miércoles, 29 de abril de 2009

Raul Castro: Unity is more Crucial than Ever before for the Non-Aligned

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro said that the united and coordinated action by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the face of current challenges is now more vital and crucial than ever before.

We are facing a deep economic, social, food, energy and environmental crisis that has global character, said the Cuban head of state during the inauguration on Wednesday of the Ministerial Meeting of the NAM Coordinating Bureau, underway in Havana.

International debates multiply but without the participation of all countries, said Raul Castro, and noted that there is growing awareness about the need to short-term solutions, though fair and lasting solutions are still to be reached. “If we do not take the required firm and urgent action, our peoples will again undergo for a longer time the consequences of the crisis,” he said.

The current unjust and irrational consumption patterns are impossible to maintain said Raul and pointed out that such patterns were the foundations of today’s international order.

The Cuban President stressed that a global order inspired on hegemonic interests and selfishness is neither legitimate nor ethically acceptable and he added that a system that is destroying the environment and empowers unequal access to wealth.

The situation has dramatically worsened, said Raul and went on to explain that annual military expenditures surpass one trillion dollars; however, he said that the unemployed world population could increase to 230 millions in 2009. He said that the number of hungry people in the world last year increased to 963 millions up from 854 millions.

He said that the High-Level Conference of the United Nations on the economic and financial crisis and its impact on development, scheduled for June 1-3 this year constitute a crucial scenario to discuss and search for solutions under consensus about the serious situation. In that
direction Raul said that the Non-Aligned Movement should support the holding of the conference.

Raul Castro also expressed his thankfulness to the Non-Aligned Movement for its firm position of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. He also extended his gratefulness to the NAM for its permanent support of the demand that Washington lift its economic, commercial and financial
blockade of Cuba.

The recent measures announced by US President Barack Obama, although positive are limited in scope, said the Cuban President. The blockade is intact although there is no other political or moral pretext that justifies the continuity of that US anti-Cuba measure.

Cuba has not imposed any sanctions on the United States or on any of its citizens; Cuba is not the country banning US entrepreneurs from doing business on the island or chasing financial transactions by US banks, he stressed.

Cuba is not the country that maintains a military base in US territory against the will of the American people, Raul Castro added and went on to say that for those reasons it is not Cuba that has to make some gestures.

He reiterated that Havana is willing to address all issues with the US administration under equal conditions, but that does not imply any negotiation of Cuba’s sovereignty, its political or social system, its right to self-determination and its internal affairs.

The Cuban President noted that the strength of the Non-Aligned Movement lies on its unity within diversity, which has been the main pillar of Cuba’s nearly-three year mandate.

“I do not have the slightest doubt that the Non-Aligned Movement will continue to be a crucial and constructive factor in international debates, he concluded.

(Reafirma Raúl importancia de unidad para los No Alineados)

Cuban People Ready to Celebrate May Day

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) The Cuban people are ready to celebrate on Friday, May Day, the international Workers Day with parades and mass gatherings in all main cities across the country.

Reynaldo Valdes Grillo, second secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation, stated that everything has been prepared to observe the date this year, which also marks the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution.

Valdés Grillo said the date has been marked by workers across the island with actions to boost food production, energy saving and economic efficiency.

As is traditional, participants in the parades will be dressed in red, white or blue in reference to the Cuban flag.

This year’s demonstration will call for the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters who are imprisoned in the US.

Along with the Cubans, foreign visitors including members of the Primero de Mayo (May Day) international solidarity brigade will march to Revolution Square, as well as union members from numerous countries who have been invited to the celebrations.

(Lista Cuba para celebrar el primero de mayo)

Cuban Medical Brigade Joins Venezuelan Flu Prevention Effort

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) Cuban doctors on a collaboration mission in Venezuela have joined efforts to prevent swine flu in the country, though no cases have been reported up to the moment according to the South American nation’s government.

Nancy Perez, Venezuelan deputy minister of Collective Health Networks, announced that all necessary mechanisms have been activated in case of any eventuality, reported Prensa Latina.

The official said a national committee has been set up from several institutions in the face of the spreading of swine flu virus in other countries.

Among those institutions are the national epidemiology watch department, regional health centers, hospitals, civil protection and national hygiene institute.

Other members of the group are Cuban health experts and staff of the medical brigade part of a collaboration project with Venezuela, the National Civil Aeronautics Institute, ports, airports and other organizations.

The official pointed out that in that respect the epidemiology and environmental health systems are on alert to watch, detect and study any suspected cases of swine flu.

(Misión médica cubana coopera en plan preventivo en Venezuela)

Cuban Parliament President Stresses Need to Fight for Justice

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) The president of Cuba’s People’s Power National Assembly (Parliament), Ricardo Alarcon, stressed on Tuesday the need to fight on behalf of the victims of terrorism until justice is achieved.

