Radio Havana Cuba-16 April 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 16 April 2002 . *INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH VENEZUELA *VICTORY OF VENEZUELAN PEOPLE ANALYZED ON CUBAN TV ROUNDTABLE *STEPPED-UP RELATIONS BETWEEN CUBA, AUTONOMOUS BASQUE COMMUNITY *NEW AIR CARGO TERMINAL INAUGURATED IN HAVANA *CUBAN MUSICIANS TOUR US TO COLLECT PIANOS FOR CUBA *WHITE HOUSE ON THE DEFENSIVE OVER REPORTS OF US ROLE IN FAILED COUP *JENIN CAMP: EYEWITNESS REPORRTS OF MONSTROUS WAR CRIMES AND DESTRUCTION *MASSIVE PROTESTS TO GREET HENRY KISSINGER ON HIS ARRIVAL IN LONDON *RALPH NADER SETTLES SUIT ON HIS EXCLUSION FROM 2000 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES *ITALY: FACING MASSIVE LABOR UNREST, BERLUSCONI INTRANSIGENT *COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT TO ASK SKEPTICAL US CONGRESS FOR MORE AID Viewpoint: *41 YEARS AFTER THE BAY OF PIGS THE PEOPLE TRIUMPH AGAIN *VOX POPULI, VOX DEI, MR BUSH . *INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH VENEZUELA Havana, April 16 (RHC)-- Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations, Nilos Alcalay thanked Tuesday the International Community's gestures of solidarity with the Venezuelan Constitutional Government. The Venezuelan diplomat addressed the UN agencies' representatives in New York, Rome, Paris, Vienna and Geneva as well as many permanent representatives at the UN headquarters in New York. Alcalay highlighted Cuba's request to call a meeting of the Non-Aligned countries, which is now scheduled to take place Tuesday, given that the legal authority of the Venezuelan people led by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been re-established. On April 12th, the date of the coup d'etat, Rolando Requeiro, who is charge of the Cuban affairs, denounced the unconstitutional action in a letter signed by the UN Security Council. Requeiro demanded that the UN organization respect the Venezuelan leader and guarantee the recovery of Constitutional order in that country. In addition, the group of 77, under the Venezuelan leadership, agreed to respect the same democratic values in line with the principles of the South Summit Declaration. *VICTORY OF VENEZUELAN PEOPLE ANALYZED ON CUBAN TV ROUNDTABLE Havana, April 16 (RHC)-- The power and the role of the people as the basis of a country's ideology are the most important lessons learned from the events in Venezuela. This was highlighted during the Round Table Discussions aired live Tuesday on Cuban radio and television. The panel of journalists shared with the public the latest news about the gradual return to normality in Venezuela, after the fascist and counterrevolutionary coup d'etat. Randy Alonso, journalist and moderator of the Round Table described the coup as "lasting less than a meringue at a school entrance," a colloquial Spanish language expression for a short-term action. In an interview with Aristobulo Isturiz, Venezuelan Minister of Education, he said that the Army would be under the control of General Julio Garcia Montoya, who prepared the counter-coup to force the de-facto government's resignation and lead the operation to rescue Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez. Other news items referred to were the press conference given by President Chavez on the Government Federal Council's attempt to look for a consensus in the nation's economic, political and social fields. Vice-President Diosdado Cabello stated that the coup d'etat that took place last Thursday was a preplanned action but not a result of a civilian-military movement. *STEPPED-UP RELATIONS BETWEEN CUBA, AUTONOMOUS BASQUE COMMUNITY Havana, April 16 (RHC)-- Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque, and the President of the Basque autonomous community, Juan José Ibarretxe, met last week in Havana. Ibarretxe arrived in Cuba for an official visit the 5th of April. The Basque President gave special recognition to Cuba's capacity for self-determination. He underlined how his community's support for Cuba in its capacity to make decisions to protect its independence. The Cuban Foreign Minister emphasized his appreciation for the relationship that his country enjoys with the Basque government and the island's special affection and friendship for its people. The Basque president visited the Basque Company, Berots, which specializes in the production of refrigeration systems. A total of 57 Basque companies including joint ventures, cooperative companies and branches are established in Cuba. The visit of the Basque President concluded with the signing of cooperation agreements in different branches of the economy. He also underlined the perspectives and exchange possibilities in the scientific sector. *NEW AIR CARGO TERMINAL INAUGURATED IN HAVANA Havana, April 16 (RHC)-- The new Cuban-Spanish joint Venture Company, Air cargo Logistic "ELCA," recently inaugurated a modern cargo terminal at Cuba's Jose Marti International airport. Carlos Lage, Vice president of the Cuban Council of Ministers, highlighted the large capacity of the installation, which will better facilitate the air transit connection of