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subject: Radio Havana Feb 20. Cuba's recovering Economy
Radio Havana Cuba-20 February 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 20 February 2001
.
*PANAMA'S SUPREME COURT RULES DETENTION OF LUIS POSADA CARRILES IS
LEGAL
*CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ANNOUNCES MALAYSIAN EMBASSY TO OPEN IN HAVANA
*CHARTER FLIGHTS TO CUBA LEAVING FULL FROM BOTH US COASTS
*HAVANA'S HOUSING SHORTAGE: STRUGGLING FOR SOLUTIONS
*UNDP, WORLD ENVIROMENT FUND PLAN ECOLOGICAL CUBAN POWER PLANT
*CUBAN AMBASSADOR TO ECUADOR RALLIES LATIN AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO US
*IRAQ CRITICIZES UN'S FAILURE TO CONDEMN RECENT BOMBING
*THOUSANDS PROTEST LATEST ATTACK IN BAGHDAD
*Viewpoint: LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT RATES A SIGN OF CUBA'S RECOVERING
ECONOMY
.
*PANAMA'S SUPREME COURT RULES DETENTION OF LUIS POSADA CARRILES IS
LEGAL
Panama City, February 2O (RHC)-- The Panamanian Supreme Court of
Justice has upheld the ruling of a lower court, confirming that
international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is being legally held in
that Central American country. With this decision, the Supreme Court
has rejected an appeal by defense attorney Rogelio Cruz, who argued
that Posada Carriles and his accomplices should be released due to
lack of evidence.
Luis Posada Carriles and three other terrorists were arrested in
Panama City last November after it was revealed that the four were
planning to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro. The leader of
the Cuban Revolution was in Panama to attend the 10th Ibero-American
Summit of Heads of State and Government.
Cuba has formally requested the extradition of Posada Carriles, who
would face multiple charges of terrorist actions against Cuba.
Panamanian authorities arrested the four and confiscated weapons and
C-4 plastic explosives, which were to have been used in the
assassination attempt. According to the terrorist's own admission,
they were planning to blow up an auditorium on the campus of the
University of Panama, where the Cuban leader was scheduled to speak
the next day.
Among other terrorist activities, Luis Posada Carriles has admitted
to being the mastermind behind the sabotage bombing of a Cubana
airliner in October 1976. The plane was blown up in mid-air over
Barbados, killing all 73 persons aboard.
*CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ANNOUNCES MALAYSIAN EMBASSY TO OPEN IN
HAVANA
Kuala Lumpur, February 2O (RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque, on an official visit to Malaysia, has announced that a
diplomatic mission will soon be established in Havana. Cuba's top
diplomat said that this will be the 12th Asian country to set up an
embassy in the Cuban capital.
Perez Roque began a two-day visit to Malaysia on Monday. Over the
next two weeks, he is also scheduled to travel to Singapore, Vietnam,
China and Japan.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Cuban foreign minister has met with high-
government officials, including his Malaysian counterpart, Syed Hamid
Albar, and the head of government, Mahathir Mohamad.
Among the issues on the agenda during his visit to the Asian nations
is the ongoing work of the Group of 77 and the Movement of Non-
Aligned Nations.
*CHARTER FLIGHTS TO CUBA LEAVING FULL FROM BOTH US COASTS
Havana, January 20th (RHC)-Direct charter flights from the United
States are selling out and the routes are expanding as more and more
Cuban Americans return home for visits. Both New York and Los Angeles
are now running regular flights to add to the many flights that leave
out of Miami.
According to the New York based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council,
some 160,000 U.S. citizens will visit Cuba this year - up from 55,000
in 1999. And the prices of the charter flights are very low in
comparison with flying through a third country as many people are
forced to do due to Washington's restrictions on travel to the
island. Low season flights from Miami cost some $300.00. Flights are
also not only going to Havana, but to Santiago, and Holguín as well.
