Radio Havana Cuba-20 July 2000 23:00 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 20 July 2000 23:00 *PASTORS FOR PEACE FRIENDSHIPMENT CARAVAN ON ITS WAY TO CUBA *ONE MILLION TOURISTS HAVE VISITED CUBA SINCE JANUARY 2000 *CUBA RECEIVED MILLION-DOLLAR CANADIAN MEDICAL DONATION *CUBA'S PRIMA BALLERINA ALICIA ALONSO TOURS SPAIN *ARGENTINA: SOLIDARITY CELEBRATIONS MARK JULY 26TH *PRESIDENT OF OCEAN PRESS PRESENTED WITH FRIENDSHIP AWARD *Viewpoint: U.S. INSISTS ON STAR WARS, AGAINST SOUND TERRESTRIAL ARGUMENTS *PASTORS FOR PEACE FRIENDSHIPMENT CARAVAN ON ITS WAY TO CUBA Mexico City, July 20 (RHC)-- The 10th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan is on its way to Cuba. With more than 25 tons of material aid for the Cuban people, the U.S. religious/ solidarity group crossed the border into Mexico Wednesday morning without any problems from U.S. officials. According to the Reverend Lucius Walker, founder and director of Pastors for Peace, trucks and busses filled with medical supplies, computers and sports equipment arrived in the Mexican port city of Tampico early Thursday morning. Longshoremen donated their labor, loading a ship that will bring the aid to Havana. Meeting with the city's mayor and other local officials, the Pastors for Peace caravanistas held a "send-off rally" in Tampico and will fly to the Cuban capital on Friday. During their week-long program in Cuba, the caravanistas will tour hospitals, schools and other places of interest. The main focus of this year's Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan is sports equipment for Cuban athletes. A series of baseball games between U.S. and Cuban youth are slated during the caravan's stay on the island. *ONE MILLION TOURISTS HAVE VISITED CUBA SINCE JANUARY 2000 Havana, July 20 (RHC)-Cuba has hit the one million mark in the number of tourists visiting the island so far this year, according to the Cuban Tourism Ministry. This figure was set 15 days prior to last year's one million mark. Cuba has surpassed the figure for four straight years. The majority of the tourists that visit the island come mainly from Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Britain. *CUBA RECEIVED MILLION-DOLLAR CANADIAN MEDICAL DONATION Havana, July 20 (RHC)-Cuba received another donation of medicine from Canada valued at close to one million dollars, totaling a value of 9 million dollars of medical supplies from Canada to the island since 1994. The medications are mainly asthma inhalerS, while the donation also includes children's toys. *CUBA'S PRIMA BALLERINA ALICIA ALONSO TOURS SPAIN Madrid, July 20 (RHC)-Cuba's prima ballerina Alicia Alonso is in Spain directing an artistic event called Great Ballet Classics as part of summer courses at the King Juan Carlos University. Among those attending the event will be Cuban professors like Miguel Cabrera, Antonio Canas, Pedro Simon and Ivan Tenorio as well as guests like Lorna Feijoo and Oscar Torrada-- the main dancers of the Cuban Ballet troupe. *ARGENTINA: SOLIDARITY CELEBRATIONS MARK JULY 26TH Buenos Aires, July 20 (RHC)-The Cuban embassy in Argentina has begun a series of activities in Buenos Aires to mark the 47th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks which sparked the beginning of the Cuban people's struggle against the Batista dictatorship. The Business Attaché from the Cuban mission, Jorge Rodriguez, met with a group of local and foreign journalists to talk about the tightening of Washington's blockade against Cuba. The Cuban diplomat pointed out that the recent US Congressional initiative to supposedly eliminate restrictions in the sale of food and medicine to Cuba includes a series of conditions that make it impossible to put into practice. However, said the Cuban diplomat in Argentina, there is a growing opposition to the U.S. blockade among both the business community and the people of the United States. He highlighted the Cuban people's victory for the return of Elian Gonzalez to the island and underscored the Cuban people's struggle against the criminal Cuban Adjustment Act which stimulates illegal migration to the United States, granting Cubans privileges such as immediate residency, housing, stipends, and more, simply for touching American soil. The Cuban official pointed out that undocumented migration to the U.S. from other countries, such as Mexico, is systematically detained. *PRESIDENT OF OCEAN PRESS PRESENTED WITH FRIENDSHIP AWARD Havana, July 20 (RHC)-- The President of the Australian Ocean Press Publishing House, David Deutschmann, was granted the Friendship Award, conferred by the Cuban Council of State, in recognition of his outstanding decade-long participation in the Cuba solidarity movement. Deutschmann participated in the creation of the first Association of Solidarity with Cuba in Australia, founded in Sydney in 1979. Later, in 