CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA November 19, 1997 rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taking from Radio Havana Cuba's news service for Wednesday, November 19, 1997. Today's stories: 1.- CUBA'S FIRST VICE PRESIDENT AND DEFENSE MINISTER RAUL CASTRO MEETS IN BEIJING WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT JIANG ZEMIN 2.- CUBA'S GRANMA NEWS DAILY EDITORIALIZES ON MIAMI HERALD INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM INTO RECENT WAVE OF TERRORIST BOMBS IN HAVANA 3.- THE WASHINGTON POST CRITICIZES US GOVERNMENT'S DENIAL OF FOOD AND MEDICINE TO CUBAN PEOPLE 4.- CUBA DENOUNCES AT THE UNITED NATIONS IMPOSITION OF ONE SPECIFIC TYPE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC MODEL 5.- BELARUS PARLIAMENT DELEGATION BEGINS VISIT TO CUBA 6.- CUBA WILL STEADY CONTINUE ITS ECONOMIC RECOVERY 7.- SPANISH SOCIALIST LAWMAKERS DEMAND APPOINTMENT OF AMBASSADOR TO HAVANA 8.- CUBA'S RAILROAD SYSTEM MARKS 160TH ANNIVERSARY 9.- BRAZIL IS THE ONLY UNDEFEATED TEAM AT THE MEN'S WORLD VOLLEYBALL CUP CUBA'S FIRST VICE PRESIDENT AND DEFENSE MINISTER RAUL CASTRO MEETS IN BEIJING WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT JIANG ZEMIN Havana, November 19(RHC)-- Cuba's First Vice President and Defense Minister Raul Castro met today in Beijing with Chinese President Jiang Zemin. According to China's Xinhua news agency, Zemin said that Sino-Cuban cooperation has passed the test of time, expressing China's admiration of Cuba's efforts despite the enormous pressures exerted against the island. The Chinese President and the First Vice President of Cuba's Council of State also exchanged impressions concerning both country's recent Communist Party Congresses. Raul Castro was officially received yesterday by Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng to begin a two-week visit to the Asian nation. CUBA'S GRANMA NEWS DAILY EDITORIALIZES ON MIAMI HERALD INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM INTO RECENT WAVE OF TERRORIST BOMBS IN HAVANA Havana, November 19(RHC)-- Cuba's Granma news daily editorializes Wednesday on a front-page feature article recently published by The Miami Herald concerning terrorist bombs in Havana. With the title "Cuba Never Lies", the local newspaper extensively commented on the conclusions of a Miami Herald investigative piece asserting that the anti-Cuba terrorism was carried out by Salvadorean criminals and ultra right wing Cuban-Americans in Miami. In relation to the feature article, The Miami Herald concluded that "to a large extent, its findings support the version given by Cuban police that the bombs were the work of Salvadoreans and Cubans living abroad, and not that of opposition forces in Cuba". The Cuban news daily recalled that this was Cuba's publicly expressed position from the very beginning, following the arrest in Havana of Salvadorean mercenary Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon. Cuban authorities stated at the time that they have long been aware of the existence in El Salvador of an international network of terrorists and narco traffickers with close ties to Miami's ultra right wing Cuban-American National Foundation, and that this network was even involved in death squad activity during that Central American nation's civil war. The Miami Herald, however, did not implicate the Cuban- American National Foundation in the financing and organizing of the terrorist campaign. But the Cuban daily recalled that Cuban-American terrorist Luis Posada Carriles -- who The Miami Herald called an explosives expert who trained the Salvadorean mercenaries -- admitted to his close ties with Miami's ultra right in his book "Caminos de Guerrero" -- or, The Paths of Warriors --published in 1994. He specifically mentioned the Foundation's leader, Jorge Mas Canosa, and some of Canosa's closest collaborators, Pepe Hernandez and Feliciano Foyo. Posada Carriles called them qualified people who regularly provide him with sufficient money and who helped him escape from a prison in Venezuela after being charged for the 1976 terrorist bomb that destroyed a Cuban civilian airliner off the coasts of Barbados, killing all 73 passengers. The Granma article takes note that The Miami Herald investigative journalism was carried out by a media outlet that has not been characterized by sympathy for the Cuban revolution. It also takes note of the fact that the terrorism was carried out not only by persons who have no qualms about embarrassing the White House, but also by individuals who maintain close relations with certain members of the US Congress. THE WASHINGTON POST CRITICIZES US GOVERNMENT'S DENIAL OF FOOD AND MEDICINE TO CUBAN PEOPLE Washington, November 19(RHC)-- The Washington Post has blasted the US government's