_________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ ---------- From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 10:03:45 -0800 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Radio Havana March 8. Cuban Women celebrate,analyze from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subjecty: Radio Havana March 8. Cuban Women celebrate,analyze Radio Havana Cuba-08 March 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 08 March 2001 . *INTENSE DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL BATTLE PRECEDES NEXT UN RIGHTS SESSION *VENEZUELANS RETURNING FROM CUBA IN GOOD HEALTH *ALARCON, IN LEBANON, CRITICIZES US-ISRAELI AGGRESSION *MIAMI MAYOR REFUSES TO BACK LATIN GRAMMYS IF CUBAN ARTISTS ATTEND *CUBAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS UNION TO STUDY EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON CULTURE *COLOMBIA: PEACE NEGOTIATORS GATHER WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY *ZAPATISTA CARAVAN INTO ITS LAST 65 KILOMETER TREK *ARGENTINA: FIRST RIGHTS CASE FILED AFTER COURT STRIKES DOWN IMPUNITY *PEREZ ROQUE RETURNS TO HAVANA AFTER ASIAN TOUR *Viewpoint: CUBAN WOMEN CELEBRATE GAINS AND ANALYZE PROBLEMS . *INTENSE DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL BATTLE PRECIDES NEXT UN RIGHTS SESSION Havana, March 8 (RHC)--Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has affirmed that Havana is engaged in an intense diplomatic and legal battle leading up to the next session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. In statements to local media outlets upon returning home from a five-nation Asia tour, Perez Roque said Cuba will confront Washington's efforts to impose another condemnation against Havana with a presentation of its own resolutions in the human rights arena. In reference to the Czech Republic's sponsorship of the anti-Cuba measure, the Cuban Foreign Minister said this nation has a debt of gratitude with the United States, which gave its backing for Prague's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly has discrepancies with the resolution drawn up by the Czech Republic. Prague wants to include language noting that across-the-board economic sanctions -- in reference to Washington's blockade of Cuba -- are counterproductive. But in testimony Wednesday before the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, Powell said that Washington is making it clear that the U.S. government cannot line up behind any anti-sanctions addition to the resolution. This year's six-week session of the UN Human Rights Commission begins March 19th. *VENEZUELANS RETURNING FROM CUBA IN GOOD HEALTH Caracas, March 8 (RHC)--In the wake of the Cuba/Venezuela accords signed last year in which 2500 Venezuelans would be given free health care in Cuba in return for soft terms on the purchase of Venezuelan oil, some of the first of those treated are back at home again. Rafael Carrillo was struck by a bus six years ago and had one of his legs amputated at the knee. The prosthetic he received at a public hospital in Caracas was ill-fitting with no bends for the knee or toes. Carillo was one of the first 260 Venezuelans to take up President Fidel Castro's offer and had a new prosthetic attached during a short stay in Cuba. He can finally dance again, he says, and acknowledged the incredible difference the treatment had had on his life. Venezuela has become Cuba's principal trade partner this year, replacing Spain. The 53,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil that the island receives every day has already had an effect on the Cuban public transport system with more buses on the routes and practically no power cuts across the capital. For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has Cuba's help in restoring his nation's public health care system, which he calls the "horrible social debt" bequeathed by decades of mismanagement under previous governments. "We are committed to restoring the right to health, which was taken away from our people by the neo-liberal policies imposed here," said his assistant, Elias Jaua. There have been upwards of 6000 requests by Venezuelans seeking health care in Cuba. Most of those processed so far have been suffering from heart problems, skin diseases or drug dependency. The mother of one-year-old Jesus Manuel Ibarra, who was operated on for a congenital heart defect, returned to Venezuela saying that Cuba may be a poor country but that the island has what is most important - human warmth. *ALARCON, IN LEBANON, CRITICIZES US-ISRAELI AGGRESSION Beirut, March 8 (RHC)--In his continuing visit to the Middle East, the President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, today said that unity was the only way that countries that suffer from the aggression of the United States would survive. Alarcón was visiting the community of Qana where Israel massacred 100 civilians in an aerial bombardment. He took the occasion to congratulate Lebanon for freeing itself of Israeli occupation and of the struggle against Tel Aviv's expansion and aggression that had claimed so many Lebanese lives. In a reference to the continued occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel, the Cuban official said that he hoped that the same liberation will take place elsewhere in the region. The president of the Cuban parliament is inviting parliamentary leaders from the Middle East to an Inter-Parliamentary Conference that will take place in Havana in April. He said that a delegation from Israel would be more than welcome as long as it was prepared to listen to Cuban messages of solidarity with the people of Palestine. *MIAMI MAYOR REFUSES TO BACK LATIN GRAMMYS IF CUBAN ARTISTS ATTEND Havana, March 8 (RHC)--The mayor of Miami, Florida, Cuban American Joe Carollo has said that he will withdraw his support of the Latin Grammy awards if any Cuban artists are invited or included. Adding his voice to the extreme right-wing reaction to the awards which will take place on the 12th September, Carollo, who was recently jailed for beating his wife, said that he had signed an agreement with the organization arranging the ceremony because he had been assured