In a meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Cuban-born revolutionary activist Carlos Muñiz, who was killed by members of the Omega 7 terrorist organization, Alarcon condemned the crime and pointed out that it still remains unpunished.

The Cuban official said the assassins continue to walk freely on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, or Miami and added that the CIA and the US Justice Department could do justice if they wanted to.

He also pointed out the importance of extending the fight against terrorism to the case of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US for trying to avoid similar crimes against the Cuban people or government leaders.

Those revolutionaries have been held since 1998 after having been sentenced in a biased trial held in Miami.

Alarcon stated that while the five Cubans remain in jail, American authorities will be responsible for the injustice, the arbitrariness, and the crime, and said that such an attitude is considered as complicity according to law.

Carlos Muñiz, born in Cuba and based in Puerto Rico, was a student leader supporting the independence of that country. He was a member of the National Committee of the Antonio Maceo brigade and was the president of the Viajes Varadero travel agency.

The homage ceremony took place at the Casa de la Amistad, in Havana, with the participation of members of the Antonio Maceo brigade from the United States, and of the Primero de Mayo brigade, and also relatives of victims of terrorist actions against Cuba and of the Cuban Five, among others.

(Enfatiza Alarcón importancia de la lucha por la justicia Saili)

Cuba Suspends Mexico Flights to Prevent Swine Flu

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) Following the Cuban National Civil Defense Council's issuing of the Alert Stage for the country in the face of swine flu, the island's Civil Aeronautics Institute has temporarily suspended regular and charter flights to and from Mexico starting this Wednesday.

An official statement issued by the institute early April 29 announced that airlines operating between the two countries will only be allowed to fly into the island to pick up passengers travelling to Mexico.

In addition, all travellers arriving in Cuba from any destination will be required to fill in a Traveller's Health Declaration, says the statement.

The Aeronautics Authority will communicate the Cuban State's decision in relation to these measures to the International Civil Aeronautics Organization.

Flights will be resumed once the causes that led to their suspension are no longer a threat to the island, of which interested parties will be duly informed.

(Medidas preventivas de aeronáutica cubana acerca de la gripe)

New Zealanders Ask for the End of US Blockade Against Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) A campaign to demand the end of the economic blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for nearly half a century began today in New Zealand organized by members of a solidarity movement with the Caribbean island.

New Zealand's groups of friendship with the Cuban people are collecting signatures across the country to be attached to a letter that will be sent to US President Barack Obama, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and to Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi, reported Prensa Latina.

The document notes that the blockade is an economic war unleashed against Cuba more than 40 years ago in retaliation for the triumph of the Revolution and the achievement of real independence for the island.

It also denounces that Washington insists on keeping this measure, described as unjust and genocidal, in spite of the general rejection by the international community.

This universal feeling has been expressed in all United Nations general assemblies since 1992, when it adopted a resolution about the consequences of the blockade on the Cuban people and economy and demanding its end.

In addition, it says the US should respect Cuban independence and sovereignty and the right of its people to decide their own political system.

(Neozelandeses por el fin del bloqueo de EE.UU. a Cuba)

May Day International Scientific Workshop Inaugurated in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) The 8th May Day International Scientific
Workshop was inaugurated on Tuesday at Havana's Cuban Institute of History (ICH), as part of the program of activities organized to celebrate May Day on Friday.

A specialist with the Research Program on the Movement of the Argentinean Society, María Celia Cotarelo, thanked the organizers of the event, aimed at learning from trade union movements and the struggles of the working class in different parts of the world, she pointed out.

Latin American reality is constantly changing. Important steps have been taken for justice and equality, and workers have to be at the center of these transformations, highlighted Cotarelo.

The head of International Relations of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), Raymundo Navarro, referred to the history of workers' struggles in the Caribbean nation, and the role of its labor organization in the Cuban revolutionary movement

This scientific workshop reflects a historical panorama of trade unions, May Day celebrations and the Cuban Revolution, said Navarro.

Tuesday's activities included the presentation of the panel "Role and action of labor unions in the process of globalization in Mexico", and the launch of the books "Memoirs of the 7th May Day International Workshop" and "The military elite in Cuba".

The event, which will run until April 30 with the presence of speakers from Mexico and Argentina, is sponsored by the Confederation of Cuban Workers, ICH, and several Mexican institutions.

(Inauguran Taller Científico Internacional Primero de Mayo Dayan García La O)

Cuban Products Excel at Bolivian Trade Fair

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) Cuba and Argentina are among the Latin American nations with a prominent participation in the 26th Trade Fair of Cochabamba (FEICOBOL-2009), which began its business activities on Tuesday.

