Radio Havana Cuba-06 March 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 06 March 2002 . *"NO ONE WHO FORCIBLY ENTERS AN EMBASSY IN CUBA WILL LEAVE THE ISLAND"-FIDEL *VICENTE FOX SAYS RELATIONS WITH HAVANA ARE MAGNIFICENT *BRAZIL SAYS US STEEL PROTECTIONISM THREATENS TO DERAIL FTAA *IN HANOI, NO AGREEMENT REACHED IN FIRST SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON AGENT ORANGE *WASHINGTON LOSES ANOTHER COURT ROUND IN FIGHT TO KEEP ENERGY DOCUMENTS SECRET *TONY BLAIR GETS STIFF OPPOSITION TO SUPPORT FOR ATTACK ON IRAQ *COLOMBIA: REBELS BLOCK MAJOR HIGHWAYS AFTER WAVE OF ATTACKS ON INFRASTRUCTURE Viewpoint: *WHAT IS BEHIND THE "STEEL WAR" DECLARED BY PRESIDENT BUSH? . *"NO ONE WHO FORCIBLY ENTERS AN EMBASSY IN CUBA WILL LEAVE THE ISLAND"-FIDEL Havana, March 6 (RHC)--"No one who forcibly enters an embassy in Cuba will leave the island." Cuban President Fidel Castro reiterated Havana's position during a special, televised roundtable discussion Tuesday evening -- in which the Cuban leader and other panelists talked about the illegal occupation of the Mexican Embassy last week. The roundtable -- broadcast live on Cuban radio and television -- was the second part of a special program examining the serious incident, provoked by anti-Cuba radio transmissions from the United States. The leader of the Cuban Revolution took a chronological look at the events leading up to the occupation of the Mexican Embassy in Havana and the peaceful resolution of the situation a little more than 24 hours later. He recalled that a group of antisocial and criminal elements hijacked a bus and rammed it through the front gate. Fidel Castro noted that Cuba and Mexico have a long history of excellent bilateral relations, mentioning the recent visit to Havana by Mexico's President Vicente Fox. The Cuban leader said that he was in touch with his Mexican counterpart several times by telephone and that Vicente Fox thanked Fidel for taking extra measures to protect his country's diplomatic offices. The Cuban president also detailed conversations between officials of both countries, stressing that from the beginning, Cuba's position was that the 21 individuals who forced their way into the embassy would be charged with crimes related to the incident. Fidel Castro said that while Mexico assured the illegal occupants that they would not bring charges against them, Cuba always maintained that those who forcibly entered the embassy would face charges. Reading the letter from Mexico's ambassador to Cuba, in which the Mexican government requested that the occupants be evicted, Fidel Castro said that the request was carried out to the letter. Police entered the embassy unarmed -- which he pointed out was his own personal suggestion -- and the illegal occupants were removed peacefully. The entire operation took place in four minutes and 33 seconds, without the slightest injury to any of those removed from the Mexican Embassy. The Cuban president referred to the annual campaign launched by Washington at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva -- accusing Cuba of alleged human rights violations. He noted that given the timing of this incident, leading to the upcoming session of the Commission in April, it appears to have been designed by Radio Marti as a provocation -- hoping that Cuba would react violently. Fidel Castro said that in many other countries of the world, police use horses, tear-gas and bullets as a matter of course -- but in Cuba, human rights are truly respected. *VICENTE FOX SAYS RELATIONS WITH HAVANA ARE MAGNIFICENT Mexico City, March 6 (RHC)--Mexican President Vicente Fox has affirmed that relations between his country and Cuba are excellent. During a news conference with foreign correspondents in the Mexican capital, President Fox said that relations with Havana are the same as before the illegal occupation of his country's embassy -- "or perhaps even better." The Mexican president told reporters that diplomatic relations "are magnificent and we continue working with the same enthusiasm as before." Asked about the reaction of Miami's right wing Cuban-American community -- which announced a boycott of Mexico for not granting the illegal occupants asylum -- Vicente Fox said that people are free to interpret the facts as they wish. He added that those who forced their way into the Mexican Embassy did not, at any time, request political asylum or offer proof of persecution. Given the situation, the Mexican president said he asked that Cuba remove the occupants. *BRAZIL SAYS US STEEL PROTECTIONISM THREATENS TO DERAIL FTAA Brasilia, March 6 (RHC) -- Officials in Brazil are asserting that Washington's protectionist measures in the steel industry will likely derail efforts to set up a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. Aecio Neves, the president of Brazil's House of Deputies, charged that the move contradicts the US's discourse about free trade. Placing up to 30 percent tariffs on imported steel, Neves said