CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following items are taken from Radio Havana Cuba's news service for Wednesday, April 15, 1998. Today's stories: 1.- CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO AND VISITING CAPE VERDIAN PRESIDENT ANTONIO MANUEL MASCARENHAS AWARDED WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES' HIGHEST DISTINCTIONS 2.- MEMBER OF RULING PARTY COALITION IN CHILE CRITICIZES CUBA'S EXCLUSION FROM SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS 3.- GROUP OF AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC NATIONS INVITES CUBA AS OBSERVER TO UPCOMING MINISTERIAL GATHERING 4.- CUBA COMMEMORATES 37th ANNIVERSARY OF MERCENARY ATTACK THAT PRECEDED THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION 5.- PARTICIPANTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE AMONG WOMEN DEDICATE WEDNESDAY'S SESSION TO SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA CUBAN PRESIDENT FIDEL CASTRO AND VISITING CAPE VERDIAN PRESIDENT ANTONIO MANUEL MASCARENHAS AWARDED WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES' HIGHEST DISTINCTIONS Havana, April 15(RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro gave visiting President of Cape Verde, Antonio Manuel Mascarenhas, the island's Jose Marti Award. President Mascarenhas, in turn, awarded the Cuban leader with the Amilcar Cabral distinction. During a brief ceremony last night in Havana, President Castro praised the late Amilcar Cabral -- the father of the independence of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau -- calling him "a renowned thinker, a tireless fighter and an extraordinary human being." The Cuban leader took the opportunity to demand solidarity and justice in a world in which, he said, "most of the population does not enjoy the benefits of development." President Castro called on the rich nations to share the wealth that poor nations overwhelmingly helped to create -- in reference to the centuries of slavery and colonialism. He said the countries of the Third World have "a moral right to demand a just social order." President Mascarenhas, for his part, said that one of Amilcar Cabral's greatest honors was to have Fidel Castro as a personal friend. The President of Cape Verde said the distinction was given to the Cuban leader, "taking into consideration his decisive actions in favor of freedom, independence and dignity of peoples who have struggled against all forms of oppression." President Mascarenhas also thanked the Cuban leader for Cuba's solidarity with his country both before and after its independence struggle. Amilcar Cabral led the struggle for the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde as early as 1954. In 1956, he founded the PAIGC -- the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde -- which in took up arms in 1959 against Portuguese colonial rule. By 1972, the PAIGC had liberated two-thirds of the country, and held elections in liberated territory. A Popular National Assembly was elected one year later, but shortly afterwards, Cabral was assassinated by Portuguese agents. He left numerous books and studies on the struggles for freedom in African colonies and participated in several international solidarity forums in Cuba. MEMBER OF RULING PARTY COALITION IN CHILE CRITICIZES CUBA'S EXCLUSION FROM SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS Santiago de Chile, April 15(RHC)-- The Chilean Party for Democracy -- one of the four political organizations forming the country's ruling coalition -- has harshly criticized the government due to Cuba's exclusion from the upcoming Summit of the Americas, slated for this weekend in the Chilean capital. The Party for Democracy accused Chile's Foreign Ministry of not taking steps to prevent Cuba's exclusion from the event. Questioned by the local media, Chilean President Eduardo Frei insisted that he was in favor of Cuba's participation and that he was not aware of any specific requirements for Cuba's incorporation into the inter-American system of nations. GROUP OF AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC NATIONS INVITES CUBA AS OBSERVER TO UPCOMING MINISTERIAL GATHERING Brussels, April 15(RHC)-- The group of former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific -- known as the ACP Group -- has invited Cuba to participate in its upcoming ministerial gathering in Barbados. The decision is seen as a first step towards Cuba's full participation in talks between the ACP and the European Union, aimed at updating the Lome Convention -- which gives the ACP certain preferences in its relation with the European Union. The ACP's executive committee announced that Cuba would be invited to participate as an observer in the group's ministerial meeting from May 4th to the 6th in Bridgetown, Barbados. The meeting will precede a joint ACP-EU gathering between May 7th and 8th. Cuba formally requested participation in these negotiations last February. Shortly afterwards, Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Ricardo Cabrisas attended a gathering in Trinidad and Tobago of CARIFORM -- comprised of CARICOM