By: Ernesto Pantaleón Medina / Camagüey Television
This way, simply, I called her when I spoke of her in third person, but in her presence I always told him mommy, word that I learned how to babble among the first ones, or why not to say it, the first one that emitted my lips.
And she always contained an entire world those four letters, still when the years already allowed to fall her relentless weight about my life.
She was always there, without asking, without to need explanations neither to request anything, only to the incantation of the simplest call her presence was materialized to my side, to support and many times, to put on by my behalf without caring the consequences.
And how she made be worth her mother reasons, it broke up an and a thousand lances in defense of his with what stability, without caring the dimensions of the mill of wind, or the giant's force that was opposed.
I still sit down her tiny and restless presence, always with hurry, with something to make (and how many you sew it finished in only 24 hours every day).
What energy deployed during all her life, the same one that she had enough to raise many children (her and some that other unaware to the one that her love granted certificate of unquestionable property).
It didn't care for her the poverty or the thousand threats of different, marked times those more for the ghost of the hunger and her court of miseries and lacks, but she always knew how to be been worth to inculcate the strictest honesty, the irrestrict dignity of the immaculate decency and the respect to the other people's thing.
Her hand, warm and firm, (and why not to say it, the grandmother's inherited incantation or acquired in the road) she was able to move away any illness, or at least that still thinks all today, when the study that point demanded has demonstrated us the was worth of the farmacs and the science.
But the energy that wasted, she didn't have enough the internal force that always accompanied her, to conquer in the last battle.
We never think, with selfishness and justifiable nonsense that one day left to that wonderful region where the mothers and good people go, but one night that my memory refuses to remember left, in one January that she left us an inexplicable hole.
Although she is there, fair in the head of my bed, when the insomnia lengthens the hours and the sun refuses to accelerate its step, and she knows that the stranger, although she appears almost physically in the fair place, in the precise moment in that I need her, and she could swear that I sometimes feel her voice and that her hand, in this same instant, removes with fondness a tear that rebellious, insists on slipping of my eyes.
sábado, 9 de mayo de 2009
ONCE AGAIN, THE ROTTEN OAS
On the Internet we obtained a copy of the agreement against Cuba. It’s pure rubbish. It is dedicated to counterrevolutionary gossiping. It is long, in the style of those State Department documents, the political paradigm and head of the OAS. How right Roa was when he called it the Yankee Ministry of Colonies!
We could ask that shameless institution: if we were expelled from the OAS for proclaiming our convictions and we are not members of that institution, what right do they have to pass judgment on us? Would the OAS do likewise with the Peoples’ Republic of China, Vietnam or other countries who, like Cuba, have proclaimed their allegiance to Marxist-Leninist principles?
The modern media have changed all that. Today, through huge investments alone one can have centers which broadcast the news throughout the planet and only those who direct them decide what is broadcast and how it is broadcast, what is printed and how it is printed.
The efforts made by the Pentagon to monopolize information and the Internet networks are obvious. Our own country is blocked from access to those sources. It would be better that the ICHR accounts to the world the resources that its bureaucracy is spending on stupidities, instead of analyzing these realities and informing Latin American countries about the very serious dangers threatening the freedom of expression of all the peoples of the world.
To question Cuba’s role in this area, it would have to start with the outright recognition that this has been the nation which has done the most for education, science and culture among all the peoples of the planet, and that its example is followed today by other revolutionary and progressive governments. If they have any doubt whatsoever, let them ask the United Nations.
In this hemisphere, the poor never had freedom of expression because they never received quality education and knowledge was reserved solely for the privileged and bourgeois elite. Don’t blame Venezuela now, which has done so much for education since the Bolivarian revolution, or the Republic of Haiti, crushed by poverty, diseases and natural catastrophes, as if any of these were ideal conditions for the freedom of expression proclaimed by the OAS. Do what Cuba is doing: first help to massively train quality healthcare personnel and send revolutionary doctors to the most remote corners of the country so that they may contribute to the saving of lives, and transmit to them educational programs and experiences; insist that the financial institutions of the developed and rich world send resources to build schools, train teachers, produce medicines, develop their agriculture and industries, and then talk about the rights of Man.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 8, 2009
12:14 p.m.
