Radio Havana Cuba-03 May 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 03 May 2002 . *THE URUGUAYAN PEOPLE CAN CONTINUE TO COUNT ON THE FRIENDSHIP, RESPECT AND SOLIDARITY OF CUBA *INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ENCOUNTER HELD IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL *RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS REVEAL DEEPER U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN COLOMBIA'S CIVIL WAR THAN OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED *EXPERTS EXPRESS INCREASING CONCERN OVER UNPRECEDENTED NATURE OF ARGENTINA'S ECONOMIC CRISIS *LEADER OF ATTEMPTED RIGHT WING COUP IN VENEZUELA TARGET OF RIDICULE AFTER DENYING HAVING CONSPIRED TO TOPPLE GOVERNMENT *U.S. STATE OF VIRGINIA APOLOGIZES FOR FORCIBLE STERILIZATION IN SELECTIVE BREEDING PROGRAM *U.S. CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION SUPPORTS ISRAEL, CALLED ONE-SIDED *Viewpoint: FREEDOM OF THE PRESS? IN CUBA? . *THE URUGUAYAN PEOPLE CAN CONTINUE TO COUNT ON THE FRIENDSHIP, RESPECT AND SOLIDARITY OF CUBA Havana, May 3 (RHC)-- The Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX) issued an official statement on Friday regarding the decision of the Uruguayan government to declare Cuban Ambassador in Montevideo Joaquín Alvarez Portela persona non-grata. Portela also served as Cuba's representative before the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), which is based in the Uruguayan capital. With the title: "The Uruguayan people can continue to count on the friendship, respect and solidarity of Cuba," the MINREX statement appears on the front page of this morning's editions of Granma and Juventud Rebelde. The statement begins by explaining the events that led to the present situation. The decision to expel Cuba's ambassador from Montevideo, says the MINREX note, was preceded by statements of numerous high-ranking Uruguayan officials, including President Jorge Batlle, announcing that they would move towards breaking diplomatic relations with Cuba and that the expulsion of the Cuban ambassador was a first step in that direction. According to the MINREX statement, Cuba believes that the decision is the outcome of an escalation that began during the recently-held UN Conference on Funding for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, in which President Batlle made several highly-offensive statements against the Cuban people, its political system, the island's institutions and the Cuban head of state. The note issued by the Cuban Foreign Ministry recalls that it was President Batlle himself who announced that Uruguay would vote against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission, even when there was still no draft resolution or nation to present it in Geneva. President Batlle's insults against Cuba and his decision to turn Uruguay into the instrument used by the United States to present its anti-Cuba resolution in Geneva and get it passed amid tremendous pressures, continues the MINREX statement, constitute the true causes of the current conflict between Montevideo and Havana. By allying himself to the United States and its anti-Cuba maneuver in Geneva, the Uruguayan president contributed to once again fabricate a pretext for Washington to justify the existence of its over 40-year long blockade against the island. By responding to the insidious, ill-intended statements of the Uruguayan president, Cuba has only exercised its legitimate right to defend itself, says the MINREX note, recalling that Batlle's insults against the Cuban people and their leaders began even before he assumed the presidency. The Foreign Ministry note thanks diverse social and political sectors in Uruguay for their expressions of solidarity with the Cuban people. Cubans are aware, says the note, that 75 percent of the Uruguayan people oppose their government's decision to break diplomatic relations between our two nations, while 65 percent rejected Uruguay's anti-Cuba vote in Geneva. After recalling the traditional, longstanding bonds of friendship that exist between the peoples of Uruguay and Cuba, the note affirms that none of Cuba's words or actions in response to President Batlle's attacks constitute an insult to the Uruguayan people, since Cuba never took the words of the Uruguayan president for his people's opinion. The MINREX statement notes that Ambassador Portela would be returning to Havana tomorrow, Saturday, and that Cuba will soon name a new representative before the Latin American Integration Association. The note issued by the Cuban Foreign Ministry stresses that the Uruguayan people can continue to count on the friendship, respect and solidarity of Cuba. The Cuban government, affirms the MINREX note, will keep its promise to send 800,000 doses of the meningitis B vaccine for Uruguayan children in early June. The MINREX statement concludes by reaffirming that nothing and no one can ever bend Cuba's Latin American and internationalist spirit. "No one can ever bend Cuba's determination to fight for Latin American integration or break our people's spirit of independence and dignity." *INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ENCOUNTER HELD IN THE CUBAN CAPITAL Havana, May 3 (RHC)-- More than 300 foreign guests from 20 countries -- invited to attend International Worker's Day activities here in Cuba -- participated in an international solidarity encounter in Havana on Thursday. Calling for a coordinated campaign to demand the immediate freedom of five Cuban political prisoners being held in the United States, delegates to the solidarity encounter discussed efforts currently being undertaken around the world. Gloria la Riva, President of the U.S. Committee to Free the Five, addressed the solidarity activists, insisting that the most urgent task is to break the silence on the case in the mainstream media. She said that the committee's work in the United States is an uphill battle, but that some progress has been made -- pointing to stories that have appeared in major circulation newspapers and magazines. Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcón also spoke to the conference participants, pointing out that the case of Rene González, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino shows the hypocrisy of Washington's so-called "war on terrorism." Pedro Ross Leal, General Secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Workers, thanked those gathered for their ongoing solidarity with Cuba. The trade union leader said that by making Cuba's cause their own, they were expressing solidarity with all oppressed people of the world. Also attending the international solidarity encounter in Havana was a delegation from the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange, headed by Ignacio Meneses; the director of the magazine Areito and leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, Andrés Gómez; as well as representatives from Cuba solidarity organizations in Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Greece and Venezuela. *RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS REVEAL DEEPER U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN COLOMBIA'S CIVIL WAR THAN OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED Washington, May 3 (RHC)-- Recently declassified documents show that US aid to Colombia has blurred the lines between counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency to the point that the United States is on the brink of direct confrontation with leftist guerrillas, according to the National Security Archive. In documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, this non-profit organization based at the George Washington University found that - despite the legal limits and repeated public assurances by government officials - as early as the first Bush administration the US "Andean Strategy" was developed as a "deal" struck with Andean governments to provide them with counter-narcotics aid that could also be used against leftist rebels. Published Thursday on the Web by the National Security Archive's Colombia Documentation Project, the organization noted that despite congressional resistance due to human rights concerns the current Bush administration is pressing to lift restrictions on the use of present and future aid to Colombia. The declassified documents have reportedly provided evidence that the State Department had extreme difficulty in identifying Colombian army units that did not have stains on their human rights performance when Washington helped form antidrug battalions that would qualify for US funds. According to the National Security Archive, the documents reveal that the new units were "bedding down" with a counter-guerrilla battalion reportedly involved with right wing paramilitaries - and that the CIA knew it. They also reveal that when the US and Colombia were negotiating an end-use agreement - intended to guarantee that counterdrug aid be used only in drug producing areas and only for counter-narcotics operations - the US delegation led by Representative Dennis Hastert secretly encouraged Colombian military officials to ignore human right conditions on US aid. Hastert, who was then chairman of the House subcommittee on national security, is currently Speaker of the House. The declassified documents also show how Washington eventually redefined the area in which the aid could be used as "the entire national territory of Colombia." *EXPERTS EXPRESS INCREASING CONCERN OVER UNPRECEDENTED NATURE OF ARGENTINA'S ECONOMIC CRISIS Buenos Aires, May 3 (RHC)-- Experts are expressing increasing concern over the unprecedented nature of Argentina's economic crisis as the country's lawmakers continue putting up resistance to International Monetary Fund demands of more shock therapy. With close to 8,000 people a day falling below the poverty line - defined as an income of 2 dollars a day - top experts are noting that the contraction of Argentina's economy is three times the size of Russia's after its 1998 crisis and one and one-half times the size of Mexico's during its 1995 crisis. Bruno Boccara, director of Latin America sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's Corporation in New York, told the Friday edition of The Washington Post that the situation in Argentina is hopeless, adding that "we have never seen a financial crisis like this anywhere." While many urge the country's lawmakers to follow IMF recipes, and others warn against it, President Eduardo Duhalde's Radical Civic Union party ally in Congress warned Thursday that it will not repeal an economic subversion law that targets corporate criminals and corrupt bank executives. This is one of the IMF's and Washington's demands, based on the argument that the legislation discourages investment. Other demands, however, are also coming up against stiff