Radio Havana Cuba-24 December 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 24 December 2001 . *NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE MEETS IN HAVANA *NEW TROPICANA CABARET OPENS IN MATANZAS *CUBAN LOBSTERS MAKE A SPLASH ON INTERNATIONAL MARKET *NEW ARGENTINE GOVT TO RESPECT REQUESTS TO EXTRADITE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS *ARGENTINA VICTIM OF AN OVERDOSE OF FREE MARKET NEO-LIBERALISM - CHAVEZ *AFGHANISTAN: KARZAI APPOINTS UZBEK WARLORD DOSTUM DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER *DEATH THREATS FORCE COLOMBIAN LABOR LEADER INTO EXILE *INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TRAVEL BAN ON YASSER ARAFAT *"NEWSWEEK" SAYS US PLANS TO ATTACK IRAQ AND OVERTHROW SADDAM HUSSEIN *WATCH GROUP WARNS OF RACISM ON THE RISE IN EUROPE . *NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE MEETS IN HAVANA Havana, December 24 (RHC)-- The Tenth Plenary Meeting of the National Committee of the Young Communist League (UJC) began sessions in Havana yesterday and continued to meet on Monday. Otto Rivero Torres, the First Secretary of the UJC, told reporters that delegates to the meeting discussed the organization's work over the past year, as well as future projects. The head of the Young Communist League said that the organization has carried out intense work over the past several months, increasing its membership by more than 30,000. Otto Rivero Torres noted that the UJC currently has some 96,000 members. *NEW TROPICANA CABARET OPENS IN MATANZAS Matanzas, December 24 (RHC)-- The third Tropicana Cabaret opened over the weekend in Matanzas -- joining the world famous nightclub in Havana and another in Santiago de Cuba. The cabaret was inaugurated at the Barcelo Solymar Hotel, located just outside Matanzas on the road to the Varadero Beach Resort. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and other dignitaries were on hand for the opening Saturday night. He told reporters covering the event that the island will continue developing tourism -- noting that Cuba will end this year with 37,000 hotel rooms, of which 3600 are new. The new Barcelo Solymar Hotel is a joint venture under the management of the Spanish Barcelo hotel chain and Cuba's Gran Caribe. The hotel has 525 rooms and 120 bungalows. With an initial investment of 11 million pesos and six million dollars, the Tropicana Matanzas will be an excellent source for revenue in the months and years to come. *CUBAN LOBSTERS MAKE A SPLASH ON INTERNATIONAL MARKET Havana, December 24 (RHC)-- Cuban lobsters, in high demand, will soon make their appearance on the international market. Over 570 tons of lobsters have been caught by the Central Trinidad Lobster fleet, which recently took advantage of excellent weather conditions off Cuba's southern coast. Hurricane Michelle, which slammed into the island on November 4th, practically paralyzed lobster captures near Trinidad, but workers soon recovered from the effects of that devastating storm and increased their catch. The Trinidadian fleet alone brings in more than 700 tons of lobster each year and at present is made up of only 13 boats. Cuba exports fresh and live lobsters to Asia, Europe, Latin America and some Caribbean countries, including Martinique and Guadalupe. *NEW ARGENTINE GOVT TO RESPECT REQUESTS TO EXTRADITE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS Buenos Aires, December 24 (RHC)-- Argentina's new government has announced its willingness to cooperate with requests of extradition against former dictatorship officials. Argentinean Attorney General Alberto Zuppi Monday affirmed that the country's new authorities will repeal a decree signed by former President Fernando de la Rua denying international extradition requests from foreign governments. Zuppi said those whose extradition is requested would either be turned over or tried in Argentina. The announcement came as new interim President Adolfo Rodriguez gathered with prominent human rights activists in an effort to dispel any apprehension regarding his reputation as a hardliner who as governor of San Luis province didn't respect human rights or the independence of the judiciary. The designation of Zuppi as justice minister is seen as one of several efforts to dispel that reputation. Zuppi has been active with human rights organizations, and was an advisor to foreign embassies in the extradition of nazi war criminals who had sought refuge in Argentina. Rodriguez has reportedly designated human rights lawyers in key positions within the Justice Ministry. One of Argentina's most radical human rights activists, Hebe de Bonafini, remarked that she and her colleagues hadn't been invited to the presidential palace since 1984. Bonafina asserted that the new interim president has also agreed to send to Congress a draft bill that would drop all charges against some 2,000 people. arrested during last week's social explosion. *ARGENTINA VICTIM OF AN OVERDOSE OF FREE MARKET NEO-LIBERALISM - CHAVEZ Caracas, December 24 (RHC)-- In on-going reactions to the situation in Argentina, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday affirmed that Argentina was injected with an overdose of free market neo-liberalism. In his weekly radio program "Alo Presidente," Chavez said that the sister Latin American nation's crisis is the result of uncontrolled privatizations and excessive confidence in the free market. He said everything was privatized in the belief that the invisible hand of the market was going to fix it all, adding that the biggest threat to democracy and stability in Latin America are hunger, poverty and the dangerous inequalities between a rich minority and the poor majority. Chavez stressed that only a wealth-distributing revolution, as he is attempting to promote, can defuse such a social and economic time bomb. Colombian presidential candidate Horacio Serpa Monday stated that Argentina is an important lesson for the neo-liberal school of economic thought, which, he charged, disregards the social aspects of structural adjustment reforms. Media outlets in Mexico unanimously agreed that international credit institutions must assume their responsibility in Argentina's