Although the U.S. does not allow its citizens to fly on these
charters unless they have been licensed by the Treasury Department,
Cuban Americans can now go whenever they wish due to a lifting of
travel restriction for family members by Washington in 1999.
In an interesting twist, every charter flight has two Federal
Aviation Authority agents on board, one of whom stays on the plane at
all times to guard it against sabotage. Sabotage that many say would
be more likely to come from extreme elements of the Miami right-wing
than any Cuban on the island.
*HAVANA'S HOUSING SHORTAGE: STRUGGLING FOR SOLUTIONS
Havana, February 20th (RHC)-The Cuban capital's Housing Authority has
an unenviable task, writes Tuesday's edition of the Cuban daily
Granma. It is responsible for determining who is assigned which
apartments and houses; the paperwork required for house exchanges
between citizens; controlling the flow of illegal residents in
overcrowded conditions; controlling the legality of renting out to
both Cubans and foreigners; and working to preserve crumbling
buildings. It also has the task of responding to a plethora of
complaints and accusations by angry citizens, who are made
even angrier by the time it takes to respond to their concerns.
The principal problems that the Housing Authority faces, according
to Granma, is the lack of control in the execution of its budget, and
its seeming inability to require higher levels of work quality from
builders, many of whom begin repairs without a contract. The head of
the Housing Authority for the province, Norberto Gonzalez, said that
the very fact that his department is analyzing the problems indicates
that they seek to avoid recurrences. We are going to have to get
tough, he said, there are cases where we paid to repair entire
buildings where the work was substandard to the disgust and
complaints of the families that live there.
Gonzalez added he was also facing increased illegal sales of housing
units, superficial inspections by his department that have led to
unjust decisions, and illegal construction that went undetected.
Although no Cubans go homeless, overcrowding and dilapidated
buildings are major problems in some areas of Havana. Such problems,
however, are far less discernible in the provinces.
*UNDP, WORLD ENVIROMENT FUND PLAN ECOLOGICAL CUBAN POWER PLANT
Havana, February 20th (RHC)-Representatives from the United
Nations Development Program and the World Environmental Fund signed
today in Havana a project for the construction of an energy plant
that will be fueled by sugar cane waste.
With financial assistance from both organizations, Cuba will build a
plant capable of producing 40 megawatts of power using condensing
extraction steam turbines which would more efficiently extract the
heat energy from the waste.
With its generation potential, the project is considered to be of
great scientific, economic and environmental importance, having
implications for some 45 countries that grow sugar cane.
The electricity plant will be built in San Nicolas de Bari - 60
kilometers southeast of the capital.
*CUBAN AMBASSADOR TO ECUADOR RALLIES LATIN AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO US
Quito, February 20th (RHC)--The new Cuban ambassador to Ecuador,
Ileana Diaz-Arguelles, said today in Quito that Latin America needs
to adopt a firm and independent position toward the United States and
its hegemonic desires on the region.
Speaking to the press the Cuban diplomat said that the1999 decision
by the Ecuadorean government to vote against Cuba in the U.N. Human
Rights Commission had greatly hurt her people but that the government
of Gustavo Noboa had seen fit to revisit the vote in 2000 and
abstained from the annual U.S. sponsored attack on the island.
Diaz-Arguelles denounced the evident political and economic
blackmail brought to bear on Latin America by Washington in its
solitary war against Cuba. She also reminded those present that the
so-called dissidents in Cuba are small groups of disaffected
individuals almost always organized and funded by Washington financed
right-wing organizations.
The United States is pushing through the Free Trade Zone of the
Americas in an effort to bring into its economic umbrella most of
Latin America's economies. Havana strongly opposes what it sees as
clear steps by Washington to control the entire region.
The Cuban ambassador to Quito said that she would be working
toward improving Cuban exports to Ecuador, as the trade balance
between the two was very unequal with last year's figures
representing only $125,000 worth of exports from the island against
the $11 million total trade figure.
