Conference on Cuba Wraps Up in Canada

HAVANA, Cuba. The president of Cuba's Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, said the academic conference on the 50 years of the Cuban revolution that wrapped up its work in Kingston, Canada, had been very constructive.

Under the title "The Measure of the Revolution: Cuba, 1959-2009," the conference, took place at Queen's University.

Speaking at the closing session of the meeting, Ricardo Alarcon said debates were led in a fruitful environment and he talked about the achievements of the Revolution in health, education and international cooperation.

Granma newspaper wrote that the three-day meeting provided an opportunity to discuss a wide variety of topics related to Cuba, including international relations, culture, gender, economy, environment, sexuality, politics, migration, race, education, health and religion.

Addressing more than 200 scholars from 14 countries attending the event, the Cuban official referred to the impact of the recent measures announced by US President Barack Obama as insufficient and a simple return to what things were like before the administration of former
president George W. Bush.

The academic conference was held from May 7 to 9, organized by Queen's University and in coordination with the universities of Havana in Cuba and Chapel Hills in North Carolina, U.S.A. A festival celebrating Cuban culture run parallel in the Kingston, which is the only Canadian city
with a partnership with a Cuban city, Cienfuegos.

(Concluye conferencia sobre Cuba en Kingston, Canadá)

Cuban VP Chairs Ceremony for Anniversary of Cuba-South African Relations

HAVANA, Cuba. Visiting Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo presided over a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between Cuba and South Africa, held on Sunday at Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa.

On behalf of the South African government, Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, general director of the South African Foreign Ministry, praised the excellent state of bilateral relations between both nations and thanked Cuba for its contribution to the independence of Africa and South Africa, in
particular.

As part of the ceremony, members of the Cuban visiting delegation and of the Cuba-South Africa Friendship Association laid floral wreaths at the Wall of Names at Freedom Park, where the names of more than 2000 Cuban internationalists who died fighting for the independence of Africa are engraved.

Granma daily reported that the ceremony was attended by personalities such as Nobel Literature Prize laureate Nadine Gordimer; national poet Keorapetse Kgositsile; the president of the National Heritage Council, Sonwabile Mancotywa; and Esoop Pahad, former Minister in the President's Office

Also present were officials of the South African Foreign Ministry, the African national Congress, the South African Communist Party and Cuban health and construction professionals working in the South Africancapital.


(Participa Esteban Lazo en acto por relaciones Cuba-Sudáfrica)

Barbadian Prime Minister in Cuba for Official Visit

HAVANA, Cuba. The Prime Minister of Barbados, DavId Thompson, arrived in Cuba on Monday morning for a three-day official visit at the invitation of his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro.

"I want to thank you for this warm welcome and to express my satisfaction with this official visit," said Thompson upon arriving at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, where he was welcomed by Deputy Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez and by the Cuban Ambassador to Barbados Pedro Garcia Roque.

In brief statements to reporters at the airport, the Barbadian leader said he expected a strengthening of bilateral relations with Cuba and announced he is accompanied by Barbadian business people interested in promoting ties with their Cuban peers.

"For our Government, relations with Cuba are special," he stressed.

The visiting delegation also includes Barbadian Foreign Minister Maxine Pamela McClean, among other officials.

Prime Minister Thompson's agenda until next Wednesday includes meetings with Cuba authorities and visits to places of economic and social interest.

This is Thompson's fourth visit to Cuba. He recently attended the 3rd Cuba-CARICOM Summit held in Cuba in December 2008.

(En Cuba Primer Ministro de Barbados)

Cuban Vice President Received by South Africa's New President

HAVANA, Cuba. South African President Jacob Zuma met with visiting Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo on Sunday.

According to Granma daily, the fourth South African President after the Apartheid's defeat was accompanied by former Foreign Minister and present Interior Minister Nkosazana Zuma.