denial of medicine and food to the Cuban people. An editorial in today's edition of the daily termed this policy "a sordid tactic" that runs contrary to the American humanitarian tradition, and that has a severe impact primarily on children, women, the elderly and the sick. According to The Washington Post, there aren't many Americans so vengeful that they want to cut off the flow of these necessities to needy people. The editorial came out is support of a draft bill to be considered next year in the US Congress aimed at diminishing the effects of the blockade. A bi-partisan group of US Senators last week introduced a bill before the US Congress that would permit American companies to sell food and medicine directly to Cuba. The bill, entitled the " Cuban Women and Children Humanitarian Relief Act of 1997" has seven sponsors in the Senate -- four Republicans and three Democrats -- and more than 100 co-sponsors in the 435 seat House of Representatives. It also has the support of the powerful US Chamber of Commerce, human rights groups like Oxfam International and the Washington Office on Latin America, American churches, as well as Cuban exile groups like the Cuban Committee for Democracy and the Cuban-American Alliance Education Fund, Incorporated. Many of these groups have called on Congress to adopt the legislation in the wake of a study released last March by the American Association for World Health, the AAWH. This organization found that Washington's blockade of Cuba has dramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens, especially, women, children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. The international vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce, Willard Workman, said his organization believes that US-produced, life-sustaining products should be freely available for purchase to people who need them all over the world. Sponsors of the legislation hope that Pope John Paul II's visit in January to Cuba will give momentum to their efforts. The Pope has spoken out against the blockade in the past and is expected to use the occasion of his visit to denounce its effects on the most vulnerable of Cuba's close to 11 million people. Today's Washington Post editorial said the contrast with the US's intense trade relations with China is --in its words-- painful, and that the policy separates the United States from its closest allies. The editorial recognized that Washington issues licenses for the exportation of food and medicine to Cuba, but admitted that the licensing process is riddled with political, bureaucratic and financial obstacles. CUBA DENOUNCES AT THE UNITED NATIONS IMPOSITION OF ONE SPECIFIC TYPE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC MODEL Havana, November 19(RHC)-- Cuba has asserted at the United Nations that those who wish to impose their social model on others should first convince their own electorates that this model is valid. Speaking Tuesday before the UN General Assemblies 3rd commission on social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, Cuba's UN ambassador Bruno Rodriguez pointed to the crisis in which most political systems find themselves because the majority of the people living in those systems don't feel represented by their political leaders. For that reason, he said, they don't bother to vote -- pointing to growing voter abstentionism. In specific reference to the United States, Rodriguez said this country would have demonstrated that its model -- which he said is functioning worse and worse every year -- would work for the South, where it's not consumption that's unsustainable, but rather life itself. It's in that underdeveloped world, said the UN ambassador, where 12 million potential voters starve to death every year, where 800 can't afford a meal everyday, where one billion can't read or write and where one billion 500 million have no access to health care. BELARUS PARLIAMENT DELEGATION BEGINS VISIT TO CUBA Havana, November 19(RHC)-- A Byelorussian parliamentary delegation headed by chairman of the Chamber of Representatives of the Byelorussian National Assembly Anatoly Malofeyev, is in Cuba for a seven-day official visit. Malofeyev and his delegation met with chair of the Cuban National Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon and top-level Foreign Ministry officials. In conversations both delegations evaluated mutual relations in the economic, and political spheres, and explored ways to make more use of the potential accumulated over dozens of years of close cooperation between Cuba and Belarus. During the visit Byelorussian parliamentarians will also meet with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Investments and Economic Cooperation. Cuban-Byelorussian relations have recently been on the rise. Byelorussian