viernes, 27 de marzo de 2009

Havana Historian to Give Keynote Lecture in Guatemala

HAVANA, Cuba, March 27 (acn) Havana Historian Eusebio Leal will participate in an international seminar on restoration and will offer a keynote lecture at the National Museum of Ethnology in Guatemala City.

According to the website of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Leal has received honorary doctorates from eight universities from all over the world and has received numerous awards in recognition of his restoration work in Old Havana, declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

These awards include the International Architecture Award from Belgium; the ‘Queen Sofia’ Award for Restoration and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage from Spain; and the Medal of the World Decade of Development, granted by UNESCO.

Leal’s work of restoration in Old Havana has been characterized by a combination of the preservation of old buildings with new projects of social development, the improvement of housing conditions and the creation of sources of employment.


(Dictará Eusebio Leal conferencia magistral en Guatemala)

Cuban Painter Manuel Mendive and the 10th Havana Biennial

HAVANA, Cuba, March 27 (acn) My purpose as an artist is to make life and spirit grow more beautiful, stressed maestro Manuel Mendive, one of the greatest artists of Cuban contemporary painting, a participant in the 10th Havana Biennial, scheduled for March 27th through April 30th.

During a press conference prior to the event, the artist focused on his exhibition at the important arts meeting which, he said, will be a chant to love, peace, and human spirituality.

On the expression of the Cuban nature in his works and what it means for him to represent culture from the archipelago in international events, he commented: “I’m Cuban, I’m black, and I’m proud of it. I have a lot of energy and the poetry of my ancestors, with which I can tell the world beautiful things from my country, my identity.”

Entitled “Spirit, Nature and Heads” Mendive’s exhibition is made up of paintings using acrylics on canvas, and other pieces worked in iron and wood. For the first time, he has included a pianist in the project, Pura Ortiz, who will play baroque music.

The artist conceptualized this work explaining that he conceives spirit as an invigorating energy; Nature as the big house; and heads, as something divine - the perfect things to create a great world of love and peace.

Colors, gestures, music, and sensuality will merge in the exhibition that Mendive will inaugurate on March 29th, as part of the Biennial, as well as the special performances he has also conceived.

The performances will begin with a tour beginning near the Saratoga Hotel, to the Prado Promenade and will end at the Orígenes Gallery, in Havana’s Grand Theater. Participating in this artistic action will be some 50 artists; among them some from Cuba’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, the National Folkloric Group, and the Caribbean Dance Company, from eastern Santiago de Cuba province.

That building will be the venue of the exhibition of paintings and sculptures by the outstanding creator, which will be open to the public throughout the Biennial.

The work of Manuel Mendive, 2001 National Fine Arts Prize winner, is outstanding for the presence of a conceptual world where he inter- relates the environment, tradition, religiousness and syncretism of African antecedents.

The inauguration of the Biennial is scheduled for. Friday afternoon at La Cabaña Fortress and Los Tres Reyes del Morro Castle.

Old Havana’s San Francisco de Assisi Convent is the venue of the “Point of Encounter” project coordinated by painter Alexis Leyva (Kcho) bringing together prominent artists from various parts of the world to create, inspired by the most acute challenges humanity is living through.

Besides the Morro-Cabaña Cultural Complex and Old Havana, the municipalities of Vedado and La Lisa, and other public places in the Cuban capital will also be venues for the event.

Under the slogan “Integration and resistance in the global era”, this 10th edition of the Biennial, a fiesta of contemporary art from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa brings together over 300 artists from 54 countries, among them Cuba, with 120 artists from different generations and creative tendencies. Brazilians Flaminio Jallageas and Patricia Gerber, and South African Jane Alexandre are among foreign participants.

On Thursday four excellent collateral exhibitions of were inaugurated at Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Biennial: Supervivencia, by Roberto Fabelo, Equipaje perdido, by Esterio Segura, La Enmienda que hay en mí, by Carlos Garaicoa and Resistencia y libertad, by Cuban maestros Wifredo Lam, Raúl Martínez and José Bedia. Attending the opening were Culture Minister Abel Prieto, the Biennial’s president, Rubén del Valle, and numerous national and foreign artists, art gallery representatives, curators, art critics, and art lovers.

During the ceremony, it was announced that on March 28th, the exhibition ‘Chelsea visits Havana’, which includes works by 32 US artists, will be opened, also at the Museum of Fine Arts.

A look at unknown artists from nations of the South was what germinated the essence of the Havana Biennials, which began in 1984 and that, since 1989, include theoretical events on contemporary art and on other no less important issues.

Tradition and modern times; Challenging decolonization; Art, society and reflection; Individuals and their memories; Communication; Art and Life; Dynamics of Urban Culture; and Integration and Resistance have been, in that order, the themes or principles of previous Biennials.

In this globalized world, Cuba, also hit by the world crisis, once again opens its doors to contemporary art and to the artists, with their own identities.

(Comienza programa de la X Bienal de La Habana)

New Peru-Cuba Flight Route Inaugurated

Cuban Deputy Tourism Minister Admi Valhuerdi highlighted on Thursday the importance of a new flight route between Lima, the Peruvian capital, and Havana that has been inaugurated with direct flights by TACA airline.

Valhuerdi noted that this new route – with three flights per week –will contribute to a more dynamic exchange between the South American nation and the Caribbean archipelago that will help both countries develop common actions to face the current international crisis.

She added that one of the priorities of the Cuban Tourism Ministry
(MINTUR) is to bring Latin American nations closer together, particularly those that have direct flights to Cuba.

The official recalled that, in spite of the current world economic difficulties, more than 2.3 million tourists visited the country in 2008 and, up to February 2009, there has been a 5.2% growth in the arrival of visitors compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the Peruvian Ambassador in Cuba, Raul Patiño, stressed that this new flight route is a contribution to the integration of Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador, and that it will help in the development of trade, tourism and cooperation in the sectors of health and education.

For his part, the TACA sales manager for Argentina and Uruguay, Danilo Garcia, regarded as very positive the inauguration of this new flight route and added that they expect to increase the number of passengers to Cuba to over 50,000 annually.

(Inauguran nueva ruta de vuelos directos entre Perú y Cuba)

50 years with the Revolution

By: Yuldys Márquez Díaz

Lieutenant Colonel José Ramón Guerra (Founder of the Organs of the Security of the Cuban State):

"These fifty years means for us Revolution, at the begining we were practically some children, when we enter gave us this mission of protecting the Commandant in Boss and to our country, and good imagines a whole life, we feel very satisfied of the work that we carry out and we feel very satisfied of the security of the state that we still have with the new combatants of the security that have been capable and they will be able to continue protecting to our country and our Commandant in Boss."

Engineer Ángel Pérez Pérez (Founder of the Organs of the Security of the Cuban State):

"This precise moment is of continuity. We don't think that the fight has ended but rather it is necessary to follow it, until our last days. We begin this work being young as all the other youths that exist now, but we are in a different stage, in that time we face from the first moment to the enemy that was internal and external. Right now a partner told us, how us that almost we knew ourselves neither to read neither to write could put an end to those organizations that had those forces, that money, those means and however us with the heart and with the since mind we destroy them, we finish them."

Bigger Elio Expósito Rodríguez (Founder of the Organs of the Security of the Cuban State):

"I in what is fundamentally the Security of the State was in what is the fight against bandits, and that it was a fight quite hard, because good in fact the bandits were characterized to make murders, violations to the peasants and us practically the whole time were in what was that stage in the county of Camagüey; for that reason we were in the trial The Demand of the Town from Cuba to the government from United States to inform to the tribunal on all the murders that had made the armed bands. We could point out for example: the band of Manolito López that murdered two militiamen in the exit of Chambas that burned a bus there in the north circuit, could mention the murder of The Picks and the administrator of the farm here in Sierra de Cubitas, for the band of Beraldo Díaz Brunet, good known for cold, and those are the most difficult moments that we had us in the security. And the most satisfactory went when we capture the last bandit in the county of Camagüey that when that Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila, because Ciego de ávila belonged to Camagüey, and we fundamentally operated in the area of Moron, Chamba, Florence, Tamarind, San Felipe, Stream Blanco, Hatibonico, always in the limits of Camagüey and The Villages in that time"

When the excellence is looked for, it grows

By:Ernesto Pantaleón Medina |Camagüey Television

The Cuban system of health is so far from the perfection or the excellence, as everybody know, and lamentable examples exist of how much it is necessary to fight to improve the conditions of numerous facilities in difficult constructive state, or to replace with efficiency and dedication the potholes that it leaves an expensive supply of medications, in occasions from remote corners of the planet, to a very superior price to the original, and everything for blame of the blockade.

And also why not? The inconveniences of subjective order are, those that go by the man's conscience and the woman that could make more as for sensibility and love, in the execution of that settled down by the norms of labor discipline and organization.

But there are merits and achievements that cannot hide neither to ignore, still for the critic more become obstinate in finding the dark side of the things, even there where the stain is only a minimum shade, and the light is plentiful.