Lazo conveyed greetings from Cuban President Raul Castro and from the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and presented Jacob Zuma with a message from Raul congratulating him for the victory of the African National Congress (ANC) and his election as President of the South African nation.

Lazo also thanked South Africa for its support of Cuba in the struggle against Washington's economic blockade and its solidarity after the devastation caused successive hurricanes last year.

For his part, Zuma thanked the Cuban delegation for their participation in his inauguration. "The ceremony would not have been complete without Cuba's presence," said Zuma.

"Cubans have always proved that their friendship is authentic and that we can count on them 100 percent," stressed the South African president. He also sent greetings to Fidel and Raul and expressed his interest in strengthening relations between the two nations.

During the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, Esteban Lazo met with several leaders attending the event. The Cuban vice president met andexchanged greetings with a group of heads of state and government and personalities from Angola, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Lazo also met with King Letsie III of Lesotho and with Namibian President Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba. He had earlier held meetings with the vicepresident of Iran, with the president of the Commission of the AfricanUnion and with former South African President Thabo Mbeki.

(Presidente electo de Sudáfrica recibe a Esteban Lazo)

The struggle has barely begun

GOVERNMENTS might change, but the instruments with which they converted us into colonies are still the same.

For one president in the United States with a sense of ethics, in the last 28 years we have had three who committed genocides and a fourth who internationalized the blockade.

The OAS was the instrument of those crimes. Only its costly bureaucratic apparatus takes the IACHR agreements seriously. Our nation was the last of the Spanish colonies after four centuries of occupation and the first to liberate itself from the dominion of the United States after more than six decades.

"Freedom comes at a very high price, and it is necessary either to live without it or to decide to buy it at its price", the Apostle of our Independence taught us.

Cuba respects the opinions of governments of the sister nations of Latin America and the Caribbean who think differently, but it does not wish to be part of this institution.

Daniel Ortega, who gave a valiant and historic speech in Port of Spain, explained to the Cuban people that the independent nations of Africa did not invite the former colonial powers of Europe to be part of African Unity. It is a position worthy of being taken into account.

The OAS did not prevent Reagan from unleashing the dirty war against his [Ortega’s] people, mining their ports, resorting to drug trafficking in order to acquire weapons of war, with which he financed the death, maiming, or serious wounding of tens of thousands of young people in a country as small as Nicaragua.

What did the OAS do to protect that country? What did it do to prevent the invasion of the Dominican Republic, the hundreds of thousands of people murdered or disappeared in Guatemala, the air attacks, the assassination of prominent religious figures, the mass repression of the people, the invasions in Granada and Panama, the coup d’état in Chile, the torture and disappearances there, in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and other places? Did it ever accuse the United States? What is its historic evaluation of these events?

Yesterday, Saturday, Granma published what I wrote on the IACHR anti-Cuba agreement. Afterward, I felt a curiosity to discover the one it had adopted against Venezuela. It was more or less the same garabage.

The Bolivarian Revolution’s accession to power was different from that of Cuba. In our country, the political process had been abruptly interrupted by a cunning military coup promoted by the U.S. government on March 10, 1952, just a few weeks before the general elections that should have taken place on June 1 of that year. In Cuba, once again, the people had no other option but to resign themselves to the situation. The Cuban people fought again, on this occasion the outcome was very different. Almost seven years later, the Revolution emerged victorious for the first time in history.

With a minimum of weaponry - more than 90% of which was seized from the enemy during 25 months of war backed by the people - and in the final offensive a revolutionary general strike, the revolutionary combatants trounced the dictatorship and took control of all its weapons and centers of power. The victorious Revolution became the source of law as in any other historical era.

That was not the case in Venezuela. Chávez, a revolutionary soldier like others in our hemisphere, came to power under the rules of the established bourgeois constitution, as leader of the 5th Republic Movement allied with other left-wing forces. The Revolution and its instruments were yet to be created. If the military uprising led by him had triumphed, the Revolution in Venezuela would possibly have taken another course. However, he abided by the established legal regulations already within his reach as the principal course of struggle. He developed the habit of consulting the public as often as was necessary.