economic and social bankruptcy. "El Financiero" asserted that Argentina's disaster constituted the last nail driven into the coffin of the neo-liberal model, affirming that it's not Argentina that came crashing down, but rather, pernicious financial globalization. Mexico's "El Universal" news daily said that trying to collect from someone who can't pay will lead to similar crises in other countries. For his part, the President of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia, called on the region to look at itself through the Argentinean mirror. *AFGHANISTAN: KARZAI APPOINTS UZBEK WARLORD DOSTUM DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER Kabul, December 24 (RHC)-- Afghanistan's new interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, is trying ease ethnic tensions in the country by naming Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum a deputy defense minister. Dostum, whose troops control Mazar-I-Sharif - the most important northern Afghan city - had threatened to boycott the interim government. He was reportedly furious that three crucial ministries, defense, interior and foreign relations, went to the minority Tajik ethnic group of the Panjshir Valley. Considered a mercenary who is expert at changing sides in armed conflicts, Dostum has his own large and well-trained army. He also has a long history of human rights abuse, including selling the wives of men he's executed. In his first statement as government official, the Uzbek warlord said that an international peacekeeping force would only be welcome for a six-month period, but Prime Minister Karzai rushed to clarify that the force would be welcome for as long as it's needed. The clarification has sparked widespread commentary to the effect that Afghanistan's ethnic and political disunity will not be easy to overcome. *DEATH THREATS FORCE COLOMBIAN LABOR LEADER INTO EXILE Bogota, December 24 (RHC)-- Colombian labor leader Wilson Borja has been forced to flee the country amid death threats from right-wing paramilitaries. A year ago Borja, president of the National Federation of Public Services Workers, was wounded by gunfire in an assassination plot and has not fully recovered. A retired army sergeant has been charged with the attempted murder, while an army major and five other individuals are under investigation. In an open letter to Colombian Interior Minister Armando Estrada published in local media outlets, the labor leader affirmed that authorities have not provided him with sufficient security. In related news, death squads Sunday murdered labor leader Jairo Chiva in Antioquia, capital of Medellin province, nearly 700 kilometers north of the capital, Bogotá. Chiva was also a member of the National Federation of Public Services Workers, which charged that there is a plan to exterminate the union. Some 150 members of the labor organization have been killed in recent years. *INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONDEMNS ISRAELI TRAVEL BAN ON YASSER ARAFAT Ramallah, December 24 (RHC)-- Despite criticism from the entire international community, Israel has maintained its order prohibiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from participating in Christmas Eve services in Bethlehem. Tel Aviv continues insisting that Arafat is not acting to dismantle Palestinian terror groups or stop terror attacks against Israel, despite armed confrontations with the Islamic militant groups Hamas and Jihad that have cost lives and threatened Palestine with civil war. Israeli authorities have confined the Palestinian leader to Ramallah since the beginning of the month, when Israel launched a series of military strikes in retaliation for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed more than two dozen people. He has been denied use of an airstrip and Israeli tanks and troops are guarding all roads in the region. Besides criticism from Europe, Washington and the Vatican, members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's own government have reportedly expressed opposition to the ban, including Israeli President Moshe Katzav, Foreign Minister Simon Peres and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. *"NEWSWEEK" SAYS US PLANS TO ATTACK IRAQ AND OVERTHROW SADDAM HUSSEIN Washington, December 24 (RHC)-- "Newsweek" magazine reports that Washington is drawing up plans to invade Iraq from the north and the south to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. According to the publication, citing unnamed government sources, it's not a question of whether the U.S. will attack, but when. The unidentified source told the "Newsweek" edition that began circulating Monday, that the U.S. army has drawn up a plan to deploy 50,000 soldiers north of Iraq and another 50,000 south of the country to simultaneously march on the capital, Baghdad. But some military leaders are reportedly insisting that overthrowing Hussein will require a military force at least the size of that used in the 1991 Desert Storm operation, when 169,000 troops were deployed to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. *WATCH GROUP WARNS OF RACISM ON THE RISE IN EUROPE Brussels, December 24 (RHC)-- A prominent human rights organization in Europe has reported that racism was on the rise in the year 2000 in Germany, Spain, France, Sweden and Great Britain. The European Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia reported significant increases in racial violence, anti-Semitic attacks, and racist threats and intimidation in these countries in comparison to 1999 -- particularly in Germany and Great Britain. Racist crimes grew 33 percent in Germany, while they doubled in Britain. The report highlighted the disturbances in Spain, when hundreds of Spaniards attacked the immigrant Moroccan population in the Almeria province -- calling it one of the most serious racist events of that year. The European Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia also reported growing activity of neo-Nazi groups in Finland, Sweden and Spain -- noting that in Germany, the number of racist Web sites doubled between 1999 and 2000. (c) 2001 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-27212 2001-Dec-25 06:54:46