Radio Havana Cuba-06 March 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 06 March 2001 . *PEREZ ROQUE SEES STRONGER BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH JAPAN *MAYOR OF CARACAS HEADS VISITING DELEGATION TO CUBA *ARGENTINEAN SENATOR CONDEMNS HIS GOVERNMENT'S STANCE ON CUBA *RICARDO ALARCON VISITS LEBANON *FORGERIES OF CUBAN ART A PROBLEM FOR INTERNATIONAL AUCTION HOUSES *WHO SUPPORTS SOUTH AFRICAN CHALLENGE TO EXHORBITANT AIDS DRUG PRICES *REPORT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN TAKES AIM AT USA *US ROLE IN OPERATION CONDOR'S CAMPAIGN OF TORTURE AND ASSASSINATION *Viewpoint: EXPANDING CUBA-BRAZIL COOPERATION . *PEREZ ROQUE SEES STRONGER BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH JAPAN Tokyo, March 6 (RHC)--Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque has asserted that his official visit to Japan has further strengthened bilateral relations following the renegotiation of Cuba's foreign debt to the Asian country. At a press conference after wrapping up official activities, the Cuban foreign minister said that he and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiro Mori recalled the recent visits to Japan by Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, as well as the visits to Cuba by the president of Japan's lower house of Parliament Tamisuke Watanuki and the president of the Japan-Cuba Friendship Parliamentary League Hiroshi Mitsuzuka. Perez Roque said the ties between Japan and Cuba are evolving amid a search for points of common agreement and a respectful dialogue on issues of discrepancy. Asked about bilateral talks on the human rights issue, the Cuban foreign minister called the conversation respectful. Concerning the future of relations between Havana and Washington, Perez Roque expressed pessimism over the possibility that President George W. Bush could lift the U.S. blockade of Cuba due to the new administration's debt of gratitude with the extremist Cuban-American community in Florida. He said this is one of the peculiarities of the U.S. political system that allows Washington to consider as an enemy a small neighbor that does not represent any threat. *MAYOR OF CARACAS HEADS VISITING DELEGATION TO CUBA Havana, March 6 (RHC)--The mayor of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is in town. Fredy Bernal arrived at the head of a delegation on Monday and intends to explore issues relating to his city on public health, sports, street children in Caracas, cultural exchanges and drug rehabilitation. In statements to the press, the mayor said that he came with great expectations due to the fact that both Venezuela and Cuba have such excellent relations. He said that Caracas has a population the size of Havana - over two million people - but that greater Caracas, which sprawls out into shantytowns on the edge of the city, is made up of another three million people -- of which 80 percent live in poverty. Fredy Bernal described the problems associated with indigent children and the more than 150,000 drug addicts on his city's streets. Marta Lomas, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation who was at the airport to welcome the Venezuelan mayor, said that the visit was part of the bi-lateral accords both countries signed in October last year. In the agreements, Cuba provides technical and social assistance in exchange for very favorable terms on Venezuelan oil. In the context of this agreement, Bernal will be visiting Venezuelan citizens undergoing surgery in Cuba. The Venezuelan delegation will remain in Cuba until March 10th. *ARGENTINEAN SENATOR CONDEMNS HIS GOVERNMENT'S STANCE ON CUBA Buenos Aires, March 6 (RHC)--In the ongoing dispute over Argentina's position of so-called human rights abuses in Cuba, the senator representing the province of Buenos Aires, Julio Ruben Ledesma, has condemned his government for its intention to vote against Cuba in the United Nations Human Rights Commission later this year. Ledesma said that the government of Fernando de la Rua was sadly mistaken in its foreign policy and was taking a great moral responsibility by siding with the United States in its annual effort to have Cuba condemned. He said that it was remarkable that a nation subjected to an unjust, inhuman and savage economic blockade would be accused of human rights abuses by the very nation that is responsible for the blockade. The Argentinean senator recalled that it was Cuba that immediately offered assistance to Buenos Aires in the Malvinas War against Great Britain. It helped more than any other Latin American nation, he added. He went on to point out that of the millions of children sleeping on the streets in the world not one was Cuban. With what type of moral ethics did the Argentinean government make such judgments, Lesdesma asked? Cuba may be poor, he said, but it is not mortgaged out to international lending agencies and should be an example for all. *RICARDO ALARCON VISITS LEBANON Beirut, March 6 (RHC)--Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcón arrived in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday -- his third stop of an official tour of the Middle East. In statements to reporters upon his