and the Dominican Republic. This gathering was aimed at coordinating the ACP's position with respect to its ties with the European Union. The 71 member-nations of the ACP will begin talks with the EU in September to revise the Lome Convention. The tendency within the EU is to reduce trade preferences for its former colonies and place conditions on bilateral cooperation. Cuba believes that its participation in these talks will further promote its integration into the Caribbean, facilitate its inclusion into the world economy and institutionalize its relations with the European Union. Cuba insists, however, that the negotiations must be based on principles of sovereignty, self-determination and equality between States. According to some observers, the decision taken today in Brussels may completely change the EU's policy with respect to Cuba -- the only Latin American nation with which the European Union does not have a bilateral accord. Cuba, nevertheless, has growing economic relations with the EU's individual member nations. CUBA COMMEMORATES 37th ANNIVERSARY OF MERCENARY ATTACK THAT PRECEDED THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION Havana, April 15(RHC)-- Thirty-seven years ago today, the Cuban people awoke to machine-gun fire and exploding bombs from mercenary planes that attacked the airports of Cuidad Libertad and San Antonio de los Banos in Havana and Antonio Maceo Airport in eastern Santiago de Cuba. The planes came from the United States -- by way of Nicaragua -- and were piloted by mercenaries of Cuban- origin, trained and financed by Washington. This attack served as a prelude to the Bay of Pigs invasion, aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution. Attacks on economic and social installations, terrorism and counterrevolutionary actions killed dozens of Cuban citizens on this date in 1961. With the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the U.S. was handed its first military defeat in Latin America. Today, with more experience and participation, the Cuban people -- weapons in hand -- are ready to defend their independence, sovereignty and socialist system. PARTICIPANTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE AMONG WOMEN DEDICATE WEDNESDAY'S SESSION TO SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA Havana, April 15(RHC)-- On the second day of Havana's International Conference of Solidarity Among Women, participants were treated to three master lectures by top Cuban government officials. The more than two thousand delegates to the International Conference in Solidarity Among Women first heard from Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage. Addressing the delegates in Havana's Karl Marx Theater, the Cuban leader briefed the women on Washington's economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, which he stressed is not an `embargo' or even a `blockade' -- but "a full-fledged economic war being waged by Washington against the island." Lage began his lecture noting that the conflict between the U.S. and Cuba "has nothing to do with socialism," since it began long before 1959. In fact, he said, "it began during the Cuban-Spanish-American War -- 100 years ago -- when Washington immediately crushed any move in Cuba that appeared to be pro-independent." The Cuban vice president talked about restrictions on international trade, which the U.S. blockade imposes on the island, giving a detailed account of Cuba's economic crisis sparked by the collapse of socialism in Europe. Lage explained how the island has managed to show respectable economic gains each year since 1994. Next to take the podium was Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, who spoke about the characteristics of Cuba's democracy. Alarcon mentioned the current meetings underway in Cuba, in which elected officials report back to their constituents -- something they are required to do twice a year. Ricardo Alarcon seconded Lage's assertion that U.S. hostility against Cuba began long before socialism came to the island. The Parliament president noted that after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country, his thugs and henchmen -- who all of Cuba knew as murders and torturers -- fled to the U.S. without visas or passports and were received with open arms. "Thus, in 1959, Washington chose to side with the dictatorship rather than the people of Cuba," stated Ricardo Alarcon. Finally, this morning's session ended with the Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, Rosa Elena Simeon, who gave a detailed chronology of biological attacks launched by the United States against Cuba from 1971 through 1995, when a U.S. registered plane dumped a strange substance over the island causing serious crop damage. The Science and Technology Minister also spoke about the great achievements of women in science and the difficulties caused by the U.S. blockade. Today's conference session concluded with a concert by one of Cuba's leading singers and composers, Silvio Rodriguez. [c] 1998, 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. 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