Radio Havana Cuba-10 May 2002 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 10 May 2002 . *FIDEL CASTRO: WASHINGTON'S BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CLAIMS ARE SINISTER LIES *CUBAN PRESIDENT INAUGURATES NEW EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION CHANNEL *CUBA CALLS FOR PROTECTION, LOVE AND TENDERNESS FOR ALL CHILDREN *FORMER US ANTI-DRUG CZAR SAYS WASHINGTON STUCK IN 1960s COLD WAR MENTALITY *CONTROVERSY CONTINUES IN ARGENTINE CONGRESS OVER IMF DEMANDS *MARYLAND BECOMES SECOND US STATE TO DECLARE MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY *HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS WASHINGTON OWES AN EXPLANATION ON ATTEMPTED RIGHT-WING COUP *ENRON SCANDAL ALSO LEAVES SCARS IN SOUTH AMERICA *COLOMBIAN NARCOTICS POLICE EMBEZZLE US ANTI-DRUG AID *Viewpoint: FIFTY YEARS IS ENOUGH . *FIDEL CASTRO: WASHINGTON'S BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CLAIMS ARE SINISTER LIES Havana, May 10 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro says Washington's accusations that the island is producing offensive biological weapons are sinister lies. Appearing live on Cuban radio and television Friday evening, the Cuban leader presented an official response to insinuations that Havana is developing biological weapons for military use. The allegations were made by Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton on Monday, May 6th, in Washington -- during a speech before the Heritage Foundation, an ultra-right wing think tank. Demanding proof of its allegations, the leader of the Cuban Revolution said that Washington cannot come up with such proof because it simply does not exist. The Cuban president noted that, in recent years, Pentagon officials have gone so far as to say that Havana poses absolutely no military threat to the United States -- asking how it is possible that a U.S. State Department official can now make such a contradictory statement. Referring to other comments by the U.S. official -- adding Cuba to the so-called "Axis of Evil" and suggesting that Havana is cooperating with other "terrorist States" -- Fidel Castro said these declarations give U.S. President George W. Bush ammunition to tighten Washington's blockade against the island. Fidel Castro said this comes at a time when there are moves on Capitol Hill to lift, at least partially, certain aspects of the commercial and economic blockade against Cuba. Categorically denying Cuba's involvement in the development or production of biological weapons or the transfer of such technology to any other country, Fidel Castro affirmed that if a Cuban scientist were found to be working in cooperation with another country in the development of biological weapons, that scientist would be placed on trial for treason. He emphasized that according to Cuba's recently passed law against terrorist actions, anyone involved in terrorist activities faces ten years to life in prison or even the death penalty. Noting it is true that Cuba has made tremendous advances in biotechnological research, Fidel Castro said that the island's biotechnology is used for medical purposes. He pointed to the services provided free-of-charge by thousands of Cuban doctors and medical personnel in many countries around the world -- as well as thousands of students from Third World nations who are studying medicine in Cuba at absolutely no cost. Fidel Castro said that Cuba has nothing to hide and, in fact, is proud to show the world what it has accomplished in the area of biotechnology and scientific medical research. The Cuban president said that never, in 43 years of the Cuban Revolution, has anyone taken part in a terrorist action against the United States organized on this island -- something which cannot honestly be said by any official in Washington when referring to terrorist actions against Cuba, organized in the United States. Speaking Friday evening before national and international journalists, Fidel Castro concluded his statement -- saying that U.S. officials have absolutely nothing to teach Cuba. On the other hand, Cuba will gladly 'transfer' to the United States -- at no cost whatsoever -- lessons on truth and ethics. *CUBAN PRESIDENT INAUGURATES NEW EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION CHANNEL Havana, May 10 (RHC) - - Cuba's president Fidel Castro on Thursday officially inaugurated a new television channel that will focus on education. The Cuban leader termed the new channel, which will be seen by some three million inhabitants, as one of the Revolution's most significant achievements. President Castro said that by next year, the channel will be seen in all the island's 14 provinces as well as the Isle of Youth. The programming is aimed at teaching different levels of knowledge in a variety of subjects as part of the island's comprehensive cultural program, which began in the year 2000. As part of that program the University for All series has run lectures on art, history, geography, languages, music and other topics. President Castro mentioned the experience of the island's 300 Youth Computer Clubs, which function in all the country's municipalities and he noted that primary school children now enjoy the benefits of computers in their schools as well. All this, he said, has been achieved despite the economic problems that