Radio Havana Cuba, 10 november 1999 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit 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, November 10, 1999. Today's stories: 1.- CUBAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS OVERWHELMING VOTE AGAINST BLOCKADE IN UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2.- CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER CHALLENGES WASHINGTON TO LIFT ITS BLOCKADE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS 3.- PRESS CENTER FOR IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT OPENS IN HAVANA 4.- IBERO-AMERICAN CHILDREN'S CONFERENCE WINDS UP IN HAVANA 5.- COOPERATION INCREASES BETWEEN SPANISH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES AND CUBA 6.- CHILEAN JOURNALIST SAYS CUBA IS THE VICTIM OF MEDIA SLANDER CAMPAIGNS 7.- BRAZILIAN FILM WILL OPEN ANNUAL HAVANA FILM FESTIVAL IN DECEMBER CUBAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS OVERWHELMING VOTE AGAINST BLOCKADE IN UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY Havana, November 10(RHC)-- Official media outlets in Cuba today highlighted the overwhelming vote Tuesday against Washington's blockade in the United Nations General Assembly -- with 158 countries against, and not 155 as originally reported. Technically, this means that Tuesday's vote was the eighth consecutive record support of Cuba in the General Assembly. Radio Rebelde and the Granma news daily, among others, referred to the intervention -- following the vote -- of the representative of the central African nation Cameroon. The African delegate stated that his country was unable to be present during the vote, but that had it been, it would have voted in favor of Cuba's 8th consecutive anti-blockade resolution. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saudi Arabia, stated that their votes in favor of Cuba's resolution were not registered by the automatic voting equipment due to a technical difficulty. Havana's Prensa Latina news agency reported that Cuba lost 6 votes with respect to 1998 due to the lack of quota payments to the world body by Burundi, Kirguistan, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic and Vanuatu. Other countries deprived of their vote for not having paid their UN debt during 2 consecutive years are Iraq, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia and Yugoslavia. In Latin America, Nicaragua was the only country to abstain, while El Salvador was the only Latin American nation absent during the vote. These results indicate that, under normal circumstances, Cuba would again have received an ever greater record majority support with respect to last year when 157 countries voted against Washington's blockade of the island. CUBAN FOREIGN MINISTER CHALLENGES WASHINGTON TO LIFT ITS BLOCKADE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS Havana, November 10(RHC)-Cuba urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to lift Washington's blockade against the island. At a Havana news conference, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque challenged President Clinton to lift the blockade so that it could not be used by Havana as "an excuse" for the island's problems. Perez Roque's challenge came in response to the U.S. president's recent statements that Havana is taking advantage of the economic sanctions as "an excuse" for the country's economic crisis. The Cuban foreign minister also announced that Havana will file a lawsuit against the U.S. government for more than 100 billion dollars for human damages caused by Washington's aggressions over the past 40 years. The top Cuban diplomat said that one must ask why the United States has refused to normalize its relations with Cuba as it did with Vietnam and why have they refused to accept the fact that Cuba is their neighbor. He noted that the Pentagon itself has determined that Cuba is not a military threat to the United States. During a question and answer session, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told ANSA news agency that ten years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban people are calm and in good spirits. He noted that the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, is a sad day for those who thought that Cuba would collapse like the European socialist countries, adding that the Cold War "is still very cold for the island." This anniversary, said the Cuban foreign minister, reveals that things were not as they thought on the other side of the Berlin Wall and commented that everyday more polls conducted in the former socialist countries reveal that people believe that they lived better under socialism. Foreign Minister Perez Roque said that the island now receives more solidarity and respect than ever before while the policies of its enemies are ever more discredited. And referring to the 9th Ibero-American Summit, which will held in Havana next week, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said that Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman would be unable to attend because he is too busy defending himself from charges of corruption against his government. Roque quipped that the Nicaraguan president must also be concerned about his links with the Miami-based ultra right wing Cuban American National Foundation and the rest of that city s anti' Cuba terrorist organizations. Perez Roque added that he imagined that Aleman must also be preparing his defense against accusations of illegal dealings with the Nicaraguan telephone company in complicity with the Mas Canosa family, which heads the terrorist U.S. foundation. Nevertheless, said Perez Roque, Nicaragua's Foreign Minister Eduardo Montealegre, who will be representing Aleman at the summit, will be welcome in Havana and will receive all the respect that his position merits. PRESS CENTER FOR IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT OPENS IN HAVANA Havana, November 10(RHC)-- Cuban journalists attended the official opening of the press center to be used during the 9th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government. During the inauguration on Wednesday, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage stated: "Let us hope that with everyone's participation, the common objectives of Ibero-America will be at the core of every report, commentary, article and image sent from this international press center." Lage, who is also chairs the 9th Ibero-American Summit Organizing Committee, noted that the event will be a good opportunity for foreign media professionals to know Cuba and its people, its culture and history. Lage invited foreign journalists to freely exchange with the island's common citizens, with factory workers, with students, with Cubans of all walks of life. The Cuban vice president