05-22T09:33:00.000+02:00

By: Manuel Robles Sosa*

La Paz, May 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuba again demonstrated its capacity and willing solidarity by supplying the teaching resources necessary to bring to fruition the objectives of Bolivian president, Evo Morales, of eradicating illiteracy in his country.
With a total of 32 Cuban advisors, March 20 marked the beginning of a massive phase in the southeastern city of Camiri signaling the "first wave" of the National Literacy Campaign "I can", a Cuban method used already in 13 countries.
Luis Ignacio Gómez, Cuban Minister of Education noted that the literacy campaign was an agreement between presidents Morales and Fidel Castro, last December during the visit of the former to Cuba, his first stop as elected president.
According to this agreement March 1 was the beginning a pilot program, as an expression of Latin American cooperation, in 52 teaching centers distributed in eight departments (provinces) of the country. The only exception was Tanja where a similar program was begun in 2005.
The first part of this literacy campaign for 200 thousand Bolivians will be in Spanish. The following section will be spread out in five thousand points for another 200 thousand and then a third and fourth will be bilingual for indigenous communities.
Bolivian Education Minister, Félix Patzi, noted the importance of literacy in the original languages of the region: Quechua, Aimara and Guarani spoken by 320 thousand citizens of the original peoples.
As a whole, this ambitious program aims to teach approximately one million 100 thousand Bolivians who have been deprived of the right to read and write, according to a census done in 2001.
This task will be undertaken by thousands of sides who will guide students in the use of audiovisual aids of the "I can" program of proven effectiveness and adaptable for any language.
In the case of Bolivia, Bolivian actors have taped, in Cuba, the classes with texts suitable for the reality of this country and will do the versions in Quechua, Aimara and Guarani.
Expressing gratitude for Cuba's solidarity at the commencement of the massive phase, President Morales, pointed out that the Island and Venezuela - that supplied 18 literacy teachers and whose Education Minister, Aristóbulo Isturiz, was present at the event - are the only countries in America to end neo-liberalism.
For his part, Cuban Minister Gómez, said that Bolivia can count on the modest help of Cuba that offers its support in spite of the consequences of the United States blockade.
"They have our modest support as a contribution to our America, the great nation dreamt of by Bolívar, Sucre and Martí so that it is, finally, free and independent", he said.
Tribute was paid to the Cuban-Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara, recalling that he went by Camiri - about 800 kilometers southeast of La Paz - when he fought in Bolivia 40 years ago for literacy to reach this country.
He recalled that there are close to 800 million illiterates and two billion partial illiterates and Latin America has 40 million illiterates and more than 110 million who barely know how to read and write their names.
After questioning so much ignorance in this globalized world that claims to live in the era of computer sciences and that should aspire for a knowledgeable society, he said that there has been no political will by those who hold power at a global level and in each country.
Neoliberal economic policies have not only been the cause of ruin of our peoples and those weak leaders of these policies dictated from centers of world power have cut their budgets for education and privatized public schools and have paid no heed to literacy.
He gave the example of Cuba that, in less than three years after the triumph of the revolution, in the midst of a mercenary invasion and aggression, was declared the first territory in Latin America to be free of illiteracy.
He explained that in two years of applying the "I can" method it eradicated illiteracy, a goal now set by President Morales only two months after it began.
"And you cannot begin to talk about a revolutionary process if first you do not take care of the accumulated needs of the peoples, in education and health, in first place", he pointed out.
After quoting phrases by Simón Bolívar and José Martí on the importance of education for free peoples, Gómez added that exploiters give priority to the education of their children to perpetuate injustices and inequalities.
Explaining the universality and characteristics of the "I can" method, he pointed out that one of its virtues is that it allows a continuity of studies, without which literacy campaigns are doomed to failure.

