Radio Havana Cuba-04 July 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 04 July 2001 . *PASTORS FOR PEACE DEMANDS RETURN OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SIEZED BY U.S. *CUBAN MEDICAL SCHOOLS PREPARE TO RECEIVE 3,700 NEW STUDENTS THIS YEAR *ECUADOR'S HEALTH MINISTER THANKS CUBA FOR HELP FIGHTING DENGUE FEVER *TOURISM ON THE RISE: ONE MILLION VISITORS TO CUBA SO FAR THIS YEAR *CUBAN PARLIAMENT TO CONVENE IN EARLY AUGUST *FORMER ARGENTINE PRESIDENT CARLOS MENEM INDICTED IN ILLEGAL ARMS TRAFFICKING *COLOMBIAN PRISON RIOT LEAVES 10 DEAD, 15 WOUNDED, AND STATE OF EMERGENCY *HANOI, US AGREE TO CONFERENCE ON EFFECTS OF AGENT ORANGE Viewpoint: *EL SALVADOR'S DOLLARIZATION SIX MONTHS LATER *NAFTA: A WAR AGAINST MEXICO'S FARMERS . *PASTORS FOR PEACE DEMANDS RETURN OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SIEZED BY U.S. Mexico, July 4 (RHC)--The U.S. solidarity organization Pastors for Peace has demanded the return of medical equipment and medicines destined for Cuba that were confiscated late Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury Department. While the more than 80 members of the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas without problems on Tuesday, U.S. authorities confiscated humanitarian donations from the 20 Canadian caravan members attempting to cross the U.S.-Canada border in the state of Maine. From Tampico, Mexico, Pastors for Peace leader Reverend Lucius Walker told Havana's Prensa Latina news agency that the Treasury Department confiscation two cardio-vascular machines and anesthetics. Reverend Walker said this equipment and medicine saves lives, calling the U.S. government's decision cruel and cowardly. From Tampico, the solidarity activists will arrive in Cuba today with tons of humanitarian donations, including radiology equipment, mobile shops for bicycle repairs and solar panels for remote rural communities. *CUBAN MEDICAL SCHOOLS PREPARE TO RECEIVE 3,700 NEW STUDENTS THIS YEAR Havana, July 4 (RHC)--Some 3,700 new students of medical sciences will be admitted to Cuban schools and universities this year, of which 1,600 will seek careers as doctors, reports the Ministry of Public Health. A further 1,700 will study nursing and 200 dentistry. Approximately 130 foreign students will be among those entering full medical degree programs in the seven medical schools on the island. They represent a total of 34 countries. Dr Aracelis Montero Casimiro, head of Admissions at the Ministry of Public Health, said that this year some 3,000 students were expected to graduate in various disciplines within the medical field. Currently, 16,900 students are studying medical sciences in a country which maintains a doctor to population ratio of 1:169. *ECUADOR'S HEALTH MINISTER THANKS CUBA FOR HELP FIGHTING DENGUE FEVER Havana, July 4 (RHC)--The Ecuadoran health minister, Patricio Jamriska Jácome, has expressed his sincere thanks to Cuba for sending a medical team to his country in the wake of heavy rains that caused devastating floods and severe disease risk. In a letter forwarded to Ecuador's ambassador to Cuba, Ileana Díaz Arguelles, the Ecuadoran minister congratulated the Cubans for their dignified response to his country's needs and their tireless voluntary efforts not only in Ecuador, but many other Latin American countries. The team returned to Cuba last Saturday after helping to arrest a dengue fever epidemic in the coastal areas of the South American country. According to the leader of the team, Dr Eric Martínez, most of the work was concentrated around the city of Guayaquil where the outbreak was the most serious after the floods. Some 2,800 dengue tests were carried out with the Cubans participating in a fumigation campaign and training 2,500 Ecuadoran health workers in techniques to stem the epidemic. The team also donated diagnostic medical equipment to the Guayaquil children's hospital. At the request of the Ecuadoran Ministry of Health, three doctors will remain in Guayaquil for a further two weeks to help out with public health issues in the marginal neighborhoods of the city's El Bastión district. In related news, more than 700,000 people have been treated by the Cuban medical team that has been operating in Venezuela since December, 1999. The 178 members of the team have been working in the states of Vargas, Lara and Barinas, with other Venezuelan states requesting Cuban help after heavy rainfall devastated large areas of the country in late 1999. Most of the Cubans are working in remote areas where access to medical assistance is very difficult for the rural population, many of whom simply were not able to see doctors until the Cuban team arrived. Applying preventive medicine techniques, the Cuban medical personnel have vaccinated and directly advised more than 45,000 Venezuelans, and visited in excess of 152,000 homes, especially in the badly hit state of Vargas. *TOURISM ON THE RISE: ONE MILLION VISITORS TO CUBA SO FAR THIS YEAR Havana, July 4 (RHC)--Cuba registered an increase in tourism of 10.7% in the first quarter of this year, up by 7% from the same period last year, reports Ibrahim Ferradaz, the island's Minister of Tourism. Tuesday Cuba registered the millionth visitor to the island for 2001. The country is seeking its two millionth tourist by the end of the year. Canada continues to be the country sending the most visitors, with Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Mexico and Argentina following. Tourism from