CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA June 13th, 1997 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org The following items are taken from RADIO HAVANA CUBA's International Shortwave Service in English for Friday, June 13th, 1997. Today's stories: 1.- CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ROBERTO ROBAINA RETURNS HOME FOLLOWING LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN TOUR 2.- CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT CARLOS LAGE MEETS WITH CHILEAN PRESIDENT EDUARDO FREI 3.- PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO SENDS MESSAGE TO PARTICIPANTS IN ASIAN CUBA SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE 4.- SPANISH LEADERS CALL PRESIDENT JOSE MARIA AZNAR'S POSITION ON CUBA TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE 5.- CUBA CALLS ON THE UNITED NATIONS TO MAKE THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL MORE DEMOCRATIC 6.- CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WILL DISCUSS WAYS TO STRENGTHEN GROWING TIES WITH CUBA 7.- DEAR PRESIDENT CLINTON: CATHOLIC BISHOPS CALL ON WASHINGTON TO SUSPEND BAN ON DIRECT FLIGHTS TO CUBA 8.- CUBA WILL PUSH FOR COMPLIANCE WITH AGREEMENTS REACHED AT THE RIO EARTH SUMMIT 9.- ITALIAN TOURISM BOOM ON THE ISLAND 10.- CUBAN OIL WELLS TO BE AUTOMATED 11.- SPANISH BUSINESS EXECUTIVES WILL SOON EXPLORE BUSINESS POSSIBILITIES ON THE ISLAND CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER ROBERTO ROBAINA RETURNS HOME FOLLOWING LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN TOUR Havana, June 13(RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina returned to Havana this morning after meeting with numerous Latin American and Caribbean leaders over the past several days. The Cuban foreign minister visited Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. On his last stop yesterday, Robaina met with Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman in Managua. Speaking with reporters following the meeting, the Nicaragua president announced that Central American presidents will examine the issue of new legislative measures against Cuba and their extraterritorial character at an upcoming summit of regional leaders in Panama. According to the Nicaraguan president, he and other Central American leaders will meet next July 11th and 12th and will take the opportunity to evaluate the issue of Cuba during that summit. CUBAN VICE PRESIDENT CARLOS LAGE MEETS WITH CHILEAN PRESIDENT EDUARDO FREI Santiago de Chile, June 13(RHC)-- Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage arrived today in Brazil on another leg of his South America tour. Lage was received by Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in a gathering in which Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia also participated. The Cuban vice president met Thursday with Chilean President Eduardo Frei in Santiago de Chile. Lage talked with the Chilean president about the effects that new, anti-Cuba measures in the U.S. Congress will have on Latin America. The Chilean and Brazilian governments have expressed their firm opposition to the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba as well as the extraterritorial nature of Washington's Helms-Burton Law. Following his meeting with the Cuban vice president, Chilean Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters that his government is, in his words, "very concerned" about the maneuvers of U.S. congressional representatives to tighten the Helms-Burton Law. PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO SENDS MESSAGE TO PARTICIPANTS IN ASIAN CUBA SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE Hanoi, June 13(RHC)-- In a message to participants at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Cuba Solidarity Conference in Hanoi, Cuban President Fidel Castro said that "Cuba and its Revolution will not disappear." Over the past two days, more than one hundred representatives from 15 nations examined the consequences of the more than three-decade U.S. blockade against Cuba. In his message, the Cuban leader said that although the island is in the midst of its most difficult period, Cubans are aware that "only in a socialist nation, could they preserve their independence and continue developing what they have achieved during these 38 years of Revolution." In another part of his message, President Fidel Castro thanked participants, and especially the Vietnamese people, for organizing the Continental Cuba Solidarity conference. SPANISH LEADERS CALL PRESIDENT JOSE MARIA AZNAR'S POSITION ON CUBA TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE Madrid, June 13(RHC)-- The leader of Spain's Galician Nationalist Block, Francisco Rodriguez, called the stance of Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar's administration toward Cuba, in his words, "totally unacceptable." In his speech during parliamentary debates in Madrid, Rodriguez said the extraterritorial character of Washington's Helms-Burton legislation was "against the most elemental norms of international law." Spain's parliamentary debates on the State of the Nation also included an address by the leader of the Socialist Workers Party, Felipe Gonzalez, who called on Madrid to change its hostile policy toward Cuba. Gonzalez pointed out that Spain stands alone among the European Union in its antagonistic conduct toward Cuba, noting that all other EU member-states have excellent relations with Havana. CUBA CALLS ON THE UNITED NATIONS TO MAKE THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL MORE DEMOCRATIC New York, June 13(RHC)-- Cuba has called on the United Nations to remove