Paula Church: A Tourist Site in Havana

2006-05-22T09:26:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 (Prensa Latina) San Francisco de Paula Church, located in Old Havana, attracts many European travelers interested in the Cuban capital´s historic-cultural attractions.
The church, characterized by its Spanish colonial architectural style and decorated with stained-glass windows and a typical dome, was built in the 18th century.
Some writers have included Paula Church in their works. That is the case of Cirilo Villaverde, author of the world-famous novel "Cecilia Valdes".
The building is located at the entrance of Paula Promenade, which runs parallel to the sea, near the docks.
The building has served different purposes. After being forcibly expropriated in 1907, it housed a railroad company and was used as a storehouse and workshop.
In 1937, the building was about to be demolished after constant desecrations due to a legend, according to which, there was a hidden treasure in its wall. But the gold was never found.
In July 2003, Paula Church became the venue of the musical group Ars Longa, which plays baroque music.
Under the auspices of the Office of the City Historian, Paula Church has become a cultural institution where concerts are given on weekends.

Caribbean Star flights expand to Curacao

2006-05-22T09:25:00.000+02:00

Antigua, May 17 (Prensa Latina) Further expanding its regional service, Caribbean Star Airlines has announced its first-ever flights between Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Curacao for travel starting July 13, 2006.
According to Caribbean Net News, the combined route system operated by Caribbean Star and its sister airline Caribbean Sun, now totals 20 Caribbean destinations, the most of any carrier serving the region. The new daily service went on sale May 14, 2006.
William E. 'Skip' Barnette, president and CEO of both Caribbean Star and its sister airline Caribbean Sun, commented on the new service, stating: "As we continue to work toward further expanding our route system, we feel strongly that Trinidad will continue to grow in importance for us. This new Curacao service is a nice start, but we see the potential for broadening our presence in Trinidad in the near future to serve a larger portion of the southern Caribbean and perhaps beyond."
Caribbean Star will use a 50-seat, DeHavilland Dash 8 series 300 aircraft for the new Curacao service. As is standard on all Caribbean Star flights, in-flight service will be available to all passengers, including a choice of soft drinks and juices, as well as snacks.
More information about Caribbean Sun Airlines and Caribbean Star Airlines is available at their respective web sites, www.flycsa.com and www.flycaribbeanstar.com.

Cuba, Successful Tourism Fair

2006-05-22T09:24:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 13 (Prensa Latina) The next edition of the International Tourism Fair to be held in Havana will be devoted to the islands´ cays.
Cuban Minister of Tourism, Manuel Marrero, announced that 1,470 delegates from 42 nations attended the 26th edition held in Havana May 9-14 and confirmed the Havana historical complex Morro Cabana would be the next venue.
Canada, maintaining its permanent bet on Cuba as one of the greatest tourist destination and standing as the nation with the major rate of visitors to Cuba, will be the special guest.
More than 300 foreign tour operators, 16 airlines, travel agencies and other professional organizations linked to the sector converged in this 26th edition devoted to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Popular Republic of China.
The Cuban minister described the event as successful and highlighted the implementation of important marketing agreements contributing to consolidate the Caribbean island as a tourist destination.

Terracota 2006 under way in Cuba

2006-05-22T09:22:00.000+02:00

Santiago de Cuba, May 18 (Prensa Latina) Artists from the United Status, Canada, Cuba and Brazil participate in Terracota 2006, event founded 20 years ago and celebrated every year dedicated to the art of clay modeling.
The event was oponed with an exhibition of Canadian Pierre Blaise and Cuban Xiomara Gutierrez in the gallery of Cltural Shop Luis Diaz Eduardo, organizer of the event together withy the Union of Writers and Artists and the Caguayo Foundation, among other institutions.
A collective exhibition with Isle of Youth cheramists and another from foreign participants alternate in different city spaces.
Artists work in the Luis Diaz facilities and starting next Monday, there will be theoretical sessions to update concepts and tendencies.
One of the most interesting activities will be an exchange of experience with founders of the event and the results obtained in the international project Art of Fire, backed by Cuban Antonio Lewis and US artist Catherine Merrill.
During these 20 years, the event has made its mark in public places of this city and among the most recent proofs is the mural painting located in the front of the Natural History Museum Tomas Romay in the famous Enramada street.

