Radio Havana Cuba-17 Novembre 2000 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 17 November 2000 . *FIDEL CASTRO, IN PANAMA FOR IBEROAMERICAN SUMMIT, DENOUNCES PLOTS *NEW ANTI-CUBA LEGISLATION TIGHTENS U.S. BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA *VICE PRESIDENT OF LAOTIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS OFFICIAL VISIT *CEPAL EXECUTIVE SECRETARY PRAISES CUBA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH *CUBA AND CYPRUS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT TO FIGHT DRUGS *CUBAN AUTHORITIES CONFISCATE 51 TONS OF DRUGS *Viewpoint: 10th IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT - PUT CHILDREN'S NEEDS FIRST . *FIDEL CASTRO, IN PANAMA FOR IBEROAMERICAN SUMMIT, DENOUNCES PLOTS Havana, November 17 (RHC) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro has arrived in Panama to participate in the 10th Iberoamerican Summit. Upon arriving, the Cuban leader said he had been asked to deliver a brief speech with words of greetings to the Panamenian people. He said he was moved to be back in Panama 52 years after his first visit, when he travelled there to promote the creation of a Latin American students organization. During that visit, said the Cuban leader, he met with students who had been seriously wounded in the struggle for Panamenian sovereignty over the Panama Canal. President Castro said today all of that has changed, that there are no more foreign troops shooting students and the Panamenian people in general. He said his ideas haven't changed since that first visit, and that he sustains those ideas with more experience and conviction than ever. The Cuban leader said he will never abandon those convictions. Fidel Castro thanked the friends of Cuba in Panama who gave his such a warm welcome, said the Iberoamerican leaders will work together for the Summit's success. A few hours later, the Cuban leader held a press conference in which he detailed plans drawn up by the Miami based extreme rightwing Cuban American National Foundation to assassinate him while in Panama. He reported that the anti-Cuba terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is in Panama at the head of a team to carry out the task. Posada Carriles is wanted in Cuba for the bombing of a Cubana airliner in 1976 with the loss of all lives on board. One of the members of the Foundation's board, Ninoska Perez, stated that President Castro had no proof to support his accusations. However, numerous prior attempts on the life of the president funded by the Foundation are well-known and well-documented. The Cuban leader is expected to attend a solidarity with Cuba rally at the University of Panama and pay homage to the late Panamenian leader, General Omar Torrijos. At the top of the agenda of the 10th Iberoamerican Summit is the social and economic situation of children and adolescents here in the region. *NEW ANTI-CUBA LEGISLATION TIGHTENS U.S. BLOCKADE AGAINST CUBA Moscow, November 17(RHC)-- In Moscow, Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament, denounced the recently passed U.S. Agricultural Law as a measure which further tightens Washington's 40-year blockade against Cuba. Addressing a plenary session of the DUMA --the lower chamber of the Russian Congress -- on Friday, the high-ranking Cuban official reaffirmed that the U.S. latest maneuver reinforces the economic siege laid by Washington against Cuba, while at the same time deceiving international public opinion with an alleged easing of the blockade. He added that under the new law, Cuba is the only country that is still denied access to medicine and food produced in the United States. Alarcon, who is also a member of Cuba's Communist Party's Political Bureau, thanked the DUMA for its strong rejection of the genocidal, illegal U.S. blockade and all U.S. anti-Cuba legislation, such as the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Laws, which violate the national sovereignty of other nations. The president of the Cuban parliament then asked why, in light of the current political crisis in the United States, due to evident electoral fraud, no one has suggested to send in UN forces or international ballot observers as it's the common practice of the Organization of American States (OAS) regarding any other country. *VICE PRESIDENT OF LAOTIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BEGINS OFFICIAL VISIT Havana, November 17(RHC)-- Khombou Sounivax, Vice President of the National Assembly of the People's Republic of Lao, has begun an official visit to Cuba, following his participation in the II World Solidarity with Cuba Conference that concluded earlier this week in the Cuban capital. During a tour of LABIOFAM, Havana's Biological and Pharmaceutical Laboratories, the vice president of the Laotian Congress reviewed, with LABIOFAM officials, the prospects for the establishment of a mixed Cuba-Lao enterprise for the production of medicine. LABIOFAM Director, Jose Antonio Fraga, explained to the distinguished visitor that the Cuban firm is considering a program to export larvicides to South East Asia to fight mosquitoes and other disease carriers. *CEPAL EXECUTIVE SECRETARY PRAISES CUBA'S ECONOMIC GROWTH