Delegates to Cuban Tourism Fair Visit Eastern Cuba
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba.Tour operators, internationalreporters, travel agents and airline representatives participating inthe 29th International Tourism Fair of Cuba (FITUR'09) will travel to eastern Santiago de Cuba province today to get acquainted with this other major destination on the island.
After fulfilling the first part of the program in Havana, tourism professionals that took part in FITUR'09, dedicated this year to heritage cities, will visit different places across the country including Remedios, Trinidad, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba.
The delegates were to arrive in Santiago de Cuba on Friday afternoon accompanied by national and international press reporters. They will start the program with a tour of the historic center of the city with stops in places of patrimonial, cultural and historical interest.
Likewise, they will visit the town of El Cobre, where the first slave uprising in Cuba took place.
The Fair next year will be dedicated to Russia as a tourist market and will promote eastern Cuba as a product and destination.
(Visitarán Santiago de Cuba participantes en Feria de Turis)
Spanish Training Ship Arrives in Havana
HAVANA, Cuba. The Juan Sebastián de Elcano training ship of the Spanish armada was officially welcomed this morning in the port of Havana on its third visit to this city since the Cuban Revolution came to power in 1959.
Present in the welcoming ceremony were Spanish ambassador to Cuba, Manuel Cacho, Captain Jose Piñeiro of the Cuban navy (MGR), and other officials of the Spanish embassy and high ranking officers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The ship is on its 80th Cruise of Instruction for midshipmen of the Iberian nation and carries more than 200 people on board including 34 future officers.
After the ceremony, the commander of the ship, Captain Francisco Javier Romero Caramelo, paid a courtesy visit to vice admiral Pedro Pérez Betancourt, Chief of the Cuban navy.
The officer also held talks with the secretary of the Havana City Assembly, Francisco Sánchez Perdomo, where he received a plaquededicated to the 485 anniversary of the city of Havana.
The Cuban public will be allowed on board the training ship from May 9 thru 12.
(Arriba a La Habana buque escuela español)
Present in the welcoming ceremony were Spanish ambassador to Cuba, Manuel Cacho, Captain Jose Piñeiro of the Cuban navy (MGR), and other officials of the Spanish embassy and high ranking officers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The ship is on its 80th Cruise of Instruction for midshipmen of the Iberian nation and carries more than 200 people on board including 34 future officers.
After the ceremony, the commander of the ship, Captain Francisco Javier Romero Caramelo, paid a courtesy visit to vice admiral Pedro Pérez Betancourt, Chief of the Cuban navy.
The officer also held talks with the secretary of the Havana City Assembly, Francisco Sánchez Perdomo, where he received a plaquededicated to the 485 anniversary of the city of Havana.
The Cuban public will be allowed on board the training ship from May 9 thru 12.
(Arriba a La Habana buque escuela español)
Cuba Speeds Up Production of Face Masks To Prevent Influenza
BAYAMO, Cuba. Speeding up manufacture of face masks is part of Cuba's efforts to prevent the spreading of Influenza A (H1N1) in case its presence is reported in the country.
The use of such items, in particular in health centers dealing with patients thought to have the condition, was one of the first measures taking by the Cuban authorities since the beginning of the outburst of the disease in other countries.
Cuba has reiterated that there are no cases of Influenza A (H1N1) in the island, while the World Health Organization assured on its 21st report assued today that the virus has been found in 2,384 people of 24 nations and 44 fatal victims have been confirmed.
More than 400 employees of the Antares enterprise, of the eastern province of Granma, are working since Sunday in the making of 40,000 face masks of which 22,188 have been finished, according to Engineer Silvia Santiesteban, director of the entity, in statements to ACN.
Meanwhile, educational talks continue to be held in neighborhoods to raise awareness among the people of the importance of strengthening hygienic measures that could prevent the flu.
Medical authorities and locals have confirmed that talks have been given also in distant communities of the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
The educational talks are offered by doctors and nurses of the family doctor's offices located in urban and rural communities of Granma, as occurs in the rest of the country.
