Radio Havana Cuba-01 December 2000 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 01 December 2000 . *FIDEL ATTENDS INAUGURATION OF MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX *DISCUSSION EXAMINES TERRORIST CAREERS OF POSADA CARRILES & OTHERS *CUBA COMMEMORATES INTERNATIONAL AIDS DAY *VENEZUELAN PATIENTS TO BEGIN TREATMENT UNDER RECENT PACT *BRAZILIAN OPPOSITION LEADER LEAVES CUBA *SPANISH POLITICIAN CRITICIZES PRESIDENT AZNAR *AFTER PANAMA: CHILL IN RELATION BETWEEN MADRID AND HAVANA . *FIDEL ATTENDS INAUGURATION OF MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX Mexico, December 1 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro, upon his arrival in Mexico City to attend the inauguration of President Vicente Fox, told reporters that he was optimistic about future relations between the two countries. The Cuban leader arrived in Mexico at 9:45 a.m., local time, heading a delegation which includes Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and Jose Miyar Barruecos, the Secretary of the Cuban Council of State. In other news, it was announced that Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque -- following his stay in Mexico -- will begin an official visit to Brazil on Monday, the 4th, and then continue on to Honduras, where he will attend a ministerial meeting of the Association of Caribbean States. The ACS meeting is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, December 7th and 8th, in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. *DISCUSSION EXAMINES TERRORIST CAREERS OF POSADA CARRILES & OTHERS Havana, December 1 (RHC)-- The terrorist careers of Luis Posada Carriles and three other Cuban-born criminals were examined during a special roundtable discussion Thursday evening on Cuban radio and television. Experts on international affairs and leading Cuban journalists participated in the live program, dissecting the numerous terrorist activities of the four-man commando that was arrested two weeks ago. Posada Carriles and his accomplices were taken into custody by Panamanian authorities on November 18th when it was revealed that they were planning an assassination attempt against Cuban President Fidel Castro while he attended the 10th Ibero-American Summit. Several panelists recalled that Luis Posada Carriles has been involved in various plans to kill the leader of the Cuban Revolution over the past four decades. Among his other terrorist exploits include running guns and drugs in Central America, working directly with right-wing contra forces trying to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua during the 1980s. Participants in the roundtable discussion revealed that Posada Carriles had traveled to Nicaragua on at least two occasions this year and that he was, and is, close friends with high government officials. It was also noted that reactionary Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman decided not to attend the Ibero-American Summit in Panama, without any apparent reason. Recent investigations point to evidence that the explosives smuggled into Panama to kill the Cuban president were actually stored in Nicaragua and taken into Costa Rica before being transferred to Panama City. Speculation has been raised that Aleman knew about the bombing plans, which would have perhaps killed hundreds of people within range of the Cuban leader -- and decided to stay as far away as possible. Panelists pointed out that Cuba has now formally requested the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles and the three other terrorists being held in Panama -- reiterating that Havana does not want revenge, but simply demands justice. *CUBA COMMEMORATES INTERNATIONAL AIDS DAY Havana, 01 December (RHC)--International AIDS Day was commemorated here in Havana today with a multi-cultural event in which a number of people living with HIV/AIDS gave moving testimonials interspersed with poetry and music. The Ministry of Public Health held an information meeting in which the most recent figures on the virus were made available to the public. Of some 3100 Cubans diagnosed with HIV since 1986, 1100 have died. Health officials state that most of these would have survived with the drugs that are readily available in western nations but which the US blockade prevents from importing into Cuba. The island, nevertheless, still has the 5th lowest infection rate in the world. In the evening a song and dance event was scheduled in Old Havana in which numerous well-known classical and contemporary artists will appear. The funds raised will benefit the National Center for the Prevetion and Education of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS. *VENEZUELAN PATIENTS TO BEGIN TREATMENT UNDER RECENT PACT Havana, 01 December (RHC)--Fifty Venezuelan patients accompanied by the same number of friends and family have arrived in Cuba, where they will be treated for a number of