CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA July 3, 1997 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taken from RADIO HAVANA CUBA's International Shortwave Service in English for Thursday, July 3rd, 1997. Today's stories: 1.- CUBA'S DAILY GRANMA NEWSPAPER REPORTS MAJOR DISCOVERIES IN BOLIVIA IN EXCAVATIONS SEARCHING FOR REMAINS OF CHE GUEVARA 2.- CUBA DENOUNCES WASHINGTON'S RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENTS OF UNITED NATIONS DIPLOMATS 3.- CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY ANNOUNCES UPCOMING VISIT OF ST. VINCENT AND GRANADINE PRIME MINISTER JAMES MITCHELL 4.- WASHINGTON'S ATTACKS PROMOTE 14th WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL 5.- CONFERENCE ON HIV/AIDS SCHEDULED FOR THE CUBAN CAPITAL 6.- NEW CUBAN-MADE VACCINE AGAINST CHOLERA ENTERS CLINICAL STAGE 7.- CUBAN AND SPANISH UNIVERSITY AUTHORITIES AGREE ON MAINTAINING BILATERAL COOPERATION 8.- CUBAN DELEGATION ATTENDS HOMAGE TO ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA IN FRANCE CUBA'S DAILY GRANMA NEWSPAPER REPORTS MAJOR DISCOVERIES IN BOLIVIA IN EXCAVATIONS SEARCHING FOR REMAINS OF CHE GUEVARA Havana, July 3(RHC)-- Thursday's edition of the Cuban daily Granma published an official government note with details on new findings in the search for the remains of internationalist guerrilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara. According to the note, seven bodies were discovered between June 28th and July 1st in an area where Che and six other guerrillas are believed to have been buried in October 1967. The findings are not conclusive, but all indications seem to point to one of the skeletal remains as being that of the Argentinean-born guerrilla comandante. The Granma note said that a group of Cuban experts have been working with Bolivian authorities and Argentinean experts to find the remains of the guerrilla fighter. Excavation efforts began almost two years ago near the southern Bolivian town of Vallegrande. Once the work is completed around these new discoveries, the careful job of exhuming the remains will be conducted so that positive, anthropological identification can be completed. As new information becomes available, concludes the note in this morning's Granma, it will be made available. Ernesto Che Guevara was killed in October 1967, along with other Cuban and Bolivian fighters. Che had organized an international guerrilla force to overthrow the military regime installed in Bolivia at that time. Digging efforts began near the area where the guerrillas were killed following revelations by a former Bolivian military officer concerning the whereabouts of a mass grave. Three bodies were initially found, although only one was identified -- that of Bolivian guerrilla Jaime Alejandro Arana. Not long afterwards, experts discovered the body of Cuban guerrilla Carlos Coello, also known as "Tuma." According to one of the Cuban experts at the excavation site in Bolivia, Jorge Gonzalez, the Director of Cuba's Legal Medicine Institute, a final confirmation concerning Che will require further digging to find more evidence that will positively identify the remains. CUBA DENOUNCES WASHINGTON'S RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENTS OF UNITED NATIONS DIPLOMATS New York, July 3(RHC)-- Cuba has denounced U.S. restrictions on the movements of its diplomats at United Nations headquarters in New York. During a meeting Monday of the U.N. committee charged with overseeing relations between the world body's member nations and the host country -- in this case the United States -- Cuban U.N. Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez accused Washington of preventing access of a Cuban government minister to the island's U.N. mission in New York. Rodriguez recalled that during the U.N.'s Earth Summit II last week, Cuban Science, Technology and Environment Minister Rosa Elena Simeon was denied entry to Cuba's U.N. Mission. Rodriguez also charged that since 1996, the U.S. government has denied 19 requests by Cuban diplomats to travel outside of the 25-mile radius restriction in New York City. Included among those petitions were events related to the United Nations, petitions to travel to one of the four ports allowed for the entrance to or departure from the United States of Cuban officials and invitations to Cuban diplomats from the island's Interests Section in Washington, DC. One Cuban diplomat was denied a request to travel to Washington for a gathering of the organization Global Environment Facility. A Cuban official in Havana was also denied an entry visa to attend the gathering. Some members of the U.N. committee termed Washington's arguments concerning national security as "an absurd remnant of the Cold War." Ambassador Rodriguez said the restrictions run contrary to the letter and spirit of the accord signed between U.N. member nations and the host country and ignore international legal dispositions on diplomatic immunity. CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTRY ANNOUNCES UPCOMING VISIT OF ST. VINCENT AND GRANADINE PRIME MINISTER JAMES MITCHELL Havana, July 3(RHC)-- Cuba's foreign ministry announced today the upcoming visit to the island of the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Granadines, James Mitchell. During the foreign ministry's traditional Thursday news conference, spokeswoman Marianela Ferriol said Prime Minister Mitchell will be arriving in Havana on Saturday, the 5th, accompanied by high-level government officials and an ample delegation of business representatives. Upon reporting the news, Havana's Prensa Latina News Agency recalled that this is the fourth Caribbean dignitary to visit Cuba in recent months, following those of Grenadian Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, his Jamaican counterpart Percival