Mexico increased by 30% over last year and 55% of all visitors originated in Europan countries. Havana continues to head the list of eight tourist points most visited, with places like Varadero Beach and the colonial town of Trinidad following. Official estimates of the island's total income from tourism calculate $2 billion by the end of the year. Tourism now counts for 40% of Cuba's income, with 65% of all its needs provided by Cuban companies, reports Ferradaz. In spite of Washington's efforts to prevent further investment, the Spanish hotel chain Sol Melia is the largest foreign investor on the island, maintaining 20 hotels with another two scheduled to be opened in the next two months. *CUBAN PARLIAMENT TO CONVENE IN EARLY AUGUST Havana, July 4 (RHC)--The Cuban Parliament, known here as the National Assembly of People's Power, has been summoned by its president, Ricardo Alarcón, to convene on August 3. The session will be the first of what is normally two ordinary sessions per year in the five-year term of the single-house Parliament between elections. The country currently has its fifth legislature since the Revolution, and this session will be its seventh since the 1998 general election. One of the elements expected to be addressed in August will be the issue of the five Cubans convicted and imprisoned in the U.S. for supposed espionage. The men were in Florida to gather information on the terrorist attacks that are frequently planned and carried out against the island by right-wing groups, with the tacit support of Washington. Cuba has vowed not to allow the case of its five patriots to fall by the wayside and is applying as much international pressure as it can muster to win the release of the five. The Cuban Parliament has some 600 deputies elected from all walks of life. The usual procedure for its sessions involves the creation of 10 parliamentary commissions which examine every aspect of government, receiving reports from members of the country's Council of Ministers or cabinet. *FORMER ARGENTINE PRESIDENT CARLOS MENEM INDICTED IN ILLEGAL ARMS TRAFFICKING Buenos Aires, July 4 (RHC)--Former Argentine President Carlos Menem has been formally indicted for illegal weapons trafficking. Federal Judge Jorge Urso has determined that Menem directed and controlled the sale of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador. Urso also formally charged former army chief Martin Balza and Menem's former Defense Minister, Erman Gonzalez, both currently under arrest. Menem's former Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella has also been formally charged, though not arrested. Under house arrest since last June 7, Menem will now begin the long legal process in which he can file an appeal in federal courts and later in the Supreme Court, where most of the justices were appointed by the former president himself. Judge Urso has embargoed Menem's personal assets to the tune of $3 million. *COLOMBIAN PRISON RIOT LEAVES 10 DEAD, 15 WOUNDED, AND STATE OF EMERGENCY Bogotá, July 4 (RHC)--Authorities in Colombia have declared a national state of emergency in all the country's penitentiaries following another bloody prison riot that left 10 inmates dead and 15 wounded. In the National Model Prison in the capital, Bogotá, imprisoned leftist guerrillas faced off with right-wing paramilitaries and common criminals in a 16-hour battle between Monday and Tuesday in which both sides used abundant firearms and explosives. With the state of emergency, Colombia's National Penitentiary Institute will be able to transfer inmates without authorization from judicial authorities, modify internal prison rules, request logistics support from the armed forces and fire prison officials involved in corruption or other irregularities. The state of emergency also responds to the recent announcement from the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) insurgency that all necessary military methods will be used to free imprisoned leftist guerrillas. Just hours after the announcement on June 23rd, a rebel commando attacked Bogotá's Picota Penitentiary -- the country's most important. Five inmates were killed in the assault, while 98 escaped -- among them members of the FARC and the National Liberation Army. In April of last year, the National Model Prison was the scene of a bloody battle between right wing paramilitaries and common criminals that left 25 inmates killed. *HANOI, US AGREE TO CONFERENCE ON EFFECTS OF AGENT ORANGE Hanoi, July 4 (RHC)--Vietnam and the United States have reached an agreement to hold a bilateral conference on the effects of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, but some critics are saying that Washington should provide more than lip service. The U.S. military sprayed the jungles of Vietnam with 72 million liters of agent orange between 1962 and 1971. It Is estimated that some one million Vietnamese suffer the effects of the herbicide, while tens of thousands of Vietnamese children have been born with congenital malformations as a result. American Vietnam War veteran Chuck Search said the bilateral agreement is a step in the right direction, but that Washington should make a greater commitment to alleviate the legacy of that war. A similar position was adopted by officials of the Vietnamese Red Cross. Experts from the U.S. National Institute of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control gathered Monday and Tuesday in Hanoi with members of Vietnam's National