A total of 135 companies are present in the event, 46 of which are Argentinean, 27 Peruvian and 17 Cuban, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

Cuban executives explained that cosmetics, as well as veterinary medicaments and anti-pest chemicals produced at Cuba's LABIOFAM S.A.(Biological and Pharmaceutical Laboratories) and the crafts of the light industry attract the attention of the public at FEICOBOL.

With respect to the archipelago's potential, Bolivian entrepreneurs are aspiring to place their textile, shoe, leather, and raw material production on the Cuban market.

The Organizing Committee announced the Fair is expected to move, by way of commercial accords, some 125 million dollars -five more than in 2008.

Also attending the Fair, which will run until May 3rd, are firms from Colombia, China, the United States, Germany, South Korea, Japan, China Taipei, Switzerland, Italy, Ecuador, Panama, England, Scotland, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Austria, Guatemala, Venezuela, Sweden and Israel.

Representing Bolivia are 700 companies, exhibiting their industrial, commercial, service and handicraft products.

During the opening ceremony, Bolivian president Evo Morales highlighted the diversity of products on display, among them food items and medicines, and pointed out that FEICOBOL is a fair for life, given the importance the products shown on its stands have for humans.

(Productos cubanos sobresalen en Feria de Cochabamba)

Literacy Campaign with Cuban Method Advances in Panama

HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (acn) The Move around Panama Project, based on the Cuban literacy teaching method Yes I Can, is advancing in that Central American nation, where 42,000 people have learned how to read and write in only 22 months.

According to reports on this strategy presented by the Panamanian Ministry for Social Development (MIDES), it is aimed at turning that nation into a territory free of illiteracy, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

MIDES Minister, Maria Roquebert, recalled that the reduction of this scourge demands the real commitment of the entire society, in order to benefit people with dreams and aspirations who did not have the opportunity of going to school.

The project, she added, has mobilized and touched thousands of people in the country, and highlighted the efforts made by volunteers and trainers.

Therefore, said the top official, we call on all Panamanians to join in this initiative without fear; it will improve their quality of live.

In order to say we have an educated population, which is the strength of a developed nation, we need to commit ourselves as a society to the eradication of illiteracy, she affirmed.

More than 3.8 million people from 23 nations have been taught how to read and write by way of this Cuban system, while some 240,000 are presently receiving classes in 17 countries.

(Avanza alfabetización en Panamá con método cubano)

President of Casa de Las Americas Bestowed Jose Marti Order by Raul Castro

HAVANA, April 29 (acn) Cuban President Raul Castro bestowed the Jose Marti Order, the top distinction of the Republic of Cuba, on Roberto Fernandez Retamar, president of the Casa de Las Americas cutlural institution.

The awarding took place Tuesday during a ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Havana-based institution, one of the most emblematic cultural entities in the continent, and whose founder and first president was outstanding revolutionary Haydee Santamaria.

The high honor was given to Fernandez Retamar for his valuable contribution to Cuban and Latin American culture, for his merits as researcher, poet, essayist and professor of several generations and for his firm defense of the Cuban Revolution.

Retamar dedicated the distinction to Haydee Santamaria, since-he stressed-without her example and influence, her life and work, he would not have been the person is today.

The ceremony also included the creation a postage stamp for the 50th anniversary of the cultural institution.

Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon also paid homage to Haydee Santamaria, a heroine of the 1963 Moncada Attack and the liberation war on the Sierra Maestra Mountain Range, and he recalled the various tasks and works undertaken by Casa de Las Americas.

Casa de Las Americas has encouraged us to resist and has contributed to defeat the isolation policy on Cuba, said Ricardo Alarcon in his statements during the ceremony, which concluded with the presentation of renowned singer Omara Portuondo.

(Impone Raúl Orden José Martí a Roberto Fernández Retamar)

Students of 50 countries will parade the First of May in Camagüey

Camagüey, Apr 29. - Representatives from Asia, África, Latin America, the Caribbean and Middle East that study in Camagüey, will manifest their support to the Revolution, when this First of May parades in the block of the solidarity in the General bigger Square Ignacio Agramonte, of the provincial capital.

Francisco López Domínguez informed this way , delegate in the territory of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Towns (ICAP) who meant that among the main watchwords of those friends will be wrongly the birdcall of freedom for the Five Cuban antiterrorists prisoners in United States.

As distinctive element of the solidary block will be an enormous cloth in which are mentioned to those more than 100 thousand working hours volunteer accumulated since 1990 by the Brigade International Friends of Cuba, existent in the territory.

The foreign students of some 50 nationalities that will parade this May First in Camagüey, will ratify the international support that has to world scale the Cuban Revolution. (Yamylé Fernández Rodríguez).