*IRAQ CRITICIZES UN'S FAILURE TO CONDEMN RECENT BOMBING
Baghdad, February 20 (RHC)-- Iraq has strongly criticized the United
Nations for not condemning last Friday's air attacks by the United
States and Britain. Speaking with journalists in Baghdad, the Iraqi
capital, a leading member of the governing Baaz Party, Abdul Gani
Abdul Gafur, accused Washington of pressuring the UN Security Council
to not take up the issue. The Iraqi leader asked: "Where is the
United Nations and those who defend the UN Charter?"
Abdul Gafur reiterated his country's condemnation of Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia for being what he called "partners in the aggression" --
having provided airbases for the U.S. and British warplanes that
bombed Iraq. He added that Washington and London have repeatedly used
these neighboring countries to over-fly the so-called "exclusion
zones" in northern and southern Iraq.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Baghdad announced that trade and commercial
relations with Canada and Poland have been ended due to their support
of the most recent attacks against the Arab nation.
Newspapers and radio stations in Iraq continued to call for the
condemnation of last Friday's attacks -- demanding that the United
Nations take a clear position on the air raids. Numerous countries
have denounced the United States and Britain, including Russia,
China, France and Turkey.
*THOUSANDS PROTEST LATEST ATTACK IN BAGHDAD
Baghdad, February 19 (RHC)--- Thousands of protesters jammed the
streets of downtown Baghdad on Monday for the third consecutive day
-- protesting the latest attack by U.S. and British warplanes against
that Arab nation.
In the city of Saddam, located north of the Iraqi capital,
demonstrators burned U.S., British and Israeli flags -- shouting
slogans denouncing U.S. President George W. Bush, who ordered the
attack last Friday. Students took to the streets of numerous cities
in Iraq, affirming their loyalty to the government and calling for a
Holy War against Washington and Tel Aviv.
In related news, the Iraqi government has sent a letter to United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. The official letter calls on
the UN to formally condemn the latest aggressions against the
sovereignty of the Arab nation and urgently requests guarantees that
similar actions will not be repeated.
*Viewpoint: LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT RATES A SIGN OF CUBA'S RECOVERING
ECONOMY
Before the collapse of socialism in Europe, Cuba had almost
entirely eliminated unemployment. This was possible because Cuba
began fair and equitable economic relations with the socialist
European nations practically at the same moment that the United
States imposed its economic blockade against the island. By the end
of the l980's Cuba maintained 85% of its foreign economic relations
with the socialist block.
Over the years Cuba achieved important social gains, including free-
of-charge medical assistance and education for all. These
achievements have allowed the country to produce an enormous amount
of talent, which Cuban president Fidel Castro calls, "human capital."
The island has graduated 66 thousand doctors and hundreds of
thousands of teachers and professors, making it the country with the
most doctors and teachers per inhabitant in the world. Cuba has now
trained enough professionals for the majority of the country's social
and economy activities.
With so many highly trained professionals, one might think that Cuba
has an excess of specialists, but Havana has practiced a policy of
solidarity since the triumph of the Revolution. The nation sends
doctors, teachers and other professionals to other Third World
countries; an investment of a very special kind of capital.
However in the most difficult years of the island's economic
problems, several thousand blue collar workers had to be laid off.
They were extended unemployment benefits and many were placed in
other jobs; especially in industry and agriculture, but also in the
culture sector.
The economic reforms adopted at the beginning of the l990's , at the
start of the so-called, "special period" economic crunch, have proved
to be successful as illustrated by the state of Cuba's gross domestic
product which has stayed at acceptable levels. Unemployment, which
during the economy's worse moment rose to 8.1, has dropped to 5.5 New
sources of stable work have opened up and are keeping employment at
satisfactory rates.
Cuba continues to be blockaded by the United States and continues to
suffer the consequence of that criminal measure, but neither the
Cuban government nor its people will give up their struggle to create
a better life, both for themselves and for their brothers and sisters
around the world.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-31451 2001-Feb-20 23:32:14 " JC
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