Radio Havana Cuba-02 August 2000 23:00 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 02 August 2000 23:00 *SPORTS AUTHORITIES REDUCE DOPING SANCTION AGAINST JAVIER SOTOMAYOR *NINE SOUTH FLORIDIANS ARRESTED FOR HUMAN CONTRABAND TRAFFICKING *PINAR DEL RIO GEARS UP FOR JULY 26TH CELEBRATION *SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA GROUPS IN CANADA MARK JULY 26TH *JAMAICAN FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER MEETS WITH CUBAN COUNTERPART *DELEGATION FROM GERMAN ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRIES TO VISIT CUBA *Viewpoint: ACP VISIT STRENGTHENS CUBA'S TIES WITH AFROCARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC *SPORTS AUTHORITIES REDUCE DOPING SANCTION AGAINST JAVIER SOTOMAYOR Havana, August 2 (RHC) --The International Amateur Athletics Federation, the IAAF, has reduced to one year a doping sanction against Cuban high jumper and world record holder Javier Sotomayor, who will now be able to participate in the Sydney Olympics. The ruling is based on article 60.8 of the IAAF's Executive Council, which deals with special circumstances in specific cases. The Executive Council's 20 members, including Cuba's Alberto Juantorena -- vice president of the island's Sports Institute -- stated that they understood that Sotomayor's exceptional career and credentials were sufficient to grant him a rehabilitation opportunity. IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said the officials also took into consideration the fact that Sotomayor has successfully passed more than 300 doping controls, and that the 34 year old athlete deserved an opportunity to put an end to his brilliant career by participating in the olympic meet. At the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Sotomayory tested positive for cocaine consumption in a test that he and the entire Cuban sports movement charged was replete with irregularities -- particularly in the custody chain of the urine sample. Cuban sports authorities had also protested the harrassment that the Cuban delegation was subjected in Winnipeg and the lack of measures to stop the harrassment, as well as irregularities in the organization of the sports meet that affected not only Cuba, but the delegations of other Third World countries as well. *NINE SOUTH FLORIDIANS ARRESTED FOR HUMAN CONTRABAND TRAFFICKING Havana, August 2 (RHC) -- Federal authorities in the U.S. state of Florida have arrested 9 South Florida men charged with running a three-boat operation to illegally spirit Cubans into Miami. Following a more than one year investigation, a grand jury indictment was handed down last week and unsealed on Tuesday. The 9 individuals face up to 20 years in prison. The indictment included another two persons, but one remains fugitive and another is in prison in Cuba after being arrested in a human smuggling case. The case is the largest of its kind and constitutes one of the few arrests in human contraband from Cuba to Miami since these operations began close to 2 years ago. For months Cuban authorities had criticized the lack of action against these operations on the part of U.S. authorities, but recently admitted that U.S. authorities have finally begun to prosecute these cases. Havana has also insisted that the Cuban Adjustment Act, granting automatic residency and exclusive privileges to any illegal Cuban immigrant reaching Florida's shores, strongly encourages this type of contraband. According to U.S. immigration authorities, most of the undocumented Cubans who reach Florida's shores are brought by traffickers who demand as much as 10 thousand dollars per head in payment. *PINAR DEL RIO GEARS UP FOR JULY 26TH CELEBRATION Pinar del Rio, August 2(RHC)- With less than 72 hours until the main rally in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, to commemorate July 26th this Saturday, enthusiasm continues to grow. Pinar del Rio was selected, along with Havana and Villa Clara, as the site of the rally to mark the historical date, due to its exceptional results in several economic and social sectors. As part of the festivities, an exhibition was inaugurated on Wednesday at the provincial History Museum, commemorating the historic events of July 26th 1953, when a group of revolutionary guerrillas, led by Fidel Castro, attacked the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks -strongholds of the former Batista dictatorship. The July 26th events sparked the final phase of Cuba's struggle for true independence and sovereignty. Also to mark the date, a variety of social works were completed in the provincial capital, including the construction of an annex to the Abel Santa Maria Hospital and a fruit-processing complex. *SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA GROUPS IN CANADA MARK JULY 26TH Vancouver, August 2(RHC)- Groups in solidarity with Cuba across Canada have organized a variety of activities to commemorate the historical July 26th date. Events were organized, as is the case every year, in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria. For example, a series of events took place in Halifax, in the eastern maritime province of Nova Scotia. This province has maintained profound relations with Cuba over many years. On July 26th, the Cuban youth jazz group, "Los Primos," was the main feature of a celebration in a downtown nightclub