He submitted the new constitution to a popular referendum. It was not long before he became aware of the methods of imperialism and its allies in the oligarchy to recoup and hold on to power.

The coup d’état on April 11, 2002 was the counterrevolution’s response.

The people reacted and brought him once again to power when, isolated and incommunicado, he was on the point of being eliminated by the right, who were forcing him to sign his resignation.

He did not submit; he resisted until the Venezuelan marines themselves freed him and Air Force helicopters took him back to Miraflores Palace, which had been occupied by the people and the army in Fuerte (Fort) Tiuna, who rose up against the senior officers perpetrating the coup.

At the time, I thought that his politics would become more radical; however, concerned over unity and peace, at the moment of his greatest strength and support, he was generous and conversed with his adversaries, seeking their cooperation.

The response to that attitude by imperialism and its accomplices was the oil industry coup. Perhaps one of the most brilliant battles he fought during that period was the one to supply fuel to the people of Venezuela.

We had spoken many times since he visited Cuba in 1994 and spoke at the University of Havana.

He was a genuinely revolutionary man, but as he gained awareness of the injustice rampant in Venezuelan society his thinking became more profound, until he arrived at the conviction that Venezuela had no alternative other than radical and total change.

He knows the most minuscule details of the ideas of the Liberator [Simón Bolívar], whom he profoundly admires.

His adversaries know that it is not easy to win when faced with the tenacity of a man who does not rest for a minute. They could opt to take his life, but both internal and external enemies know what that would mean for their interests. Irrational lunatics and fanatics may exist, but neither leaders, the peoples, nor humanity itself are exempt from such dangers.

Thinking objectively, Chávez today is a formidable adversary of the capitalist system of production and imperialism. He has become a veritable expert on many fundamental problems within human society. I have seen him in the last few days, while he was opening dozens of healthcare facilities. He is impressive. He forcefully criticizes what was occurring with vital services such as hemodialysis, which were in the hands of private centers paid by the state. Poor people were condemned to die if they did not have the money available. This also happened with many other services; today, they are available at new facilities that have been fitted out with state of the art equipment.

He masterfully handles even the smallest details of national production and social services. He dominates the theory and practice of socialism that his country requires, and he strives for his most profound convictions. He defines capitalism as it is: he does not paint caricatures, he demonstrates X-rays and images of the system.

It is about a peculiar and odious ensemble of exploitation of forms of human labor: unjust, unequal and arbitrary. He does not just talk about the workers, he shows them on television producing with their own hands, demonstrating their energy, their knowledge, their intelligence, creating essential goods or services for human beings: he asks them about their children, their families, wives or husbands, close relatives, where they live, what they are studying, what they are doing to improve themselves, their ages, wages, future retirement, the grotesque lies about property circulated by the imperialists and capitalists. He shows hospitals, schools, factories, boys and girls, he offers details on factories that are being built in Venezuela, mechanisms, employment growth figures, natural resources, designs, maps and news about the latest discovery of natural gas. The most recent measure adopted by Congress: the law nationalizing the 60 key companies lending their services every year to PDVSA, the state oil company, to the tune of more than $8 billion dollars. They were not private property but created by neoliberal governments of Venezuela with resources that belonged to PDVSA.

I had never seen an idea so clearly transformed into images and broadcast on television. Chávez not only possess a special talent for capturing and transmitting the essence of processes; he accompanies that with a privileged memory; it would be difficult for him to forget a word, a phrase, a verse, a musical intonation; he combines words that express new concepts. He speaks of a socialism that seeks justice and equality; "while cultural colonialism continues to live in people’s minds, the old will never die and the new will never be born." He combines eloquent verses and phrases in articles and letters. Most of all, he has demonstrated that he is the political leader in Venezuela capable of creating a party, incessantly transmitting revolutionary ideas to his followers and politically educating them.