An example was given to know recently, when a company of Camagüey, the Comercializer DIVEP, received the diploma that credits it like center promoter of the health, and in fact surrendered this condition when two important anniversary was completed: the hard-working Metallurgist's Day (branch to which belongs) and the day of world fight against the tuberculosis.

They were years of systematic work that included the personnel's training on the topic, the clinical checkups to squares and workers and the corresponding medical pursuit, the cleaning and embellishment of the areas, the fight against vectors of illnesses and the creation of better labor conditions.

It was not easy, amid lacks and with a without number of tasks that to assist for the physicians and the support personnel who had in first line to the doctors and nurses of the family in the area in that the company is located.

But the important thing is that it was achieved, and it was created in leaders, officials, workers, technicians and specialist, a new way to think, a bigger sensibility with the measures that spread to avoid illnesses perfectly prophilactis, or to minimize the damage in those that have been detected when they have already begun their noxious action.

That is quality of life, work conditions that although are not the ideals, they constitute an advance, a model that well could follow other systems of health, without seeking that ours is at the end of the road.

It is not an isolated fact, but of a strategy that takes the Ministry of Public Health in the country in all the levels, under the foreign currency that to prevent is better than curing.

For that reason, still when some that another day becomes difficult to consent to a medication, when the hospital service is not the good , it is necessary to analyze the reason, and if it is the simple human behavior, to demand solutions, but if it goes further on, to appeal to the understanding and to remember examples like that of these lines.

jueves, 26 de marzo de 2009

Havana Visual Arts Biennial Kicks Off Friday

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) The 10th Havana Visual Arts Biennial opens on Friday at the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress in Havana, with considerable international turnout that speaks for itself of the prestige of the event.

All museums and art galleries in the city will be serving as venues for the Biennial, organized by the Wilfredo Lam Center, an institution affiliated to the National Arts Council, reported Granma newspaper.

The program includes performances, art exhibits, forums, among other activities of diverse nature, which will turn Havana into the world's capital of visual arts through April 30, when the event concludes.

Expositions will open saturday morning in Old Havana and in the afternoon at the Pabellon Cuba fairground in Vedado, organized by an international collective project “Tales from the New World.”

One of the most expected activities is a forum promoted by Cuban plastics artist Alexis Leyva Machado (Kcho) under the title Punto de encuentro (Meeting place), with artists from around the globe in attendance. The forum will take place at the San Francisco de Asis Convent.

Another important event within the Biennial is an exhibit named “Chelsea Visits Havana” that will be brought by American artists from New York.

(A partir de mañana, Décima Bienal de La Habana)

U.S Group Calls for Caravan against All Cuba Travel Restrictions

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) The association of Christian women in defence of the family, and other organizations that make up the Florida- based Alianza Martina organization, have made a call to carry out a car caravan in protest against all travel restrictions to Cuba. The caravan will take place on March 29.

Earlier this month, the U.S Treasury Department put an end to Cuba travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration in the year 2004, however, measures that limit trips to Cuba issued before that year are still in place.

We can't allow any restrictions to our right to travel to Cuba, says the call quoted by Florida-based Areito magazine.

We have to stay firm in our claim for President Obama to keep his vow made during the presidential campaign to lift all family travel restrictions to Cuba, it says.

The Areito report quotes the call as noting that not only Cuban American residents have the right to travel to Cuba but also all U.S citizens do.

(Caravana en contra de todas las restricciones de viaje a cuba, este Domingo 29 de marzo)

Canadian Youths Happy to Be in Cuba

Bayamo, Cuba, March 26 (acn) Canadian youths visiting Cuba expressed today their great sympathy for the people of the island, after touring historical sites of the Sierra Maestra mountain and other places of interest in the eastern province of Granma.

Members of the group made up of theater students and professors from the city of Trois Rivieres, Quebec, told ACN that they were happy for having been able to talk with Cubans of different ages and occupations, which allowed them to learn about the culture and history of the island.

Amelia Langlois, member of the Trois Rivieres Solidarity Committee spoke to ACN on behalf of the rest of the visitors, who in general expressed their interest in studying Spanish and travelling to the island again in the future.

She said the group loved the Sierra Maestra tour, where they met with children and adults in the communities of Providencia and Boca del Salto, scenarios of battles fought by the Rebel Army, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, during National Liberation War.

Langlois said they walked around the Revolution square in Bayamo and visited the museums of the National Anthem and the Motherland, as well as the Los Dolores chapel, which is a real architectural jewel in the main catholic church of the city.

The Quebecois committee has been organizing trips for community-based cultural exchanges to Cuba since 2006 with the Cuban theatre troupe La Guerrilla de Teatreros, explained Langlois, and added that the project seeks to introduce young Canadians to international actions of solidarity and increase their knowledge about other nations.

The Canadian group arrived in Cuba on March 15 and will conclude its visit on the 29th, coordinated by the Cuban Friendship Institute delegation in Granma.

(Expresan jóvenes canadienses simpatía por Cuba)

Lies at the Service of the Empire

Yesterday Reuters headed the list of the international news agencies that mention Pedro Miret and Osmany Cienfuegos as two historical figures who have been dismissed from their posts by Raúl Castro.

The EFE Agency follows stating, verbatim: “Last March 2nd, they were dismissed as Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers.”

The excuse for this thriller, widely circulated throughout the world, was the March 24th publication in the Official Gazette of the Decree about the restructuring of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Cuba, passed on the 2nd of this month.

Pedro Miret is a magnificent comrade, having great historical merits and whom we all respect and for whom I have a lot of affection. For several years now, for reasons of health, he is unable to occupy any post. The slow progress of his illness led to the gradual cessation of his political activities. It is not fair to describe him as having been “fired”, without any consideration whatsoever.

Osmany Cienfuegos, the brother of Camilo, carried out important tasks not only as Vice President of the Council of Ministers but also as Party member or fulfilling my instructions while I was Commander in Chief. He has always been, and still is, a revolutionary. His functions were gradually ceasing from a time much earlier than that of my illness. He no longer held the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers. Comrade Raúl Castro, President of the Council of State, has absolutely no responsibility for any of this. In both cases, it was a matter of purely legal procedures.

Reuters and EFE are two of the western news agencies closest to the United States’ imperialist policy. The latter behaves more poorly even though it is much less important than the former.

In another cable on March 24th, making use of a customary technique, EFE takes the words of Joaquín Roy, director of the European Union Center in Miami, to print the following: “Spain has been rediscovered as a key country in certain regions of the world that are of interest to the United States such as Latin America, and in two countries in particular: Cuba and Venezuela”.

Right away, EFE adds: “The expert believed that the United States’ major interest, more than pressuring for an opening, changes, etc, is the stability on the Island.

“For years now, he explained, studies made by the U.S. security agencies do not indicate Cuba to be a military threat, but they remain alert to the development of changes in order to avoid eventual internal friction destabilizing the region.

“The United States is not interested for the result of an opening to be civil war in Cuba”.

The European Union and Spain, according to Roy, have no problem working alongside the United States but, ‘with caution’ so that from Cuba it is not understood to be, or is accused of being, following Washington’s lead.

It couldn’t be more crystal clear: the ideas of the old Spanish empire on crutches, trying to assist the corrupt, tottering and genocidal Yankee Empire.

Nothing has been learned by the United States superpower and the Spanish mini-power about the heroic resistance of Cuba

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 25, 2009

3:02 p.m.

Cuba’s La Colmenita Receives Saharan Culture Minister

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) The Culture Minister of the Democratic Arab Saharan Republic, Jadiya Hamdi, met on Wednesday in this capital with the members of the children’s theater group La Colmenita.

During her visit to the headquarters of this company, the Minister toured the areas of work, recreation, rehearsal, and recording of the young artists and learned more, from the troupe’s director Carlos Alberto Cremata, about the beginnings, development and successes of this praiseworthy Cuban project created in 1990.

Hamdi, who is also a member of the POLISARIO Front, or Movement for the Liberation of Western Sahara, enjoyed the children’s performances, and expressed her emotions at visiting the company and living this experience.

She stressed that this is, undoubtedly, the extension of the ideas of the Cuban Revolution, the Party, Fidel Castro, and of those that Cuba’s National Hero José Martí conceived in his time for all Cubans.

The Saharan Minister also praised Cremata’s initiative in creating this world for children, a world of conscientious children, where human values are fostered by way of artistic creation.

The top official underlined that she came representing thousands of Saharan children that are deprived of their land and their rights, imaginations, and living a happy life.

The meeting sealed, as an agreement, the creation of a Colmenita Company in the African sister nation, as a symbol of the resistance of its people for self-determination.

Also attending the exchange were members of the Pinocchio Puppet Theater Group from the Republic of Serbia, the director of which, Igor Bojavic, described the theater project created by Cremata as marvellous, and said he would echo this experience in his country.

(Ministra de cultura saharaui visita sede de La Colmenita)

Bolivian Women Demand the Release of the Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) The release of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly incarcerated in the United States was demanded in La Paz by the Bartolina Sisa Confederation of Indigenous Women Farmers Native to Bolivia

In a letter sent to the US First Lady, Michelle Obama, the farmworkers, headed by Senator Leonilda Zurita, demanded the cessation of legal violations in this cause, Granma newspaper reports.