goods between America and Europe and vice-versa. Lage underlined that the increased capacity is also very important because goods coming from Southern countries to Canada have to make a stopover before their final destination and now Cuba can offer this possibility. The Vice-President said that Cuba is not the only cargo terminal in the market, however the excellent conditions of the Cuban cargo company, ELCA, the efficiency of some 15 Cubans working there plus the experience and support offered by Iberia, makes ELCA able to compete with any other air cargo-center. In this joint venture company, both shareholders, Cargosur, which is part of the Spanish Group, Iberia, and Aero Varadero hold 50% of the shares in the company.. Cuban airlines have been gaining experience, improving its operation and incorporating more modern aircraft. Also, it now has the advantage of a fleet of long-haul aircraft to travel to Europe or Canada. Cuba has ten international airports and one more under construction in Cayo Coco, which will be finished by the end of this year. The new cargo terminal was built at a cost of 2 million dollars and its services include facilities to preserve goods in optimum conditions, computerized technology and fast access to information on other airports such as the one in Varadero. The new terminal has a refrigeration system capable of maintaining perishable goods and also a laboratory for ensuring food hygiene. All this allows Cuba's cargo terminal compete favorably with other cargo centers in the Caribbean. Cuba and Spain now have two aeronautical joint ventures: IBECA and now ELCA, which combine technical expertise, security and reliability on agreements and excellent business prospects that will certainly contribute to the island's development. *CUBAN MUSICIANS TOUR US TO COLLECT PIANOS FOR CUBA Havana, April 16 (RHC)-- Following a two-week music tour by four young members of the Conservatory of Music of Camaguey, sixty pianos will soon arrive in Cuba. The tour began in Washington, D.C. and has stopped in several cities in Florida. The musicians play classical selections and have been showing a documentary on the piano project. The tour and piano shipment are being led by Ben Treuhaft, a piano tuner from New York City. Treuhaft plans to load 60 pianos donated along the tour onto a cargo boat that will leave Tampa, Florida next month. The pianos will then be distributed in music schools throughout the island. *WHITE HOUSE ON THE DEFENSIVE OVER REPORTS OF US ROLE IN FAILED COUP Washington, April 16 (RHC)-- The White House was on the defensive Tuesday amid persistent press reports of Washington's anti-democratic position regarding the attempted right wing coup in Venezuela. The New York Times Tuesday reiterated widespread reports about senior members of the George W. Bush administration meeting several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that arrested constitutionally-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and attempted to establish de facto rule in the country. The Times also affirmed that those officials met with coup leaders for two days last weekend - as the dramatic events were unfolding - and agreed that Chavez should be removed from office. While White House spokesman Ari Fleischer insisted Tuesday that Washington did not encourage the coup and told coup leaders that the US government would not support such a move, the New York Times pointed out that Bush administration officials have given conflicting accounts of what the United States told Chavez's opponents. The report noted that while one official insisted that Venezuelans use constitutional means to overthrow Chavez, a Defense Department official stated that Washington was not discouraging the coup leaders and was sending subtle signals that they didn't like the Venezuelan president. It also recalled Fleischer's original claim that Chavez had resigned because the Venezuelan government suppressed a peaceful demonstration, pointing to how the statement contrasted with a clear stand by other nations in the hemisphere. The Times asserted that the Bush administration has damaged its credibility as a chief defender of democratically elected governments, noting that officials in Washington did not hide their dismay when Chavez was restored to power. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that much of the hemisphere believes that the United States came limping along in support of constitutional rule only when it became clear late Saturday that the Friday morning coup in Venezuela had only temporarily succeeded. The Post recalled that as some Latin American leaders were invoking the Inter-American Democratic Charter on Friday, Fleischer announced that a transition civilian government had been installed in Venezuela -- with no mention of the Democratic Charter. It also recalled that when the Bush administration summoned all the hemisphere's ambassadors to a State Department briefing, Assistant Secretary Otto Reich is reported to have said that Chavez had it coming. *JENIN CAMP: EYEWITNESS REPORRTS OF MONSTROUS WAR CRIMES AND DESTRUCTION Jenin, West Bank, April 