in Halifax. On July 29th and July 30th, the Nova Scotia-Cuba Association held its yearly beach pigroast to mark the event. Hundreds of people participated in the activities. In Montreal, about 250 people participated in a political-cultural event held on July 30th organized by a coalition of solidarity groups. The main speaker was the counsel general of Cuba in Montreal, Pedro Garcia Roque, who gave a presentation on the historical assault on the Moncada military garrison on July 26th, 1953. The evening continued with Latin American music and dancing until 4:00 a.m. Similar activities took place in other cities, including the Canadian West Coast of British Colombia. *JAMAICAN FOREIGN TRADE MINISTER MEETS WITH CUBAN COUNTERPART Havana, August 2(RHC)- Visiting Jamaican Foreign Trade Minister, Anthony Hilton, met on Monday with his Cuban counterpart, Raul de la Nuez, to review possibilities for strengthened bilateral trade relations between the two nations. Hilton arrived in Havana on Monday at the head of a delegation from the Jamaican Foreign Trade Ministry. The Cuban foreign trade minister also took the opportunity to thank the Jamaican government for its support during the negotiation process of the recently signed bilateral trade agreement between Cuba and the Caribbean Community -CARICOM. The Jamaican official's agenda on the island also includes meetings with authorities representing the Cuban Basic Industry and the Central Bank, as well as a visit to the Havana-based Latin American School of Medicine. Bilateral Trade between Jamaica and Cuba amounted to some 9,000,000 dollars in 1999. *DELEGATION FROM GERMAN ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRIES TO VISIT CUBA Berlin, August 2(RHC)-- The German Association of Industries is currently organizing a trade mission that will travel to Cuba to participate in a seminar aimed at boosting bilateral economic relations between the two nations. The event, set for October 25th through the 31st here in the Cuban capital, will focus primarily on cooperation in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, tourism, transportation and the development of alternative sources of energy. The German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Wieczorek-Zeul, traveled to Cuba two months ago to implement a series of cooperation projects designed to alleviate severe droughts affecting Cuban eastern provinces. The German official, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, has repeatedly stated that, contrary to the position adopted by former German administrations, her government's policy toward Cuba is of cooperation rather than confrontation. Germany will be present at the upcoming Havana International Trade Fair, set for October 29th through November 5th. *Viewpoint: ACP VISIT STRENGTHENS CUBA'S TIES WITH AFROCARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC The US's nearly 40 year commercial and financial war against Cuba, which is aimed at destroying the island's political, economic and social system, is an unjustifiable, genocidal measure which is condemned to failure. Cuba, which was practically a colony of the United States before 1959, has made heroic efforts to defend its independence and sovereignty from the most powerful enemy on earth. Thanks to the Cuban people's patriotism, steadfastness and unity, the island has been able to survive and to build a social and political society which has been internationally recognized. When Washington imposed its blockade against the island, Cuba had to look for other distant markets to survive. Fully understanding the hardships that the Cuban people have had to confront, the USA has passed extraterritorial laws, and has pressured other countries, mainly its allies, to join their economic blockade against the island. Cuba became an observer in the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries, ACP, with the objective of later enjoying the special economic relations that the association has maintained with the European Union since the signing of the Lome Convention in 1975. However, when Cuba obtained observer status, some European nations began to impose conditions on Cuba before allowing Havana to become an active member of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries. In line with its policy of refusing to accept any conditions on its relations with the rest of the world unless they respect the sovereignty of states, Cuba officially announced last April 23, that it would withdraw its request to become a participating member of the new convention with the European Union. This decision, however, has not harmed the fraternal relations Cuba maintains with the ACP. An example is the current official visit to Cuba of the President of the ACP Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Anicet Georges Dologuele, who arrives on August 4. It is both a wise and just policy for countries to diversify their economic relations with the rest of the world as much as possible in order to defend their national independence, as Cuba has done for the past 40 years. With that in mind, any country in the world can have excellent economic, political and diplomatic relations with Cuba as long as those relations respect the island's independence and sovereignty. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-12142 2000-Aug-03 21:28:59