Above all, I observed all the faces of the captains and other crew members of the ships of the nationalized companies; their words reflect an inner pride, gratitude for the recognition, security in the future; the faces of jubilant young economy students who name him "godfather of the promotion" at the point of finishing their university studies, when he tells them more than 400 of them are needed to move to Argentina, who must be ready to work in the management of the 200 new factories of the program agreed with that country, where they will be dispatched when their course ends to be trained in production processes.

Ramonet was with him; he was amazed at Chávez’ work. When, about eight years ago, we initiated our revolutionary cooperation with Venezuela, he was in the Palace of the Revolution, asking me hundreds of questions. The writer knows about the issue and was racking his brains trying to guess what would replace the capitalist system of production. The Venezuelan experience will surely be filling him with astonishment. I have been witness to a unique effort in that direction.

It is a battle of ideas lost beforehand by the adversary, which has nothing to offer humanity.

No wonder the OAS is hypocritically trying to present him as an enemy of freedom of expression and democracy. Almost half a century has gone by since those chipped and hypocritical weapons came up against the steadfastness of the Cuban people. Today, Venezuela is not alone and it has the experience of 200 years of exceptional patriotic history on its side.

It is a struggle that has barely begun in our hemisphere.

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 10, 2009

1:36 p.m.

People from Camagüey and the production of milk

Camagüey, with 90 million committed liters of milk for the 2009 and a very near figure average to that volume in the last years, is without doubts a power in the production of the food, given the real conditions of Cuba starting from the call Special Period.

Examples have more than enough of results, of experience and of rigor in that science mixture and art that becomes those that the experts know as "cattle culture" that is nurtured of the technology and of the accumulated knowledge of those men that consecrate their life to fight with the animals and against setbacks of all type, included the materials, the meteorological ones and those that are classified as "subjective."

Can make an appointment, without being anecdotic neither selective, basic units as the "Homeland or Death" and "The Peace" that take more than one decade surrendering above a million liters; the Cooperatives of Agricultural Production "Martyrs of Cascorro" and "Jesus Suárez Gayol" that also exhibit that mark in more than an opportunity, or the most recent in achieving it as that of Credits and Services "Niceto Pérez" that intends to complete the two millions this year.

And everything it with difficulties, with wire lack, with droughts, hurricanes or torrential cloudbursts, with mire until the knees, a torrid heat or a cold that it shrinks to the most weatherbeaten. With lack of ropes, boots, cántaras, cubes, machetes and files, that knows it (and it suffers it in flesh and blood) a lot of people.

Then what does limits us beyond the objective thing? Why in the county 34 units do only intend the million for the 20l2 or before? Which is it the reason that some communities have left that group of advanced, when a single cattleman surpassed in the 2008 the 200 000 liters and in the current one 2009 do determine to complete the 300 000?

We return then to the key element: the human being, that that doesn't repair in obstacles that doesn't have festival days neither Sundays that watches over the smallest marabout bud to pull up it and that by force of arms it conquers day by day in the combat against the thorny plant; the same one that calls for their name to each cow or calf, and worries when an animal limps, or
walks sad. That that continues with rigorous punctuality the hour of the I milk and seed in advance the cane and the king grass for the bad months.

There is a long list of factors that determine in the production milkmaid: the genetic quality of the flock, starting from the artificial insemination, the resources like the one thinks specialized, the wire for pastizals, the materials to build good dairy houses or the unavoidable and inevitable repair of the roads: but the man should assume with responsibility what corresponds him, as the application of twice as much I milk, the forage reservation for the drought, and the sistematicity in the attention to the animals. For it are not necessary big investments, only to put in the palaestra that that yes decides, and that calls himself will.(Ernesto Pantaleón Medina )

Gran Hotel, a jewel of Camagüey

Camagüey. The Gran Hotel, located in the heart of the Historical Center of this city, constitutes a jewel of the hotelery not only of Camagüey but also of all Cuba for its architectural configuration, interior beauty and a highly professional personnel.