16 (RHC) -- News correspondents and humanitarian agencies are asserting that the scale of the Israeli army's destruction of the Jenin refugee camp is almost beyond imagination. The British news daily The Guardian reported that the first definitive accounts of the battle began to emerge as journalists broke through the Israeli blockade and gained access to the heart of the refugee camp, bearing witness to how the Israeli army systematically ploughed through occupied homes to broaden the camp's alleys and make them accessible to armored vehicles. The British news daily The Independent affirmed that amid the ruins of Jenin there was the grisly evidence of a monstrous war crime, with the stench of rotting human bodies everywhere denoting human tombs beneath the rubble shoveled by bulldozers into piles 30 feet high. Correspondents from The Independent reporting from the scene asserted that the descriptions of refugees who escaped from Jenin - of bodies deliberately being buried beneath mounds of rubble that were later flattened by tanks - are not an exaggeration, but rather, an understatement. The Red Cross and Amnesty International charged Tuesday that the refugee camp looks like it was hit by a devastating earthquake, demanding an immediate investigation into the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. *MASSIVE PROTESTS TO GREET HENRY KISSINGER ON HIS ARRIVAL IN LONDON London, April 16 (RHC)-- Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is expected to be met with massive protests during his upcoming visit to London. An alliance of human rights campaigners and anti-capitalist demonstrators has already begun a "Kissinger-bashing" campaign leading up to his planned speech at London's Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on April 24. Organizers of the campaign are targeting the former Secretary of State over his cooperation with Chile's bloody, 1973 military coup, as well as his part in the Vietnam War and the US's secret bombing of Cambodia. Guy Talor, of the anti-capitalist movement Globalize Resistance, said the activists are calling on the British Home Secretary not to allow him into the country - charging that Kissinger presided over one of the most brutal eras of US foreign policy in history. Last weekend, the Chilean judge who last July submitted some 30 questions to Kissinger about his relationship with Pinochet told the British news daily The Independent that if his replies didn't come this month extradition proceedings would follow - which is expected to further embarrass him and Washington. Kissinger hurriedly left France last year when a French judge attempted to question him about the forced disappearance of five French citizens during the Pinochet regime. He is still threatened by a 4.9 million dollar civil action lawsuit from Joyce Horman for the death of her husband, American journalist Charles Horman, during the Pinochet coup, and he is also being sued in Washington by members of the family of former Chilean army commander, General Rene Schneider - assassinated in Chile in 1970 in what is widely believed to have been a CIA-supported effort to prevent socialist President Salvador Allende from assuming his elected office. *RALPH NADER SETTLES SUIT ON HIS EXCLUSION FROM 2000 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES Washington, April 16 (RHC)-- Renowned US consumer advocate and human rights activist Ralph Nader - the Green Party candidate in the 2000 presidential elections - has settled his lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates for barring him from attending a debate in Boston, even as a spectator. Under the terms of Monday's agreement, the commission has reportedly agreed to issue an apology and pay an undisclosed amount of money. Nader had sued the commission for excluding him from the site of last October's debate, even though he had a ticket to watch in a side room. Though the executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, Janet Brown, insisted that she and her colleagues don't believe his claims were substantiated, the defendants settled in order to avoid a court date on Tuesday. Nader insistently charged that he was discriminated against because of his political views. He had reportedly demanded that the commission contribute 25,000 dollars to the Appleseed Center for Electoral Reform at Harvard Law School, though the terms of the settlement were not disclosed. *ITALY: FACING MASSIVE LABOR UNREST, BERLUSCONI INTRANSIGENT Rome, April 16 (RHC)-- As millions of workers in Italy virtually shut down the country, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi compared himself to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - credited with having faced off with and destroyed the British labor movement in the 1980s. He also invoked the memory of former US President Ronald Reagan, who destroyed the US's air control towers union. The eight-hour work stoppage, Italy's first general strike in twenty years, was in protest against planned labor reforms that would strip workers of many of the rights won in labor struggles during recent