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subject: Radio Havana March 7. Venezuela forgives ElSalvador debt
Radio Havana Cuba-07 March 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 07 March 2001
.
*CUBA PROPOSES USING RADIO AND TELEVISION TO TEACH LITERACY
*HAVANA AND CARACAS RE-INVIGORATE RELATIONS WITH VISIT OF CARACAS
MAYOR
*ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS AND ACTIVISTS MEET IN CAMAGUEY
*HOT MUSIC FESTIVAL GETS UNDERWAY THURSDAY IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL
*PALESTINIANS BRACE FOR THE WORST WITH SWEARING IN OF ARIEL SHARON
*MASSIVE WELCOME FOR ZAPATISTA CARAVAN IN MEXICAN STATE OF MORELOS
*HISTORIC HUMAN RIGHTS RULING SPARKS TENSION INSIDE ARGENTINE
GOVERNMENT
*Viewpoint: VENEZUELA FORGIVES EL SALVADOR'S FOREIGN DEBT
.
*CUBA PROPOSES USING RADIO AND TELEVISION TO TEACH LITERACY
Cochabamba, March 7 (RHC) - Cuba has proposed using radio and
television to teach basic reading and writing skills. The concept was
introduced during the Eighth Meeting of the Latin American and
Caribbean Educational Project, which ended on Wednesday in Bolivia.
Cuba's Minister of Education Luis Ignacio Gomez, heading the
island's delegation to the meeting in Cochabamba, served as a
panelist on a roundtable dealing with Technology in Educational
Systems. Gomez stated that there are profound inequalities between
rich and poor countries -- pointing out that more than 40 million
young people under 15 years of age are illiterate in Latin America
and the Caribbean.
Emphasizing that teachers and educational workers are daily fighting
against a severe lack of resources, the head of Cuba's Ministry of
Education said that there are limits to the use of technology --
noting that many teachers are forced to work in three or even four
schools just to make ends meet. Luis Ignacio Gomez stressed that
teachers also face overcrowded classrooms, sometimes with as many as
50 or more students in each class. He added that one way to get
around this situation is using radio or television transmissions to
carry out literacy campaigns or continuing education programs.
The Cuban minister of education stated that one of the main
contributions Havana can make to this idea is the example of high
quality courses used during the island's literacy campaign,
undertaken during the first years of the Cuban Revolution. He said
that Cuba's successes in the field of education over these past 42
years has placed the island far and above all other regional nations.
The head of Cuba's ministry of education noted that there has been
renewed interest in basic reading and writing courses, expressed by
the international media as well as educational authorities around the
world. And he said that many people are looking for alternatives,
given the failure of neo-liberal economic policies applied to
education.
During the regional meeting held in Bolivia, Luis Ignacio Gomez noted
that in Cuba, education is prioritized and available to all -- free-
of-charge. And he stated that Cuba maintains its high standards in
spite of Washington's genocidal economic blockade against the island.
*HAVANA AND CARACAS RE-INVIGORATE RELATIONS WITH VISIT OF CARACAS
MAYOR
Havana, March 7 (RHC) - Cuba and Venezuela will continue to
strengthen bilateral ties. According to the Mayor of Caracas, Fredy
Bernal, the two countries will deepen the ties that already exist
between the two sister countries.
On Tuesday -- the second day of the mayor's week-long official visit
to the island -- Bernal toured the International School of Physical
Education and Sports, recently inaugurated in the Cuban capital.
Accompanied by Venezuelan sports officials who are also part of the
visiting delegation, the mayor of Caracas met with Humberto
Rodriguez, the head of the Cuban Sports Institute, INDER. Rodriguez
announced that Cuba is ready to send a group of coaches and sports
trainers to Venezuela, noting that Olympic runner and INDER Vice
President Alberto Juantorena will travel to Caracas next week.
Juantorena will lead a sports delegation to study the needs in
Venezuela and report back to Havana on what areas need attention.
Upon his arrival on Monday, the visiting mayor of Caracas met with
Marta Lomas, Cuba's Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic
Cooperation. Mayor Fredy Bernal also plans to meet with Venezuelan
patients who are currently undergoing medical treatment here in Cuba.
*ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS AND ACTIVISTS MEET IN CAMAGUEY
Camaguey, March 7 (RHC) - Experts in atmospheric contamination from
Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and the United
States are meeting in the central Cuban city of Camaguey.
Participants are discussing the creation of a network of early
warning radar systems that can be installed throughout Latin America
and the Caribbean.
During the meeting -- which got underway on Tuesday and runs
through tomorrow, Thursday -- it was announced that Cuba, Puerto
Rico, Brazil and Argentina are the only countries that currently use
such laser radar systems, capable of detecting atmospheric
contamination and climatic changes.
Rene Esteban, a Cuban scientist attending the meeting in Camaguey,
told reporters covering the event that information gathered from the
special laser systems could be used to analyze certain situations and
environmental problems such as the level of volcanic dust in the
atmosphere. Esteban added that the data could be studied and even
used to predict dangerous levels of contamination in the atmosphere.
The three-day meeting in central Cuba is being sponsored by
the Inter-American Institute for the Study of Climatic Change, the
International Program for the Investigation of Global Change, the
Cuban Meteorological Institute and the Cuban Ministry of Science,
Technology and the Environment.
*HOT MUSIC FESTIVAL GETS UNDERWAY THURSDAY IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL
Havana, March 7 (RHC) - A hot, international music festival gets
underway tomorrow, Thursday, here in the Cuban capital. The cultural
event -- called "The Caliente International Festival of Music" --
will see the participation of many big names in the music world.
According to Alicia Perea, president of the Cuban Institute of Music,
the festival will run through Sunday, March 11th. She announced that
the opening act will be held at the Amadeo Roldan Theatre, featuring
internationally renowned jazz pianist Herbie Hancock from the United
States. Cuba's incredible pianist Chucho Valdes -- recent winner of
the Grammy in the field of Latin Jazz -- will join Herbie Hancock on
stage tomorrow night.
Other musical groups from around the world will perform at theaters
and clubs throughout Havana over the next few days. Top singers and
groups from Latin America and Europe will entertain an anxious Cuban
audience in what organizers are calling a "hot" -- or, in Spanish:
"caliente" -- festival of music.
*PALESTINIANS BRACE FOR THE WORST WITH SWEARING IN OF ARIEL SHARON
Jerusalem, March 7 (RHC)--Palestinians are bracing for the worst
with Wednesday's swearing in of ultra right-wing Ariel Sharon's
government. According to the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center
-- an independent Palestinian agency -- for the Palestinians this is
the worst government possible.
Though the Palestinian National Authority has expressed its
willingness to negotiate with any Israeli government, its leaders are
not hiding their pessimism. With a so-called government of national
unity that brings together the right wing, thereligious sectors and
the left, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that while
the left will speak of peace the right-wing will build more Jewish
settlements in the occupied territories and will reinforce their
occupation.
Commenting on the designation of Nobel Peace Laureate Simon Peres as
foreign minister, the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center said
the Sharon government will be aggressive in the domestic terrain and
as diplomatic as possible in the international arena, where Peres
will do the damage control for whatever atrocity Sharon commits.
Sharon's Interior Security Minister, Uzi Landau -- called a "super
hawk" -- said Wednesday that Israeli forces should take the offensive
and bring the battle into the camp of their adversaries.
*MASSIVE WELCOME FOR ZAPATISTA CARAVAN IN MEXICAN STATE OF MORELOS
Cuernavaca, March 7 (RHC) -- The Zapatista Caravan for Peace and the
Dignity of Indigenous Peoples Tuesday received a massive and
enthusiastic welcome in Morelos, home of the mythical Mexican
revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. Thousands applauded a speech by
rebel commander Marcos, who compared Mexican President Vicente Fox
with early 20th century President Francisco Madero.
Madero, after overthrowing the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz in
1911, refused to implement the agrarian reform demands of
Zapata's indigenous-campesino army. Zapata's Ayala Plan called for
the parceling out of large land holdings based on the slogan "land
for those who work it."