(Confecciona Cuba más tapabocas para prevenir influenza)
The use of such items, in particular in health centers dealing with patients thought to have the condition, was one of the first measures taking by the Cuban authorities since the beginning of the outburst of the disease in other countries.
Cuba has reiterated that there are no cases of Influenza A (H1N1) in the island, while the World Health Organization assured on its 21st report assued today that the virus has been found in 2,384 people of 24 nations and 44 fatal victims have been confirmed.
More than 400 employees of the Antares enterprise, of the eastern province of Granma, are working since Sunday in the making of 40,000 face masks of which 22,188 have been finished, according to Engineer Silvia Santiesteban, director of the entity, in statements to ACN.
Meanwhile, educational talks continue to be held in neighborhoods to raise awareness among the people of the importance of strengthening hygienic measures that could prevent the flu.
Medical authorities and locals have confirmed that talks have been given also in distant communities of the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
The educational talks are offered by doctors and nurses of the family doctor's offices located in urban and rural communities of Granma, as occurs in the rest of the country.
(Confecciona Cuba más tapabocas para prevenir influenza)
Venezuela to Open Consular Office in Central Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba. Venezuela has announced that it will soon open a consular office in central Cuba in order to benefit Cuban professionals who make their contribution in this South American nation.
During a meeting reported on by Opciones weekly, the Venezuelan ambassador in Cuba, Victor Eloy Delgado Monsalves, said that the decision will also benefit Venezuelan youths who are currently studying in the Caribbean archipelago.
Delgado Monsalves highlighted the importance of the Consulate General of Venezuela opened two years ago in Havana to attend visa applications, which have risen to nearly 1,000 per month due to the increase of bilateral cooperation, mainly in the sectors of health and education.
The meeting also served to analyze development projects being implemented in Cuba with the sponsorship of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).
Among these projects, participants in the meeting praised the work being carried out at the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery in the central province of Cienfuegos, which will allow the plant to increase the number of crude oil barrels processed daily from 65,000 to 150,000.
Details were also given about the inauguration of a new refinery in the western province of Matanzas and expansion underway at the Hermanos Diaz refinery of Santiago de Cuba.
(Abrirá Venezuela oficina consular en centro de Cuba)
During a meeting reported on by Opciones weekly, the Venezuelan ambassador in Cuba, Victor Eloy Delgado Monsalves, said that the decision will also benefit Venezuelan youths who are currently studying in the Caribbean archipelago.
Delgado Monsalves highlighted the importance of the Consulate General of Venezuela opened two years ago in Havana to attend visa applications, which have risen to nearly 1,000 per month due to the increase of bilateral cooperation, mainly in the sectors of health and education.
The meeting also served to analyze development projects being implemented in Cuba with the sponsorship of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).
Among these projects, participants in the meeting praised the work being carried out at the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery in the central province of Cienfuegos, which will allow the plant to increase the number of crude oil barrels processed daily from 65,000 to 150,000.
Details were also given about the inauguration of a new refinery in the western province of Matanzas and expansion underway at the Hermanos Diaz refinery of Santiago de Cuba.
(Abrirá Venezuela oficina consular en centro de Cuba)
The Only American Ex-President I Have Met
Carter is the only ex-president of the United States that I have had the honor of meeting, other than Nixon who was not one yet.
I had visited Washington to take part in a press conference that meant a tough challenge for me because of the questions that the expert reporters would be asking. The president had suggested to Nixon that he invite me for a conversation in his office. He was deceitful and hypocritical. He left that office with the idea of recommending the destruction of the Cuban Revolution.
Following his advice, Eisenhower was the author of the first plans to eliminate me physically, of the terror campaign against Cuba and the mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion.
The year 1959 marked the beginning of the treacherous history that President Carter tried to rectify 18 years later.
I knew, or rather I guessed, that he was a man of a religious ethics, from a long interview in which difficult subjects were broached and which he handled with sincerity and modesty. In those days, there were strong tensions between Panama and the United States. The leader of that country, Omar Torrijos, was an honest, nationalist and patriotic soldier. He could be persuaded by Cuba to not adopt extreme positions in his struggle for the return of the Canal territory which, like a sharp knife, was splitting his country in two. Perhaps because of that, the
small nation was able to avoid a blood-bath although later on the country would be portrayed to the people of the United States and to the world as an aggressor.