ailments, in accordance with an agreement recently signed in Caracas by Havana. The accord provides specialized health care and sports training among other things in exchange for shipments of oil on a reduced payment scheme. According to the Deputy Health Minister, Luis Cordoba, the cases relate to neurological rehabilitation, orthopedic problems and leukemia. Health authorities in Venezuela chose patients from extremely low-income families to be sent to Cuba for treatment. *BRAZILIAN OPPOSITION LEADER LEAVES CUBA Havana, 01 December (RHC)--The leader of the Brazilian Workers Party, Luis Inacio da Silva, known around the world as Lula, stated in Havana today that once more the resistance of the Cuban people proves a need for wider international solidarity. The Brazilian opposition leader made the statement to the press at the end of his visit to the island in which he met with Fidel Castro a number of times to discuss issues relating to the free market globalization and the necessary participation of the people in the political process. Da Silva said they both agree upon all these points and many more. The two leaders also discussed regional poverty with a focus on Brazil, the development of national industry, the realities surrounding agrarian reform, and the guarantee of schooling for all. Lula declared that he is a firm believer in regional integration and warned that any Latin American nation that allies itself with the Free Trade Zone of the Americas proposed by the United States will find their economies effectively subordinated to and controlled by Washington. The Brazilian opposition leader was accompanied in Cuba by 200 members of his Brazilian Workers Party. *SPANISH POLITICIAN CRITICIZES PRESIDENT AZNAR Havana, 01 December (RHC)--The parliamentary representative from the Spanish region of Andalucia, Jose Antonio Barroso, declared in Havana today that the attitude of Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar in his position on terrorisim against Cuba was servile. In Cuba to attend the Second Congress of the Cuban Sugar Workers Union, Barroso said that for the Spanish Cuba represented an example to the world and that the majority of his people fully supported the Revolution and - unlike its president - condemned the terrorism perpetrated against it. The government of Aznar, said the opposition Spanish politician, had effectively pronounced itself in support of the anti-Cuban rightwing supported by Washington - a position unfortunately adopted by the misinformed mainstream press of his country. Viewpoint: *AFTER PANAMA: CHILL IN RELATION BETWEEN MADRID AND HAVANA Relations between Havana and Madrid have significantly chilled after an incident at the 10th Iberoamerican summit. Cuba refused to sign an agreement against terrorism because the peculiar resolution singled out only the actions of the Basque Separatist Group, ETA, against the Spanish government. Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar, and his consul Josep Pique, have publicly declared that Cuba's lack of agreement with the document condemning the terrorist actions of the separatist group could strain Spain- Cuba relations. At the 10th Iberoamerican Summit in Panama earlier this month, Cuba abstained from signing this document because, as a victim of terrorist actions for more than 40 years, Cuba recommended a broader condemnation of all terrorist actions. If this new confrontation has negative consequences, it is not only Cuba that will suffer. The Spanish government appears to be forgetting their aim to develop an economic and political presence in Latin America and the part that Cuba can play in this development. The last time relations were strained between Spain and Cuba was the result of the ties between the Spanish government and what Havana calls the Cuban American mafia in Miami. Mr. Jose Maria Aznar seems to be constantly on the look out for an opportunity to disturb the relations between our two countries which are strongly united by ancestral ties, perhaps the strongest that Spain has on the continent. After the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the reestablishment of the monarchy in Spain, economic and political relations were developed to Spain's advantage - a country that needed to recuperate, in some way, its political and economical presence in the South, dominated by the United States. Cuba, because of its geographically strategic position, has always been the ideal bridge between Europe and the Americas. If it is allowed that the most reactionary and ultra right forces of Spain prove a threat to relations between the two countries, the European nation could suffer in the long run. Here in Cuba, we are getting tired of governments that attempt to impose conditions on our right to express our sovereignty. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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