invited journalists to visit our neighborhoods, walk down the streets at any time of the day or night, talk to and listen to the Cuban people. He said that the truth, no matter how much its distorted, will sooner or later prevail. The media center is housed at PABEXPO, the exhibit ground located some 800 meters from Havana's International Convention Center, main venue of the 9th Ibero-American Summit. Some 1359 professionals from 355 media outlets from 38 countries have already requested credentials to cover the event. Hundreds of technical personnel, construction workers and other professionals have worked in setting up the media center, which is equipped with the most advanced technologies to guarantee the smooth work for media professionals. IBERO-AMERICAN CHILDREN'S CONFERENCE WINDS UP IN HAVANA Havana, November 10(RHC)-- The Ibero-American Conference of High Ranking Officials responsible for Children and Youth wound up in the Cuban capital Tuesday with the proposal that the issue of young people be the central theme of next year's Ibero-American Summit in Panama City. That proposition is included in the meeting's declaration supported by representatives of 19 Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal. The meeting's final declaration calls for the implementation of cooperation projects dealing with the right to have a name and nationality, the right to early education and concerning the mortality of mothers and the promotion of support for the family. The document also requests a ministerial meeting of high-ranking officials responsible for children and youth before the 10th Ibero-American Summit and to include the issue in the Permanent Secretariat for the presidential summits. Meanwhile, at the end of the conference, Ibero-American intellectuals presented a manifesto signed in October by several intellectuals in favor of the region's youngest inhabitants. Representing them at the meeting was Ecuadorian writer Jorge Enrique Adoum, Brazilian poet Thiago de Mello and Mexican narrator Angela Mastretta. Speaking on behalf of the intellectuals, Adoum said that with the exception of Cuba, before children can claim their rights, thousands of them are killed on the continent everyday in what he called "genocide and a state crimes against children." The meeting also paid tribute to former UNICEF representative in Cuba, Luis Zuniga, killed recently in Burundi on a work mission. COOPERATION INCREASES BETWEEN SPANISH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES AND CUBA Havana, November 10(RHC)-- The Industry, Trade and Tourism representative of the northeastern Spanish autonomous region of the Basque country, Jose Jon Imaz, has announced a mutual cooperation agreement with Havana. Jon, who also headed the Basque delegation to the recently concluded International Trade Fair in the Cuban capital, said that the agreement establishes financial credit lines in the areas of public health, sugar, technology and the environment. The Basque country has signed 16 cooperation protocols with the Caribbean island and, according to the Basque representative, the high educational level of the Cuban people facilitates economic cooperation. ION, a business delegation from the Spanish autonomous region of Castilla-Leon, is already in Cuba to meet with authorities to further strengthen existing economic links between the two parties. Heading the delegation is Jose Elias Fernandez, President of the Business Corporations Confederation in that Spanish region. Trade between the Caribbean island and Castilla Leon currently stands at 10 million dollars and includes items such as chemical products, food, manufactured goods, machinery and steel. CHILEAN JOURNALIST SAYS CUBA IS THE VICTIM OF MEDIA SLANDER CAMPAIGNS Havana, November 10(RHC)-- Chilean journalist Hernan Uribe has charged in the Cuban capital that there is a great slander campaign against Cuba, whose main weapons are so-called independent journalists and agencies. Uribe, who is the vice president of the Chilean Journalists Association and head of a commission that investigates killings of Latin American journalists, said that no journalist has been tortured or killed in Cuba over the past 40 years, while more than 600 media professionals have been killed in Latin America from 1979 to 1998. Hernan Uribe explained that the disinformation campaign against Cuba is now being aided by the organization Reporters without Borders, which has expressed agreement with the lies that the Miami-based right wing terrorists have disseminated on the occasion of the Ibero-American Summit scheduled for Havana next week. The well-known Chilean journalist is in Havana to participate in the 8th Congress of the Latin American Journalists Federation (FELAP), which is meeting in the Cuban capital Thursday and Friday. BRAZILIAN FILM WILL OPEN ANNUAL HAVANA FILM FESTIVAL IN DECEMBER Havana, November 10(RHC)-- The President of the Cuban Film Institute, Alfredo Guevara, has announced that the 21st edition of Havana's New Latin American Film Festival will open December 1st with the Brazilian film "Orfeu" by renowned film maker, Carlos Diegues. At a news conference in Havana, Guevara told reporters that the organizing committee expects the arrival of Diegues and singer and composer Caetano Veloso, who wrote the film's soundtrack. Other special screenings will include the Buena Vista Social Club film by Germany's Wim Wenders, Salma Hayek which is a co-production by Mexico, Spain and France, and "Nobody Writes to the Colonel" by Arturo Ripstein. According to Guevara, this year's film festival, which will run through December 11th, includes the screening of 125 fiction films, including 38 feature lengths, 120 documentary films and videos, the review of 36 scripts and poster exhibits. At the festival, Cuba will compete with the feature length films "Operation Fangio" by Alberto Lecchi, "Amanda's Prophecies" by Pastor Vega and "A Paradise Under the Sky" by Gerardo Chijona and two cartoons. The festival will also feature retrospectives dedicated to several artists including Soviet film makers Serguei Eisenstein, Serguei Bondarchuk, Nikita Mihalkov and Andrei Tarkovski. Other retrospective will include films from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, film schools of Canada, Israel, New York and San Antonio de los Banos, plus the usual exhibit of U.S. independent films. Theoretical sessions will also take place during the festival. [c] 1999, 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. For further information, contact us at: Postal Address: Radio Havana Cuba P.O.Box 6240 Havana, Cuba Telephone: (53) (7) 791053 Fax: (53) (7) 795007 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org WWW: http://www.radiohc.org rhc-eng-25723 1999-Nov-11 00:59:26