Later, and without talking to anyone in the United States, I could predict that maybe Carter was the only president of that country with whom it would be possible to reach an honorable agreement without spilling one single drop of blood.
Not much time had passed before Washington would sign the agreement between the United States and Panama in the presence of other heads of state, excluding Cuba of course.
I mention this because Omar Torrijos himself, on a visit he made to our country, spoke about the efforts Cuba had made in this respect.
As president of the United States, Carter agreed with Cuba to create the Interests Sections in Havana and Washington. With that move we saved a lot of diplomatic procedures and paperwork that were driving the austere and meticulous Swiss diplomats insane. Maintaining the colossal building in the former United States Embassy in Havana was already in itself quite
a feat for Switzerland.
Another thing: Carter discussed major issues with Cuba, such as the limits of territorial waters and the rights of each, the use of energy resources included in the jurisdictional waters of Mexico, Cuba and the United States as well as fishery resources and other subjects of inescapable attention. Not all the agreements favored Cuba. Our fishing fleet had been catching in international waters, as it was established, 12 miles off the coasts of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. However, in solidarity, Cuba was supporting Chile, Peru and other Latin American
countries in their right to exploit fishery resources on their respective sea shelves. The final result was that our modern expensive fishing boats finally ceased to work in those waters, when such a battle was finally won. The requisites established by the U.S. authorities were such on the rich shelves where our boats were fishing near the coast of that country, and other limitations in the light of the new law, that they priced themselves out of the market.
When Carter became president of his country, the aggressions, terrorism and blockade against the people of Cuba had existed for many years. Our solidarity with the peoples of Africa and many other poor and underdeveloped nations in the world could not be the object of negotiations with the U.S. government. Nor would we leave Angola, or suspend the assistance already committed to the African countries.
Carter never actually requested it but it is clear that many in the United States were thinking along those lines.
The defense of our sovereignty not only unleashed deep contradictions with the U.S. but also with the USSR, our ally, when as a result of the October [Missile] Crisis, without consulting our country, the USSR negotiated a mutually convenient agreement with the U.S. by which the
blockade, terrorist actions and the Guantanamo Base remained intact in exchange for strategic concessions by the two superpowers. We did not seek unilateral advantages. Revolutionaries who act that way do not survive their mistakes.
Compliance with the international standards would have never been an obstacle for Cuba and, as we have often said, peace is also an unavoidable objective of the Cuban Revolution. Many forms of cooperation are possible between peoples with different political concepts.
One proof of that is the war against drug trafficking, organized crime and the trafficking of human beings; this can be extended to many forms of cooperation in the fight against epidemics, natural catastrophes and other problems.
The Revolution has never used terrorism against the United States.
That country invented plane hijackings to strike against Cuba. That action, in a society with so many social conflicts, became an epidemic. How could they have resolved it without Cuba’s cooperation? We had adopted severe laws to punish the culprits, but it was useless. Finally,
we made the decision to return them in the very same hijacked planes after warning them about it earlier.
Thus, the first plane we returned was the last one hijacked in the U.S.; this coincided exactly with the Carter years. I have spoken about this at greater length. I’m not saying anything new.
After Carter, Reagan took the dirty war to Nicaragua, using drugs to get around the laws of Congress and with the incomes supply weapons to the counterrevolution, mining ports; his policy took thousands of Sandinista lives while many were wounded and maimed.
Bush senior carried out the horrible slaughter of El Chorrillo to punish Panama and erase the marks left by Carter’s gesture.
When Carter visited Cuba between May 12 and 17 of 2002, he knew that he would be welcomed here; I attended his lecture at the University of Havana; I invited him to an important baseball game played between the national Occidentales and Orientales teams at the Latin American
Stadium. Both of us were there at the opening pitch to which he was invited, with no bodyguards whatsoever, surrounded by 50,000 people in the stands, perfect targets for any sharp-shooter hired by the CIA. Bush Jr. was already governing the U.S. I only wanted to show Carter the
relationship of the country’s leaders with the people. When we arrived at the stadium, he accepted with dignity my invitation to persuade his chief of security to leave him on his own, and that’s what he did.
