Radio Havana Cuba-27 March 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 27 March 2001 . *US HAS THE "LEAST MORAL AUTHORITY" TO JUDGE CUBA ON RIGHTS: PEREZ ROQUE *VISITING SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT BEGINS TALKS WITH FIDEL CASTRO *FOUR ZAPATISTA COMMANDERS TO ADDRESS FULL FLOOR OF MEXICAN CONGRESS *AUTHORITIES IN FLORIDA TO INVESTIGATE DEATHS OF CUBAN IMMIGRANTS Viewpoint: *THE FOREIGN DEBT: A MODERN MYTH OF SISYPHUS . *US HAS THE "LEAST MORAL AUTHORITY" TO JUDGE CUBA ON RIGHTS: PEREZ ROQUE Geneva, March 27 (RHC)--At the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has affirmed that the United States is the country with the least moral authority to judge Cuba over human rights and democracy issues. Addressing Tuesday the UN Human Rights Commission's Fifty-Seventh Session, Perez Roque said that, moreover, neither do those who second Washington's anti-Cuba maneuvers have the moral authority to talk to Cuba about human rights. The Commission on Human Rights, asserted Cuba's chief diplomat, is today more divided than ever and on the verge of reaching an irreversible point of disrepute. On the one hand, said the Cuban Foreign Minister, we have the representatives of the Third World that are hostages to debt, victims of an unfair disorder imposed around the world, owners of only their poverty and backwardness, contributing the millions of starving, poor and illiterate people and grievously sustaining with their suffering the opulence of their exploiters. And yet, he said, they are the ones who always stand accused at the Commission. Perez Roque said that on the other hand, we have the representatives of the rich and developed countries, the creditors, those who consume almost everything that is produced, those who squander, pollute and forget that they owe their wealth to us. They, he said, are the ones pretending to become the accusers and judges. The Cuban foreign minister said it was time that industrialized nations recognize that they are not the absolute owners of the truth, and cease trying to impose an increasingly less democratic and less pluralistic model on the world. He said the unjustifiable attempt to single out Cuba at this Commission is the result of Washington's pathological incapacity to accept Cuba as an independent country that it no longer owns. Perez Roque pointed out that even the most recent U.S. State Department report -- which, he added, Cuba does not view as legitimate -- recognizes that there are no politically motivated deaths or missing people in Cuba. The Cuban Foreign Minister said Cuban society is not perfect, that it's only a beginning, that Cuba is trying to obliterate centuries of injustice. Perez Roque wrapped up his speech at the 57th UN Human Rights Commission BY recalling that there are some who ask a gesture from Cuba in order to please the United States. He said the only gesture he can make, on behalf of the Cuban people, is to raise his fist and loudly proclaim the words that for forty years all Cubans have uttered in the face of each of the crimes and acts of aggression against Cuba: "Homeland or Death! We Shall Overcome!" [The complete text of Perez Roque's remarks, in Spanish, can be found in NY Transfer's Caribbean newsfeed at http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs ] *VISITING SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT BEGINS TALKS WITH FIDEL CASTRO Havana, March 27 (RHC)--Visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki today held official talks with Cuban President Fidel Castro. During the talks, Cuba and South Africa signed four bilateral accords in the spheres of sports and education, art and culture, scientific cooperation and air traffic between the two countries. Monday evening, the South African dignitary -- accompanied by the Cuban leader -- toured Havana's Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Center, where President Castro reiterated Cuba's willingness to help South Africa in the manufacture of low-cost AIDS medications. Some of the medicines making up the so-called anti-AIDS cocktail are already produced in Cuba. The Cuban leader pointed out that Brazil has continued the free distribution of AIDS medications, which has allowed thAT country to reduce by half the mortality rate of AIDS patients in less than four years. As a result of Brazil's production of generic anti-AIDS medication, the United States filed a complaint last February before the World Trade Organization accusing Brazil of violating the patent rights of U.S. pharmaceutical transnationals. Today, the South African president will also deliver a lecture at the University of Havana, participate in a press conference, and later in the evening will be awarded with Cuba's Jose Marti Order, the island's highest distinction. *FOUR ZAPATISTA COMMANDERS TO ADDRESS FULL FLOOR OF MEXICAN CONGRESS Mexico City, March 27 (RHC)--Four