Posted on 04/14/2002 4:36:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Steve Marquardt, an ALA member who believes in everyone's right to read everywhere, wrote to Eliades Acosta Matos, the director of Cuba's National Library (Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti), and they discussed Mrs. Schneider's amendment, which Mr. Marquardt supports.
In his answer, Mr. Castro's appointee said, "I send to you the text of the report on Cuba, approved in San Diego. Ask yourself why the resolution proposed by Ms. Schneider was defeated." The response also - like some members of the American Library Council - blamed the "aggressions" of the American government against Cuba, "including 'lies and subversion, such as the independent libraries.' " But these books were sent to the independent libraries by people from many countries, including individual Americans.
In this respect, Mr. Castro's spokesman obviously approved that particular part of the ALA's final report, which carefully avoids calling for the release of the independent librarians.
After that final report was approved by the ALA's governing council, the association's president, Carla Hayden, said that the vote "shows that people are able to work out differences of opinion and come together on a joint statement."
As an indication of the ALA leadership's hypocrisy, the final report of its governing council at the January meeting urges "the Cuban government to eliminate obstacles to access to information imposed by its policies." But there's not a word about eliminating the obstacles to the release of the 10 independent librarians.***
Castro accuses Bush of plotting to assassinate him*** "We knew that Mr. Bush had made a commitment with the mafia of the Cuban-American Foundation to kill me. I accuse him of this," Castro told some 1,000 representatives from 32 nations attending a conference in Havana against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
"This dead man can still talk. This dead man can make plans. This dead man ... is not dead yet," Castro said Friday.
Castro has been at the centre of rumours about his health since the mayor of Bogota, Luis Eduardo Garzon, said after a recent visit to Cuba that he had found Castro "very sick" and "physically limited".
Castro said that Bush had conspired with the anti-communist Cuban-American community in Florida to kill him.
Tensions have been rising again between the United States and Cuba in recent month with Bush entering into a re-election campaign and Castro cracking down on the pro-democracy opposition in the island he has ruled for 45 years.***
Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was asked at a business conference whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro can influence other Latin American nations to lessen their support for the President Bush-backed free trade area.
''I don't think any one country constitutes a roadblock on the FTAA,'' Noriega said. ``We'll just go around them.''
Chavez, a friend of Castro, has expressed his opposition to many aspects of the FTAA and has been accused by U.S. officials of stoking anti-American sentiment in Latin America. Communist Cuba is not included in the FTAA talks, but Castro has been singled out by Noriega for promoting policies to destabilize democratic governments.
''None of us is ignoring the negative aspects and the penchant for some to fish in troubled waters and cause trouble for other countries,'' Noriega said.
Steps toward the creation of the FTAA would be in place by January 2005, a move agreed upon by nations at this month's Special Summit of the Americas, Noriega said.
However, Isilio Arriaga, president of Miami's chamber of commerce, said Noriega was too evasive of how the ''Chavez-Castro axis'' can affect FTAA negotiations. He pointed out that Castro and Chavez have been guests of honor at several recent political inaugurations in Latin America.
''For the ambassador to say that we're just going to go around them and negotiate directly with others is practically ignoring the very important influence that these two gentlemen have over the Latin American nations,'' Arriaga said.
The FTAA's stated purpose is to eliminate trade barriers and spur economic growth, but critics say it would lead to corporate corruption, the exploitation of workers and the degradation of the environment.
Noriega also touched on the sensitive issue of Haiti after a speech before about 150 people at the Outlook for the Americas conference.
Haiti has been in turmoil since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept flawed 2000 elections. Since mid-September, at least 50 people have been killed in anti-government demonstrations. Aristide was planning to meet regional leaders Saturday in Jamaica to negotiate an end to the long-standing political impasse.
Noriega said the situation in Haiti was a high priority for him and that the plight of the Haitians could be compared with that of the Cuban people, who have limited rights of expression and assembly.
''They're similar in as much as they are both countries that are trapped by willful leaders who do not want to give people an opportunity to make decisions for themselves and plan for their own future,'' Noriega said.
However, Noriega's statements are contrasted with existing U.S. immigration policies with both nations.
While Cubans who reach the United States are generally allowed to remain in the country, efforts are made to return most Haitians who arrive illegally.
U.S. officials say they fear a mass immigration rush from Haiti, which they say would threaten national security, if Haitian migrants are given the same treatment.
Because of Cuba's communist government, the 1966 Cuba Adjustment Act lets Cubans be paroled into the community and apply for automatic legal residency one year after arriving, even if economics are the apparent reason for their leaving the island. [End]
Nevertheless, the island's economy is fragile, and Havana would be hard-pressed to find other sources of oil if Venezuela were to cut it off. Such a possibility would loom large if Chávez loses a proposed recall referendum. Leading opposition figures have already spoken out against the shipments.