arrival, Alarcón said that Cuba was ready to assist Lebanon in aspects of culture, science and economics. Aside from meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Nabih Berri, the Cuban official will also meet with President Emile Lahud, Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and Foreign Minister Mahmud Hamud. They will discuss economic and social exchanges, but are expected to have a long discussion on the situation in neighboring Palestine and Israel. Alarcon will speak with the Secretary General of the Palestine Popular Front, George Habach, as well as the secretary general for the Democratic Front for Palestine, Nayef Hawatmeh. Alarcón was hosted by Syria last week, meeting with Syrian President Bachar al Assad and Prime Minister Mahud al Zohbi. *FORGERIES OF CUBAN ART A PROBLEM FOR INTERNATIONAL AUCTION HOUSES Havana, March 6 (RHC)--The great masters of European art are being challenged by the more recent ones of Cuban art. But not so much in the museum as in the street, as more and more fakes are turning up in the United States, Spain and Latin America. According to Sotheby's auction house, works by Cuban masters accounted for 9.3 percent of the $23 million in sales of Latin American art. With many forgeries relying on the scarcity of resources in Cuba and the lack of experts on Cuban art outside the island, even world-famous Christie's auction house has been duped. In Florida, works by contemporary Cuban masters such as René Portocarrero, Mario Carreño and Amelia Peláez are often fakes, according to Ramon Cernuda, a prominent art collector, scholar and dealer in Miami. And there is a lot of money to be made. A 1943 painting by Carreño sold for $442,500 at Christie's four years ago; a 1950 painting by Peláez, for $310,000 at Christie's in 1998; and a 1943 painting by Portocarrero, for $195,000 at Sotheby's in 1996. There are some 10-15 Cuban artists that can command such prices on the international auction house circuit. Thus the wave of forgeries that have hit the international market are likely to increase, say experts. One of Cuba's most famous painters, whose paintings have garnered the highest sums of any Cuban artist, is the late Wifredo Lam. A painting of his was recently auctioned in Miami for over one million dollars. To reduce the risk of fakes, his wife published a book illustrated with all her husband's paintings. The number of false Lams on the market has been considerably reduced as a result, say art experts. *WHO SUPPORTS SOUTH AFRICAN CHALLENGE TO EXHORBITANT AIDS DRUG PRICES Pretoria, March 6 (RHC)--The World Health Organization has come out in support of South Africa's legal battle against pharmaceutical transnationals charging exorbitant prices for AIDS medication. In Geneva, the WHO stated Tuesday that the medication should be available to all those who need it, and that the organization will promote legislation on intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organization to facilitate that access. Meanwhile, South Africa's Supreme Court has postponed hearings on a petition by some 41 pharmaceutical transnationals arguing that Pretoria's intention to produce non-trademark, or generic AIDS medication, is in violation of intellectual property rights. The postponement came in response to a petition by the country's principal organization in the fight against AIDS, the Treatment Action Campaign, which requested playing a role of "amicus curiae" -- or friend of the court -- in the legal dispute. The activists have presented to the court studies on the price policies of pharmaceutical transnationals and the human drama of AIDS. The transnationals have requested extra time to study the document. The South African Supreme Court has postponed hearings until April 18th. *REPORT ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN TAKES AIM AT USA Washington, March 6 (RHC)--As International Women's Day approaches, Amnesty International has released two reports on violence against women worldwide, and the mistreatment of women in U.S. prisons. The international human rights organization termed as savagery the chaining of pregnant women prisoners in the United States, and the fact that in at least 18 U.S. states pregnant women are chained during delivery. The report found that only one U.S. state -- Illinois -- prohibits pregnant women from being chained while they're being taken to a hospital. Amnesty International-USA director William Schulz said there is no reason why a pregnant woman should be chained. Faithful to Amnesty International's recent decision to target industrialized countries and not only Third World nations, the report states that according to U.S. Justice Department figures two out of every three women prisoners in the United States have reported some form of sexual and/or physical abuse. The report points to the Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center in Miami, Florida, as one of the institutions were women are abused. Schulz pointed out that only three of the U.S.'s 50 states prohibit male guards from strip searching women prisoners. The organization demanded that the U.S. government adopt measures to protect women in prisons and in their