Science and Technology Center. Participants decided to hold the first scientific conference on Agent Orange early next year in the Vietnamese capital and to carry out medical studies of the affected population over the coming months. Viewpoint: *EL SALVADOR'S DOLLARIZATION SIX MONTHS LATER The Salvadoran government is euphoric over the latest results achieved by the country since the implementation of a dollarized economy six months ago. According to government authorities, the power of the dollar has taken the national economy out of bankruptcy. This optimism is leading people to believe finally in a hopeful future for this small and troubled Latin American nation. In comments to the press, the President of the nation's Central Reserve Bank, Rafael Barraza, said that his government had managed to reduce interest rates, stabilize the local currency, the colon, and create the proper conditions for investment. He added that Salvadorans are now more familiar with the presence of the US dollar and there has been no speculation between currencies as the exchange rate has remained stable at 8.75 colons to the dollar. The value of the colon has remained steady despite the earthquakes suffered by El Salvador in January and February, which caused considerable material losses estimated at some $2 billion. In addition, assured Barraza, Salvadoran's savings accounts and salaries are protected from devaluations such as those which recently occurred in Brazil, Colombia and Chile. Paradoxically, however, more than 70% of the Salvadoran population has an economic perception that is very different from that of the government. The Salvadoran people clamor for real opportunities, in a nation that ended a civil war eight years ago, leaving some 80,000 dead and more than one million who fled the country. The left-wing deputy, Roberto Lorenzana, president of the Parliament's Finance Commission, believes the profits that Barraza so greatly praises are only the virtual benefits of dollarization. This measure has only benefited the bank owners because depositors end up bearing the cost of low interest rates of loans, he said. For the economist Roberto Barraza Candell, the cost of dollarization has been overwhelming, at $500 million or a full one-fourth of the nation's international reserves. An expert of the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean, CEPAL, estimates that the process of dollarization has in fact not resolved the severe economic problems of the country, but will actually widen and reinforce them, since it exposes the vulnerable economy to internal and external shocks. El Salvador's trade balance accumulated a deficit of $884 million between January and May, export of coffee -- a key product of the Salvadoran economy -- has suffered dramatic drops in the last few years. Last December, government minister Juan José Daboub, classified the dollarization of El Salvador's economy as a biblical Noah's Ark, in which it would rise above the stagnant waters of the past, creating much improved prosperity. He forgot to clarify that the prosperity would concentrate, as usual, in the pockets of a chosen few... *NAFTA: A WAR AGAINST MEXICO'S FARMERS Apologists for neoliberalism proclaim to the four winds that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico is ideal for the peoples of the South. Hasn't commercial exchange between Mexico and the United States increased since the agreement went into effect in l994, argue free market defenders. However, one fact should be kept in mind: :ast year the U.S.'s commercial deficit with Mexico soared to more than $24 billion. The American Union has become the destination of the majority of Mexico's exports. Nevertheless, this achievement of NAFTA is a mixed blessing. More than a century ago, Cuba's national hero Jose Marti warned that excessive commercial influence from a country becomes political influence. People who wish to be free, he said, must be free in business, unite with the world, and not with just one part of it. The dreams of forming one huge open market from Alaska to Patagonia ignore or hide some of the negative consequences this new relationship with the United States has caused Mexico. For example: More than 15 million Mexican farm workers, or campesinos, had to give up their lands after the opening of the national border to the importation of U.S. corn. According to a study made by the U.S. organization Public Citizen, NAFTA has dismantled the rural community while unleashing a war against farmers who are members of the accord. In the case of Mexico, notes the study, the agreement has bankrupted farmers and damaged the genetic diversity of corn with the entrance of genetically modified varieties. Mexico which, until the beginning of the 1990s, exported corn, now imports five million tons of the grain from the United States. The Public Citizen analysis, entitled "Seven Years of Free Trade Agreement: A War Against Farmers," notes that between l994 and l998 the importation of cheap grain forced one of every six Mexicans to abandon their lands and look for work in cities in the center and northern parts of the country. The idea that the elimination of tariffs will guarantee development conveniently forgets that the road to progress is filled with obstacles. The resurgence of the mythical dream of El Dorado falls into the same error of confusing desire and ambition with reality. (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-25464 2001-Jul-04 23:54:55