Hardly some hours ago the installation, belonging to the Blue Island Chain, received to turoperators of 13 nations and the Secretary of Tourism, Manuel Marrero Cruz who were pleasurably impressed of the comfort of the installation and of all the conditions created for a pleasant stay of the strange tourists.

Aracel Proenza, director of the hotel unit, announced that next May 20 that center up to the 70 years of having been founded and with a process of constructive intervention that included the restoration and capital repair of the area of the pool and of the 72 rooms.

Added the execution of restoration works and atmosphere of the environment of the restaurant and other works that offer a new set image and decorated with thematic cultural and traditional in the rooms.

From the mirador of the Hotel it is feasible to observe a good part of this city, had born almost for 500 years and inhabited for more than 300 thousand people, proud of knowing that it leaves of it Historical Center Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity was declared by the UNESCO from July of the year 2008.(Enrique Atiénzar Rivero )

Authors of Camagüey donate artistic ceramic murals

Camagüey may 11. - The topic of the colonial architecture, in this city, prevails in the artistic 17 ceramic murals that authors of Camagüey donated for its permanent location in area of use public in the town.

Members of the provincial branch of the Cuban Association of Artisans Artists (ACAA) carried out the works, exposed at the moment in one of the sidewalks of the Square of the Workers, located in the Humanity's area declared Cultural Patrimony.

The sample figures in the colateral program of the IV Party of Mud and Fire, signal until the next one 12, and contest of the ACAA in the one which almost 70 authors materialize their pieces before the public, in an equally bordering sector with the square.

The context of figurations overcomes as for quantity to that of the abstractions in the murals, colored some in cold and the other ones enameled in the cooking process.

In the thematic of the old urban environment the singularest creation was achieved by Pedro Valdivia, with an a series of properties lines us in the high relief and similar to earthenjar, the emblem of the use of the mud in the today county of Camagüey.

Outside of the references to that content, the work of more attractiveness corresponds Frank Ramírez and Annia Pérez who offer by means of reliefs policromads a panoramic of becoming historical of the Island from before the arrival of the Europeans until the contemporaneity.

Dedicated to the International Fair of Tourism FITCuba 2009, the one mentioned competition also includes among their additional activities a cycle of conferences, and it will conclude with the premiation in four competitive categories.

Camagüey occupies in the country one of the main positions in the employment of the clay with utilitarian and artistic ends from the before Columbus time, and that tradition has a wide diversity of lines like vessels, chinas, ornaments and construction materials presently.

The elaboration of big earthenjars figures among the lines of the referred productive nucleus whose bigger concentration resides in the outlying neighborhood of San Miguelito, in the capital of Camagüey. (Adolfo Silva Silva).

Agramonte grows as a hard stone

Camagüey. Lips, paws and machetes against a máuseres square. The bullet to the mambí, the bayonet to the beast and the bleeding cuts amid a bugle touch that incites to the degüello.

The war was much crueller of the imaginable thing and of her the Homeland of heroes was populated, sometimes more humanized by the history and other wrapped up ones in legends of paladins.

Ignacio Agramonte`s life, as well as his death, lock in a hearth the admirable hero's qualities, of the lover husband and of the unyielding boss.

Gallant, shaft shyster and talented swordsman of unbeaten bereavements, left behind the books of the French Revolution and the afternoons with Amalia Simoni to become sublime military strategist.

But in Agramonte it is necessary to see the man that evolved in the war, the one that, without stopping to be impetuous and to differ with other generals and until with the President of the Republic of Cuba in Weapons, maintained the Flag of the Red Triangle on high in crisis moments.