have plagued Cuba since the early l990s with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp. The Cuban leader explained that the new television channel will help to turn the entire island little by little into a huge university. Hundreds of professors, technicians, specialists and students participated in the inaugural event, which was held in Havana's Astral theater. The head of Cuba's Television and Radio Institute, Ernesto López, briefed the audience on the details of the investment made to make the third channel a reality. Fidel Castro made mention of the 80,000 Cuban young people between the ages of 17 and 29 years old who are students. He said the new channel is a kind of test or a rehearsal and noted that he had carefully reviewed each of the programs the channel will project. He said that he was sure there would be changes as people make suggestions and express their opinions about the programming. President Castro stressed that most people around the world are denied access to culture and education because they lack the necessary resources and he said that Cuba was opening the doors of culture and education to all. The new channel will begin transmitting on Monday, May 13 in the city of Havana and most of Havana province. The following week it will be seen in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. *CUBA CALLS FOR PROTECTION, LOVE AND TENDERNESS FOR ALL CHILDREN New York, May 10 (RHC) -- Cuba affirmed today before the United Nations that nothing is more important than a child. Speaking in the UN special session on Childhood, the head of the Cuban delegation, Vilma Espín, called for protection, love and tenderness to be extended to all the world's children and criticized the United States for manipulating the United Nations. She said that from the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, nothing has been more important than the welfare of the child with healthcare and education provided free-of -charge to all. Espín noted that the UN Charter and the Convention of the Rights of Children promote the same principals and she added that Washington's rejection of the Charter made it the only country in the world not to ratify such an essential universal agreement. Espín, who is the president of the Federation of Cuban Women, emphasized the unfairness of the international economic order and the exclusiveness of unrestricted globalization, which has thrown more than two-thirds of humanity into poverty. She stressed that despite severe economic limitations the island guarantees education and medical attention to 99.2 per cent of its children. Espín added that it is urgently necessary that the enormous accumulation of wealth and intelligence be joined to create a more just world in which women and men can see their children grow up without the horrendous threats posed by today's world. *FORMER US ANTI-DRUG CZAR SAYS WASHINGTON STUCK IN 1960s COLD WAR MENTALITY Havana, May 10 (RHC)--Retired US General Barry McCaffrey who was Bill Clinton's anti-drug tzar and a commander in the Gulf War, criticized President George Bush's policy on Cuba in an interview with National Public Radio today. McCaffrey, who recently visited Cuba and spent a full 11 hours in a private meeting with Fidel Castro, said that the current US administration was stuck in a 1960s mentality relating to Cuba. He said that Washington should lift the travel ban on US residents visiting Cuba and allow for personal contact between the peoples of both nations. He qualified the island's leader as extremely intelligent with a sharp mind. McCaffrey said that Cuba had greatly helped in regional anti-drug efforts working in close conjunction with the US Drug Enforcement Agency. *CONTROVERSY CONTINUES IN ARGENTINE CONGRESS OVER IMF DEMANDS Buenos Aires, May 10 (RHC) -- Amid intense controversy, Argentina's House of Deputies has temporarily refused to sanction legislation approved in the Senate at the behest of the International Monetary Fund. A stormy Senate session that lasted into the early hours of Thursday saw the surprising repeal in a close vote of the country's Economic Subversion Law, targeting corrupt corporate executives and bankers, when the ruling Justicialista Party broke ranks with its traditional allies. Washington and the IMF are demanding repeal of the legislation claiming that it discourages investment, though critics charge that that their opposition is in reality due to the fact that US business interests and executives have recently come under scrutiny for their role in last year's multi-billion dollar capital flight from the Argentine financial system to mostly US banks. In what is being interpreted as an act of rebellion, Argentina's House of Deputies has indefinitely put off giving final sanction to the repeal, despite President Eduardo Duhalde's insistence that the legislation be treated with urgency due to the country's need of an International Monetary Fund line of credit. The controversy's intensity registered another dramatic moment in the House of Deputies when an opposition legislator displayed an American flag and draped it across the podium of the House Speaker. Alicia Castro, of the left-of-center Front for Change, then called on lawmakers to choose which flag should be unfurled in the country's legislature - leading to mutual shouted insults among