that no Cuban artists would be attending. The letter was also signed by members of the executive board of the anti-Havana Cuban American National Foundation. However, in Los Angeles, Michael Greene, the director of the Latin American Academy of Recording Arts and Science, or LARAS, said that he had never made such a promise. A controversial local Miami ordinance states that no public funds would be used for any cultural event that includes Cuban artists, but the ordinance lacks legal backing and has previously been successfully challenged in the courts. *CUBAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS UNION TO STUDY EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON CULTURE Havana, March 8 (RHC)--The Cuban Union of Writers and Artists or UNEAC, has announced that a Latin American meeting to reflect on the role of culture in the technological development of the nation will be convened in April. The meeting, entitled, "Identity, Diversity, Participation, Culture: Development in the New Century," will explore the different regional cultures and how globalization has affected them. The affect that technological and scientific advances have had on the development of culture and the arts will also be debated. UNEAC was founded in 1961 and has 5807 members. *COLOMBIA: PEACE NEGOTIATORS GATHER WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY Colombia, March 8 (RHC)--Rebel and government peace negotiators in Colombia gathered Thursday with diplomats and ambassadors from 25 countries in the Americas and Europe, also with the participation of Japan, the United Nations and the Vatican. The gathering, agreed to last month in a face-to-face meeting between rebel leader Manuel Marulanda and Colombian President Andres Pastrana, is of a strictly informative nature -- though many observers believe that members of the international community could come up with proposals and suggestions that would speed up the Colombian peace process. The United States is absent from the gathering, despite having been invited. Washington refuses to meet with rebels until the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces turns over guerrillas accused of killing 3 American indigenous activists in 1999. Some 100 family members of the close to 500 Colombian soldiers and police captured by the rebels also arrived at the gathering, taking place in the demilitarized zone in the south of the country. Marulanda greeted the family members, expressing his belief that soon there will be a prisoner exchange between the rebels and the government. Some of the POWs have been held by the rebels for more than 3 years. Shortly after the gathering began, the rebels presented their report to the international community, reiterating their commitment to the success of the peace process. The guerrilla organization warned, however, that the process is coming up against formidable obstacles -- specifically, the right wing paramilitary movement, drugs, Colombia's foreign debt, and the desperate situation of Colombian campesinos. Rebel negotiator Alfonso Cano said it's no coincidence that the paramilitaries -- which he called the illegitimate son of a shameful Colombian state apparatus -- have stepped their dirty war since the peace process began two and a half years ago. In reference to the drug issue, Cano said that no nation -- no matter how powerful -- can claim the exclusive right to fight narco-trafficking. He said the problem is not Latin America's, but rather, a problem involving the entire hemisphere and the world. The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces said that a viable development project for Colombia will be impossible without a different focus on the foreign debt, its interest payments and exactly where all this money is going. And, said the guerrillas, Colombia's agrarian situation is devastating, with the concentration of the overwhelming majority of fertile land in only a few hands and the eviction of two million small farmers from their small parcels over the past five years. *ZAPATISTA CARAVAN INTO ITS LAST 65 KILOMETER TREK Mexico City, March 8 (RHC)--The Zapatista Caravan for Peace and the Dignity of Indigenous Peoples is on its way to Mexico City, in the last 65 kilometers of its 3000 kilometer trip from Chiapas. The Caravan was heading Thursday to Milpa Alta, a municipality on the outskirts of the capital, using the same route taken by 20th century revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. Zapata marched to Mexico City to meet with Francisco Pancho Villa, commander of revolutionary troops in the north of the country, and to symbolically assume the presidency. On Sunday, the 24 Zapatista rebel commanders will enter the city on the broad November 20th Avenue -- named for the date of the beginning of Mexico's 1910 revolution -- and traditionally used by visiting dignitaries on their way to the National Palace, for military parades, and for celebrations of the country's 1810 independence. The Mexican news daily La Jornada published today an interview with U.S. linguist and university professor Noam Chomsky, who asserted that the Zapatistas could change the course of contemporary history if they develop ties with other social groups on an international level. Chomsky said the Zapatistas, together with the Brazilian Landless Movement and the campesino movement in India, are three of the most important new democratic and anti-neoliberal expressions taking shape in the international arena. *ARGENTINA: FIRST RIGHTS CASE FILED AFTER COURT STRIKES DOWN IMPUNITY Buenos Aires, March 8 (RHC)--An Argentinean court has received the first human rights denunciation following a decision by a federal Judge who ruled that amnesty laws benefiting dictatorship officials in the 1980s are unconstitutional. Patricia Walsh, daughter of forcibly disappeared Argentinean writer Rodolfo Walsh, has filed charges against two retired navy officers. The charge is based on the testimony of several survivors of the secret detention and torture center set up in the Naval Mechanics School during the country's 1976 to 1983 military regime. The victim was kidnapped in March 1977, after having published