To the hesitations he opposed himself in the Whereabouts of the Mines, and with shame he saved to the Revolution when his same leggings hid the frayed pant; it also radicalized his thought even supporting the capture of his small family. To him and the temper that it infused to his chivalry is owed the glorious Rescue of Sanguily.

He was feared and he was loved. With hefty hand he tried to his troops, maintained in the forests shops of war and his centaurs crossed streams like the weapon more feared by the colonial power; however, it is exposed too much, as his idolized wife.

The death could be casual, and although dozens of versions narrate the fact, the later one burns of its cadaver it still took more glorious halo to its existence and he opened parenthesis to the investigations.

In an important intent to tie countless loose ends, a group of historians and military experts took out to the light the title “Ignacio Agramonte and the Combat of Jimaguayú”, of the editorial Social Sciences, in which the real dimension of the combative action is demonstrated.

Today multiple details can be known thanks to the documental evidences, and truly that passage was not so simple. With the mission of avenging the lieutenant's colonel death Leonardo Abril after the defeat of the Coca plantation of the Olympus, José Rodríguez León, of same hierarchy that the previous one, didn't allow that his chivalry fell in the trap of pursuing the Cubans.

According to Ramón Roa, El Mayor only wanted a skirmish and would be seen the troops again in the Guayabo, but everything seemed to indicate that it was his decision to direct the combat and not to participate directly.

Henry Reeve undertook it against the mounted guerillas fighters, but its impulse was braked by the fire, and in the left, the infantry villareña neither was able to pass to the offensive. The combat was prolonged with the action of several companies, and then he decided to go to the herdsman's center where the abundant guinea grass and streams hid to marksmen of 6ta o'clock. Company. There, a bullet reaped the life, and its wallet and pictures accused later hours its identity. Among the Cubans it reigned the confusion, the grief and the bewilderment in the face of the absence after the retreat of the scenario.

“There was not anything mysterious, catastrophe neither twisted in the biggest General Ignacio Agramonte`s death (…) The chance in the war is as present as the necessity”, according to the recent compilation.

May 25 had bosses' meeting in Victoria of The Tunas, and it is necessary to wonder if the Big Guerra had finished in the same way with an Agramonte invader together with Gómez. Those “there was” they don't exist and El mayor was one alone and he died today ago in Jimaguayú 136 years.

Fortunately the Generalissimo was able to use with effectiveness the instrument that he left well tuned: the chivalry.

As the missing minstrel wrote Miguel Escalona in 1972: “This death is not yours, bigger (…) because there is not death that rides. Because there is not alive chest that descends. Because there is not body that transcends of the wound. Because there is not death that he leaves us with the life.”(Oreidis Pimentel Pérez )

Cuba and Italy Tie in Boxing Match

HAVANA, Cuba. Cuba and Italy tied their boxing match five victories per side and one draw in Milan, a show attended by almost 3000 people.

The Italian boxing federation website, thoug it didn’t published the ndividual scores, reported that the Cubans boxers that won were Olympic silver medallist Carlos Banteur (69) and bronze medallist Rosniel Iglesias (64).

Bantear beat Alessandro Marziali, while Iglesias did the same to Renato de Donato, shortly after Cuban champion Ivan Oñate (57) won over Alessio Di Savino.

The other Cubans that won were Youth World Champions Rey Eduardo Recio (75) and José Larduet (81), over Luca Podda and Gianluca Rociglione, respectively.

The draw was in the bout between Beijing’s runner-up Yankiel León (54) and Vittorio Parrinello, who had lost to the Cuban at the finals in the Klichko Cup in Ukraine.

The best Italian boxers, Olympic champion super heavyweight Roberto Cammarelle, and silver and bronze medallist Clemente Russo (91) and Vicenzo Picardi (51), won easily their matches.

Cammarelle gave a knock-out in the first to Robert Alfonso, while Russo beat Osmay Acosta and Picardi won over Yampier Hernadez.

World champion Domenico Valentino beat Idel Torriente and Alfonso Pinto followed his steps in his match against Daniel Matellón.