Moreover, the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, a battle-hardened group among Bolivian social organizations, asked Washington to grant humanitarian entry visas to Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva, the wives of two of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández and René González, respectively.

Gerardo and René, together with Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero, internationally known as The Five due to the international campaign in favor of their release, have been imprisoned over the last ten years, serving long and unjust sentences.

They were condemned in a biased trial held in the US city of Miami, for the only crime of warning their government and people about terrorist actions against Cuba carried out by anti-Cuban groups from south Florida.

The injustice committed against these antiterrorism fighters was also denounced by Alberto García, representative of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) during the First International Meeting on Alternative Communications, held in Seville, Spain.


(Mujeres bolivianas demandan liberación de Los Cinco)

New Cuban Medicine to Supplement Lack of Calcium

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) Researchers from the Chemistry Department of the National Center for Scientific Research (CENIC) have created a new bio-product called Suplecal, capable of supplementing insufficient calcium in the bones.

The natural product has the therapeutic action of serving as a supplement to the human diet and contains 500 milligrams of calcium carbonate without the presence of other chemical substances, according to statements made by Yarelys Martín, MSc. to Juventud Técnica magazine.

It’s made from fragments of the Porites-porites coral species remaining from the first production stage of Coralina biomaterials, destined for bone implants.

The medicine, approved for sale in 2008, is useful in the treatment of patients at risk of calcium deficiencies or in patients with insufficient calcium, and it is also very helpful to treat and prevent osteoporosis. The specialists recommend taking one or two capsules a day with meals.

We expect to produce and distribute some 2,000 bottles in different Havana drugstores this year, and our desire is to extend this result to the entire country, pointed out the researcher.

(Crean fármaco cubano para suplir deficiencia de calcio)

NAM Condemns Israeli Occupation of Gaza Strip

HAVANA, Cuba, March 26 (acn) On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Cuba condemned on Wednesday at the United Nations the continual Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, in violation of international law.

Cuban ambassador Abelardo Moreno, in his capacity as President of the NAM Coordination Bureau, participated in an open debate on the issue at the UN Security Council, where he demanded Israel to put an end to the inhumane and illegal closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Likewise, on behalf of NAM’s 118 member states, he condemned the recent Zionist military aggression against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, killing 1,400 Palestinians and resulting in over 5,000 people being injured, as well as generalized displacement.

The diplomat expressed great concern about the critical political, economic, social, humanitarian and safety conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Eastern Jerusalem, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

Moreno made reference to the unnecessary destruction caused by Israel of thousands of Palestinian homes, commercial establishments, vital civilian infrastructure, hospitals and ambulances, mosques, and public institutions.

He regretted the lack of progress in the peace process in the Middle East and stated that this regional issue continues to be of great concern to the Non-Aligned Movement s, due to the continual Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territory and other Arab areas since 1967.

(Condena Movimiento No Alineado ocupación israelí en Gaza)

miércoles, 25 de marzo de 2009

Raul Castro at Ceremony for 50th Birthday of Cuba´s Film Institute

HAVANA, Cuba.(acn) Cuban President Raul Castro attends the ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), underway at Havana´s Karl Marx Theater.

The ceremony included the premiere of the Cuban movie “Ciudad en Rojo” (City in Red) by moviemaker Rebeca Chavez; the film will be screened on Cuban movie theaters starting April 2.

After 1959, the Cuban movie industry became one of the major cultural achievements of the Revolution and it also encouraged the development of the New Latin American Cinema Movement.

(Asiste Raul al acto por aniversario 50 del ICAIC )

Safer Houses for Hurricane Victims in Cuba

NUEVA GERONA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Some 510 hurricane-victim families in Isla de la Juventud municipality in Cuba will benefit with safer and more comfortable apartments once the transformation of former educational centers into housing buildings is concluded.

Ana Isa Delgado, First Secretary of the Communist party in the municipality, highlighted the good pace of the program, in which those to benefit are participating as well, in order to look after the quality of the finish.

“The purpose is to give a definite answer to people affected by the total destruction of their houses after the passing of the hurricanes,” underscored the official.

Also, there are 160 apartments planned to be built using the Sandino prefabricated system. Some 20 have already been assigned for building for future dwellers, the same amount were assigned to the Revolutionary Army Forces, and 25 of them will be built by workers.

The construction forces in the territory are working on the completion of renovation work on the partially destroyed houses, the area lagging behind the most in the area, with only 44 fully repaired houses.

The party leader urged the population to keep up their optimism and trust, and reminded them that almost all the Cuban territory was affected by the hurricanes.

Out of some 25,000 registered houses in this municipality, 18,805 of them suffered some kind of damage from the hurricanes that battered the territory in 2008.

(Beneficiarán a damnificados con inmuebles más seguros)

Two Cuban Players in 2009 WBC All-Star Team

HAVANA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Two Cuban players were included in the All-Star team of the recently concluded 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC).

A panel of specialized reporters who covered the event chose Frederich Cepeda and Yoennis Cespedes as two of the three All-Star outfielders along with Japanese Norichita Aoki.

According to the official website of the WBC, the only players that were chosen unanimously were Cepeda and first baseman Tae Kyun Kim of South Korea.

Other players included in the All-Star team were Puerto Rican catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Venezuelan second baseman Celestino Lopez, South Korean third baseman Bum Ho Lee and American short-stop Jimmy Rollins. South Korean Hyun Soo Kim was the All-Star designated hitter while Japanese Daisuke Matsuzaka – the tournament’s MVP - and Hisashi Iwakuma as well as South Korean Jung Keun Bong were the All-Star pitchers.

(Dos peloteros cubanos en el Todos Estrellas del Clásico)

ALBA Cultural Prize Awarded to Cuban Writer Roberto Fernández Retamar

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) Cuban poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar, President of Havana’s Casa de las Américas cultural institution, has been granted the 2008 Arts and Letters Prize given by ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas.

Also receiving the prize was Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sajinés, the Venezuelan Culture Minister Héctor Soto announced on Tuesday, reports the Prensa Latina news agency.

The ALBA Prize for Arts and Letters was created for the purpose of acknowledging and highlighting living creators who have continuously devoted their lives and work to enrich the continent’s cultural heritage.

We’re talking about “creators with original contributions in any genre, who have also supported cultural emancipation and decolonization”, stresses the jury’s report.

This is the second time that ALBA, by way of its Grand National ALBA Cultural Project, has granted this prize, consisting of a statuette and 75,000 dollars.

The winners will be presented with the prize during the next summit of this regional organization, to be held in Venezuela.

Awarded in the previous edition were centenarian Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and the almost nonagenarian Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti.


(Gana Fernández Retamar Premio cultural del ALBA)

Alfredo Guevara Receives Cuba's Highest Distinction

HAVANA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Alfredo Guevara, a founder of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), received on Tuesday night the 'Jose Marti' Order, the highest distinction granted by the Cuban State, for his extraordinary merits and contribution to Cuban culture.

Guevara received the decoration from the hands of Cuban President Raul Castro during a gala held at the Karl Marx Theater to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ICAIC.

The Cuban leader also granted ICAIC a special recognition for its contribution to the work of the Revolution, the preservation of the historic memory of the nation and its work in support of Latin American integration.

Special diplomas were also granted to a group of ICAIC founders such as filmmakers Julio Garcia Espinosa, Jose Massip and Enrique Pineda Barnet; producer Camilo Vives; editor and documentary maker Gloria Arguelles; and scenography technician Teodoro Castillo.

Present in the gala was Culture Minister Abel Prieto who recalled that one of the first decisions of the triumphant Cuban Revolution in 1959 was the creation of ICAIC.

The gala included the premiere of the Cuban film 'Ciudad en rojo' (City in Red) by filmmaker Rebeca Chavez.


(Condecora Raúl a Alfredo Guevara con la Orden José Martí)

World Day against Tuberculosis Celebrated in Cuba

MANZANILLO, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) With the lowest index of prevalence of the disease in Latin America, Cuba celebrated on Tuesday the World Day against Tuberculosis. The main activity was held in this city of eastern Granma province.

In one of the 48 municipalities with high risk of incidence of the disease in the country, doctors, health promoters, students and youngsters met to continue expanding people’s education on the
consequences of this suffering.

Part of the activity was a recreational and educational festival called “En Salud” (In Health), which included games, distribution of prophylactic material, and the awarding of participants in literary and art contests inspired by the prevention of the scourge.

Likewise, pioneer children from various secondary schools shared their knowledge on the symptoms, ways of infection, preventative measures, treatment, and characteristics of the disease.

An official from the National Center for Health Promotion and Education, Mailín Cuba, told ACN that specialists from the entire archipelago will be meeting for a scientific event on the disease until Thursday, at the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital .

The director of Granma’s Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, Kenia González, highlighted that the Cuban state guarantees the human and material resources necessary to fight tuberculosis, and that the greatest challenge is to sensitize and educate people in order to
eliminate the main risk factors.