that President George W. Bush has essentially subsidized a totally inefficient sector that failed to invest in its infrastructure to guarantee that the sector remained competitive. He said Brazil did invest and did remain competitive, but now will be punished by the power of the US government. The Brazilian lawmaker said the country's lower house is going to issue an official protest note, insisting that in today's world measures such as these cannot be adopted without consequences. He noted that while the United States is the party most interested in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, it's the country that has now sabotaged the possibility of success in future trade talks -- talks, he added, in which the interests of rich nations will not prevail over those of developing countries. *IN HANOI, NO AGREEMENT REACHED IN FIRST SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON AGENT ORANGE Hanoi, March 6 (RHC)--The first scientific conference in Hanoi on the US military's use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War ended with Washington's representatives declining to agree on the magnitude of the damage to human health and the environment or compensation for the victims. At the conference's closing session on Wednesday, the lack of an agreement prompted Vietnam's Red Cross to affirm that people affected by Agent Orange need help now and cannot wait years for more research. Red Cross director, Professor Nguyen Trong Nhan, said that anyone with a modest knowledge of science would know that these sort of toxic substances harm the human body and the environment, adding that with many Vietnamese having "died in bitterness" without compensation, we can no longer keep silent and wait for more scientific evidence. Studies have already shown that dangerous concentrations of the dioxin TCDD used in Agent Orange remain in some parts of Vietnam. US scientists working with the Vietnamese Red Cross found late last year that Vietnamese living in a so-called hotspot have the highest levels of poisonous chemical dioxin ever recorded in the country. The lead scientist, Professor Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas, told media outlets that his team was startled by the results. He pointed to one region where 95 percent of the people sampled had elevated levels of dioxin in their bloodstream, and some had 200 times the average amount. *WASHINGTON LOSES ANOTHER COURT ROUND IN FIGHT TO KEEP ENERGY DOCUMENTS SECRET Washington, March 6 (RHC)--The US government has suffered another setback in an effort to keep secret how it drew up a controversial energy program. A federal judge has ordered a half-dozen federal agencies to release within two months records of their involvement in an energy task force headed by Vice President Richard Cheney. Ruling in a case filed nearly a year ago, US District Judge Paul Friedman said Tuesday that the agencies have had sufficient time to collect thousands of pages of material from their files. Friedman's order also covers the White House Office of Management and Budget. The lawsuit was filed by the conservative group Judicial Watch. The Office of Management and Budget has found 374 documents in its files on the Cheney task force, but has only released six of them, saying the rest should remain secret. Friedman said the Environmental Protection Agency is withholding 19,500 pages on its work for the task force, the Commerce Department 9,000 pages and the Transportation Department 6,000 pages. Other agencies involved in the order are Interior, Agriculture and Energy. The judge's decision is the second in two weeks setting a timetable for the prompt release of materials involving the Cheney energy task force. US District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled last February 21 that the Energy Department must hand over similar documents to the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of many environmental groups convinced that the energy program was essentially drawn up by corporate executives in the sector who have been big campaign contributors to President George W. Bush. One of the organization's lawyers called the energy plan a payback to polluters. Separately, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, has filed a lawsuit against Cheney in an effort to force disclosure of the identities of people who met directly with the vice president or his aides. *TONY BLAIR GETS STIFF OPPOSITION TO SUPPORT FOR ATTACK ON IRAQ London, March 6 (RHC)--British Prime Minister Tony Blair's growing support of an attack against Iraq is coming up against stiff opposition not only from European allies, but also from his own rank and file. A parliamentary debate on Wednesday was suspended after politicians traded bitter accusations over Iraq with a Foreign Office minister. Labor Party MP George Galloway said this is not Labor policy, but the policy of a right-wing Republican American administration. He said an invasion of Iraq would require weeks of