What I know about forestry in the U.S. was explained to me by Carter at the dinner we hosted for him on the last day: how the trees are planted, what varieties, the time they need to grow, production per hectares, and so on and so forth.
I observed his faith in the capitalist system where he was raised and educated; I respect that.
When he was in the government, times were difficult. He had to carry the burden of the effects of an economic crisis, but he was austere, he didn’t drown the future generations in debt. His successor, Ronald Reagan, would squander all the savings Carter had made. He was a movie
actor and handled the teleprompter well, but he never asked himself where the money was coming from.
Yesterday, former President Jimmy Carter said to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper: “’I would like (the embargo) to end today. There is no reason why the Cuban people should continue to suffer’, stated the former president who heads a human rights organization and this week was
visiting Brazil to meet with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“According to Carter, the initiatives adopted so far by Obama to ease the restrictions dictated against the island were less daring than what would be desired.
“’I think that Obama’s initiatives were not as good as those of the two U.S. Congress houses which today are one step ahead of the president with regards to Cuba.
“’The next step should be immediate removal of all travel restrictions to the island, not just for Cuban-Americans. It was what I did when I was president 30 years ago. The end of the embargo will follow suit’, the former president said.
Carter finally expressed that results were also depending on the Cuban leaders; surely, on us and on all the Cubans who have struggled and are willing to struggle.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 7, 2009
7:15 p.m.
I had visited Washington to take part in a press conference that meant a tough challenge for me because of the questions that the expert reporters would be asking. The president had suggested to Nixon that he invite me for a conversation in his office. He was deceitful and hypocritical. He left that office with the idea of recommending the destruction of the Cuban Revolution.
Following his advice, Eisenhower was the author of the first plans to eliminate me physically, of the terror campaign against Cuba and the mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion.
The year 1959 marked the beginning of the treacherous history that President Carter tried to rectify 18 years later.
I knew, or rather I guessed, that he was a man of a religious ethics, from a long interview in which difficult subjects were broached and which he handled with sincerity and modesty. In those days, there were strong tensions between Panama and the United States. The leader of that country, Omar Torrijos, was an honest, nationalist and patriotic soldier. He could be persuaded by Cuba to not adopt extreme positions in his struggle for the return of the Canal territory which, like a sharp knife, was splitting his country in two. Perhaps because of that, the
small nation was able to avoid a blood-bath although later on the country would be portrayed to the people of the United States and to the world as an aggressor.
Later, and without talking to anyone in the United States, I could predict that maybe Carter was the only president of that country with whom it would be possible to reach an honorable agreement without spilling one single drop of blood.
Not much time had passed before Washington would sign the agreement between the United States and Panama in the presence of other heads of state, excluding Cuba of course.
I mention this because Omar Torrijos himself, on a visit he made to our country, spoke about the efforts Cuba had made in this respect.
As president of the United States, Carter agreed with Cuba to create the Interests Sections in Havana and Washington. With that move we saved a lot of diplomatic procedures and paperwork that were driving the austere and meticulous Swiss diplomats insane. Maintaining the colossal building in the former United States Embassy in Havana was already in itself quite
a feat for Switzerland.
Another thing: Carter discussed major issues with Cuba, such as the limits of territorial waters and the rights of each, the use of energy resources included in the jurisdictional waters of Mexico, Cuba and the United States as well as fishery resources and other subjects of inescapable attention. Not all the agreements favored Cuba. Our fishing fleet had been catching in international waters, as it was established, 12 miles off the coasts of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. However, in solidarity, Cuba was supporting Chile, Peru and other Latin American
countries in their right to exploit fishery resources on their respective sea shelves. The final result was that our modern expensive fishing boats finally ceased to work in those waters, when such a battle was finally won. The requisites established by the U.S. authorities were such on the rich shelves where our boats were fishing near the coast of that country, and other limitations in the light of the new law, that they priced themselves out of the market.