an "open letter" to dictatorship leaders protesting human rights violations on the first anniversary of the military takeover. Some 1180 torturers and assassins benefited from two amnesty laws decreed in 1986 and 1987. Earlier this week Federal Judge Gabriel Cavallo struck down the amnesty laws in a court case on the forced disappearance of an Argentinean family whose small daughter reappeared some two years later after having been illegally adopted by a member of the military. Observers believe that the ruling will lead to an avalanche of denunciations, though those charged are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, which will eventually have the last word. *PEREZ ROQUE RETURNS TO HAVANA AFTER ASIAN TOUR Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque arrived in Havana Wednesday night after a visit to several Asian countries. The Cuban top diplomat's Asian tour included China and Japan, and also extended to Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Upon his arrival at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport, Perez Roque spoke with the press: "I think the trip was positive. We met the objectives we had set for each of the five countries visited. I feel satisfied over the levels of the contacts we made and the meaningful discussions we had, which certainly further promoted our relations with those countries." Asked to comment about the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Commission, the Cuban foreign minister noted that the United States has already started a campaign aimed at trying to impose an anti-Cuba resolution: "We have been waging a strong battle there every year, an intense diplomatic and political battle, and we're currently working with a view to the upcoming session, getting ready to fight the resolution that Washington is sponsoring and promoting against Cuba, and more. "They intend to push that resolution at the United Nations and for that they are using the government of the Czech Republic, which has a debt of gratitude with Washington. The U.S. government supported the Czech Republic's NATO membership. The Czech government has been volunteering for the past two years for this shameful role. "But we will also present our own resolutions there on human rights issues, such as the right to food, a resolution that the U.S. government has voted against for the last few years. Cuba will be waging a battle there from the political point of view, but also from the ethical point of view. We will not only be defending truth as Cuba sees it, which of course is the defense of truth as the Third World sees it, but we will also be defending our position on human rights, which are greatly distorted in Geneva every year to try to justify blockades and aggressions, like those the United States has been using against Cuba for the last four decades. "So like I said, we will be waging our battle, which will not be an easy one, because Washington has ways and means of putting pressure on countries. Yet, Cuba has its moral weapons, the honor of defending the dignity of its people; so we will be there fighting all through the sessions, until the voting on the anti-Cuba resolution is done, in mid-April." Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque returned to Havana Wednesday night after spending nearly two weeks touring five Asian nations, including Japan and China. *Viewpoint: CUBAN WOMEN CELEBRATE GAINS AND ANALYZE PROBLEMS In Cuba, International Women's Day is a time both for celebration and reflection. Throughout history, women have been discriminated against in varying degrees; from being treated as little more than a slave, to receiving lower pay for equal work. If we look around the world today, we see that women in Cuba have greatly advanced over the past 40 years, though there is still a long way to go before true equality is attained. As we enter the 21st century, it is disheartening to see that in some countries women still lack the vote, or are not free to divorce or choose whether they wish to have children or not; that there are still large regions of the world where the brutal practice of genital mutilation continues. It is discouraging that enslaving women for purposes of prostitution continues, both in the underdeveloped and in the developed world. Some religions also relegate women to lower status than men. And in some highly developed nations, when a woman marries, she gives up her last name and takes on that of her husband. In Cuba, the Revolution has done much to eliminate discrimination of all kinds, including that based on sex. The literacy campaign in the early 60's was aimed at teaching everyone to read and write; young, old, workers, peasants, men and women. Since that time there has been equal access to education and employment, resulting in women taking the lead in the professions, and now there are more women doctors, lawyers, dentists, journalists, and scientists among many other professions in Cuba. And, there is a generalized respect and acceptance of women's abilities in nearly all fields. Divorce is accessible, as is abortion. Though there exists legislation in Cuba placing the responsibility of child raising and running a household equally both on men and women, the bulk of childrearing and housework falls on women due to centuries of tradition and "machismo." This "double work day" can hold Cuban women back from career advancement, both because they may be unable to compete for higher positions with those who don't have a double workday and because, overburdened, women sometimes eliminate themselves from promotions. But, though Cuban women still have a long way to go before they achieve complete equality with Cuban men, the differences pale when we analyze the situation of women around the world in the year 2001. And Cuban men and women know that it is together that they will win the struggle for a better society and a better world, and they will continue working together just as they have always worked side by side with the Revolution. (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= rhc-eng-6528 2001-Mar-08 23:24:54 " JC _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