decades. *COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT TO ASK SKEPTICAL US CONGRESS FOR MORE AID Washington, April 16 (RHC)-- Colombian President Andres Pastrana has traveled to Washington as a skeptical US Congress debates the effectiveness of anti-drug aid to the Andean nation and the wisdom of getting more deeply involved in the country's civil war. Amid reports that Colombia's coca production has climbed and efforts to cultivate substitute crops have failed, members of Congress are expressing displeasure with what has been done with the one billion 700 million dollars they've given to the country over the last two years. At a recent congressional hearing, Representative Sonny Callahan said "we're talking about a lot of money going to a very small area that is making zero progress." The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Ike Skelton, stated that "you have to look at the past to make a decision for the future." At the same time, language authorizing a policy change regarding Colombia's civil war is contained in one sentence deep inside a voluminous White House request for 27 billion dollars in emergency anti-terrorism aid sent to Congress last month that would supersede existing restrictions based on the Colombian army's human rights record. The Bush administration has said it will not send US combat troops into Colombia or extend the US military mission beyond training and supplying military equipment. But representative Ron Paul told a House International Relations subcommittee that the policy change is worse than a slippery slope, and actually may constitute "approaching a cliff." The proposed change in ground rules for Colombian aid marks the first time since September 11 that the administration has suggested that domestic insurgents in another country pose a terrorist threat even if they have not directly targeted the United States and have no known connection to any group that has. Thus far, Congress has refused to release any military-related funds in a $300 million Colombia aid package it appropriated for 2002 until the administration can certify that the Colombian army has ended collusion with right wing paramilitaries, suspended and prosecuted senior officers credibly alleged to have been involved in human rights violations and moved to arrest death squad leaders. According to The Washington Post, the leftist guerrillas and the right wing paramilitaries are officially equal enemies, but both the Colombian and U.S. governments display far more interest in combating the former than the latter. Money to continue a U.S.-paid aerial fumigation program has been withheld pending proof that the herbicide being sprayed on drug crops is nontoxic and safely used. Neither the military certification nor the herbicide information has been provided. In February, the Senate prohibited spending any of the new 2002 money for any purpose, until the administration provides a more detailed outline of its strategy. Viewpoint: *41 YEARS AFTER THE BAY OF PIGS THE PEOPLE TRIUMPH AGAIN April 16th, 1961 is an important date for Cuba and for the development of the island's relations with other nations in the hemisphere and, indeed, the world. Forty-one years ago, moments after attending the funeral of those who had been killed by the bombing of airfields on the island as a precursor to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro proclaimed in Havana the Socialist nature of the Revolution. From then on everything in Cuba changed with people and nation becoming part of one same concept. A few hours later, a group of Washington-paid mercenaries invaded the island. The victims of the attack were Cuban civilians, including children. The invasion was successfully repulsed by the nation's militia and army in less than seventy-two hours and over 1,500 mercenary troops were captured. Thereafter, Cuba chose its own way for development and independence. In spite of the constant external aggression it has been facing over the last forty-one years, the country has made significant advances in health care and education and reached respectable technological and scientific development. The Cuban government has managed to guarantee Cubans a modest, yet dignified standard of living and has saved thousands of lives by reducing the island's mortality rate to unprecedented figures. The island is also praised for developing culture and sports and for seeking to pursue the welfare of other peoples in Third-World nations. After being defeated in the Bay of Pigs, Washington multiplied its efforts to undermine the Cuban Revolution, including the setting up of an economic blockade that ultimately forbade any nation in the world from trading with the island. Practically all U.S. relations in the hemisphere are permeated by this obsession with putting an end to the Cuban Revolution. Another U.S. strategy has been that of buying the votes of Latin American politicians in the United Nations and other world organizations and meetings in its efforts to condemn Cuba and its revolution. Cuba has also been used as pretext to brutally repress national liberation movements in Africa and Latin America; a pretext