(Celebró Cuba Día Mundial de Lucha contra la Tuberculosis)

Japanese Sculpture Donated for 80th Anniversary of Cuba-Japan Relations

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) Japanese artist Ryuzo Kawano has donated in Tokyo one of his sculptures, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between his country and Cuba.

Kawano gave the work of art to Cuba’s ambassador in Japan, José Fernández de Cossío, so it can be placed at the diplomatic mission of the archipelago in that Asian nation.

The piece depicts the face of a woman, with a mystical touch, whose hair is made up by sheets of a book and a boat, interpretative of the exchange of cultures between the two insular countries, explained the artist.

Identical copies of the sculpture will be donated to the Japanese Embassy and the Asian Centre in Havana. The latter, is a reference centre for Asian culture, located in Old Havana’s historic area, declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.

Ryuzo Kawano, who is now visiting the archipelago along with other colleagues, will exhibit his sculpture at the Asia Centre, as a collateral exhibition of the 10th Havana Biennial, under the title “The Asian, the Cuban, and the Japanese”.

He will also hold exchanges with students from the capital’s Institute of Higher Arts.

(Donan obra por aniversario de relaciones Cuba-Japón)

martes, 24 de marzo de 2009

PUBLIC LIBRARY JULIO ANTONIO MELLA

The Provincial Library Julio Antonio Mella is located in historical downtown, Camaguey city, across from beautiful Ignacio Agramonte Park . It was founded on June 1, 1963 and it is attended by a technically trained library staff who offers dynamic and efficient services. The Library has more 230000 volumes in stock, 86000 library users per year, and provides 146000 loans and other services –as a result of its wide and systematic activities of extension work and reading promotion, not only in the library itself, but also in the community. Nowadays, it is compiling local bibliographies and developing bibliotecological researches. It functions as both the Provincial Library and as the head of the provincial public libraries system, which comprises 30 libraries located in twelve municipalities and rural areas.

MISSION

Library's mission is directed towards the conservation, protection and dissemination of book collection and the promotion of reading, too by means of different actions and activities.

LENDINDG DEPARTMENT

It is composed of the Registration Department and the rooms dealing with general information, rare books, general literature, literature for children, literature for the young, visuals arts, music, and extension work. Each room keep very valuables collections according to its thematic outline and readers' interest.

PRINCIPAL SERVICES

Book lending, local lending of serials and audiovisuals materials, reference works (by phone and mail); services of bibliographical search, vertical file, cassette recording, musical auditions, concerts, library exhibitions, and other interesting activities.

SELECTION, ACQUISITION AND TECHNICAL PROCESSING DEPARTMENT

It has the responsibility of selecting, acquiring and processing library materials which the Institution obtains through different means. Besides, there are others important areas: Conservation and Computers. The WEB page is update. It is working on the Iberoamerican Digital Library Project.

SPECIAL AREAS

Minerva Book Club. The Public Library founded it five years ago to provide more books to readers. This collection comprises by new books from Cuban and foreign writers, or recently acquired by the National or provincial Libraries.

BLINDS AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE DEPARTMENT

It has a collection of books and magazines in Braille and offers “talking book”, rehabilitation, and teaching services for blinds and visually impaired; as well as home reading and extension work. This Area was founded in 1983.

OUR ACTIVITIES

Our cultural and reading promotion activities have gained real reputation due to the librarians' commitment and dedication. These activities are supported by a close link between the Public Library and different cultural institution.

• Wednesday's Concert. Second Wednesday at 3:00 pm.

• Young Performers. Third Wednesday at 4:00 pm.

- Camagueyana Conversation Last Monday at 5:00 pm.

• Movie Club Glauber Rocha. Third Thursday at 8:00 pm.

• Literature and much more… Last Friday at 10:00 am.

• Literary Saturday for children. Second Saturday at 10:00 am.

FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG

The Children's and Young's Rooms have lovely developed several activities for reading promotion such as reading teams and workshop concerning Braille system, theater, painting, readers, story telling, literature, contest and games. Besides, these rooms have been awarded the International Prize Chamán and the National Prize Cuentería for yours systematic work in story telling for children.

LIBRARY AND THE COMMUNITY

It is a long-range project which serves people's needs in Camaguey city and its sorroundings, but it specially involves the assistance to disadvantaged persons. The Library offers services to people in health institutions, prisons, and also to the handicapped. Children Room carries out a weekly biblioterapy program , and other activities which require our spiritual and human support.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Camagueyanos Writers Meeting, February

• Braille Workshop Reading , April.

• Scientific Workshop Bibliotecological, June.

• Special Areas Meeting, June.

• Children's Workshop National Story Telling, November.

DESK SCHEDULE

Monday to Friday: 8:00am.- 9:00 pm.

Saturday: 8:00am.-4:00 pm.

Sunday: 9:00am.- 1:00pm.

Fifty years for the Cuban Revolution

By: Yuldys Márquez Díaz

The history of the Cuban Revolution could not be counted without relating it with the work of the Organs of the Security of the State. Been founded to only three months of having triumphed our Revolution, on March 26, 1959, as Department of Security of the Cuban State.

Many people asked oneself how much it would ascend the Cuban death toll if this army of men and women that live between the light and silence had not existed.

Since five decades they accompany to the town in the march of the revolutionary process that gave him the life.

Anonymous heroes that in occasions since the own bowels of the imperialism defend the homeland of actions terrorists as sabotages, murders, attacks against the life of the directing maxima of the revolution, assaults, poisonings, kidnappings and explosions of bombs among others.

The work of the Organs of Security of the State becomes indispensable shield to be able to continue building with rightness the Cuban society. The combatants that work in it, heroes and martyrs of all the prowesses, deserve the recognition of an entire town that is proud of having them for always.

Fifty years for the Cuban Revolution

By: Yuldys Márquez Díaz

The history of the Cuban Revolution could not be counted without relating it with the work of the Organs of the Security of the State. Been founded to only three months of having triumphed our Revolution, on March 26, 1959, as Department of Security of the Cuban State.

Many people asked oneself how much it would ascend the Cuban death toll if this army of men and women that live between the light and silence had not existed.

Since five decades they accompany to the town in the march of the revolutionary process that gave him the life.

Anonymous heroes that in occasions since the own bowels of the imperialism defend the homeland of actions terrorists as sabotages, murders, attacks against the life of the directing maxima of the revolution, assaults, poisonings, kidnappings and explosions of bombs among others.

The work of the Organs of Security of the State becomes indispensable shield to be able to continue building with rightness the Cuban society. The combatants that work in it, heroes and martyrs of all the prowesses, deserve the recognition of an entire town that is proud of having them for always.

Cuba and Ecuador Strengthen Cooperation in Biotechnology

HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (acn) Cuban specialists from the Havana-based Center of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (CIGB) are in Ecuador as part of Cuba's interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation with this South American nation.

According to the website of Granma news daily, the Cuban experts are visiting the Leopoldo Izquieta Hygiene Institute in Guayaquil aiming at developing joint projects with Ecuador.

An official communiqué announced that the CIGB specialists will discuss with their Ecuadorian counterparts the possibility of providing the necessary technology to build a plant to produce the Cuban Pentavalent vaccine and other medicines there.

This technical visit to Ecuador is part of a bilateral project to develop products and for technological transfer that was agreed with the National Secretariat of Science and Technology of Ecuador (SENACYT) during the visit to Havana last January of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.

On Tuesday, the Cuban specialists will give a press conference at the Leopoldo Izquieta Hygiene Institute along with SENACYT officials.

(Expertos cubanos en Ecuador para estrechar nexos bilaterales)

Meteorological Center will give information about solar radiation

Por:Lucilo Tejera Díaz

Camagüey, March 24 (AIN) The Station Lidar, of the Institute of Meteorology, implements a service of information for diverse organisms with data on the climatological behavior of the solar radiation in Camagüey.

With base in this city, the Meteorological Center of Camagüey possesses a series of observations of the radiation values since 1970, considered as very useful to know about the possible impacts of the global climatic change.

Juan Carlos Antuña, to the front of the team Lidar, pointed out that this information is advantageous for sectors like the agriculture, the tourism and the human health, which will begin to use it for its activities.

At the moment the Center is buried in the digitalization of all the data, and it already covers 25 years.

The objective of the Station Lidar is the checking and investigation of estratosferics aerosols on the climate in Camagüey, Cuba and the Great Caribbean, and compares its mensurations with those of other remote sensors, as those installed on board satellites.

This work team has benefitted of the collaboration of the University of Valladolid, in Spain, with which settled down in the 2007 an agreement and soon will sign another one more.

Camagüey receives today to Holguín, in leaders' bereavement

By:José Luis López
Havana, March 24 (AIN) In an interesting bereavement of leaders, Camagüey receives today Holguín, in the court of the stadium Patricio Lumumba, in the date 28 of the National Championship of Soccer.

The people from Camagüey, unbeaten in their last seven exits to the grass, they lead the group C with 45 points. As long as, the square of Holguin passed to head the complicated and burning key D, with 36 lines.