Cuban Audiences Smitten by Chilean Play

2006-05-22T09:21:00.001+02:00

Havana, May 18 (Prensa Latina) Chilean actors Marco Antonio de la Parra and Leon Cohen are charming Cuba with “La secreta obscenidad de cada dia”, which is Chile´s contribution to the Havana May Theater Festival.
The piece, in which De la Parra and Cohen play Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, respectively, has been most performed on Latin American stages recently.
The characters, both of Jewish origin, contrast psychoanalysis and scientific socialism leading to situations of delirious humor, often absurd and grotesque.
Thursday´s performance at the National Fine Arts Museum will be the final staging by the two, who have given a glamorous touch to the May Theater Festival, along with Mexico´s Regina Orozco.
Other anticipated pieces are “Venecia” by the Venezuelan Portuguese Regional Theater Company, “Conjugado” by the Brazilian Vertice Theater Company, and “Onetti en el espejo” by the Uruguayan Montevideo Circular Theater.

Cuba to Host Caribbean Festival

2006-05-22T09:21:00.000+02:00

Santiago de Cuba, May 18 (Prensa Latina) The 26th edition of the Festival of the Caribbean will become the center of the cultural life July 3-9 in the Cuban eastern.
Outstanding artists and intellectuals from Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago, Barbados, Italia, Germany, the host nation and others will interchange on regional integration, history, culture and identity of the Cuban eastern citizens.
In parallel, participants will converge at workshops on popular religiosity, music, theater and poetry.
Cespedes and Alameda Parks, the Heredia Theater, The House of the Caribbean, The Carnival Museum and Santiago de Cuba´s main art galleries will be venue of the important artistic event.

Cuba and CentAm Film Makers to Contest

2006-05-22T09:19:00.000+02:00

San Jose, May 19 (Prensa Latina) The Fund for Audiovisual Development in Central America and Cuba (CINERGIA) convened a contest for film makers, producers and distributors in the region.
They will contend in short films, documentaries, new releases, project development and postproduction and two scholarships for a BA in Cinema and Television and Digital Animation.
Admission closes July 14. Until then, the contenders will register at offices opened in different countries.
In Belize (Yaha Films); Costa Rica (Centro Costarricense de Produccion Cinematografica; El Salvador (Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen).
Guatemala has the Cinemateca Universitaria Enrique Torres) and the Centro de Recursos de Aprendizaje, Universidad Nacional Autonoma.
The list includes Nicaragua (Codice-Espacio Cultural) and Panama University Grupo Experimental de Cine Universitario.

Cuba, Venue of Argentinean Film Festival

2006-05-22T09:18:00.001+02:00

Havana, May 19 (Prensa Latina) With the showing of the film "Palermo Hollywood" directed by the outstanding filmmaker Eduardo Pinto on Friday, Cubans will open the expected Argentinean Film Festival in Havana.
Sponsored by the Argentinean embassy in the island and the Cuban Institute of Art and the Cinematographic Industry, the sample includes some of the latest productions of that southern nation.
Participants will enjoy the exhibition of films such as "El fondo del mar" by Damian Solfron, "Familia rodante" by Pablo Trapero, "Geminis" by Albertina Carn, and "Wisky, Romeo, Zulu" by Enrique Pineyro.

Brazil Greets Cuban Art Exhibition

2006-05-22T09:18:00.000+02:00

Rio de Janeiro, May 19 (Prensa Latina) A Cuban fine arts exhibition, the largest so far in Brazil, has captivated the people of Rio, who have a sharp sense to enjoy artistic expressions.
The exhibition organized by the Cuban Fine Arts Museum and set at the Banco do Brazil Cultural Center has awakened an unusual interest.
Many Brazilians, who had known the Cuban culture through music and literature, were surprised that a fine art of which they only had a faint idea would be so rich and varied.
Under the title Arte de Cuba, the exhibit made a favorable impression, through 117 of the best works in Cuban painting and its evolution from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present time.
The visitors can see here, for the first time, paintings by Wifredo Lam, Victor Manuel, Marcelo Pogolotti, Rene Portocarrero, Mariano Rodriguez, Roberto Diago, Manuel Mendive, Amelia Pelaez, Fidelio Ponce, Eduardo Abela, Fayad Jamis, and others.