homes. According to official government figures, an American woman is beaten every 15 seconds. With respect to the violence against women worldwide, Amnesty International mentioned the case of a woman tortured with electric shock, sodomized and raped by police in Turkey, to the cases of wives burned and disfigured with acid by the family members of their husbands in India. In Pakistan, Amnesty International said that raped women who cannot demonstrate that they didn't agree to be allowed to be raped can be accused of fornication and stoned or whipped in public. In Saudi Arabia, states the report, abused women who abandon their homes seeking help from authorities can be arrested for showing themselves in public without being accompanied by a male family member. *US ROLE IN OPERATION CONDOR'S CAMPAIGN OF TORTURE AND ASSASSINATION New York, March 6 (RHC)--Recently declassified U.S. State Department documents have provided further evidence tying Washington to the 1970s joint campaign by Latin American dictatorships to eliminate all opposition, known as Operation Condor, according to today's edition of The New York Times. The document, discovered among thousands by Long Island University professor Patrice McSherry, shows that Latin American military officers involved in Operation Condor used an American communications installation to share intelligence. Documents already made public have shown that the F.B.I. helped Condor's efforts early on by investigating South American leftists who were arrested and, in at least one case, tortured. Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the non-governmental organization National Security Archive, said the cable implied foreknowledge, cooperation and total access to the plans and operations of Condor. Kornbluh said that the degree to which the U.S. government knew about and supported these operations has remained a secret until now, but that the layers of the onion are now peeling away. Condor's victims weren't all leftist radicals, and included government officials ousted in United States-supported military coups, labor activists, human rights advocates and even Latin American military officers who came out against the overthrows of constitutionally-elected governments. The New York Times reported that former U.S. ambassador in Paraguay, Robert White, came across information implicating the U.S. government in Condor in 1978. White said he sent a message on the issue to the highest authorities in Washington, but never received a response. White told the New York Times that what this suggested to him is that people in the U.S. government actively worked to not have this evidence revealed. *Viewpoint: EXPANDING CUBA-BRAZIL COOPERATION Bilateral cooperation between Cuba and Brazil is in full swing, especially in the health sector and also in some economic areas. Evidence of this are the pilot programs that are currently being carried out in some Brazilian communities, testing the feasibility of the Cuban family doctor system, created a number of years ago on the island. The family doctor system, which today benefits the entire Cuban population, is aimed at improving primary health care in Cuba by having doctors within every small community. In those areas, a general practitioner and a nurse offer primary health care services to local residents, research the health needs in that area, offer daily consultations, monitor their patients' progress and advise the population on hygiene, preventative medicine and the use of medications. The family doctor program is now being gradually implemented in various Brazilian communities, adjusting the system to the specific needs of each place. Another aspect of bilateral health cooperation between Havana and Brasilia, recently announced by Cuba's Ambassador to Brazil, Jorge Lezcano, is the increased cooperation between pharmaceutical companies from both countries with a view to increasing the production of generic medicines. This would reduce medical treatment costs, making them more accessible for Brazilians. Lezcano recalled that Cuba and Brazil are also currently cooperating in areas such as oil drilling and the tobacco industry. Brazilian tobacco factories are associated with their Cuban counterparts in the production of high-quality cigars, bound primarily for the European and the Latin American markets. Cuba and Brazil -- the world's top sugar exporters -- have also expressed their mutual interest in the exchange of technology and expertise, especially in the production of derivatives and the development of new sugar brands. To dissipate growing speculations regarding bilateral cooperation between the two countries, the Cuban ambassador explained that Cuba is not trying to become a MERCOSUR member, which is impossible anyway, given its geographical location. The aim, he stressed, is to strengthen relations between the South American block and the Caribbean area. The current state of bilateral relations between Cuba and Brazil demonstrates that cooperation between countries with different social systems is possible and could be of great mutual benefit for the nations involved. (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-5518 2001-Mar-07 00:06:15