opposition. One Argentinean economic institute estimated that accepting IMF demands on drastic public spending reductions would mean cutting at least 350,000 government jobs at a time when one out of every four adults is already jobless. Among those who challenge the IMF's prescription is Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs, who last week likened the fund's insistence on more austerity to the 18th century method of bleeding sick people, an approach that only made them worse. Artemio Lopez, chief economist of Argentina's Equis Research firm, stated that "the IMF has the wrong idea if they think Duhalde or any president can immediately make the kinds of reforms they are demanding and still be left standing in the morning." *LEADER OF ATTEMPTED RIGHT WING COUP IN VENEZUELA TARGET OF RIDICULE AFTER DENYING HAVING CONSPIRED TO TOPPLE GOVERNMENT Caracas, May 3 (RHC)-- Venezuela's dictator-for-a-day has become Public Enemy Number One following testimony before Congress considered by many to be not only incredulous, but also an affront to the nation. Business leader Pedro Carmona, sworn into office on April 12 following the arrest of constitutionally-elected President Hugo Chavez, Thursday told a heated congressional inquiry that he did not conspire to topple the government and that he believed in democratic rule. Noting that Carmona, in just a few hours, announced he was annulling the constitution and dozens of laws opposed by the business community, as well as dissolving Congress, the Supreme Court and other institutions, one angry legislator asked who had authorized him to enter the presidential palace and swear himself in as the president of Venezuela. Carmona said he acted spontaneously and patriotically, filling a power vacuum after senior military officers reported that Chavez had resigned. As Chavez supporters outside congressional headquarters called for his head, Carmona had to admit that he never saw any document signed by Chavez announcing his resignation - but he continued insisting that a coup never took place. Lawmakers asked Carmona how long he was going to "pull their legs" with his replies in which he denied any responsibility. The business leader refused to answer many questions based on his constitutional right to not incriminate himself, though this posture prompted some legislators to warn him that he may be exposing himself to further criminal charges. He already faces up to 20 years in prison. *U.S. STATE OF VIRGINIA APOLOGIZES FOR FORCIBLE STERILIZATION IN SELECTIVE BREEDING PROGRAM Richmond, May 3 (RHC)-- The U.S. State of Virginia has become the first to apologize for the forced sterilization of thousands of its citizens as part of a eugenics, or selective breeding, program in the last century. In all, 30 states conducted sterilization programs in an effort to wipe out human deficiencies and vices - in mostly poor, black, uneducated and mentally retarded people - that were assumed to be hereditary. In Virginia's case, this practice continued up until 1979. Virginia Governor Mark Warner called the program a "shameful effort" that the state should never have been involved in, offering an apology to the victims during the unveiling of a memorial to Carrie Buck - an 18-year-old unwed mother when she became the first person forcibly and legally sterilized in 1924. Virginia authorities, however, had refused to apologize last year, expressing only "profound regret" for the eugenics program because of fears that the state could expose itself to lawsuits. More than 60,000 people are thought to have been sterilized in the United States in the name of eugenics. *U.S. CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION SUPPORTS ISRAEL, CALLED ONE-SIDED Washington, May 3 (RHC)-- The US Congress has delivered strong bipartisan support of Israel, in what according to some is a too one-sided resolution. By a 94 to 2 vote, the Senate approved a non-binding resolution saying it "stands in solidarity with Israel as a front-line state in the war against terrorism." Voting just minutes later, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly backed a longer and stronger resolution condemning what it called the "campaign of terrorism" by Palestinian organizations and holding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accountable for it. But a few dissenting members of the House and Senate worried that the resolutions unfairly spared Israel from accountability. Democratic Representative Nick Rahall II called it "unbalanced," asserting that the U.S. Congress has "become the laughingstock of the world." Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher stated that the last thing Congress should do is give Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "a green light to unleash his total war on the Palestinian people," and should instead "bring both sides to the table." Some observers saw the resolutions as a mostly Republican effort to please the powerful pro-Israel lobby and tap Jewish voters and donors, a group previously more sympathetic to Democrats. *Viewpoint: FREEDOM OF THE PRESS? IN CUBA? Unbeknownst to many, today is celebrated as International Freedom of the Press Day. Why on earth, you ask, is a Cuban government radio station bringing this up when the Western press constantly berates the island (and, by extension, Radio Havana Cuba) for precisely lacking press freedom? The nature of the press