''If Chávez loses in Venezuela it would be total devastation to the Cuban economy,'' said Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, a Cuba expert at Miami's Florida International University.***
Capella blamed political foes of Chavez for attempting to entice the doctors to leave their posts. "They are offering them places to study, posts in private medicine, cars, houses, cash and trips to the U.S," he told the state news agency Venpres. "It's a crime to ask a medical team to abandon their duty." The local El Nacional newspaper printed an interview on Thursday with one Cuban doctor it said had decided to leave despite fears of retaliation from the Cuban government. ***
Mr. Snow said the companies, all based outside the United States, were front organizations for Cuba's dictatorial government.
"We're cracking down. We mean business," Mr. Snow said, speaking in Miami before more than 100 Cuban-American businessmen. "We are cutting off American dollars headed to [Cuban President] Fidel Castro. At the same time, we are reaching out to the freedom-loving people of Cuba."
The 10 companies named yesterday were: Canada Inc., Montreal and Quebec; Corporacion Cimex S.A., Havana and all other locations worldwide; Havanatur S.A., Havana and other cities in Cuba; Havanatur, S.A., Buenos Aires; Havanatur Bahamas Ltd., Nassau, the Bahamas; Havanatur Chile S.A., Santiago, Chile; Cubanacan Group, Havana; Cubanacan International B.V., Zevenhuizen, the Netherlands; and Cubanacan U.K. Limited, London. A gift company — La Compania Tiendas Universo, S.A., Cuba, that operates an Internet shopping site — also was listed. ***
But while Cuba has been buying more U.S. food products, the quantities of food available on the island have not increased.
''They haven't bought more, they've just bought the products from us,'' USCTEC President John Kavulich said. ``The truth is there has been a steady decline in food availability in different categories.''***
The sweeping proposal is a clear indication of the vision powerful exile leaders have for the island that they fled from years ago. It addresses everything from property rights to wages to political parties.
The plan calls for the privatization of ''joint ventures'' between the government and foreign investors, endorses the right of urban property dwellers in Cuba to remain in their homes, as long as old private owners are properly compensated, and suggests that social classes be officially reintroduced with defined roles and rights.
The plan is also a clear rejection of dissident Osvaldo Paya's Proyecto Varela, a referendum singed by tens of thousands of Cubans to effect change on the island by working within the communist constitution.
''It's important for us to set the tone that there will be no fundamental change in Cuba's system if you go along with the constitution drafted by Fidel Castro,'' said Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. ``This sets up a new path.''
The report, called ``Socio-Economic Reconstruction, suggestions and recommendations for a Post Castro Cuba, was prepared by Antonio Jorge, a political economy and international relations professor at Florida International University.
Exile leaders, including Congressmen Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, said they hope the proposal will help influence the Bush administration's own planning for a Post-Castro Cuba. [End]
Let others listen to the ramblings of tyrants and the threats of terrorists.
We will hold fast - until that morning dawns - and live by the words our brother, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet [biss-ETT], wrote in a letter to his wife, which was smuggled out of prison Kilo Ocho:
"No te asustes, ya queda poco tiempo para que este mal se acabe. Resiste hasta el final en el camino de Dios y Dios te dara las alegrias."
The path of God - el camino de Dios - is the path of freedom.
For Dr. Biscet and his wife, for all his fellow dissidents and prisoners, for everyone inside Cuba, for every name on a cross on this field, and for every soul suffering in the darkness anywhere in the world.
For our hope still "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
Tonight, on this field, we resist, we hope, we walk the path of God.
And the darkness is dying.***
The barracks coup he has planned has few original elements. To start, the official propaganda apparatus would accuse the opposition of concocting plots to overthrow the government in cahoots with the American Embassy, those perfidious, oil-thirsty Yankees. Immediately thereafter, all constitutional guarantees would be suspended, and martial law and curfews would be imposed.
At once, in the name of the fatherland and the defense of its oil interests, the troops and militias loyal to Chávez, directed from the shadows by Cuban officers and commissars, would seize Parliament, ports and airports, banks, means of communication -- especially telephones, newspapers and television stations -- and would arrest their owners and round up the principal leaders of the opposition, the industry and labor unions, which number about 2,000.
Simultaneously, Chávez's forces would encourage the looting of commercial establishments to terrorize the whole of society. Thus, the images of the events seen worldwide will depict widespread public disorder, with undertones of a class struggle, that Hugo Chávez, responsibly, is trying to put down.
Why has Chávez not put into action his sinister project? Because he's not sure that he has the necessary forces. Every time he takes a genuine inventory of his probable defenders, he finds he can count unconditionally with only about 4,800 Cuban ''special troops'' strategically situated in various command posts, plus about 12,000
Venezuelan soldiers dispersed throughout various units under the command of a few dozen officers who are totally loyal to the president. To them, one could add 25,000 chavista militiamen, hurriedly armed during the first 48 hours of the conflict.