When Carter became president of his country, the aggressions, terrorism and blockade against the people of Cuba had existed for many years. Our solidarity with the peoples of Africa and many other poor and underdeveloped nations in the world could not be the object of negotiations with the U.S. government. Nor would we leave Angola, or suspend the assistance already committed to the African countries.
Carter never actually requested it but it is clear that many in the United States were thinking along those lines.
The defense of our sovereignty not only unleashed deep contradictions with the U.S. but also with the USSR, our ally, when as a result of the October [Missile] Crisis, without consulting our country, the USSR negotiated a mutually convenient agreement with the U.S. by which the
blockade, terrorist actions and the Guantanamo Base remained intact in exchange for strategic concessions by the two superpowers. We did not seek unilateral advantages. Revolutionaries who act that way do not survive their mistakes.
Compliance with the international standards would have never been an obstacle for Cuba and, as we have often said, peace is also an unavoidable objective of the Cuban Revolution. Many forms of cooperation are possible between peoples with different political concepts.
One proof of that is the war against drug trafficking, organized crime and the trafficking of human beings; this can be extended to many forms of cooperation in the fight against epidemics, natural catastrophes and other problems.
The Revolution has never used terrorism against the United States.
That country invented plane hijackings to strike against Cuba. That action, in a society with so many social conflicts, became an epidemic. How could they have resolved it without Cuba’s cooperation? We had adopted severe laws to punish the culprits, but it was useless. Finally,
we made the decision to return them in the very same hijacked planes after warning them about it earlier.
Thus, the first plane we returned was the last one hijacked in the U.S.; this coincided exactly with the Carter years. I have spoken about this at greater length. I’m not saying anything new.
After Carter, Reagan took the dirty war to Nicaragua, using drugs to get around the laws of Congress and with the incomes supply weapons to the counterrevolution, mining ports; his policy took thousands of Sandinista lives while many were wounded and maimed.
Bush senior carried out the horrible slaughter of El Chorrillo to punish Panama and erase the marks left by Carter’s gesture.
When Carter visited Cuba between May 12 and 17 of 2002, he knew that he would be welcomed here; I attended his lecture at the University of Havana; I invited him to an important baseball game played between the national Occidentales and Orientales teams at the Latin American
Stadium. Both of us were there at the opening pitch to which he was invited, with no bodyguards whatsoever, surrounded by 50,000 people in the stands, perfect targets for any sharp-shooter hired by the CIA. Bush Jr. was already governing the U.S. I only wanted to show Carter the
relationship of the country’s leaders with the people. When we arrived at the stadium, he accepted with dignity my invitation to persuade his chief of security to leave him on his own, and that’s what he did.
What I know about forestry in the U.S. was explained to me by Carter at the dinner we hosted for him on the last day: how the trees are planted, what varieties, the time they need to grow, production per hectares, and so on and so forth.
I observed his faith in the capitalist system where he was raised and educated; I respect that.
When he was in the government, times were difficult. He had to carry the burden of the effects of an economic crisis, but he was austere, he didn’t drown the future generations in debt. His successor, Ronald Reagan, would squander all the savings Carter had made. He was a movie
actor and handled the teleprompter well, but he never asked himself where the money was coming from.
Yesterday, former President Jimmy Carter said to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper: “’I would like (the embargo) to end today. There is no reason why the Cuban people should continue to suffer’, stated the former president who heads a human rights organization and this week was
visiting Brazil to meet with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“According to Carter, the initiatives adopted so far by Obama to ease the restrictions dictated against the island were less daring than what would be desired.
“’I think that Obama’s initiatives were not as good as those of the two U.S. Congress houses which today are one step ahead of the president with regards to Cuba.
“’The next step should be immediate removal of all travel restrictions to the island, not just for Cuban-Americans. It was what I did when I was president 30 years ago. The end of the embargo will follow suit’, the former president said.
Carter finally expressed that results were also depending on the Cuban leaders; surely, on us and on all the Cubans who have struggled and are willing to struggle.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 7, 2009
7:15 p.m.
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