For the people from Camagüey will go to the court, among other, the lethal battering ram Osmani Montero who possesses 13 goals and shares the second square of the leadership in that important department with the pinero Yoandri Puga. The biggest perforator in the contest is the tunero Maikel Celada that has 15 reveilles.

While, City of Havana (39), pointer of the segment A, receives Matanzas (20) in the Polar court, and Villa Clara (48), to the front of the group B and maximum owner of points, will move to New Gerona to be measured to Island of the Youth (28).

The day is completed with the comparisons Pinegrove of the River (36)-Cienfuegos (45), Havana (23)-industrial (38), Santiago de Cuba (35)-Sancti Spíritus (38), Guantánamo (22)-Ciego of Ávila (34) and The Tunas (34)-Granma (35), always in land of the first ones.

To the domestic tournament only subtract three days so that the classificatory stage culminates. To the phase of end rooms the four group leaders, and the other four teams of better punctuation will advance.

Japan Wins World Baseball Classic Title Again

HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (acn) With a hard-fought 5-3 win against South Korea in 10 innings Monday night, Japan won their second straight World Baseball Classic and remained atop the international baseball world.

Ichiro Suzuki lined a two-out, two-strike single to center field off Chang Yong Lim to drive in two runs in the 10th and ignite a celebration from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to Tokyo.

“I believe that Ichiro’s hit is something I’ll never forget,” said atsunori Hara, the Japanese manager. “It’s an image that will forever be imprinted in my mind.”

The Japanese were one out from winning in the ninth, but Yu Darvish, a starter who was asked to close, could not stifle South Korea. Darvish walked two batters to put himself in a dicey position, then Bum Ho Lee lashed a two-out single to left to make it 3-3.

But, one inning later, Suzuki powered his team and pleased a baseball-obsessed country. Darvish was given a second opportunity to silence the South Koreans in the 10th and he produced a scoreless inning. Darvish ended the game with a strikeout and notched the win, but it was Suzuki
who saved it. The South Koreans decided not to intentionally walk Suzuki, who batted with runners on second and third, and the decision doomed them.

Japanese starter Daitsuke Matsuzaka was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament like three years ago. On this occasion he finished with a 3-0 win-loss record and a 2.45 earned-run-average.

The third World Baseball Classic will take place in 2013.


(Japón revalida el título en Clásico Mundial de Béisbol)

Cuba has over 10,000 Health Technology Graduates

HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (acn) Cuba has trained over 10,000 health technology graduates since this specialty was created as a university degree course in the 2003-2004 academic year, which has contributed to expanding health services.

The Dean of the Health Technology Faculty of Havana’s Higher Institute of Medical Sciences, Julio Portal MSc., explained that this program of the Revolution, devised by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro in 2002, makes it possible for the massive preparation of students in the country’s 169 municipalities, by way of a program created to universalize university teaching.

The increase in the amount of qualified human resources has made it possible to expand services and to bring them closer to the communities, with a higher level of satisfaction from the population, since they include from primary to tertiary medical attention, added the dean.

At present, there are almost 90,000 youngsters being trained in the four health technology faculties, located in the provinces of Havana, Camaguey, Villa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.

In the remaining provinces, the degree course is studied at the Faculties of Medical Sciences, now in a process of change to become medical universities, pointed out Portal.

Cuba’s achievements in this field are on display since Monday at the International Convention on Technology and Health underway at Havana’s Convention Center until Friday.

The meeting includes 10 events, with themes related to podiatry, optometry, optics, external fixators, nutrition, aesthetics, healthy life styles, and oral health.

(Posee Cuba 10 mil licenciados en tecnología de la salud)

Literacy Teaching in Honduras Supported by ALBA

HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (acn) Honduras will receive financing from the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA), in order to declare that nation free of illiteracy in January 2010, a campaign that will count on Cuba’s advice.

Education Minister Marlon Brevé said that the Venezuelan donation, consisting of ten million dollars, will make it possible to complete the necessary resources to fight this decisive educational battle.

The Minister pointed out that the first benefits in this regard began in 2008, with the delivery of just over a million dollars, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

The elimination of illiteracy with the help of the Cuban method, Yes I Can, is one of the main legacies that President Manuel Zelaya hopes to leave when he finishes his term of office.

At present, the Central American nation has some 750,000 illiterates, but, over the last three years, 250,000 Hondurans have learned how to read and write by way of the program devised in Cuba.

For the time being, the goal is to bring the number of illiterates down to 4%, the average rate demanded by the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization in order to declare a nation free of that scourge.

The Honduran minister announced that the official declaration of the first eight municipalities free of illiteracy will be made in April 17.

Moreover, a new project to increase the educational level of those who have already learned how to read and write, by way of the plan called “I Can Continue”, which students will pass in a period ranging from two to three years, is under study.

(Apoya el ALBA la alfabetización de Honduras)

Cuban Music Festival Celebrated in Japan

HAVANA, Cuba, March 24 (acn) A great Cuban music festival has been held in Tokyo, the Japanese capital, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Cuba-Japan diplomatic relations.

The presentation, that took place at the Ueno Park amphitheatre, in the municipality of Taito, in greater Tokio, included a motley of Cuban musical genres, showing the artistic level of Japanese interpreters.

Internationally known Cuban choreographer and dancer Narciso Medina, was in charge of the artistic production and direction of the show, which drew hundreds of Cuban music fans.

The rhythmic diversity, form and richness of sound of the music from the archipelago, masterly interpreted by amateur artists, were transmitted to the audience, some of whom closed the night by enthusiastically sharing the stage with the artists.

(Gran festival de música cubana en Japón)

lunes, 23 de marzo de 2009

Japan Advances to Finale of 2009 World Baseball Classic

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Defending champions Japan advanced to a showdown with South Korea in Monday’s 2009 World Baseball Classic final by defeating Team USA on Sunday 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Right-handed ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 2006 Classic’s Most Valuable Player, improved to 6-0 over the two events, yielding only two runs and striking out four in 4 2/3 innings while four Japanese relievers allowed only two runs the rest of the way.

The Americans had won their four prior games against Japan, two at the Beijing Olympics - including the bronze medal game - plus another at the 2007 World Cup in Taiwan and in the second round of the inaugural 2006 Classic.

Trailing 2-1 entering the fourth inning, Japan struck for five runs to seize command. The Americans, who stranded 10 base runners, responded in the eighth when Mark DeRosa hit a two-run double down the left-field line to lift the US squad within 6-4. But the Japanese answered with three runs in the eighth to seal victory.

Monday's all-Asian title matchup will be Japan’s fifth meeting with their arch-rivals in this Classic, having split four games against the reigning Olympic champions. In this Classic, Japan beat South Korea 14-2 in Tokyo but lost 1-0 in a first-round rematch there. In round two at
San Diego, the Koreans won 4-1 to seal a semi-final spot but lost a rematch for seeding 6-2.

The South Koreans reached the final by ousting a Venezuela major-league all-star lineup 10-2 on Saturday.


(Japón venció a Estados Unidos y hoy defenderá su título)

Hugo Chavez Asks Barack Obama to End Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez insisted on Sunday that Washington should end its economic blockade of Cuba and warned US President Barack Obama that he should respect everyone if he wants good relations with the Latin American and aribbean region.

"His moral obligation is to end this criminal blockade and to comply with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly," Chavez said.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, during his weekly radio and television program 'Alo, Presidente', the Venezuelan leader confirmed that he will attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas that will take place next month in Trinidad and Tobago. He also criticized the exclusion of Cuba from this event and stressed that he will address the issue during the meeting.

"Why is Cuba absent if it is a friend of all of us? We can't continue to accept US imperial impositions. This continent has to be free," Chavez concluded.

(Pide Chávez a Obama finalizar bloqueo a Cuba)

Cuban Drug Raises Survival Rate in Brain Tumor Operations

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Cuba is broadening the use of a biological drug, produced locally, which has raised the survival rate of people who have undergone brain tumor surgery, especially children.

A Prensa Latina report explains that the drug, named Nimotuzumab (CIMAher), was produced by experts at the Molecular Immunology Center (CIM) in the island. It consists of a monoclonal antibody that inhibits the tumor growth and has been proved effective in the treatment of head
and neck tumors, when applied in combination with chemotherapy.

It is currently used on children in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, City of Havana, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguin and Santiago de Cuba, and is currently registered in several countries of Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

CIMAher has been denominated an "orphan drug" by the European Medicines Agencies (EMEA) for the treatment of gliomas (a type of cancer that tarts in the brain) and pancreas cancer; and by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for gliomas.

The term orphan drug refers to a pharmaceutical agent that has been developed specifically to treat a rare medical condition.

Researches continue in Cuba to determine if the drug is equally efficient for the treatment of other solid tumors such as breast, prostate, pancreas and lung cancer.

(Biofármaco cubano aumenta supervivencia de pacientes)

Russian Politician Demands Release of Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Guennadi Ziuganov, a former Russian presidential candidate assured that the U.S Supreme Court should listen to the calls by world personalities claiming the release from jail of the five Cuban antiterrorists held in that country.

Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, known as the Cuban Five, have been imprisoned in the .S since 1998 for having infiltrated Miami-based anti-Cuba groups to prevent criminal actions against the Cuban people and government leaders.

The Deputy in the State Duma (Lower Chamber of Parliament) and leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation said the Amicus Curiae procedure, supported by world personalities has no precedent.

Signed by former presidents, legislators and important personalities, including ten Nobel Prize winners, the Amicus Curiae constitutes a legal tool that is very effective for an appeal to the Supreme Court, reports Granma newspaper.

Ziuganov noted that numerous people worldwide, from different political and philosophical trends have united in defence of the freedom of the Cuban Five. For that reason, he insisted, it is impossible to ignore their claim.

The Russian politician also added that the U.S economic blockade against Cuba is unjustified and urged president Barack Obama to lift it.

(Exige líder político ruso liberación de Los Cinco)

Dominican Minister Thanks Cuba for Development Assistance

HAVANA, Cuba, March 23 (acn) Dominica's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Labor, Vince Henderson, today expressed his appreciation for the Cuban contribution to the economic and social development of that small Eastern Caribbean country.

Henderson, who arrived in Havana on Sunday, said Cuban experts in different fields have worked in his country as part of collaboration programs between the two nations.

Henderson said that more than 300 Dominicans have graduated in Cuban educational institutions, while a brigade of doctors from the larger Caribbean nation is currently working in his country.

He also noted the Cuban support in the agricultural and sports fields, for which he expressed his appreciation.

We know in depth about the way in which Cuba has helped Caribbean countries, especially in areas of education and public health, he said.

The Dominican Minister said this official visit is an opportunity to further strengthen bonds, established at a diplomatic level on May 18, 1996.

In other statements, Henderson expressed rejection of the U.S economic, financial and commercial blockade against Cuba.

The Dominican minister said the visit to Cuba is expected to give a fresh impetus to the mechanism of consultation between the foreign affairs ministers of the two countries, established since the year 2000.

As part of his official program in Cuba, the Dominican minister paid tribute to the national hero Jose Marti by placing a floral wreath in Revolution Square in Havana, accompanied by the Dominican deputy foreign minister Alejandro Gonzalez.

(Agradece Dominica contribución de Cuba a su desarrollo)

The sugar: decisive line in the economy of Camagüey

By Oscar González Vázquez

The sugar: decisive line in the economy of Camagüey. The sharp economic crisis that shakes to the planet forces us in particular to the people of Camagüey to be more efficient for the sake of substituting to the maximum the imports and at the own time to work with dedication to increase the exportable lines and to already fulfill the commitments those traditional.

Steps have been taken in that sense and the county showed in the 2008 an increment in these indexes, modest still to my way of seeing, convinced that they still exist potentialities and reservations to explode.

Because although the economy of Camagüey finished last year with positive balances, more than half hundred of its productive units of important sectors accused losses for around 123 million pesos.

Anything enviable maximum result when its main characters were entities of the agriculture, and of the Basic, Slight industries and Sugar bowl., this last one with a fundamental weight in the economy not only of the county but of the country.

I bring up this since as it is known the prices of most of the matters cousins that export the countries of the third world are depressed and among them figure the relatives to lines that meant a strong entrance in foreign currencies for Cuba in the last years.

The opposite happens in these moments with the sugar that has elevated its rate in the international market, that that together to the descent in the price of the fuels claim of the sugar workers the maximum of consecration and efficiency for the sake of taking to happy term the campaign.

But the execution of the plan of the candy assigned to the county requires in these moments, when the harvest goes into in April, of the decisive effort of the agroindustrial in the first place, but also of the support of popular mobilizations toward the cane cuts.

It is needed therefore to recover the left tons of sugar of taking place for that which is necessary to take advantage of to the maximum the installed capacities, not to leave neither a single cane in the field and bigger demand in the execution of the daily norm so much in the manual cut as in the automated.

It is necessary to take advantage of what subtracts of March, period in the one that historically behave high the yields of the gramineous to enter him of full and under better conditions to the month of April and in that way to reissue the victory reached in the last harvest and to dedicate the execution of the plan of sugar to the VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and to the anniversary 48 of the victory of Beach Girón.

Projects of the ALBA favor investments in Camagüey

Havana, March 23 (AIN) More than 20 projects of investments are executed in the county of Camagüey with the support of the Bolivarian Alternative for the America (ALBA), with a view to substitute imports and to elevate the exports.
The Factory of Cement 26 de Julio, of Nuevitas, will improve their industrial technologies.

In the agricultural branch the work is in ten plans, among these those of the Poultry Company, with the construction of a factory of food. Other programs are guided to produce seeds and fruit-bearing, and to develop the livestock ovino-caprino, informs Rebellious Radio in it digital edition.

Also six shops of the slight industry will be created that will give employment to people with physical problems, works will be enlarged and will improve technologies in the Geominer Company the Cocktail of Fertilizers and the Factory of Cement 26 de Julio, all in the municipality of Nuevitas.

Several centers of the alimentary industry will also be benefitted, Iris Cruz territorial delegate of the Ministry of External Trade explained , for the counties of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey.

sábado, 21 de marzo de 2009

Fidel Castro’s Reflections Published in Ukraine

HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) The book "Fidel Castro. Reflection of the Commander of the Revolution” was launched in Kiev, the Ukraine’s capital, through some fifty media outlets.

The presentation was held in the Cuban embassy, where ambassador Felix León Carballo noted that the book included a selection of the most important articles written by Fidel, translated into Russian.

The diplomat thanked the initiator of the project, Dmitri Tabachnik, deputy to the Ukrainian Parliament, who expressed his interest in the figure of the Cuban Revolution leader, reported Granma newspaper.

The parliamentarian said that the 58 essays compiled –written from March 2007 and November 2008- cover different topics of world interest, from climate change to fuel production, and the U.S policy against Cuba.

Tabachnik recalled his meetings with Fidel, on one of which he gave the Cuban historical leader the "Yaroslav the wise " Order, one of the most important of Ukraine.

The Ukraine deputy said he had never met a Head of State who can talk in details about so many different topics and be able to quote the most diverse statistical figures, with the accuracy of an encyclopaedia.

(Publican en Ucrania libro con reflexiones de Fidel)

viernes, 20 de marzo de 2009

Raul Castro Welcomes Cuban National Baseball Team

HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro welcomed the Cuban delegation that participated in the 2009 World Baseball Classic when they arrived on Friday morning at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana.

Raul greeted each member of the delegation and urged them to continue working hard for future tournaments.

During a brief ceremony, Frederich Cepeda, the best Cuban player during the competition, thanked the Cuban people and authorities for their constant support.

"We would have liked to return with the victory for our people but it was not possible on this occasion," he said. "We are all here, holding our heads high and willing to continue giving our best for our Revolution," he added.

Cepeda stressed that the experiences learned during the Classic would help Cuban baseball players improve their quality and performance.

The keynote address at the ceremony was delivered by VP Esteban Lazo, who, paraphrasing an idea of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, said: "Regardless of the result, what really matters is the honor and courage with which you fight for the triumph."

Lazo added that, although they wanted the victory, the Cuban people admire and recognize the effort and loyalty of the team.

He also praised the exceptional technical skills of the Cuban players that were reflected in the victories obtained against powerful teams full of professional players from several leagues around the world.

The Cuban VP of the Council of State also recalled the permanent support and encouragement the Cuban squad received from Fidel, Raul and the Cuban people.

He urged the sports authorities to carry out an unhurried, rigorous and thorough analysis of Cuba's participation in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and to take the necessary steps so that Cuba becomes, again, the leading world baseball nation as it has been over the past decades.

Also present at the ceremony was the President of the Cuban Olympic Committee, Jose Ramon Fernandez, as well as other government and sports authorities.

(Recibió Raúl a beisbolistas del equipo Cuba al Clásico)

Raul Castro Meets European Commissioner for Development

HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro met, on Thursday in Havana, with the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Assistance, Louis Michel, and the Vice President of the European Parliament, Miguel Angel Martinez, who are on an official visit to Cuba.

According to Granma news daily, they all agreed on the positive state of the recently resumed bilateral cooperation between the European Commission and the Caribbean archipelago.

They also exchanged ideas about the current state of relations between Cuba and the European Union, based on the principles of non interference in domestic affairs and respect for the sovereignty of nations.

Also present in the meeting were Cuban FM Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla; Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; and Jorge Marti Martinez, head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Central Committee of Cuba's Communist Party (PCC).

The European Commission was also represented by its Chargé d'affaires in Havana, Javier Niño.


(Recibió Raúl al Comisario Europeo Louis Michel)

Anna Frank Exhibition Opens at Cuban National Library

HAVANA, Cuba, March 19 (acn) The "Anne Frank: an valid history" travelling international exhibition was opened in this capital at a ceremony attended by representatives of the Foundation that carries her name, as well as students, workers, diplomats and intelligentsia.