Therein lie Chávez's fears: What will probably happen -- if the military coup is launched -- is that the armed forces will split and the coup will trigger a civil war of uncertain results that could put an end to his government and even his life.
But his plans move ahead, and that bloody outcome could be prevented only by the vigorous action of the international forces, especially the two people who may have the fate of Venezuelans in their hands: César Gaviria and Jimmy Carter.***
The Bush administration has accused Cuba of meddling in Latin America, sometimes in collaboration with the country's main South American ally, Venezuela.
The tightening of Cuban restrictions came on the same day that Bush rescinded a travel ban on Libya. The United States moved toward better relations with Tripoli in December after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi renounced terrorism and development of weapons of mass destruction.***
The new Venezuelan ambassador Adan Chavez, the elder brother of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said at his first news conference in Havana that he had come to strengthen economic and ideological ties between the two political allies.
Chavez said the purchase of the unfinished Soviet-built oil refinery in Cienfuegos was being studied as part of an oil supply agreement signed in October 2000 under which Venezuela ships Cuba 53,000 barrels a day on generous terms.
Venezuela 's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has for several years been considering involvement in the Cuban refinery built with outdated Soviet technology.
The ambassador denied reports that Venezuela was sending Cuba more oil than stipulated, and said Cuban payments of its oil debt were on schedule. "We are not giving the oil away...there are no problems. Everything is flowing as established in the agreement," he said.
Venezuela also plans to open an office of its export finance bank, Banco de Comercio Exterior, in Havana , he said. He revealed Cuba will help Venezuela build low cost housing and will also build a plant to produce medicine in Venezuela .
Cuban sugar industry technicians have helped Venezuela restart abandoned refineries and build a new one the state of Barinas, Chavez said.
Cuban has sent 12,000 doctors, teachers and sports instructors to Venezuela , raising concerns among opponents of the Venezuelan president that he is seeking to establish Cuban-style communism in the oil-producing nation.
The ambassador said the social programs manned by Cubans have produced tangible results: more than eight million people have received medical attention and one million illiterate Venezuelans have learned to read.[End]
The measure, one of the most contentious in the annual six-week gathering, asked that Cuba allow a human rights investigator appointed last year to travel to Cuba. Cuba rejected the request as "ridiculous."
Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Honduras voted against Cuba. Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina abstained.
Cuban human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez applauded the vote but said Cuba would not allow the investigator to visit because "it has a lot to hide."
Mr. Calzon was participating in the annual human rights gathering as member of a nongovernmental organization. A well-known figure on Capitol Hill, he is regularly denounced by name in Cuban state media.
The State Department official, who called Mr. Calzon a "real champion for democracy in Cuba," said members of the official U.S. delegation witnessed the attack.
"If it turns out that the person who hit Frank was a member of the Cuban delegation - a schoolyard bully with diplomatic immunity - this is unprecedented. He was attacked on U.N. property," the official said.***
"Mexico does not and will not tolerate under any circumstance any foreign government trying to affect our decisions on foreign or domestic policy," Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told a news conference.
Mexico was for decades a close ally of the communist-run island in its fight against a U.S. embargo but the two countries drifted apart when President Vicente Fox swung Mexico closer to Washington after taking power in 2000.
Derbez said Mexico had asked Cuba to pull its envoy out of Mexico City within 48 hours. A spokesman for the Cuban government said Havana had no immediate comment on the Mexican decision.
Interior Minister Santiago Creel also said two Cuban government officials in Mexico had been found "carrying out activities incompatible with their status," a term often used by governments to denote spying.
Creel did not give details of what the Cubans, high-ranking members of the Communist Party, were alleged to have done in Mexico, where they spend several days in April.
Mexican-Cuban relations deteriorated sharply last month when Mexico voted to censure Cuba at a U.N. rights body.
Then on Saturday, in a May Day speech, President Fidel Castro harshly criticized Mexico for the vote, saying Mexico's prestige in the world had "turned into ashes."
Mexico said last week it would hand Cuba a diplomatic note -- a form of serious protest -- over comments it made about a corruption scandal in Mexico. [End]
Peru also announced it was withdrawing its ambassador from Havana on Sunday. Peruvian officials cited Castro's May Day speech, which criticized the government of Alejandro Toledo.
Powell commended Mexico and Peru for their actions and characterized Castro's remarks about the two nations as outrageous.***
Officials are halting new licenses for some types of self-employment -- from magician to masseur to restaurateur to jeweler to mousetrap maker -- as the communistgovernment steadily reasserts control over the economy.
Under a Labor Ministry decree scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, no new licenses will be issued for 40 categories of jobs that were legalized in 1993 during the severe economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc.***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.