Havana, November 17(RHC)--Jose Antonio Ocampo, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) praised Cuba's economic expansion that began in 1998 and is reaffirmed once again this year with a 5 to 6 percent growth of the Cuban Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ocampo pointed to reforms in the National Financial System and the program to increase the efficiency of state-run Cuban enterprises as key factors favoring economic growth. The CEPAL executive secretary attended an International Seminar on Planning that concluded on Friday in Havana. During the closing session, Cuba's Economy Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez, gave a lecture on Cuba's accumulated experiences in the field of economic planning. The seminar, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the implementation of economic planning in Cuba, had the participation of experts from 13 countries from Asia, Latin America and Europe. *CUBA AND CYPRUS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT TO FIGHT DRUGS Havana, November 17(RHC)-- Visiting Cypriot Justice Minister Nicos Koshis and his Cuban counterpart Roberto Diaz Sotolongo have signed a cooperation agreement to prevent the illegal use of drugs and drug trafficking in their respective countries. The top Cypriot judicial authority stressed that although drug-related crimes do not constitute a major problem in Cyprus, his government cooperates in the fight against international drug traffickers who are intent on using Cyprus as a springboard to take the drug to the European continent. The bilateral agreement, the 27th that Cuba has signed with other nations to fight drugs, provides for the exchange of information, expertise and techniques between the two nations. *CUBAN AUTHORITIES CONFISCATE 51 TONS OF DRUGS Havana, November 17(RHC)-- Cuban authorities have confiscated 51 tons of drugs over the past five years, mainly packages that drifted on to Cuban shores or found during operations involving international drug-traffickers that were interrupted by Cuban forces. This announcement was made by Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Valdes, from the Cuban National Drug Division. Valdes added that as a result of Cuba's efforts to fight drug trafficking, the island's authorities have arrested 259 foreigners. Of them, 175 were tried and are currently serving their sentence here in Cuba. The Cuban authorities have repeatedly denounced the activities of small aircraft which come from drug-producing nations and drop drug packages into the sea, to be picked up by speedboats that take the drug into the United States. Many of those operations have ended up as complete failures thanks to the actions by Cuban patrol vessels. Addressing participants in the International Congress on Criminology that concluded on Friday in Havana's International Convention Center, the official from the Cuban National Drug Division stated that in Cuba, the fight against drugs if of the highest priority and is considered a matter of national security. Cuba has signed bilateral agreements with 27 nations and cooperates with 12 anti-drug services around the world. Viewpoint: *10th IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT - PUT CHILDREN'S NEEDS FIRST The 10th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government is underway in Panama City. Cuba believes that urgent attention must be paid to the needs of children and adolescents -- the first generation of citizens of the 21st century. Their developmental needs must be attended and solutions to their problems are priorities that must be addressed now, without delay. The problems faced by this vulnerable sector of the community are not limited to Latin America. They extend to the entire Third World, including the hidden, marginalized areas of the wealthiest countries, which are like pockets of underdevelopment within rich areas of human society. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Pique, interviewed in Madrid, stated that Summit participants must prioritize the needs of children and adolescents. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Relations has called for a common platform to address social problems -- building on the work done at the Guadalajara Summit in Mexico in 1991. This common platform will share its findings and proposals with other world institutions and agencies. It is time for an ethical approach to the problems which are facing young people today. Financing is essential to find solutions to social problems. However, ethical principles are necessary in order to ensure that the money is used in the right way. Neo-liberalism does not allow for the human element; it is, instead, based on selfish principles that defend the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The privatization of health and social services will never benefit the children and adolescents of the poor. The 10th Ibero-American Summit should reiterate that health and social services need to remain public responsibilities in order to protect those most at risk and those who cannot afford to pay for such necessary services. (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-8597 2000-Nov-18 02:55:43