Patterson and Guyanese Foreign Minister Clement Rohee. Prensa Latina also pointed to the increasing commercial ties between Cuba and its Caribbean neighbors, as evidenced in the important Caribbean participation at Santiago de Cuba's recently concluded Expo-Caribe trade fair. Ferriol said that St. Vincent and Granadine Prime Minister James Mitchell's visit is another important step towards regional integration and that the Cuban government attributes a great deal of importance to the upcoming visit. WASHINGTON'S ATTACKS PROMOTE 14th WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL Havana, July 3(RHC)-- Far from keeping U.S. young people away from Cuba this summer, the U.S. Treasury Department's denial of a license to the U.S. delegation -- allowing them to `legally' travel to the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students -- is actually promoting the event. The head of the Cuban National Preparatory Committee, Rogelio Polanco, said in Havana that Washington's position has unleashed a massive campaign involving international organizations, institutions and personalities in favor of authorizing young Americans to attend the youth event in Cuba. Polanco said that the movement is helping to promote the youth festival and that even more people have expressed a desire to travel to Cuba this summer. Last May 30th, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the denial of travel licenses to 50 U.S. youths making up that country's delegation to the youth festival. After filing an appeal Wednesday, U.S. Festival coordinators announced that they will bring the largest U.S. delegation to visit Cuba in three decades -- with an estimated one thousand young people. They say the group will travel to Cuba with or without Treasury Department permission. In related news, July 1997 will be recalled as the Month of Solidarity with Cuba -- with the arrival of three international work brigades: The Rius Rivera Brigade from Puerto Rico, the Jose Marti Brigade from Europe and the Venceremos Brigade from the United States. More than five hundred brigadistas will converge on Cuban fields to do agricultural work for two weeks. Most of the brigadistas will remain in Cuba as part of their country's delegations to the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students. CONFERENCE ON HIV/AIDS SCHEDULED FOR THE CUBAN CAPITAL Havana, July 3(RHC)-- Sexuality and AIDS in Cuba, Latin America and the Caribbean is the title of a conference to take place at Havana's Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine from August 6th to the 13th. The announcement was made by Dr. Jorge Perez, Director of Havana's AIDS Sanatorium, at a news conference held Thursday morning at the Cuban capital's International Press Center. Dr. Perez said that so far, l649 people have been affected by HIV here in Cuba and that 595 have developed the disease. Of those people, 429 have died. It took ten years to double the number of zero-positives in Cuba, according to 1996 statistics, though there has been a significant increase in the number of cases this year as compared to 1996. Cuban researchers are now working on the development of a vaccine against AIDS and a group of volunteers is being tested. Cuba spends between 12 and 14 thousand dollars a year to treat each AIDS patient, which represents millions of dollars. NEW CUBAN-MADE VACCINE AGAINST CHOLERA ENTERS CLINICAL STAGE Havana, July 3(RHC)-- A Cuban candidate-vaccine against cholera will soon be tested on humans. In fact, seven Cubans have already volunteered for the test. Cuban researcher, Dr. Antonio Perez, told journalists in Havana Thursday that the test presents no risks to participants, although they will be under close observation in order to evaluate possible side effects. This is the second such experiment in Cuba. More than 20 Cuban scientists are currently conducting tests on themselves. Testing of a Cuban candidate-vaccine against AIDS began last November. CUBAN AND SPANISH UNIVERSITY AUTHORITIES AGREE ON MAINTAINING BILATERAL COOPERATION Havana, July 3(RHC)-- Spanish and Cuban rectors have agreed to develop bilateral cooperation between the two nations' universities. The Third Meeting of Spanish and Cuban University Rectors produced a series of agreements under which experts from the two nations will have access to joint training courses and research in the areas of tourism, informatics, communication and social sciences. The next meeting of Cuban and Spanish university rectors is scheduled to take place in Madrid in 1999. CUBAN DELEGATION ATTENDS HOMAGE TO ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA IN FRANCE Paris, July 3(RHC)-- The Director of Cuba's Program on Marti, former Culture Minister Armando Hart, is heading a Cuban delegation to a tribute to Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, underway in the southern French city of Marseilles. The homage was organized by local authorities from the Department of Bouches-Du-Rhone in France. As part of the recognition to Che Guevara, Cuban Ambassador in Paris, Raul Roa Kouri, presented a lecture entitled: "Cuba on the Threshold of the Year 2000." One of the delegation's members, Cuban General Harry Villegas -- a survivor of Che's guerrilla group -- launched his latest book entitled "A Man from Che's Guerrilla Army." The tribute also includes a photo exhibit by Cuban photographer Perfecto Romero. [c] 1997. Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. This prohibition includes the distribution of this material via Usenet News, "bulletin board" services, e-mail lists, print media, radio and television. For the complete RADIO HAVANA CUBA NEWSCAST and other features, please write for our daily broadcast schedule. We welcome your comments and suggestions. 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