1990, he created the Ocean Press Publishing House, which publishes books on Cuban issues and the Cuban Revolution. Ocean Press has offices in Australia, New York, and here in the Cuban capital, and distributes its book commercially in the United States, Canada, Britain, Europe and Asia. The literature has contributed significantly to the knowledge of the Cuban reality in those nations. Ocean Press also collaborates with Cuban publishing houses --among them Editorial Abril, Editora Politica, Editorial Pablo de la Torriente, Sir-Mar and the Cuban Center for Historical Research. Up until now, Ocean Press has published more than 50 books on Cuba and the Cuban Revolution, exploring themes in relation to Cuban President Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and a multitude of others. Among Cuba-related titles published by Ocean Press are: - "The Cuban Exile Movement: Dissidents or mercenaries?" The book exposes the idea that Cuban oppositionists are political dissidents: many have been paid by foreign intelligence agencies, and have become involved in terrorist activities. - "Washington on Trial: The People of Cuba versus the U.S. Government" The book is about the 181.1 billion dollar lawsuit filed by eight grassroots organizations, representing the entire Cuban people for human damages from U.S. acts of aggression against Cuba over the past 40 years. - "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" deals with the U.S. blockade against Cuba. - "Island under Siege," also on the U.S. blockade against Cuba - "PsyWar on Cuba: The Declassified History of U.S. Anti-Castro Propaganda" Newly declassified CIA and U.S. Government documents expose Washington's continued campaign to use psychological warfare and propaganda to destabilize Cuba and undermine its revolution. - "The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations against Cuba 1959-62" - "Guantanamo, the Bay of Discord: The Story of the U.S. Military Base in Cuba" - "The Bay of Pigs and the CIA:" Cuban security files reveal the story behind the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. - "Cuban Revolution Reader" offers a documented history of the 40 year trajectory of the Cuban Revolution. - "Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary" The press puts into print for the first time Che's Congo Diary; explains the nature and content of Cuba's support for African independence movements and gives a frank assessments of their outcomes. As part of his solidarity efforts with the Cuban people and their revolution, David Deutschmann founded a travel company this year, called Ocean Travel, aimed at promoting Australian tourism in Cuba. Ocean Travel primarily promotes cultural tourism, bringing people from the professional and cultural sectors of Australia interested in exploring Cuban society. *Viewpoint: WASHINGTON INSISTS ON STAR WARS, AGAINST SOUND TERRESTRIAL ARGUMENTS The famous "Star Wars" program, conceived by the Reagan Administration during the peak of the U.S.-Soviet Union strategic confrontation, seems to have given way to the National Missile Defense System, a plan currently being tested that will cost U.S. taxpayers millions. Only a few days ago we witnessed the failure of one of the tests, at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. This again proves that, as experience has always shown, there is no failsafe equipment or device, no matter how sophisticated its design and how advanced its technology might be. Needless to say, the system will be revised and the U.S. producers of military equipment will eventually improve the interceptor missile. This will, of course, be used to justify the increase of military spending that inflates the federal budget and renders incredible profits for the big corporations of the military industry. However, taking into account the development of nuclear weapons -- which are not only in the hands of Washington -- if only one nuclear missile perforates the anti-ballistic "umbrella" and impacts U.S. soil, it would be a major disaster for the American people. Moreover, we can imagine that it would not be only one missile. So, what will be the use of these huge investments in the military? Wouldn't it be better to invest in other programs that may benefit the poorest sectors of U.S. society? The U.S. already has the necessary military force to prevail in any war. So why not spend the money on socio-economic programs in the U.S. and the Third World, in lieu of building more useless defense systems? Statistics proving this are published every day, but nothing happens. Such an absurd policy can only further remove much needed money from programs that could do so much more to benefit the human race, rather than these inane plans for its utter destruction. (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-10132 2000-Jul-22 05:08:07