SPECIAL REPORT FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA January 16, 1998 rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org The following story is a transcript of a RHC report aired on Friday, January 16th. The item focused on a press conference given in Havana by the head of the North American Division in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio. The Cuban government rejected Friday as false statements by the US State Department concerning so-called "licensed" humanitarian aid received by Cuba from the United States in recent years. During a press conference in Havana, specifically convened to address the issue, Jose Fernandez de Cossio, head of the North American Division in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Washington was lying about the volume of that aid. Fernandez de Cossio began by reading a communique with the Cuban official position on the issue. It read as follows: "Last Wednesday 14th, Mr. James Foley, a spokesperson for the US State Department, gave alleged global figures about the value of the humanitarian aid Cuba had received from the United States from 1992 to 1997. He affirmed that the United States had provided to Cuba more medical aid than what the Cuban government had provided for its own people during the period. One of the things said by Mr. Foley was that the Cuban economic system was dysfunctional. We answer that if there is any dysfunction, in this case it is in the deliberate way in which US authorities lie when they refer to the aid that Cuba has received from organizations and entities established in the United States. The Cuban government affirms that between 1993 and 1996 the value of donations of humanitarian aid and development aid that has come from the United States, with or without the consent of the Treasury Department, amounts to US$ 13 679 000, a figure that represents around 4.6 percent of the overall aid that Cuba received from the world. To give an idea, the total aid that Cuba received from 1993 to 1996 from the world, including both humanitarian and development aid, amounted to US$ 243 million, a figure that is very far away from the US$ 1 billion that the State Department claims to have come solely from the United States. Cuba feels profoundly grateful for the efforts that donors in the United States carry out in order to help our country, especially those who do so by having to overcome obstacles and difficulties posed by the US government so that aid does reach our country. Fallacies like the ones being disseminated by the US State Department simply prove the inflexibility of the inhuman economic blockade that the US government maintains and reinforces against Cuba, as well as the type of excuses and pretexts to which the US government is forced to resort in order to defend their policy, which has been rejected and condemned by the immense majority of the nations of the world. Our figures, which are scrupulously compiled, establish that, as said earlier, the overall aid from all parts of the world received by Cuba from 1993 to 1196 amounted to US$ 243 million. Of that, the United States provided US$ 13 679 000, a figure that, we repeat, is very far from the US$ 1 billion claimed by the US State Department. Of this aid coming from the United States, 67.5 percent correspond to religious, non-governmental organizations; 30 percent to other types of non-governmental organizations; 0.09 percent to private entities; and 1.2 percent to individuals donating on a personal bases. Most if not all of the medicines and supplies received were delivered to numerous pediatric hospitals, surgical, and maternity facilities as well as clinics and infirmaries in Havana and other provinces, in conformity with the national healthcare system of Cuba. In contrast with all these, we have to say that what is totally true is that the US policy toward Cuba continues to be enforced and strengthened with the aim of harming the Cuban people, and that it has a damaging effect on real human beings. The US does to Cuba what countries simply should not do to one another." After reading the communique, Fernandez de Cossio took questions from the press. A US journalist asked whether it was not the economic system of Cuba rather than the US blockade the one hurting the Cuban people. Fernandez de Cossio answered: "The economic system that is in place in Cuba is the one that has been able to insure that the Cuban people, in spite of the economic warfare they have been subjected to by the United States for so many years, has not come into a crisis, a social crisis, and a situation of deterioration of their health. If you walk around our streets, you won't find unhealthy people, you won't find the levels of poverty for large segments of the population as you find in many other countries in the world that by the way do not suffer the kind of economic warfare Cuba suffers from the United States." Asked what could explain the sharp difference between the figures compiled by Cuba concerning aid coming from the United States and the figures published by the US State Department, the head of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American Division answered: "I think you would have to ask that question to the US State Department. What I have given you is what Cuba has factually received from the United States in aid of any kind. The figure that has been published by the State Department has been fabricated in some way that we can't understand, truly." Those were some of the comments made in Havana Friday afternoon by Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, head of the North America Division in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, as reported by RHC during on its Friday, January 16th edition. [c] 1997. Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. 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