Doctor Eduardo Torres Cuevas, director of the Jose Marti National Library, thanked the Anna Frank Foundation and the Dutch Embassy for the privilege of this exhibition returning after nine years to show children, young people, and other visitors the horrors of fascism told by a
teenager.

For his part, Kleis Broekhuizen, director of the Foundation, said that since 1985 the exhibition has been taken to over 1,000 cities in at least 40 countries, and has been seen by over 10 million people, half of them young, who have been shocked by the crimes committed during World War II.

Broekhuizen pointed out the goal of this travelling exhibition is to reflect on the current situation and to prevent a holocaust happening again, in which millions of people die. The persecution of the Jews was just one of many barbarities.

The specialist stated that the "Diary of Anne Frank" offers the reality of those times, described by a girl who was hidden in Amsterdam for over two years, together with her dear ones, afraid of being discovered and killed, as finally happened in February 1945 in Auschwitz, a
concentration camp.

Kleis Broekhuizen pointed out that this story, besides being extraordinary, is a warning to the world to be alert to the dangers challenging humanity.


(Inauguran en Biblioteca Nacional exposición sobre Ana Frank)

Cuban Films Exhibited in Lebanon

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 20 (acn) A festival of Cuban cinema was inaugurated in packed theater at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut , on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC).

The week-long Festival, which opened with Grammy nominee Strawberry and Chocolate, by Tomas Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío, has the auspices of the Cuban Embassy in Lebanon and the prestigious Academy.

Also to be screened during the event are "Roble de olor", by Rigoberto López; "Suite Habana", by Fernando Pérez, and "That Silly Age", by Pavel Giroud, as well as the exhibition of some posters on Cuban films.

Khalil Smayra, audiovisual director of the renowned Lebanese cultural institution expressed his satisfaction for screening Cuban movies to mark the 50th anniversary ICAIC's founding.

For her part, M. Isabel Velázquez, in charge of Cultural Affairs with the Cuban diplomatic mission, made reference to the objectives of her government of bringing culture to the people, hence the coincidence of ICAIC's founding with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution five decades
ago.

She explained that despite the negative impact of the US blockade on national life, Cuban cinema has maintained its identity and essence, with a spirit of renewal.

In this regard, she highlighted the celebration in Cuba of the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema and the work of the International Film and Television School located in San Antonio de los Baños, on the outskirts of Havana.

(Semana de cine cubano en Líbano)

Presence of Camagüey in the International Congress of Sciences of the Earth

There participate the people from Camagüey with a score of works in the International Congress of GeoSciences that takes place in City of the Havana.

By:Rafael Cruz Ramos.

Camagüey, March 20. The investigators of the Geologic Sciences, resided in this county, attend the International Congress of the Geosciences that from last Monday 15 sesions in the Palace of the Conventions in City of the Havana

The twenty works that are presented to the event, contribute significant results in the geology, the mining, the applied computer science, as well as the topics that relate the environment with the economic use of the wealth of the underground, as Carlos Zayas informed , of the Cuban Society of Geology.

The Geominer Company of Camagüey, the Center of Environmental Investigations and of Investigations of the Construction develop promissory projects, some of which are in their final stage, and they are related with gold, nickel, cromita zeolit, minerals for the Industry of Materials of the Construction, among others.

The geologic wealth of our environment also includes marvels as those of the Fossil Forest of Najasa, the Walls and the Hole of Bonet in the Sierra de Cubitas.

New Archeological Findings in Holguin, Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, March 20 (acn) Recent findings in the Cuban province of Holguin could confirm the existence of an aboriginal and Hispanic community with certain economic development before 1752, when Holguin was granted the title of city.

The evidences found in a house near to the San Isidoro church, still under research, might corroborate the hypothesis supported by specialists from their previous work on the house of the Lieutenant Governor, that suggested there was already an important population group
since the mid-seventeenth century, reported the Ahora newspaper.

According to archaeologist Juan Jardines, the discovery "demonstrates the need to rescue the early history of the city, through the examination of its heritage property," quotes the paper.

The excavations of what could have been the interior courtyard, revealed a collection of time materials like fragments of utilitarian pottery clay, English earthenware of the 18th and 17th Centuries, Spanish majolica in the early eighteenth, and fragments of flint blades, cut in the manner of the aboriginal inhabitants of the area.

"Until today nobody had found traces of development in this area for those years, but the same development processes occurred here as in other places, but they were not recorded for history. This was a forgotten region, "said historian Angela Peña, author of the book “Holguin en dos siglos de arquitectura”.

Specialists from CITMA and the Monuments Office have been working since early March in the building located in Libertad street, as part of one of the three branches of research projects approved here by the Ministry of Culture.

The background of this research is found in the excavations carried out at the house of the Lieutenant Governor and the San Isidoro Church, used as a cemetery in the eighteenth century. "The new findings underline the need for greater attention to the architectural knowledge of history," said Jardines.

Highlighted in Portugal the work of the cuban woman.

Havana, March 20 (AIN) The revolutionary chore of the Cuban women was highlighted in an international meeting of women taken place in Lisbon, Portugal.

A representation of the Island attended that event on the woman's role of different cultures in the society, organized by the young branch of the Unitary Democratic Coalition of the municipality of Odivelas, refers an information of Latin Press published in digital Granma.

The acting of the Cubans` work was praised in the government's different instances and of the legislative environment, in the solidarity with other countries, and its force in the cause for the liberation of the five antiterrorists from Cuba political prisoners in the United States.

The forum congratulated Ivette García, first secretary of the embassy of the Island in Portugal, for the results of the recent congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, taken place in Havana.

European Commission and Cuba Expand Cooperation

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 19 (acn) The European Commission (EC) and Cuba expanded their links for cooperation and perspectives of working together, with the inauguration on Thursday in Havana of a meeting on bilateral cooperation.

During the opening of the event at the Meliá Habana Hotel, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, ratified the willingness of continuing these ties with the EC, on the basis of respect and without conditions.

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis ichel, pointed out that the important advances of the Caribbean archipelago in various spheres make it possible to strengthen this dialogue, i.e. education, health, the training of human resources, and the environment.

The vice-president of the European Parliament (EP) Miguel Ángel Martínez, rejected the policy of sanctions and the attempts to condition the dialogue and cooperation of the European Union with the archipelago. He criticized the anti-Cuban Common Position of interference of the mega-
bloc, which the friendship-with-Cuba group he presides over will fight to eliminate.

For two days, the conference will examine themes like food security, economic cooperation and trade, research and development, regional programs in Latin America, and the environment.

Moreover, it will centre its attention in renewable energy, climate change, disaster risk reduction and social sectors.

Also on Thursday, attention was drawn to the perspectives of advancing in regional economic integration that have opened up for Cuba with the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas (ALBA) and other options to boost ties with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Cuba has over 51,000 voluntary workers in more than 100 countries, as well as some 30,000 foreign scholarship students in educational centres in the archipelago -a clear commitment in the struggle against underdevelopment.


(Comisión Europea y Cuba amplían vínculos de cooperación)

We are the ones to blame

Reflections of Comrade Fidel

In the game that finished today at almost 3 in the morning between the teams from Japan and Cuba, we were unquestionably defeated.

The organizers of the Classic decided that the three countries in the first three spots of world baseball shall play it out in San Diego, including Cuba arbitrarily in the Asian group despite the fact that we are definitely in the Caribbean.

However, I doubt that any team from the West can defeat Japan and Korea in the group of competitors who will be playing in Los Angeles in the next three days. Only one of the two Asian countries with its quality shall decide who will take the first and second spots in the Classic.

What was important for the organizers was to eliminate Cuba, a revolutionary country that has heroically resisted and has not been able to be defeated in the battle of ideas. Nevertheless, one day we shall again be a dominant power in that sport.

The excellent team representing us in the Classic, made up mostly of young athletes, is without a doubt a genuine representation of the best athletes in our country.

They competed with great courage; they didn’t lose heart and they aimed for victory right up to the last inning.

The line-up, suggested from Cuba by the management and their expert advisors, was good and inspired confidence. It was strong both offensively and defensively. They had a good reserve of pitching talent and strong hitters, in case the changing circumstances of a game would require it. By applying the same concepts, they won and dominated the powerful Mexican team.

I should point out that the leadership of the team in San Diego was very poor. The old criteria of timeworn methods prevailed, against a capable adversary who constantly innovated.

We must learn the relevant lessons.

Baseball today, among all the sports, is the most capable of originating expectations because of the enormous variety of situations that might arise and the specific part played by each of the men on the diamond. It has a reputation everywhere as a truly exciting show. Even though
the stadiums fill up with fans, there is nothing that compares to the pictures captured by the cameras. It seems to have been created so that baseball can be transmitted by that media.

Television heightens interest by going into great detail about every action. It even offers the possibility of seeing the stitching and the rotation of a ball thrown at 100 miles an hour, a ball rolling along a white line or it being caught in the glove of a defender one tenth of a second before or after the runner’s foot touches base. I can think of no other sport which can compete with that variety of situations, except chess, where the activity ceases to be muscular and becomes an
intellectual one, something impossible to televise.