the shroud of secrecy surrounding the U.N. Security Council and to make the Council more democratic. During debates Thursday in U.N. General Assembly work groups, Cuba's Ambassador before the world body, Pedro Nunez Mosquera, pointed out that the United Nations now has three times as many members as it did when it was founded fifty years ago... and yet the Security Council is still only composed of 15 members. Nunez Mosquera emphasized that the collective future of the international community is in the hands of a small group of nations -- a few with the power to veto the will of a majority. Cuba's U.N. ambassador stated that there must be a democratic reform of the Security Council, allowing for the participation of more member-states. CARICOM FOREIGN MINISTERS WILL DISCUSS WAYS TO STRENGTHEN GROWING TIES WITH CUBA Georgetown, June 13(RHC)-- Foreign ministers of the Caribbean Community -- known as CARICOM -- are scheduled to meet next week in Guyana where they will discuss regional integration and ways to strengthen their growing ties with Cuba. The meeting will take place in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, next Monday and Tuesday. CARICOM member-states have increasingly grown closer to their Caribbean island neighbor, despite Washington's attempts to isolate Cuba from the Caribbean region. Observers point to the recent official visits to Havana of Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson and Grenada's Prime Minister Keith Mitchell as evidence of ever expanding relations between Cuba and the Caribbean community. DEAR PRESIDENT CLINTON: CATHOLIC BISHOPS CALL ON WASHINGTON TO SUSPEND BAN ON DIRECT FLIGHTS TO CUBA Washington, June 13(RHC)-- Two Catholic bishops have called on President Bill Clinton to suspend the ban on direct humanitarian aid flights to Cuba. Bishop John Richard of Pensacola, Florida and Archbishop Theodore MacCarrick of Newark, New Jersey sent an open letter to the U.S. president, emphasizing that the requirement of going through third countries has made humanitarian donations unnecessarily difficult. The two Catholic Church officials said it was unethical to maintain such a ban on direct flights, prohibited last year by the U.S. president following the downing of two U.S.- registered aircraft violating Cuban territorial airspace. CUBA WILL PUSH FOR COMPLIANCE WITH AGREEMENTS REACHED AT THE RIO EARTH SUMMIT Havana, June 13(RHC)-- Cuba supports Third World nations' demands to maintain agreements reached at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Friday's edition of Cuba's Granma newspaper published an article explaining Cuba's position at the 19th Special Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly -- June 23rd to 27th in New York City -- aimed at evaluating commitments made at the Rio Summit. The Cuban Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment, Doctor Rosa Elena Simeon, told Granma that although international concern over sustainable development has substantially increased over the past five years, many aspects of the earth's environment are worse than they were five years ago. Dr. Simeon said that most industrialized nations have delayed contributing 0.7 percent of their national gross product to assist underdeveloped nations as was agreed at the Rio Summit. The Cuban Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment charged that industrialized nations have also ignored two important points of the Earth Summit agenda: reducing interest accumulated by foreign debts and lowering toxic emissions that cause the `greenhouse effect.' Dr. Rosa Elena Simeon noted that the island stands in second place among Third World nations in human development. ITALIAN TOURISM BOOM ON THE ISLAND Havana, June 13(RHC)-- Italian tour executives anticipate an increase in visitors to Cuba over the next two years. Over 60,000 Italian tourists are expected to spend their vacations in Cuba each year. The Italian tour company Viaggi del Ventalio is partly responsible for the increase. According to the tour company's president, Bruno Colombo, Viaggi del Ventalio will operate over 900 rooms on the island by the year 2000. The Italian tourism enterprise is currently managing 400 hotel rooms in Havana and the central province of Ciego de Avila. Tour operators report that Italy is expected to send over 211,000 visitors to Cuba this year. CUBAN OIL WELLS TO BE AUTOMATED Havana, June 13(RHC)-- Cuban experts from the Informatic Services Enterprise in central Ciego de Avila province are the first to mass produce control panels to automate the island's oil wells. According to experts, this opens up new perspectives for oil exploration and drilling on the island. The first 25 monitoring systems are already in place in the Pina and Cristales oil fields, the island's first to automate the entire oil drilling process. Among the advantages offered by monitoring systems is better exploration of oil fields, leading to an increase in production. SPANISH BUSINESS EXECUTIVES WILL SOON EXPLORE BUSINESS POSSIBILITIES ON THE ISLAND Havana, June 13(RHC)-- Some twenty Spanish entrepreneurs will arrive on the island later this month to explore new bilateral trade possibilities. Observers say investments will be at the center of discussions between business representatives from the two nations. Representatives from Madrid's Chamber of Commerce will meet with local authorities and attend the 6th International Expocaribe '97 trade fair, which will take place in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba later this month. [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. 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