to kidnap, torture and massacre leaders of left-wing organizations. Nonetheless, Venezuela proved this weekend that its people trust the leadership of their constitutionally elected President Hugo Chavez who has founded a Republic and is conducting a true Revolution to provide all his citizens with equal opportunities. Forty one years after the Bay of Pigs, the events in Venezuela have shown that the corrupt forces of corporate and imperial power can still be defeated by a revolution by the people and for the people. *VOX POPULI, VOX DEI, MR BUSH As we all celebrate the return of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to his rightful place as head of his country's constitutional government, we reflect on some of the revealing issues surrounding the attempted coup d'état which plunged Venezuela into a crisis at the end of last week. First of all, and it hardly comes as a surprise, the US weekly magazine "Newsweek" is reporting that the military heads that engineered the coup were in contact with the US Embassy for a full two months before the events. They went so far as to order in Madrid the presidential sash to be used by their co-conspirator, Pedro Carmona. Carmona, the rich businessman with strong US links, aspired to be president by appointing himself and then went about suspending the Constitution and Venezuela's anti-corruption laws before he was arrested by forces loyal to Chavez. Carmona's actions left no doubt as to what kind of government he and his CIA backers sought. The hypocrisy of official statements emanating from Washington after the failure of their coup was wretched. Then we have the Organization of American States to which the United States is a signatory. The OAS, which, it should be remembered kicked Cuba out of the organization for resisting US backed attempts to violently oust its government, made a statement totally lacking in grit after Hugo Chavez was imprisoned. Although it decried the disruption of Venezuela's constitutional order, it failed to demand the return of the democratically elected president of that order. Although an OAS delegation is now in Caracas to investigate last week's events, no emergency meeting took place last week to suspend from the organization the de facto administration nominated by Carmona. Central to the OAS charter is a provision stating that any unconstitutional alteration or disruption of the democratic order in a member state "constitutes an insurmountable obstacle" to participation of that state's government in various forums of the OAS. Back to Washington. White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer blamed Hugo Chavez for violence during a march on the presidential palace last Thursday and clearly suggested that this justified the military's intervention. However, eyewitness accounts reveal that most of the dead were Chavez supporters and that they had been fired upon by rooftop sharpshooters. TV images of Chavez supporters firing at unseen targets were really Chavez supporters defending themselves against these killers whose object was to shed as much blood as possible and blame the government for supposedly opening fire on peaceful demonstrators. The international corporate media took to these images like lapdogs and the die was cast with the fabrication that the Venezuelan president deserved to be toppled as he ordered troops to fire on his people. The Vice-President said that anyone who knew Chavez would know him to be incapable of giving such an order. It was Carmona and his military supporters who had innocent people killed to kick-start their coup. If there are still doubts about US premeditated involvement in the coup how about IMF director of foreign affairs, Thomas Dawson, making the statement immediately after Chavez' detention that his US influenced organization would immediately provide all the support it could give to the coup leaders. Democracy in Washington is clearly defined by whoever is occupying the Oval Office. In this case a conglomerate of business leaders, rich union chiefs from the privileged oil industry, the private corporate media and a few bought-and-paid-for military chiefs represented the White House version of democracy as it applied to Venezuela. The maverick populist who controlled a third of the oil entering the US had to go. This was the maverick populist who inherited one of the most venal systems in Latin America. Who immediately cracked down on corruption and broke the power monopoly of the two enormously corrupt and discredited main political parties. Who promptly formulated a remarkable Constitution that along with South Africa's is recognized as the most progressive in the world. Who increased schooling for over a million children, dramatically decreased the nation's illiteracy rate in only three years. Who decreased the nation's infant mortality rate and reduced unemployment. And who brought to his country a social revolution, which has given such great hope to the two thirds of Venezuela that live in spiritless poverty. Vox populi, vox dei. (c) 2002 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-3408 2002-Apr-17 00:45:59