Cuban Biotech Products Outstanding

2006-05-22T09:15:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 18 (Prensa Latina) A pentavalent infant vaccine and a therapeutic medicine to treat diabetic foot ulcers are the exceptional creations of the Havana-based Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
According to a news conference by that medical institution, 20 years after its foundation, the new Cuban vaccine will immunize against hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, hemophilic influenza Type B, and whooping cough.
Recently, nearly 500 newborns, from six to 10 weeks old, and children under five years in the Cuban province of Villa Clara were clinically tested to prove the effectiveness and security of the new product.
Called Heberpenta, this immunizer is part of a program to produce combined vaccines, a joint work by scientists from the Finlay Institute and the National Bio-preparations Center.
The new product is similar in quality and security to the first vaccine existing worldwide with such characteristics produced by the Glaxo Smith Kline Company.
The other creation, Citoprot-P, a medicine used efficiently to treat diabetics’ external and deep foot ulcerations, is very efficient at healing lesions and avoiding amputations.

Cuban Doctors Return from Pakistan

2006-05-22T09:13:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 19 (Prensa Latina) The group of Cuban physicians specialized in catastrophes arrived home to Havana Thursday, after their extended stay in Pakistan to assist the victims of the October earthquake there.
The Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade against Disasters and Serious Epidemics said they fulfilled their mission in three hospitals, of the 14 the island donated to the Asian nation.
On welcoming them, Rolando Gomez, Foreign Affairs Ministry Cooperation Department director, said these Cuban doctors had exalted the name of Cuba and Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro.
The Cuban medical brigade assisted over 1,700,000 patients in Pakistan, 49.1 percent of them women, the National News Agency reported.
In the farewell ceremony in Pakistan, Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez termed the doctors' work there a humanitarian feat.

Hepatitis C: Efficient Treatment Developed

2006-05-22T09:11:00.000+02:00

Marta Gómez Ferrals*

Havana, May 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuban biotechnology took a new and very important step in obtaining an efficient treatment for Hepatitis C, a disease that affects about 200 million persons in the world.
Herbeviron is the name given to this novel drug that is the basis of a new therapy. It is part of a kit prepared by specialist of the Engineering Genetic and Biotechnology center (CIGB in its Spanish acronym), one of the pillars of the science region in the outskirts of the capital.
It is produced by the Heberbiotec factory in Cuba that is in charge of commercialization of its biotechnological products.
Interferon Alfa-2B and Rivavirma, both made in the country, are components of Heberviron and it is used not only to combat the causative virus of Hepatitis C in blood but, in the long range, eliminates lesions in the liver and totally cures the disease.
Doctor in Pharmaceutical Sciences of CIGB, Hugo Nodarse, told the press that Cuban patients have a treatment that increases the possibility to control the disease that tends to become chronic and very damaging in the majority of cases.
Heberviron successfully attacks the virus in circulation, according to tests made in the National Institute of Gastroenterology. In its advanced phase of treatment, forecasts are of a cure of liver lesions and recovery of the enzymes of that vital organ.
Information should be available about Hepatitis C to understand the significant importance of this new Cuban therapy.
Hepatitis, in a general sense, is an illness that produces inflammation of the liver and may have an inflammatory, toxic or viral etiology.
Hepatitis C is a devastating disease that can cause death through cirrhosis or liver collapse shortly after contracting the infection.
However, infected persons who do not present visible signs and symptoms are alarmed about the disease.
Contagion is through contact with the blood of an infected person and can occur as with HIV, through non-protected sexual relations, use of infected needles or contaminated blood transfusions. Also by sharing toothbrushes, shaving blades and manicure equipment that has not been sterilized.
The most general symptoms are a yellowish tinge of the skin, sclerotic eyes, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, pain in the right side of the abdomen, under the ribs or weight loss although there are more or less asymptomatic persons. It can only be detected through a blood test for Hepatitis C virus.
In the United States Hepatitis C is the first reason for a liver transplant due to hepatic cirrhosis and in Egypt 15 percent of the population suffer the disease.
Cuban science has been working hard on the prevention and treatment of different types of hepatitis.
During the 90s a national vaccine was made against the B variant; also transfusions have greatly improved with top quality technology developed by scientists in the country.
Since the 80s Cuba began the technique of liver transplants that, today, shows good results with more than 100 persons operated.
Scientific research on preventive and therapeutic vaccines against illnesses has amazed nationally and worldwide. It has also received strong governmental investment and support in its broadest sense.
That is the reason behind the interest to obtain the Haemophilus influenzae vaccine that protects the infant population against pneumonia, meningitis and otitis covering Cuban needs and also satisfying requests from abroad.
By the end of this year there will be production of an anti-lung cancer vaccine developed by the Molecular Immunology Center and whose clinical studies are in the final phase. Tests are also being done in the United States.
Work is also underway to obtain vaccines or monoclonal antibodies that open up new hope for the treatment of breast, neck, head, prostate and colon cancers.
In addition Cuba has successfully completed its last clinical assay of a quintuple vaccine against diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatitis B, tetanus and Haemofhilus influenzae.
There is also one prepared against cholera and work is underway to obtain the same results against dengue, hepatitis A and tuberculosis.
(*) The author is a journalist of the Science and Technology Editorial board of Prensa Latina.

