Radio Havana Cuba-06 February 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 06 February 2001 . *FURTHER WORDS FROM FIDEL ON THE CRITICAL SITUATION IN ARGENTINA *CUBAN TOURISM UP MORE THAN 10% IN YEAR 2000 *CUBA AND MONGOLIA STEADILY IMPROVING THEIR RELATIONS *FORUM ON ENDANGERED SPECIES MEETING ON ISLE OF YOUTH *CUBAN MINISTER SPEAKS OF POLITICS AND CULTURE AT HAVANA BOOK FAIR *NEGOTIATIONS UNDERWAY BETWEEN ECUADORAN PRESIDENT, POPULAR MOVEMENTS *SALVADOR: FMLN PROPOSES CONCRETE ACTIONS TO COPE WITH QUAKE AFTERSHOCKS *Viewpoint: A WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT IS GROWING AGAINST "FREE-MARKET" POLICIES . *FURTHER WORDS FROM FIDEL ON THE CRITICAL SITUATION IN ARGENTINA Havana, February 6 (RHC)-- Cuba has rejected accusations by Buenos Aires that recent comments made by President Fidel Castro were offensive to the Argentinean people. In the interests of clearing up any misunderstanding, today's edition of the Cuban daily Granma published Fidel's words concerning the critical situation in Argentina. During the closing session of the Third International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and the Problems of Development -- held on Friday, February 2nd -- the leader of the Cuban Revolution referred to the consequences of Argentina's neo-liberal economic policies. He stated that Argentina's enormous foreign debt of 61 billion dollars has more than doubled -- jumping to a record 145 billion. Referring to the past and present administrations in Buenos Aires, Fidel Castro said that former president Carlos Menem and all who have since come after him are studying the dollarization of the Argentinean economy. The Cuban leader pointed to the fact that the Argentinean government is busy selling everything to the highest bidder -- petroleum, airline companies, the telephone system, trains, parks, streets and even the land itself. But, according to the Cuban president, that is apparently not enough. Fidel Castro revealed that Argentinean Foreign Minister Adalberto Rodriguez Giavarini recently traveled to Washington to ask for economic assistance, carrying with him the credentials given to his country for having voted against Cuba last year at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Fidel noted that it was not coincidental that someone in Buenos Aires affirmed that Argentina would maintain its anti-Cuba position at the Geneva-based commission this year. At the same time, it was announced that Washington would help Buenos Aires with nearly 40 billion dollars toward their foreign debt. The leader of the Cuban Revolution said that Argentina's shameful vote last year at the UN Human Rights Commission met with lots of opposition, even within the administration of President Fernando de la Rua. Fidel Castro stated that Cuba has many friends in Argentina and predicted that even more will voice their opposition if Buenos Aires takes Washington's line again. *CUBAN TOURISM UP MORE THAN 10% IN YEAR 2000 Havana, February 6th (RHC)-The number of tourists that visited Cuba in 2000 increased by 10.7% over the previous year for a total of 1.7 million visitors, reports the island's tourism minister Ibrahim Ferradaz. This year has begun well, said Ferradaz, with January figures over 2000 increasing by 18%, although there are concerns that the figures are not as high as anticipated. One of the reasons for this, explains the Tourism Minister, is that most of the tourists who come to Cuba originate in Europe and last year the exchange rate of the euro against the dollar was not very advantageous. He also blamed a increased fuel prices resulting in higher airfares to the island although packages from Spain and Germany especially remained very good buys. The island's main source of hard currency income is in tourism, with sugar, nickel and biotech products among other important earning sources. *CUBA AND MONGOLIA STEADILY IMPROVING THEIR RELATIONS Havana, February 6th (RHC)-The Mongolian Embassy in Havana has commented that relations between the two countries improve every day, according to a report in the Cuban news daily Granma. In an interview with an embassy spokesperson, Balbaryn Tserendorzh, the U.S. blockade of Cuba was condemned and the success of the association of both nations underscored by the fact that Cuba was the first Latin American country with which Ulan Bator established relations 41 years ago. Since the Mongolian Popular Revolutionary Party took power with a four-year project to economically reconstruct the Asian nation, Cuba has been ready to help its friend out of the morass caused by a succession of natural disasters. *FORUM ON ENDANGERED SPECIES MEETING ON ISLE OF YOUTH Havana, February 6th (RHC)-Ecologists and environmentalists meeting on the Isle of Youth - Cuba's southernmost province - are demanding immediate action to preserve some of the nation's most threatened species - primarily the Cuban Crane which is the largest bird in the nation. The experts are part of the Sixth International Festival of Help for Endangered Species in which nations from Central America and the Caribbean are taking part. Both adults and children are taking part in a program that will continue through the 12th February in the town of La Victoria situated in the area of the island most frequented by the Cuban Crane. *CUBAN MINISTER SPEAKS OF POLITICS AND CULTURE AT HAVANA BOOK FAIR Havana, February 6th (RHC)-The Cuban Minister of Culture, Abel Prieto, yesterday said that Cuba was a good example of the coherence of politics and culture - publishing works that range from Miguel de Cervantes to James Joyce to José Martí. He was speaking at the 10th International Havana Book Fair. He noted that Joyce wrote Ulysses for non-commercial reasons by an author who sold badly, but was nevertheless a veritable literary revolutionary genius. Thus the reissue of Ulysses by Cuba is a message, he said, a signal to our society that we make no concessions that are detrimental to our most precious, intrinsic values. Prieto went on to remind those present that Cuba printed the works of Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, before he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, said the Minister of Culture, nationalism does not come into the editorial politics of Cuba. Works by Gore Vidal, Mark Twain, and H.L. Doctorow were among those published on the island. Abel Prieto added that the island even publishes the work of the Cuban emigrant community such as Lydia Cabrera who lives in Miami, Florida. The idea, he said, was to combine culture and quality of life, culture and liberty. We hope, he added, to provide Cubans today with the information tools necessary to deal with the world of globalization. In spite of forecasts to the contrary