When the rice grows…is because it is recoved

By: Ernesto Pantaleón Medina / Television Camagüey

For any housewife or kitchen chef, when the rice “ grows” means that in the cooking process the grain size increases, what satisfies most of those who consume this food.

However, in terms of the agriculture, the growth means to increase the areas dedicated to the seed, cultivation and harvests of the cereal, main base of the diet of the Cubans, as well as it is of many other populations of the world, and not only in Asia, as some they believe.

In the years of the called “Special Period” the areas that were devoted to the rice in Camagüey, located to the south of the county, in low floors very near the coast, decreased sensibly, due to the economic restrictions that took at near levels to zero the fuels for the seed and the watering of herbicides and fertilizers with which such extensions were assisted (thousands of hectares) and that were applied in it biggest part by means of airplanes.

The own crop, very automated, suffered severe affectations for concept of lacks of replacements, lubricant and petroleum.

However, in spite of the blockade and of the economic crisis that damage the agricultural development of the country without doubts, a recovery of the fields is evidenced and for example, for the present year the purpose of the state entity to position, the Agroindustrial Complex “Ruta Invasora”, it is to plant around 9 000 hectares, while with the denominated strategy of “popularization” that is to give small parcels to the population to produce rice, plan to complete some l3 500.

This variant contributed the past 2008 more than 7 000 tons that the company bought to the private sector to process them industrially and then to distribute in the Family Basic Basket or through the markets.

The county of Camagüey has advanced in the employment of appropriate varieties to our agricultural conditions, of floors and climatic. An experimental station applies scientific advances linked directly to the production of the cereal.

It is expected soon, product of arisen agreements of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America, an improvement of the industry, specifically in mills and dry whose technology demands renovation. As for the crop means and shot, are already observed in the fields of the combined south of Camagüey of court, and modern tractors.

In summary that against what the sceptic could think, those disbelieved and the pessimists, our rice grows; of course, first in the furrows, and then in the pots.

Recovery is to think, and of course, to act

by: Ernesto Pantaleón Medina / Television Camagüey

Before the last of the two hurricanes that last year whipped with matter it forces to the county of Camagüey, in the Unit of Poultry Beginning belonging to the selfsupply system and several productions of the Rice Complex “Ruta Invasora”, of the south of the territory 27 000 animals existed, and of them some l5 perished 000, while the roofs of all the ships disappeared or they were in very bad state.

But to only some few months of that atmospheric calamity, all the facilities have their complete covers, and this time reinforced with bars of steel soldiers, to resist the strongest winds. The number of birds, on the other hand, already surpasses the l7 000 and the growth continues.

The damage of the meteors was bigger since in this unit the chickens are raised since one day of born up to 42, moment in that move toward the development centers, of agreement with its purpose is already of it feeds or egg-laying, and even the hens of double purpose, more rustic and more resistant, but that they produce a good quantity of postures.

According to Félix Sánchez, the administrator, the reaction of the community went immediate when the strong winds that destroyed the l2 ships taking place with which it counts the center. Only in that way could rescue and to save some l2 000 animals that already grow in different territories.

He adds that it is purpose this year to give l00 000 birds, without counting the well-known species as guinea hen whose raises it is already traditional and whose postures take place in the farm “The paradise”, to about 4 kilometers, since where are taken to the incubation plants. Of these last ones, when being born, those “guineítos” are brought to the beginning center, and after some weeks, they meet with their progenitors. Of this poultry variety you plan this year about 200 000 births.

Pedro, the administrator of “The Paradise”, remembers that when the hurricanes died thousands of birds there, mainly guinea hens, turkeys and egg-laying, but are already under conditions of to assume the new commitments and to grow, until completing the 60 000 animals.

Héctor Hernández Limia, the boss of the Unit of Several Productions that is responsible for among other, the sphere of the seolfsupply of the entity, assures that with people like the 500 workers to who he directs, there is not hurricane that defeats them, and he adds that with people this way, the “Paradise”, it is not so unreachable.

President Raul Castro at Opening Session of NAM Ministerial Meeting

Also attending are Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo, Vice President of the Cuban Council of Ministers Ricardo Cabrisas and the president of the UN General Assembly Miguel D´Escoto, among other personalities.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez extended the most cordial welcome to all participants during his opening statement at the forum and he stressed Cuba's firm commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The forum takes place at Havana's Conventions Center with the participation of 140 delegations, 111 of which represent NAM member nations, 14 have observer status. Also present are representatives of five international organizations and of 10 guest countries.

Following a two-day working session in commissions, the high-level officials prepared the document of the forum, which will be submitted for approval to the foreign ministers of the Third World organization.

The meeting, which winds up on Thursday, is the last one to take place under the mandate of Cuba as NAM Chair before Egypt assumes that responsibility during the 15th Summit of Heads of State and Government, next July 11-16.