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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 00:14:59 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: [CubaNews] NY Transfer's RHC News Update-26 June 2001
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 26 June 2001
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*AT UN MEETING, CUBA OFFERS TO HELP THE THIRD WORLD FIGHT AIDS
*4TH MEXIC0-CUBA INTERPARLIAMENTARY MEETING SET
*VENEZUELAN GOVERNOR LOOKS TO INCREASED COOPERATION WITH CUBA
*CUBA: FIRST TO IMPLEMENT IBERO-AMERICAN COOPERATION PROGRAM
*CUBAN MILITARY DELEGATION ON OFFICIAL VISIT TO CHINA
*US GOVERNMENT HAS MUCH TO FEAR FROM MONTESINOS REVELATIONS
*ENVIRONMENTALISTS REFUTE USA ARGUMENTS ON KYOTO PROTOCOL
Viewpoint:
*SOLIDARITY IS NEEDED TO WIN THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS
.
*AT UN MEETING, CUBA OFFERS TO HELP THE THIRD WORLD FIGHT AIDS
United Nations, June 26 (RHC)--At the United Nations, Cuba has made a key
contribution to the debate on AIDS and the access of HIV-infected persons to
AIDS medication. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage addressed the Monday
session of the UN AIDS conference praising what he called the world body's
worthy and just effort of proposing and striving to obtain between seven and
ten billion dollars for the fight against the epidemic, but insisting that
it is an insufficient amount.
Lage said money alone cannot solve the problem, though it is a necessary
beginning. UN AIDS Program director Peter Piot, French Health Minister
Bernard Kouchner and other participants in the gathering admitted that
though several underdeveloped countries have reached agreements with
pharmaceutical companies to obtain AIDS medication at notably reduced
prices, these products continue to be beyond the reach of the majority of
those who need them.
The Cuban vice president asked if it is conceivable that this money cannot
be raised to save lives in a world that spends 40 times more than this on
illicit drugs, 80 times more on military budgets and 100 times more on
commercial advertising. Is it conceivable, he asked, that this money cannot
be raised to save lives in a world where 20% of the population accounts for
86% of private consumption, and where 22 individuals have a private fortunes
greater than the amount requested by the Secretary General, while their
combined wealth is 43 times greater.
Lage noted that the wealthiest, most powerful nation in history -- which
purports to be a champion of human rights -- fails to comply with its
financial obligations to the UN, is trying to reduce its contribution to the
World Health Organization, devotes barely 0.2% of its Gross Domestic Product
to development, and votes against a resolution that enshrines the right of
all people to access to AIDS drugs.
Justice and solidarity are what's needed, said the Cuban vice president,
rousing participants at the conference with his provocative proposal that
the Group of 7 industrialized countries come up with at least ten billion
dollars by reducing their military budgets during their gathering next month
in Italy.
Lage offered the world body 4,000 Cuban doctors and health care workers to
create the infrastructure to supply AIDS drugs to the populations of the
most needy countries, including the training of personnel and the professors
needed to create 20 medical schools. He said it would only be necessary for
the international community to contribute the drugs, equipment and material
resources needed for these products and services.
Finally, the Cuban vice president pointed out that although still blockaded,
and thus denied access to half of the new drugs produced in the world --
those produced by U.S. companies -- Cuba has managed to contain the epidemic
at home.
*4TH MEXIC0-CUBA INTERPARLIAMENTARY MEETING SET
Mexico, June 26 (RHC)--Legislators from Mexico and Cuba are giving the
final touches to preparations for the 4th Mexico-Cuba Interparliamentary
Meeting, to get underway tomorrow in the eastern Mexican State of Veracruz.
The aim of the encounter is to boost bilateral investments and exchange
experience in areas such as technology, culture, sports, health and
education.
On Tuesday, the President of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, Ricardo
García, gave a welcome lunch for the Cuban delegation to the bilateral
interparliamentary meeting, which runs through Friday, June 29. In his first
meeting with the Cuban legislators on Tuesday, García stressed that the role
of parliaments in the 21st century is to work in conjunction with
governments for the benefit of their peoples.
The top Mexican legislator also called for a parliamentary diplomacy -- that
is, national congresses working together for the sake of the common welfare
of their peoples.