following the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has been able to maintain excellence in fields such as ballet, cinema and music - and on an international level. And with this year's Havana Book Festival Cuba has opened an internet site with the specific purpose of promoting Cuban literature. More than 300 authors and 1,000 works have been so far added to www.cubaliteraria.cu . The website offers readers the opportunity to critique the works they read, which will enable authors to receive important international feedback on their writing. The Cuban Book Institute backs the project. The website enables visitors to cross-reference by author, title, date and type. *NEGOTIATIONS UNDERWAY BETWEEN ECUADORAN PRESIDENT, POPULAR MOVEMENTS Quito, February 6 (RHC)-- Ecuadoran president Gustavo Noboa has agreed to meet with indigenous leader Antonio Vargas in what observers are saying is an attempt to divert the country from a collision course with disaster. Reports from Quito, the Ecuadoran capital, state that as many as thirty people have been wounded in clashes with police over the past two days. Another indigenous activist died from apparent gunshot wounds, bringing the death toll to at least four, according to the most reliable reports. At least six people were injured on Monday when Ecuadoran police attempted to evict some 5000 indigenous protesters from the Polytechnic Salesiana University. According to the spokesperson for the Permanent Human Rights Association, Alexi Ponce, police tried to forcibly remove the protesters, but were unsuccessful. Ponce told reporters that he and other indigenous activists were concerned that the police may try to rush the university again and attack those who are occupying buildings on the campus. Protesters who are demanding an end to the government's economic policies and specifically recent price hikes in transportation and domestic gas, say that if the Ecuadoran authorities want a confrontation, they'll get it. Activists have stressed that they will continue their peaceful occupation indefinitely, but that if the police move in, they are prepared to resist violently if necessary. *SALVADOR: FMLN PROPOSES CONCRETE ACTIONS TO COPE WITH QUAKE AFTERSHOCKS San Salvador, February 6 (RHC)-- The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the FMLN, has called on the Salvadoran government to take concrete measures to deal with the aftershocks of last month's devastating earthquake. In a statement issued in the capital, San Salvador, the FMLN stated that in order to seriously tackle the social and economic problems affecting the Central American country in the wake of the recent natural disaster, the administration of President Francisco Flores must substitute its neo-liberal economic policies with those that prioritize social concerns. The left opposition stated that for reconstruction to be effective, the Salvadoran government must work for environmental, political and social harmony. According to the former guerrilla army-turned political party, the ARENA administration must work to generate jobs and stabilize prices in order to control inflation. Noting that 60 percent of the Salvadoran people are submerged in poverty, the FMLN emphasized the importance of making credits available to all who need them, especially those who are forced to rebuild their homes and their very lives. Considering that the repair of local roads and highways should be a priority in order to rebuild the national economy, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front called on the government to establish an emergency program to confront the serious shortage of housing. Experts say that the earthquake that hit El Salvador last month threw more than one million 160 thousand people into homelessness. And the Salvadoran opposition pointed to the fact that international relief aid since the devastating quake has been totally insufficient -- with outbreaks of cholera, respiratory infections and other diseases related to the aftermath of the earthquake. The FMLN has also called for the creation of a prevention system, which would prioritize preparatory measures for future natural disasters. *Viewpoint: A WORLDWIDE MOVEMENT IS GROWING AGAINST "FREE-MARKET" POLICIES In the aftermath of last week's three important international economic meetings in Davos, Switzerland, Porto Alegre, Brazil and Havana, Cuba, the international press, institutions and personalities continue debating the economic future of the world. In the Davos forum, which was attended by representatives of transnational corporations and various governments, participants searched for the best ways to sustain the pillars of the current world system which threatens to drown the Third World in ever more poverty without hope for a solution. However, people around the world are beginning to realize that neoliberal measures are counterproductive and there is a growing movement among the continent's institutions and personalities for change. Those forces made their presence felt in all three of the economic meetings last week where they brought attention to the myriad problems caused by free market measures for all developing nations, even those more advanced in the application of the harsh economic measures imposed by the financial and commercial powers controlled by the United States. Those institutions, like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have been forced to admit that poverty and the social problems it brings with it , which already existed in most nations, has skyrocketed. However, the powerful lending institutions insist that the situation in only temporary. What they have been unable to say is how much longer the peoples of the Third World will have to continue suffering. Those who have seen or themselves suffered the consequences of capitalism, are joining the rapidly growing movement to struggle for a new world economic order capable of guaranteeing a more fair distribution of wealth. As we enter the new century it is becoming increasing clear that the free market/neoliberal model is regressive and only benefits the exploiters. The foreign debt and social ills continue spiraling while the economic nomenclature of the rich euphemistically describes underdeveloped nations as "nations in development." The results of the Porto Alegre and Havana economic conferences clearly indicate that difficult battles lie ahead as the people begin to demand justice. It is a movement that will be difficult for the great economic powers to crush because many of the battles will be fought within the great powers themselves by the concerned citizens of those great nations. (c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. 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