in Cuba and that of Western-style capitalist systems is so different that it cannot and should not be compared. No Cuban journalist of any repute responds to someone else's bottom line. Although we at Radio Havana Cuba - as with any press outlet on the planet - respond to the editorial policy of our owner, which in our case is the Cuban people represented by its government, we are not in competition with other media. Therefore, we can concentrate on the essential issues that relate to the socio-economic and political development of the country and the world. It may make for staid reading, listening or viewing for those used to the thrill of sex scandals and intimate personal details of the lives of film stars and politicians, but we're not aiming for that kind of audience anyway. What is freedom of the press? The freedom to lie at will about your enemies? The freedom to publish personal details about public figures and their families who have fallen from grace? The freedom to manipulate the news to enable those corporate entities you support to move into positions of power? The freedom to selectively report on events and highlight trivia that reflect the best for the politicians to who's campaign coffers you have contributed because they will reduce your corporate taxes? You will never find any of this type of reporting by any official Cuban press outlet. No matter what George W Bush does to Cuba, no matter what his predecessors have done, Havana has never stooped to digging up dirt on their personal lives and publishing it. When Clinton was going through the Monica Lewinsky period, the Cuban press did not titillate and scandalize its readers with stories of stains and cigars. The Cuban press has never called for the removal of any President of the United States as the US press frequently does in its personal assaults on Fidel Castro. While the Venezuelan and US corporate press merrily printed and broadcast the lies perpetrated by the coup plotters of the April 11th attempted removal of a constitutionally elected leader in Caracas, the Cuban press - to its everlasting credit - was trusted by the daughter of Hugo Chavez to get the truth out to the world about the essential fact that her father had never resigned as reported. We were, quite simply, almost alone in the world media to disseminate the truth about what had happened in Venezuela. The total lack of morals by the Western mass media in its reporting on the plight of Chavez went against every element of international principles and ethics in journalism. The deliberate deceit - or, at the very least, exaggeration - relating to events unfolding in Caracas led directly to the attempted coup and loss of life. The Venezuelan mass media was a veritable factory of disinformation in the days preceding the coup with the US press not far behind. The 24 hour television station, Globovision, showed split screen images of Hugo Chavez addressing the nation in an attempt to calm the situation alongside inflammatory views of demonstrators in the street carrying placards saying the most vulgar personl things about the President. So much for journalistic integrity. While the country was traversing a constitutional crisis and the dictator-for-a-day Pedro Carmona grandly stripping the people of Venezuela of every protection Chavez had given them, the private television stations of the nation showed golf competitions or re-runs of soap operas. Chavez, after all, was in custody, so no need to show any more of those images personally denigrating him. This is what passes for freedom of the press? The freedom to go against the express wishes of a people? The freedom to manipulate and fabricate to such a degree that a government for the people and by the people - the words of Abraham Lincoln himself - was thrown into anarchy and innocents died? The freedom to spread vicious lies about a decent and upright man seeking only to improve the lot of Venezuela's poor who represent a full two thirds of the population? The freedom to later report on May 1st that there were 300,000 marching in the streets of the capital to support Hugo Chavez when every other source estimated the crowd at over a million? The freedom - in other words - to orchestrate and lie at will. The free flow of information is not an individual right, as Washington would have the world believe. It is a social right - a social responsibility. The Cuban press responds to the needs of its people and represents them in the constant battle against the attacks of the Western press and its manufacturing of consensus. The press offices of various government entities, as with any other nation, handle information. But there is no information hierarchy of favoritism, no financial favors, no political promises. We are proud of what we do here at Radio Havana Cuba. We are proud of the fact that we do not work to a bottom line. We represent the freedoms of health care and education. The freedom of living in a non-violent society. The freedom of guaranteed housing - however cramped it may sometimes be - and subsidized food. While media such as ours are frequently called apologists or disseminators of propaganda, when les jeux sont fait the quality and veracity of our output far exceeds any major mass media source anywhere in the backwaters of the sordid world of business and power interests. (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-6492 2002-May-05 17:51:26