The Zapatista indigenous leader was also enthusiastically acclaimed
when he ridiculed local House Deputy Salomon Salgado, who had
threatened to receive the Caravan in Morelos with snipers. The threat
sparked a mobilization of one thousand police officers in the state
capital, Cuernavaca, just 80 kilometers from the capital, Mexico
City.
The 24 Zapatista rebel commanders headed Wednesday towards the state
of Guerrero. They've already traveled through 11 of the 13 Mexican
states on their itinerary, planning to arrive in Mexico City next
Sunday to demand congressional approval of federal legislation on
indigenous rights and culture.
*HISTORIC HUMAN RIGHTS RULING SPARKS TENSION INSIDE ARGENTINE
GOVERNMENT
Buenos Aires, March 7 (RHC) -- A historic ruling by an Argentinean
federal Judge in the arena of human rights has sparked tensions
between the country's judicial and executive branches of government.
Federal Judge Gabriel Cavallo ruled Tuesday that two amnesty laws in
the 1980s benefiting more than one thousand former dictatorship
officials are unconstitutional -- opening a Pandora's box.
Argentinean Defense Minister Horacio Jaunarena has asserted that the
amnesty laws were in accordance with the country's constitution
because they were voted by Congress. But Judge Cavallo responded by
reminding the defense minister that the judicial branch of government
is the power that issues the final interpretation concerning the
constitutionality of norms implemented by the executive.
He noted that congressional approval of those norms does not
necessarily make them legal, accusing Jaunarena of ignoring the
principle of the division of powers. Argentinean presidential
spokesman Ricardo Ostuni announced that the government will most
likely appeal the federal court ruling to the nation's Supreme Court,
recalling that President Fernando de la Rua voted in favor of the
amnesty laws when he was a senator at the time.
Judge Cavallo, who issued the ruling in the case of a family
forcibly disappeared in 1977, said he was inspired by the Nuremberg
Trials that convicted Nazi leaders following World War II. In the
text of ruling, the federal Judge said that Nuremberg ratified the
principle of individual responsibility of those accused, and
established the category of crimes against humanity. Judge Cavallo
also based his ruling on Argentina's 1995 decision to extradite to
Italy former Nazi officer Erich Priebke.
*Viewpoint: VENEZUELA FORGIVES EL SALVADOR'S FOREIGN DEBT
In his regular Sunday radio program, "Hello President,"
Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, announced that his administration
has decided to forgive the debt to Venezuela owed by El Salvador.
Though the debt was relatively small, he said, it was decided
to unilaterally eliminate it to help Salvadorans deal with the
devastating consequences of the series of earthquakes that have
recently shaken the Central American nation. "I wish we could have
done much more," commented Chavez who said that a helicopter and ship
with medical personnel and supplies had just arrived in El Salvador,
the second shipment of Venezuelan aid since the earthquakes began .
President Chavez explained that he had planned to visit El Salvador
but had had to change his plans because Salvadoran president,
Francisco Flores, was in Washington soliciting aid for his quake-torn
country. Many nations of Central and South America face the
permanent threat of devastating movements of the earth. That is why
immediate assistance is so vital, especially from neighbors.
But there is another kind of disaster affecting the entire world:
the unequal distribution of wealth. It is just as devastating as a
permanent earthquake, but rather than momentary aid, it requires the
establishment of a fair economic world order in which wealth is not
portioned out at the whims of market capitalism, which bestows untold
riches on some countries and heaps poverty and misery on the rest of
the world.
As Cuban president, Fidel Castro said during Pope John Paul's visit
to Cuba, it is solidarity and social justice that must be globalized,
not economic domination as a prelude to political control.
Cuba salutes Venezuela's noble gesture as an example of the spirit
of solidarity and generosity that should characterize all
international practice. When this type of true sincerity and good
will among nations abounds, humanity will begin to move in a positive
direction. We then will be able to more securely navigate the
universal ship in which we all sail together; and which is now
threatened by a deteriorating natural environment and social
relations. We must all work together if our international ship, the
only one we have, is to remain afloat.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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rhc-eng-16244 2001-Mar-08 01:05:32 " JC
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