members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army will address Wednesday the Lower House of the Mexican Congress. The Zapatistas will be accompanied by three members of Mexico's National Indigenous Congress and another 220 invited guests. In a press release late Monday, the Zapatistas stated that all of their invited guests will be indigenous activists, since this may be the first time that this ethnic group enters the floor of Congress through the front door and in dignified and respectful conditions. The Zapatistas will have one hour and 15 minutes to present their points of view concerning legislation on indigenous rights, autonomy and culture, while the National Indigenous Congress members will have 45 minutes. The Chiapas rebels have drawn up a long list of media outlets whose presence they request at the session so as to assure ample coverage of their presentation before Mexican legislators. They have not announced which four Zapatista commanders will make up the delegation, nor whether the charismatic and enigmatic Marcos will be among them. Meanwhile, President Vicente Fox's ruling National Action Party has announced that it will be present during the congressional session, despite having voted against allowing the Zapatistas onto the full floor of Congress. *AUTHORITIES IN FLORIDA TO INVESTIGATE DEATHS OF CUBAN IMMIGRANTS Miami, March 27 (RHC)--Although Cuba has long warned of the dangers of trafficking in human beings, authorities in Florida are only now beginning to take action. Miami's assistant federal District Attorney Patricia Diaz has announced the setting up of a special commission to investigate the growing number of Cubans found dead under mysterious circumstances after having been in the hands of immigrant traffickers. Diaz stated today that this is not a question of people trying to help, but rather of criminals who are only interested in money and who have a total disregard for human life. Authorities said that at least six undocumented Cubans have been found dead in recent weeks, three of them women with signs of having suffered abuse. According to Border Patrol official Jose Mellia, practically all the most recent cases of contraband of illegal immigrants have involved people getting killed, adding that the so-called "coyotes of the Caribbean" are becoming increasingly more ambitious and more daring. The new investigative commission will include members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police officers from three Florida counties. . Viewpoint: *THE FOREIGN DEBT: A MODERN MYTH OF SISYPHUS For countries of the Third World, the foreign debt is the re-enactment of the Myth of Sisyphus, condemning the Third World to forever push a huge boulder up a mountain. Far from advancing toward a solution, they find the punishment increases because the initiatives to reduce the debt are always insignificant in the face of its constant growth. In l975, the underdeveloped nations owed 180 billion dollars, an enormous amount; today the debt exceeds an incomprehensible two trillion dollars. The logic is simple: the more the debtors pay, the more they owe. The statistics are irrefutable: the Third World has paid six times what it owed in l980 and paradoxically, it is now three times more indebted. In Latin America, where a number of countries are forced to earmark more than half their national budgets to pay the debt, the principal exceeds 700 billion dollars. According to figures supplied by the World Bank, between 1982 and l996 alone, Latin America dedicated 739 billion dollars just to service its debt, 739 and worse yet, the conditions of payment, rather than becoming more flexible, are becoming tougher. Bankers admit that for every dollar they lend to the underdeveloped countries, they earn nine dollars in interest. As a result, the debt increases with payments rather than decreases and sets back development options in most nations. The plan, postponed again and again, to forgive a percentage of the debts of the 48 poorest debtor countries, is in fact nothing more than begging for charity which would solve little since it would involve only one percent of the total Third World debt. In the opinion of the president of Cuba's Central Bank, Francisco Soberon, the rich nations are dealing with the problem more from a publicity point of view than from a true interest in resolving it. One can see that the proposed solutions are only partial, practically insignificant with respect to the mounting debt. Considered by many to be a time bomb waiting to explode, the debt drowns millions of people in misery, excluding them from the most elementary scientific and technological advances and generating dangerous feelings of frustration. (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] ================================================================= nytcari-03.27.01-21:03:47-12520 _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