opposition and ruling party legislators that gave way to pushing and shoving and almost to fisticuffs. Alicia Castro's political organization was recently founded by House Deputy Elisa Carrió, considered one of the few popular politicians in Argentina due to her unequivocal stand against corruption. Carrió's Front for Change has quickly come to be the country's third most important political party. In other Argentina news, the government has admitted that half of the population now lives below the poverty line - officially established at an income of less than 2 dollars a day. An Argentine is considered to be in extreme poverty when he or she has an income of less than 65 cents a day. According to the governmental National Statistics and Census Institute, 4 million Argentines have joined the ranks of the poor just in the past 6 months - from 14 million to 18 million. Since last December, according to the institute, the cost of basic products has risen by more than 35 percent. Amid Argentina's devastating social and economic indicators, President Eduardo Duhalde lamented Friday that he has to stoically bear what he called the annoying and heartless statements from representatives of the International Monetary Fund regarding the measures his country must adopt before being eligible for further loans. Without mentioning their names, Duhalde termed as harsh and unfortunate recent statements by two US officials concerning Argentina. Anne Krueger, the number two executive at the IMF, demanded that Argentina repeal two laws in the economic arena, while US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Argentina needed to combat its widespread corruption - which sparked indignation in the South American country. *MARYLAND BECOMES SECOND US STATE TO DECLARE MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY Annapolis, Maryland, May 10 (RHC) -- The US state of Maryland has become the second state to declare a moratorium on executions due to denunciations that the application of the death penalty is fundamentally racist. Maryland Governor Parris Glendening ordered the suspension of all executions until the University of Maryland completes a 2-year study on the racial and legal implications of the death penalty. Glendening expressed concern over the fact that of the 5 prisoners currently slated to be executed in the state, 4 are African-Americans. The Maryland governor said he was faced with a difficult decision, that his heart was with the family members of victims of terrible crimes, but that he not only had to be absolutely certain of the guilt of death row prisoners, but also of the justice and impartiality of the legal processes that condemned them to death. Last month, an investigative commission in Illinois - the first US state to declare a moratorium on executions - recommended a deep-seated reform of the way the death penalty is applied. In the state of Arizona, a death row prisoner was recently exonerated after DNA tests proved his innocence - the one hundredth case of its type, according to human rights groups. *HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS WASHINGTON OWES AN EXPLANATION ON ATTEMPTED RIGHT-WING COUP Caracas, May 10 (RHC) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has affirmed that Washington should explain its reaction to the failed right wing coup in his country. The US government's first reaction was that "Chavez had it coming", blaming the situation on a regional leader about whom Washington has not concealed its dislike. In an interview with the CBS TV chain reportedly scheduled to be aired Sunday on the program "60 Minutes", the Venezuelan president said he truly believed that the US government owes an explanation to the Venezuelan people and to the American people. In contrast with most of Latin America, Washington was slow in condemning the violent and illegal rupture of constitutional rule in Venezuela. Twenty-four hours after the coup, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer stated - without possessing any evidence - that Chavez had resigned due to the street protests in which people were killed and wounded by his followers. Numerous media outlets, including the prestigious New York Times, reported that there was obvious joy on Capitol Hill when Chavez's overthrow was announced, and obvious regret when he was reinstalled by tens of thousands of followers together with loyal military units. *ENRON SCANDAL ALSO LEAVES SCARS IN SOUTH AMERICA Washington, May 10 (RHC) -- Amid further revelations this week of the Enron rip-off in the United States - particularly in California - evidence has surfaced concerning the scars that the scandal-ridden firm left in South America. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that before its collapse, Enron won the promise of federal financing for a 390-mile pipeline from Bolivia to Brazil that cut through South America's largest remaining undeveloped swath of dry tropical forest rich with endangered wildlife and plants - with possible enduring consequences. The pipeline has reportedly opened the forest to the kind of damage environmental groups had predicted: poachers traveling service roads to log old-growth trees, hunters preying on wild game, cattle grazing illegally and an abandoned gold mine reopened. The Washington Post reported that Enron persuade the US agency Overseas Private Investment Corporation to support the pipeline, even though the agency was charged with protecting such sensitive forests. The forest had already been declared by the World Bank as one of the two most valuable in Latin America, while the World Wildlife Fund had declared it one of the world's 200 most endangered eco-regions. In 1998, the WWF, along with Friends of the Earth and Amazon Watch, recommended that Enron change its plans and build a longer pipeline around the forest - but the firm refused. Back in the United States, California Governor Gray Davis announced Thursday that his state is going to demand that the federal government pay 8 billion 900 million dollars in compensation for electricity bills that were far over-priced by Enron. There is now documented evidence on how the firm manipulated energy prices and intentionally deceived consumers. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion article by University of California professor Peter Navarro asserting that the stunning, incriminating Enron documents made public this week are further proof that absolute market power corrupts absolutely. *COLOMBIAN NARCOTICS POLICE EMBEZZLE US ANTI-DRUG AID Bogotá, May 10 (RHC) -- US and Colombian officials have confirmed a temporary suspension of Washington's anti-drug aid to Colombian narcotics police due to corruption, though the US embassy in Bogotá rushed to emphasize its confidence in the police unit. Six members of the unit have been fired after US officials detected the disappearance of US funds earmarked for the narcotics police. And according to the Colombian news daily El Tiempo, another 30 are under investigation. The US embassy announced that the Colombian government has taken adequate measures and that the aid will be restored when action is taken against the corrupt officers. Late last month US lawmakers refrained from lifting restrictions on anti-drug aid to Colombia for its use in counterinsurgency operations, in part because some members of Congress said they perceived a lack of results in the Andean nation's war on drugs despite the hundreds of millions that have been earmarked. In other news, Colombian non-governmental organizations affirmed Friday that more than 90 thousand rural Colombians have been displaced to urban centers, fleeing the violence of the country's civil war - translating into close to 1,000 a day. Human rights activists stated that the internal refugee problem has now extended from 26 provinces last year to 31 of Colombia's 32 provinces or departments. *Viewpoint: FIFTY YEARS IS ENOUGH Over the 1950s the world seemed to have recovered from the horrors of the Second World War, with government-protected economies flourishing in many countries and an optimism that never again would such an international conflict be allowed. Latin America alone represented a full 12% of the trade boom. With the onset of the 1960s, as Bob Dylan sung, the times began a-changing, with the Vietnam War demonstrating the illusions of the peace generation and increasingly powerful corporations pressuring governments to open up their economies to the market. At first relatively timid, this free market movement was defined by Milton Friedman and his so-called Chicago Boys, that called for the release of government controls on economies, the privatization of public services and subjugation to market forces. This opening up of markets across the world led governments in Latin America to believe it was possible to exchange vegetables for washing machines and come out ahead. By the time the 1990s came around everyone was privatizing at will, decentralizing governmental controls, selling everything possible and mortgaging their nations. Everyone was declaring they now belonged to the rich set of nations making up the First World. And then the real face of an unrestrained free market began to show its ugly face. Only a tiny few benefited from the windfall of the free market and they were quick to impoverish their countries by expatriating enormous sums of money to foreign banks. The rest - a veritable army of the new unemployed - began hitting the streets across both the Third and First World. Shantytowns sprung up on the edges of cities throughout Latin America. More and more street children were to be seen with the situation so appalling in places like Brazil that right wing groups began executing the children to cut down on petty crime. More than half of all Latin America lives in deep poverty unable to profit from the great free market that profited from them, by draining them of their resources, raw materials, jobs and health. In only fifty years the share that Latin America has in international commerce has dropped to a paltry 4%. The prices of the region's main agricultural and mineral products have dropped to 1920s levels, with only soft drinks recognized as a major contribution to the global market - and these are controlled by US corporate interests. Thus, Latin America lives as it did 100 years ago although there have been important changes: we have an abundance of concrete, iron and asphalt but lack trees and unpolluted lakes and rivers. We have the IMF breathing down our necks but lack the funds to rebuild our infrastructures. Fifty years is enough. (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-4648 2002-May-11 21:50:27