carpet bombing, a full-scale invasion and years propping up a successor regime, asking who can sanely contemplate such a course of action. When assistant foreign minister Ben Bradshaw accused Galloway of acting as an apologist and mouthpiece for the Iraqi regime, the MP furiously called him a liar -- a serious breach of parliamentary protocol that brought the session to an end. Fifty-two members of Parliament have signed a motion expressing "deep unease" at the prospect of Britain supporting military action in Iraq. *COLOMBIA: REBELS BLOCK MAJOR HIGHWAYS AFTER WAVE OF ATTACKS ON INFRASTRUCTURE Bogotá, March 6 (RHC)--Following the destruction of numerous electrical transmission towers, power stations, bridges and waterworks, leftist guerrillas in Colombia are now blocking many of the country's major highways. With large trailer-trucks, members of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces insurgency blocked the most important highway communicating the capital, Bogotá, to the country's principal port on the Pacific, and to major cities like Cali. The major highway that connects Bogotá to the ports of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Maria on the Caribbean has also been blocked with large trucks and buses, as has another connecting Colombia to Ecuador and to the Tumaco port on the Pacific. A total of ten Colombian highways have been closed due to the destruction of an equal number of bridges. As a result of the rebel offensive following the definitive suspension of Colombia's peace process, the government is considering the creation of a new tax to finance the war. Viewpoint: *WHAT IS BEHIND THE "STEEL WAR" DECLARED BY PRESIDENT BUSH? Washington has opened up a can of worms in its relations with its closest allies by decreeing the imposition of hefty tariffs on steel imports. The announcement, in which the administration claims it needs the 18 to 30 per cent tariff to protect the U.S. steel industry, sparked a torment of protest against the measure. The European Union, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Brazil reacted immediately against the newest distortion of international trade, which violates the most elemental rules of exchange according to market capitalism, rules declared sacred by those same theories of neoliberal globalization. But it seems that the laws of the market are not all that sacred when it comes time to making certain decisions. That is why it is important to take a closer look to see what is being hidden behind the steel war, which threatens to throw a monkey wrench into relations between Washington and its friends. In the first place, according to analysts the tariff imposed by the United States on steel imports attempts to cover up the lag in reconverting its steel industry, which is trailing far behind in technological advances which have been achieved in other countries. And that is the main reason why 78 per cent of US Steel production is affected by imports which are less expensive, not because of disloyal trade practices, but rather due to far more efficient production in other parts of the world. In the second place, everything seems to indicate that President George Bush, took into consideration questions of domestic policy when he made a decision which will take a big bite out of the profits of powerful interests. What has happened is that legislative elections will be held in the United States in nine months and the Republican Party will have a tough battle in winning back control of the Senate and in increasing the slight majority it holds in the House of Representatives. For that, the Republicans will need votes from the steel producing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. Those two reasons were decisive in the White House decision to break with the myth of free trade and conveniently ignore the Free Trade Area of the Americans plan. Now how can the United States justify its demand that Latin American nations end protectionism when it is blatantly employing it for its own interests? The lesson for all is clear and it goes with the U.S. usual arrogance as in Washington's war against terrorism where it makes it clear that the game is played by U.S. rules. That way Washington decides who is terrorist and who is not, who violates human rights and who like Israel for example, is a beacon of humanitarianism. And finally, resuscitating the Keynesian phantom establishes who can be protectionist and who will be fatally obliged to practice free trade, no matter what the price. In the end, we should thank Washington for the free lesson in capitalist ethics. It will save us work in attempting to explain why we prefer another path to achieve the well being of the people. Perhaps it will also be a lesson to the rest of Latin America encouraging people to think twice about whether they really want to tie their own hands while leaving free those of their powerful neighbor. (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-2533 2002-Mar-07 12:07:35