The Cuban delegation to the Mexico-Cuba Interparliamentary Meeting is headed
by Ramon Pez Ferro, President of the Foreign Relations Commission of the
Cuban Parliament. Pez Ferro thanked Mexican officials for the traditional
demonstrations of affection and unconditional friendship by the Mexican
people for their Cuban brothers and sisters, and expressed certainty that
the Veracruz forum will contribute to further strengthening ties of
friendship between the two peoples.
The meeting's agenda includes debates, a formal session of the Veracruz Town
Council and the placing of a floral wreath before a bust of Cuba's national
hero Jose Marti.
The bilateral meeting takes place at a favorable time of growing economic
cooperation marked by a recently signed agreement for the promotion and
protection of investments. Mexico is Cuba's principal Latin American
investor and second most important trading partner.
In the international arena, Cuba has formally expressed its support for
Mexico's candidacy to represent Latin America in the United Nations Security
Council.
*VENEZUELAN GOVERNOR LOOKS TO INCREASED COOPERATION WITH CUBA
Havana, June 26 (RHC)--The visiting Governor of the Venezuelan State of
Guarico, Eduardo Manuitt, has expressed his interest in greater cooperation
with Cuba, especially in areas such as cattle raising and the production of
cereals, animal feeds and sugar cane.
Manuitt's visit to Cuba is in the framework of the comprehensive bilateral
cooperation agreement signed last year by Cuban President Fidel Castro and
Venezuelan's President, Hugo Chavez.
Upon his arrival in the Cuban capital on Tuesday, the governor of Guarico
also expressed interest in expanding bilateral cooperation to other fields,
including education, sports, tourism, housing construction and management,
as well as social and civil organization at the municipal level.
*CUBA: FIRST TO IMPLEMENT IBERO-AMERICAN COOPERATION PROGRAM
Havana, June 26 (RHC)--Cuba has become the first nation to produce a
project out of the Ibero-American Cooperation Program: Science and
Technology for Development, with the granting of 14 homes to an equal number
of families in Havana province.
The cooperation program was signed by 10 countries, which provide different
kinds of roofs for use in the construction of attractive, high-quality homes
for low-income families in what before were unsanitary communities in
disrepair. Similar constructions will be undertaken in communities in
Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela.
*CUBAN MILITARY DELEGATION ON OFFICIAL VISIT TO CHINA
Beijing, June 26 (RHC)--Army General Alvaro Lopez Miera, Deputy Minister of
the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, and Army Chief of Staff, is in China
for an official visit. Lopez Miera arrived in Beijing from Vietnam, where he
paid a one-week visit aimed at exchanging experiences between the armed
forces of Cuba and Vietnam.
During its stay in China, the Cuban delegation will hold talks with
high-ranking Chinese military officers and visit places of interest. This
visit by the General Lopez Miera and his delegation follows a visit to Cuba
last December by Colonel General Fu Quanyou, Head of the General Staff of
the Chinese Army.
*US GOVERNMENT HAS MUCH TO FEAR FROM MONTESINOS REVELATIONS
Washington, June 26 (RHC)--Human rights activists and Latin America experts
in Washington are asserting that the U.S. government has much to fear
concerning possible revelations from former Peruvian national intelligence
chief Vladimiro Montesinos. Coletta Youngers, of the Washington Office on
Latin America was quoted by media sources as saying following Montesinos's
arrest and extradition that the former fugitive has much to tell regarding
the silence of the CIA and the Drug Enforcement Administration during the
construction of a criminal empire in Peru that generated hundreds of
millions of dollars through drug and weapons trafficking.
Youngers characterized Washington's desire to receive credit for Montesinos'
capture as dishonest, when the U.S. embassy in Peru played a key role his
first exile in Panama. Panamanian authorities came under fire for taking in
the fugitive and refused to grant him asylum, forcing Montesinos to return
to Peru, where he immediately disappeared. The U.S. State Department
justified its role in the case by claiming that Washington had hoped to
prevent a coup d'etat in Peru by Montesinos' followers.
Youngers said that Washington fears the existence of taped videos of
gatherings between Montesinos and officials of the CIA and other U.S.
government agencies, similar to those that have discredited dozens of
Peruvian political leaders, judges and military officers.
Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive also believes that the CIA
has much to lose in a public trial of Montesinos. Archive researcher Tamara
Feinstein has called on Washington to continue cooperating in the
declassification of U.S. government documents on Montesinos' activities.