In Cuba, where we practice almost all sports and where we have numerous amateur players, baseball has become a national passion.

We have gone to sleep on our laurels and we are now paying the consequences. Korea and Japan, two countries which are geographically really far away from the United States, have invested abundant economic resources into this imported, or imposed, sport.

Development of such a sports activity in those two Asian nations obeys their own distinctive characteristics. Their inhabitants are hard-working, self-sacrificing and tenacious people.

Japan, a developed and wealthy country with more than 120 million inhabitants, has devoted itself to developing baseball. Like everything under the capitalist system, professional sports are big business, but national will has imposed rigorous norms on their professional players.

Cuban players who have worked in Japan know very well the norms that have been imposed. The salaries being paid to the professionals in the Big Leagues of the U.S.A. are logically much higher than in Japan, a country which, for its part, possesses the most powerful professional
league after that of the U.S. No professional Japanese player is allowed to move on to the U.S. Big Leagues, or to any other foreign country, unless he has played for 8 years in the national Japanese league. For that reason, none of the members on its international team are younger than 28 years old.

Training sessions are incredibly tough and methodical. They have devised technical methods to develop the reflexes each player needs to have. Every day, batters practice with hundreds of balls thrown from the left and the right. As for the pitchers, they are made to throw four hundred balls every day. It they make any mistake in the game, they must then throw one hundred more. They do it with pleasure, as if it were a form of self-punishment. Thus they acquire notable muscle control which obeys the orders sent by their brains. That’s why their
pitchers amaze everyone with their ability to land their throws at the exact spots they choose. Similar methods are applied to each of the activities each of the athletes must carry out at the positions they are defending and in their batting activities.

Athletes in the other Asian country, the Republic of Korea, are developed with similar characteristics, thus turning it into a powerhouse in professional world baseball.

Asians are not as physically strong as their western rivals. Nor are they as explosive. But strength sufficient is not enough to defeat the reflexes that their players have developed; and explosiveness in itself cannot compensate for the methodology and sangfroid of their athletes.
Korea has tried to look for more heavily-built men who are capable of hitting more forcefully.

Our hopes were based on the patriotic dedication of our athletes and the fervor with which they defend their honor and their people, from a pool which is several times, even dozens of times, lesser in human resources as compared, for example, with Japan, discounting from those resources those that are weak in conscience and permit themselves to be bribed by our enemie But this is not enough to maintain our supremacy in baseball. We have to apply methods that are more technical and scientific when we develop our sports figures. Our country’s excellent
educational and sports base allows for that.

Nowadays we have enough young pitchers and batters with magnificent sports qualities. In a nutshell, we have to revolutionize the methods for the preparation and development of our athletes, not just in baseball, but in all the sports disciplines.

Our national team should be returning home in the next few hours. Let us receive them with all the honors their exemplary performance deserves. They are not the ones responsible for the errors that led them to the adverse outcome.

We are the ones to blame, because we weren’t able to correct our errors in time.



Fidel Castro Ruz

March19, 2009

2:58 p.m.

jueves, 19 de marzo de 2009

Japan Eliminates Cuba in 2009 World Baseball Classic

HAVANA, Cuba, March 19 (acn) Defending champions Japan advanced to the semi-finals of the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) with a 5-0 win over Cuba behind a combined five-hit pitching of starter Hisashi Iwakuma and reliever Toshiya Sugiuchi on Wednesday night at the Petco Park in San Diego, United States.

Japanese starter Hisashi Iwakuma held the Cubans scoreless over six innings, where he scattered five hits while Sugiuchi retired the nine batters he faced in the last three innings.

Japan scored its first two runs in the fourth inning when Cuba centerfielder Yoennis Cespedes dropped Michihiro Ogasawara’s fly with two out and two runners on base. Akinori Iwamura added a run each in the fifth and seventh innings before Ichiro Suzuki had the final score in
the ninth.

Meanwhile, Venezuela beat Team USA 10-6 at the Dolphin Stadium in Miami to claim the top spot of its group.

Now, Venezuela will face the loser of Thursday’s Japan-South Korea game in one of the semifinal matches next weekend at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles while the United States will play the winner.

(Cuba cayó ante Japón y dijo adiós al Clásico)

Venezuelan President Criticizes US Blockade of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, March 19 (acn) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reiterated on Wednesday his criticism of the US financial, trade and economic blockade of Cuba and said that the Caribbean nation should be allowed to participate in the upcoming Summit of the Americas that will take place in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17-19, 2009.

During a session of the Council of Ministers in Caracas, Chavez said that Cuba is the only country of the hemisphere that is not invited to this kind of event. "This issue should be revised in the next meeting," he noted.

The Venezuelan leader added that Cuba is in Latin America. "It doesn't make any sense that it has joined all the regional institutions, mechanisms and forums but remains outside the Summit of the Americas," he stressed.

According to Juventud Rebelde news daily, Chavez again condemned the US economic blockade of Cuba and said that he expects the new American administration to define its position in this regard during the next Summit of the Americas.

He also announced that, on April 16th, Venezuela will host the 5th Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas ALBA), a mechanism for regional integration and cooperation founded in December 2004.

(Reitera Chávez críticas al bloqueo yanqui a Cuba)

FULLNESS: The face is the mirror of the soul, and the hair?

By:Jesus Barreto Toral

The hair for the woman is usually more valuable seduction charm, but it is sometimes returned its worst opponent. It is this way, because the hair is an essential part of the body in its appearance.

It irradiates a subtle message that determines the personality, but the power that it emanates it is much more in the specialists' opinion.

According to psychologists of the University of London, the hair is an indicator of the state of the person's spirit and it can show who are.

The use of the hair like means to express the psychological or emotional state are notorious and the query that arises is: Why is it expressed the anger or the pain attacking the physical appearance in end, as to shave the head eliminating a beautiful mane or to be tinted the hair with strident colors?.

If it is poked in the history in biblical times, the women as much as men were shaved the head in mourning sign or to manifest a deep sadness. In other times and cultures the shaved head was an indicative of reject and shame.

Certainly, this reaction won't solve the problems that suffer, but rather it is only symptom of the imbalance and the person's emotional pain. For fortune scientific ways exist of fighting with the conflicts and it is wise to look for the help of the specialists on time.

It has been said by the experts in this matter that when difficult moments are confronted in the life, the process of to intersect the hair and to liberate energy that could be blocked, is beneficial for the mental health.

In the field of the psychiatry the hair expresses an unconscious symbolic meaning, it is even considered a transitory object that represents to the maternal figure.

The hair this ligature to the physical and emotional identity and there are studies that explain that when the short , these cutting a part of you.

Opinions exist about that the prehistoric woman took the long hair so that their babies were held of him.

It has been the time with their technological, scientific advances and aesthetic development, the one that has transformed this attribute into the “crown of glory” of the woman and in symbol of their beauty and their power of attraction.

May occur that takes it short, long or medium, the important thing is that it is healthy.

Will sesion in Cuba Culinary Festival of the Caribbean

Havana, March 19. (AIN) The First Culinary International Festival of the Caribbean will take place in Santiago deCuba in coming September, it was given to know in this capital.

In the appointment, experts of 25 countries of the region will exchange experiences about the typical food as symbol of the cultural identity of the towns, informs today the revolving Juventud Rebelde.

As President of Honor of the Organizing Committee of the event was named the chef Gerard Dupont, president of the Culinary Academy of France who has imparted conferences and masterful classes in several gastronomic centers of the Island.

In declarations to the mentioned juvenile newspaper, Dupont said that the Cuban cookers work well, but more ideas are necessary for them and to increase their nutrition knowledge.

He also advised to use less the salt and the sugar in the kitchen of Cuba, because they are products that damage the health in excess.

Showed in UNESCO headquarters in Camagüey works of Ileana Sánchez

Painter of Camagüey Ileana Sánchez. Camagüey, March 19- Works of the painter of Camagüey Ileana Sánchez are exposed by fifth time in Paris, now in the headquarters of the Organization of United Nations for the Education, the Science, the Culture, the Communication and the Information, UNESCO.

Corresponding to several thematic series, the three pictures figure in an inaugurated international sample on Wednesday in the institution.

The inclusion of Sánchez's pieces is related with the official proclamation, in last February, of the status of Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity conferred to the foundational sector of the urban historical center of Camagüey, the artist's native territory.

The referred creations are “Bicitaxi”, “Flying on the city” - both with references to the town - and “Clowns”, in which there is a singular use of the style naif.

Full with cubany, of exuberant coloring, and with similar appearance to the comic ribbons, the paintings of Ileana Sánchez testifies the premeditated interest of reflecting - with the domain of technical academic - seemingly frank images.

The author'spictures have been exhibited, also, in eight countries of America and Europe, among them, United States, Brazil, Spain and Cyprus.

Graduate of the Provincial School of Art located in the capital of Camagüey, Ileana Sánchez has murals in public spaces of Cuba and in the exterior, as those of the alley of Benicia Perdomo and the Park of the Cats, in Camagüey. (AIN).