Foreign Minister, Ivan Antonovich and Culture Minister, Alexandr Sosnovsky, paid visits to Havana in 1997. According to diplomatic sources Belarus is to open an embassy in Cuba in the near future. CUBA WILL STEADY CONTINUE ITS ECONOMIC RECOVERY Havana, November 19(RHC)-- Vice President of the Cuban Council of Ministers, Carlos Lage Davila told a Regional Central banks meeting this week that conditions favor the island's ability to sustain its economic recovery process. Lage's remarks were made during a two-day gathering held under the auspices of the Central bank of Venezuela and the Latin American Economic System - SELA- a Caracas- based body that seeks to foster regional economic cooperation and integration. The Cuban high ranking official told the gathering that Cuba's gross domestic product is expected to expand by about 2.5 percent this year, compared to 7.8 percent growth in 1996. But he stressed, the slower trend nevertheless shows that the island's economy is making further headway in recovering from its crisis triggered by the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the tightening of the US blockade against the island. Lage said growth in some sectors such as tourism and an increase in foreign investment were in important contributions to the 1997 economic performance. Tourism has grown at an average of 20 percent annually in the past five years. In related economic news, the island's nickel processing Complex has announced a new production record of concentrated nickel for a year with 53 thousand 657 tons. The outstanding results, say Basic Industry officials is a result of the modernization process of the Moa and Nicaro Nickel Plants, currently operating in partnership with the Canadian firm Sherrit International. SPANISH SOCIALIST LAWMAKERS DEMAND APPOINTMENT OF AMBASSADOR TO HAVANA Madrid, November 19(RHC)-- Spain's Socialist Workers Party has announced it will urge the Government to name a new ambassador to Havana. A press release said that the party regretted that during the recently concluded 7th Iberoamerican Summit in Margarita Island, Venezuela, Spain's President failed to mention appointing a new Ambassador to Cuba. The document urges Spanish authorities to maintain relations with Havana based on dialogue, the non- intervention in Cuban domestic affairs and full respect for the island's sovereignty and its right to choose its own future. CUBA'S RAILROAD SYSTEM MARKS 160TH ANNIVERSARY Havana, November 19(RHC)-- Today is an important day for Cuban train lovers; it marks the 160th anniversary of the Cuban Railway. Cuba is proud to have been the first country in Latin America to develop a rail system and the 7th worldwide. To celebrate the anniversary, Cuban Railway officials inaugurated a train and photo exhibit in Havana's lovely Cristina Train Station. Dozens of gleaming steam locomotives and antique train coaches were on display for the public's enjoyment. The island also has the distinction of being the country with the most antique steam locomotives in use. According to train photographer, Israel Diaz, whose photos are on display, the trains are kept moving thanks to the great love Cuba's rail workers have for them and thanks to their great ingenuity in creating parts to keep them running. Cuba's sugar industry uses the ancient trains to bring in the sugar harvests each year and has more kilometers of tracks criss-crossing the country than the island's National Railway. BRAZIL IS THE ONLY UNDEFEATED TEAM AT THE MEN'S WORLD VOLLEYBALL CUP Hiroshima, November 19(RHC)-- Brazil is the only team undefeated so far after three rounds of competitions at the men's volleyball Cup of Champs underway in Japan. At Hiroshima's Green Arena, the Brazilian squad swept away China three sets to nothing. Reports indicate that there were no surprises Wednesday. Holland dominated Australia with a similar score, but had a terrible first set. Cuba, the nation that comes in second place needed one hour and 58 minutes to win over Japan three sets to two. This was a highly-sought after victory for the two teams to consolidate their aspirations for the top honors. Thursday will be rest day and the participating teams will travel to Tokyo for the last stage of the cup. Holland is in third place and Australia continues at the bottom. Meanwhile, the story for the Cuban team in women's follows: after an easy victory over South Korea, there are only two days of competitions left, but its most serious challenge comes Friday against Russia. On the 23rd it will face Japan. The Russian team is at its best and it will be a very tough confrontation. Even if the Cuban team defeats the Russian, Japan also poses a threat. [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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