Good Crops in Cuban Tobacco Fields

2006-05-22T09:07:00.000+02:00

Pinar del Rio, Cuba, May 17 (Prensa Latina) Tobacco growers in the Cuban western province of Pinar del Rio concluded the 2005-2006 harvest with high production achievements by area, and good dividends in exportable tobacco, sources of this sector informed Wednesday.
Tobacco growers in this province (the best in tobacco production in Cuba) will guarantee 400,000 quintals (18.36 million kilograms) which are enough to fulfill commitments of the industry.
Young tobacco grower Ernesto Padilla said tobacco leaves are getting dry satisfactorily, which allows predicting higher volumes than in campaigns made before.
With the arrival of the first volumes of rain, work will be intensified to sew the tobacco leaves and take them to the workshops to choose the best.

Cuba Cuts Energy Consumption

2006-05-22T09:03:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 (Prensa Latina) Thanks to the Energy Revolution afoot, Cuba is currently consuming two million kWh less, equivalent to 600 tons of fuel daily and a savings of 60 million dollars a year.
On May Day, President Fidel Castro affirmed that this is possible due to the elevated consciousness of the Cuban family, and the productive and servicing sectors, along with the introduction of efficient generation technologies.
Also decisive is the mass distribution of modern, low-energy consuming electrical equipment.
So far this year, the island has produced over 6,400 distribution transformers, carried out 87,000 works of renovation in power supplies, and installed generators synchronized to the National Electro-energy System.
Likewise, the decision to increase energy prices for those consuming above 100 kWh a month, encourages saving and consumption proportional to need and salary.
The unstoppable energy transformation Cuba has undertaken has an important social component, because the annual plan to build 100,000 homes, repair schools, hospitals and clinics, revive transport and food-and-agriculture production depend on it.

East Indies to Open Economic Union Treaty

2006-05-22T09:02:00.000+02:00

Basseterre, May 19 (Prensa Latina) The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will open an Economic Union Treaty next month on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of this regional body, revealed an official report in this capital on Friday.
The celebrations to be held in June include hoisting the OECS flag for the first time in Saint Kitts and Nevis, which is another integration initiative.
The heads of states of the six East Indies member countries, as well as the presidents of the countries invited to the Economic Union Treaty's inauguration ceremony, will attend those activities.
OECS was founded in June 18, 1981, with the aim of strengthening cooperation among its members and reach a sustainable development in the eastern Caribbean zone.
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia are the OECS members.

Caribbean Executives Endorse Economic Initiatives

2006-05-22T09:00:00.000+02:00

Kingston, May 19 (Prensa Latina) Executives from the Caribbean Development Bank put forward mechanisms to prevent a drop of profits and promote the sustainable economic development of the region, during the 36th Annual Meeting of this financial institution.
The two-day meeting, held at Jamaican Montego Bay resort, gave the current situation of finances in the region a priority for discussion.
According to figures, only five Caribbean countries reported a financial increase in 2005, while the rest of the countries in the region did not raise their profits compared to 2004.
However, the president of the CDB, Compton Bourne, warned there are several opportunities despite the structural changes in the commercial relations between the Caribbean and Europe.
An important point to start off is admitting the potential of our regional markets, as well as the sort of joint ventures in the tourism field, added Bourne.
Among the proposed initiatives to boost the economic increase highlight the modernization of the viable companies and the recovery of firms.