Following a Peruvian government petition, last June the State Department
said the process will continue, but will be slow.
In the past months, the National Security Archive has obtained declassified
documents through the Freedom of Information Act that reveal a close
relationship between Montesinos and U.S. intelligence agencies since the
early 1970s. One Defense Department document indicates that U.S. authorities
knew Montesinos supervised torture sessions against Peruvian army officers
who attempted to stage a coup against former President Alberto Fujimori in
1992.
*ENVIRONMENTALISTS REFUTE USA ARGUMENTS ON KYOTO PROTOCOL
The Hague, June 26 (RHC)--Another group of experts has refuted Washington's
arguments justifying the USA's unilateral withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming. On Tuesday, the World Resources Institute, an
environmental study group, released a report at The Hague, coinciding with
informal ministerial gatherings on climate change resulting from the
greenhouse effect.
The organization rejected President George Bush's argument that the Kyoto
Protocol is not valid because it only imposes the reduction of contaminating
gas emissions on industrialized nations, while leaving out countries like
China and India. The report notes that while the United States, with only 5%
of the world population, is responsible for close to 30% of contaminating
gas emissions. By contrast China and India, with 40% of the planet's
inhabitants, are only responsible for only 7% and 2% of emissions,
respectively.
The group found that US gas emissions from electricity alone are greater
than all emissions combined from Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, South
Africa and South Korea. The study also found that in 1999, the United States
released into the atmosphere 5.6 tons of greenhouse gases per inhabitant, 30
times more than India and 11 times more than China.
The World Resources Institute also pointed to the commitments assumed by
several developing countries that are not included in the Kyoto Protocol,
noting that between 1997 and 1999 China reduced its gas emissions by 17%
while increasing its Gross Domestic Product by 15%. India, Mexico, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines -- all highly dependent on gas and coal, noted
the report -- have initiated programs to increase their energy efficiency
and develop renewable sources of energy.
The group predicted that the United States will continue to be the leader in
contaminating gas emissions for years to come, still amply surpassing China
and India in the year 2010.
*Viewpoint: SOLIDARITY IS NEEDED TO WIN THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS
Cuba has announced that its Comprehensive Health Care Program, which the
island is implementing in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, is at the
disposition of international campaigns aimed at stopping the spread of AIDS.
Cuba offered its assistance in the United Nations in the context of the
special General Assembly meeting dealing with the spread of AIDS. The island
would help to create a health infrastructure and would share its experience
in treating such cases.
This is not an offer from a country overwhelmed by the spread of AIDS
because Cuba has, to a large extent, been able to contain the epidemic. It
is sufficient to note that the island has the lowest AIDS rate in Latin
America and one of the lowest in the world, with an infection rate of 0.03%
in the population between 15 and 49 years of age. Cuban health officials
have not detected any cases of newborn carriers of the virus in the last
three years, thanks to voluntary testing of pregnant women. In Cuba,
preventative treatment is provider to carriers of the AIDS virus during
pregnancy and to the newborn child.
Since the beginning of Cuba's national program against AIDS in l986, only
eight cases have been registered of babies born with the disease, one of
whom who is a girl about to turn 15. She is smaller than other children, but
she is of normal intelligence.
Cuba is the only nation that offers HIV-positive patients a comprehensive
treatment program completely free-of-charge. When a Cuban is diagnosed with
the virus, he or she is immediately attended to by a multidisciplinary team
of specialists that, among other things, helps the person learn to live with
AIDS.
In addition to the existence of sanatoria which offer free lodging and
board, a growing number of HIV-positive patients and those with full-blown
AIDS are opting to stay in their homes and communities and receive
out-patient care there. The government provides them with therapy consisting
of combinations of the latest medicines and anti-retroviral medications,
which Cuba has begun producing for distribution on the island and in other
Third World countries.
Cuba's proposal in the framework of the United Nations, which also includes
advising AIDS prevention programs and supplying diagnostic kits, is an offer
that is of great importance for Africa, where 13 countries are on the United
Nations' list of the 15 nations with the highest numbers of AIDS cases.
The international strategy to stop AIDS must direct more resources to the
Third World and Cuba has made it known what it will do in that regard.
(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
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