Radio Havana Cuba-05 September 2000 21:30 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 05 September 2000 21:30 *PRESIDENT CASTRO ARRIVES IN NEW YORK FOR MILLENNIUM SUMMIT *PRESIDENT OF BELARUS UNDERSCORES SIMILAR OPINIONS BETWEEN HIS COUNTRY AND CUBA *CUBAN HOTEL WORKERS REMEMBER ITALIAN TOURIST KILLED BY TERRORIST BOMB 3 YEARS AGO *KUWAITI PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION WINDS UP VISIT TO CUBA *CUBA-GUINEA COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC AND SCIENTIFIC/TECHNICAL COOPERATION MEETS *PHYSICAL HEALTH AND SPORTS CENTER OPENS ON WEDESDAY IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL *MALI PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION VISITS HAVANA *DOLLARIZATION OF LATIN ECONOMIES: A NEW ERA OF U.S. NEO-COLONIAL DOMINATION *PRESIDENT CASTRO ARRIVES IN NEW YORK FOR MILLENNIUM SUMMIT New York, September 5 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has arrived in New York City for the United Nations-sponsored Millennium Summit, slated to begin Wednesday with the participation of more than 150 heads of state and government. The leader of the Cuban Revolution heads his country's delegation that includes Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, Council of State Secretary Jose Miyar Barruecos and the director of Havana's World Economy Studies Center, Osvaldo Martinez. Cuban authorities have stressed that during the Millenium Summit, they will call for concrete advances in world peace and a deep-seated reform of the United Nations. Such reforms, according to the Cuban delegation, should be discussed within the context of a truly democratic forum. Havana has insisted that peace and security should be for all nations, rich and poor, large and small -- and not solely for a reduced group of industrialized countries. Fidel Castro recently called the UN event "the Summit to Save the Millennium." Meanwhile, on the roundtable discussion, broadcast live on Cuban radio and television Tuesday, panelists noted that the theme of the summit, "Peace, Security, and Disarmament," should be analyzed from a structural perspective in terms of the socio-economic conditions that give rise to armed conflict. Panelists pointed out that two-thirds of the world's population is immersed in poverty which has increased dramatically over the last two decades due to neoliberal structural adjustment tied to loans from U.S. dominated international lending institutions. In telephone interviews with Cuban Ambassador to the UN, Bruno Rodriquez and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, it was confirmed that Fidel Castro met with both Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir. Perez Roque stated that the meetings reinforced the excellent state of bilateral relations between Cuba and the two Asian countries. It was also announced that the Cuban leader will be the 19th speaker of Wednesday's afternoon session. *PRESIDENT OF BELARUS UNDERSCORES SIMILAR OPINIONS BETWEEN HIS COUNTRY AND CUBA Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- Shortly before wrapping up his three-day official visit to Cuba, the president of Belarus -- Alexander Lukashenko -- underscored the similarity of opinions between his country and Cuba within the framework of the international political scenario. During a news conference in Havana, Lukashenko told local and foreign correspondents that he leaves Cuba once again convinced that Cuban President Fidel Castro is "a legendary leader whose thought and convictions are not only valid for Cuba, but for all of humanity." He said Fidel Castro's life "constitutes a manual for any world political leader." Commenting on the collapse of the Soviet Union, the president of Belarus said the former socialist republics didn't have the moral right to abandon Cuba and that they should now correct that mistake. He said Cuba and Belarus are in the process of significantly increasing bilateral trade and economic cooperation, citing as examples a plan to send fertilizers to the island in exchange for Cuban sugar and another for the production of Cuban vaccines in Belarus to be marketed in Europe, in exchange for the production in Cuba of heavy machinery to be marketed in Latin America. Responding to a question concerning the United Nations-sponsored Millennium Summit, Lukashenko said that, like Cuba, his nation will defend peace in the face of the dangers posed by a unipolar world. He took the opportunity to lash out at the expansion towards eastern Europe of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, insisting that with the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, NATO has no opponent and therefore no reason to exist. *CUBAN HOTEL WORKERS REMEMBER ITALIAN TOURIST KILLED BY TERRORIST BOMB THREE YEARS AGO Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- The workers of Havana's Copacabana Hotel paid homage to the late Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo -- killed on September 4, 1997 by a bomb explosion in the lobby of the hotel. The explosives were placed by a Salvadoran mercenary, financed by the ultra-right wing mafia in Miami. During the solemn ceremony, Giustino di Celmo, father of Fabio, was presented with a book about his son, written by Cuban researcher Acela Canera Roman. Giustino di Celmo thanked Cuba for not forgetting Fabio, adding that he has talked to many Italian mothers who have recently traveled to Cuba with their children to receive medical attention. He stated that this is proof that terrorist attempts by the ultra-right wing have not been able to destroy the Cuban Revolution. *KUWAITI PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION WINDS UP VISIT TO CUBA Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- A Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation headed by Naser Al-Sane wound up its visit to Cuba on Monday. The group met with their Cuban counterparts and exchanged experiences with Cabinet Minister Ricardo Cabrisas and other government officials. Invited by Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, the Kuwaiti delegation toured important places of interest and extended an official invitation to Alarcon to visit Kuwait. In statements to journalists in Havana, Naser Al-Sane expressed his appreciation for the Cuban government's support of the Arab cause in all international forums, adding that Kuwait is looking forward to cooperating with Cuba through the Kuwaiti Development Fund. *CUBA-GUINEA COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC AND SCIENTIFIC/TECHNICAL COOPERATION MEETS Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- The 10th Cuba-Guinea Joint Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic and Scientific/Technical Cooperation is into its second day of work with the objective of broadening and strengthening bilateral relations. A cooperation agreement is expected to be signed on Thursday between Cuba and Guinea in the fields of health, fishing, construction, agriculture, education and trade. Heading the meeting is Cuban Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Minister Marta Lomas and Guinea's Secretary of State for Cooperation, Mory Kaba. *PHYSICAL HEALTH AND SPORTS CENTER OPENS ON WEDESDAY IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- A Physical Health and Sports Center, which will offer highly-specialized medical assistance, will open its doors Wednesday in Havana's municipality of La Lisa. The director of the Frank Pais Orthopedic Hospital, Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, will be responsible for the center's program which includes medical control, rehabilitation and sports therapy. The renowned orthopedic doctor told reporters in Havana that to achieve good working results, a multi-disciplinary team of specialists and work programs is required. The institution includes laboratories, orthopedic assistance, cardiology, acupuncture and therapy. It also includes a 648 square meter gymnasium. This orthopedic complex, located on the outskirts of Havana, has 637 hospital beds for Cuban patients and about 50 dedicated to health tourism. There is also a small hotel for the family members of patients. *MALI PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION VISITS HAVANA Havana, September 5 (RHC)-- The President of the Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), Sergio Corrieri, met on Tuesday in Havana with a visiting parliamentary delegation from Mali. Corrieri spoke with the guests and explained the objectives of the 40-year-old friendship institute. The president of the Cuba-Mali Friendship Group, Issa Diarra, thanked the Cuban people for their support of African countries, noting that nearly 100 Cuban doctors will soon travel to Mali to re-enforce a small group of health personnel already in that country, offering their services free-of-charge. During their stay on the island, the Mali parliamentarians will meet with Cuban government and Communist Party officials, as well as visit places of historic, economic and scientific interest. Viewpoint: *DOLLARIZATION OF LATIN ECONOMIES: A NEW ERA OF U.S. NEO-COLONIAL DOMINATION The process of neo-liberal structural adjustment that is being systematically implemented in Latin America under the auspices of the U.S.-controlled international lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, reveals Washington's true intentions to impose its neo-colonial designs on the rest of the world. On the threshold of a new millennium, there is no longer the need to launch military invasions against other countries to pressure them into yielding to the dictates of the world's remaining superpower. U.S.-sponsored neo-liberal globalization is imposing unimaginable sacrifices on Third World peoples, whose problems are exacerbated with every passing day. Thus it is easy to understand why the United States is taking steps to reinforce its national security. In a world that is increasingly ungovernable, social chaos can erupt at any time in any part of the world. Social instability resulting from neo-liberal structural reform, recently witnessed throughout the region in the form of widespread protests and strikes, has placed the U.S. on the defensive. Even in Brazil, the Catholic Church has called for a moratorium on the foreign debt and a suspension of current agreements with the IMF. All over the region, an average of three-fourths of the Gross Domestic Product is being used to service the external debt, while privatization of industry has produced massive unemployment, price hikes, reduced wages and the elimination of the socio-economic net so vital to roughly half of the Latin American population that finds itself in abject poverty. The immense external debts incurred under past U.S. puppet military and civilian regimes during the 1970s and 1980s, in attempting to industrialize their countries at the expense of the popular sectors, set the stage for present U.S. hegemony involving its neo-liberal designs for a regional block to compete with the Japan-led Asian block and the European Union. Cuba has repeatedly warned the world of the dangers of neo-liberal globalization. Since the early 1980s, Cuban President Fidel Castro has described the Latin American foreign debt as unpayable and tantamount to a form of slavery to international capital. Indeed the only tangible result from neo-liberal reform attached to loans has been an ever widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. The latest negative stage of the neo-liberal economic model in Latin America is easily found in the dollarization of the region's economies such as Ecuador and soon Argentina as well. As the Cuban president has repeatedly warned, dollarizing Latin American economies is a quick path towards further chaining regional economies to that of the United States, resulting in the loss of sovereignty and independence at the hands of U.S.-controlled financial capital. Indeed other alternatives for economic development are available. Leaving economic development in the hands of the private sector can only produce uneven and dependent development. The Latin American state must take a more profound role in developing the region's economies and protecting the workers and campesinos from exploitation and human rights abuses. In order to achieve such a goal, it is necessary to politically empower those who presently have no voice: the region's poor. (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-13135 2000-Sep-06 02:41:08