On Saturday both squads will cross gloves again, this time in Modena.

(Igualan Cuba e Italia en tope boxístico)

Cuba and Suriname Sign New Cooperation Agreements

HAVANA, Cuba. The Fourth Cuba-Suriname Intergovernmental Commission concluded in Havana with the signing of several accords in healthcare, social welfare and agriculture.

The agreements signed also include the framework for cooperation in high school and higher education,and sports.

Surinamese Vice Foreign Minister Aarland Nanhu and Cuban Vice Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment Orlando Requeijo Gual signed the agreements.

The Surinamese official expressed her satisfaction regarding the fruitful relations between the two countries and highlighted the importance of the agreements signed. She also extended an invitation to her Cuban counterpart to the next session of these meeting to be held in Paramaribo in 2010.

(Cuba y Surinam firman nuevos acuerdos de colaboración)

Cuba and Viet Nam Strengthen Commercial Bonds

HAVANA, Cuba. Cuba and Vietnam signed in this capital an agreement that allows the Caribbean nation to acquire 5,120,000 polypropylene bags to pack sugar.

At the presentation of a Vietnamese commercial mission, made up of 12 major companies, represented through a subsidiary in Cuba of Nhat Trang Trade and Tourism Company LTD, officials with Cuban MAPRINTER and the Vietnamese entity signed the contract, which will strengthen the bilateral relations.

The Asian company also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ARTEX, Cuba’s Ministry of Culture commercial company, in order to send to the Asian country music and dance groups to boost then Caribbean cultural presence in that region.

Vu Chi Cong, Viet Nam´s Ambassador to Cuba, highlighted the role Nhat Trang has played in the boosting of the commercial relations between the two nations.

The Ambassador underscored that this company, founded in 2001, has commercialized electric appliances, furniture, textiles, shoes, foods and other products; and it is currently promoting the entering of other Vietnamese companies in the Cuban market, aimed to invest in vital sectors of the Caribbean country’s economy.

In 2008, Nhat Trang’s subsidiary in Havana, billed for over two and a half million dollars, and for the current year has signed contracts in excess of 31,300,000 dollars, according to information divulged in this meeting.

(Cuba y Viet Nam refuerzan nexos comerciales)

Cuban Magazine Receives International Certification

Bayamo, Cuba. The digital magazine Roca, from the Blas Roca Calderio Higher Pedagogical Institute in the province of Granma, received a numeric code identifyin its serial publications around the world.

ISSN, International Standard Serial Number, is a unique certification made up of 8 digits that identify certain magazines without taking in consideration origin, place of reference or similarities with other publications.

Yamisla Rodrguez Mesa, president of the Rocas Editorial Council, told ACN news agency that since its foundation on November 15, 2004, the magazine has strived to acheive high quality in their works in order to obtain this certificate, granted on April 27 with the denomination ISSN
2074-0735.

Rodriguez said that the code gives the publication international prestige and increased distribution.

Roca comes out once every three months publishing the latest academic and scientific advances of the institute in the sphere of education.

The webstie, www.ispgrm.rimed.cu, features five sections on diverse topics, such as Bibliotecology and Information Sciences, Environmental Education and the writings of Jose Marti.

This code is granted by the ISSN International Center, based in Paris.

(Revista cubana obtiene certificacin internacional)

South African Presdent Receives Cuban Vice President

HAVANA, Cuba. South African President Kgalema Motlanthe met on Friday with Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo at the presidential presidence in Pretoria, immediately after Lazo arrived to Johannesburg from Botswana.

President Motlanthe, also the vice president of the African National Congress (ANC), noted with pride the special fraternal relations between uba and his country, “for the significant contribution of Cubans to African independence and the struggle against Apartheid,” reported Granma
newspaper.

Lazo congratulated the ANC for its recent electoral victory saying that undoubtedly shows the confidence that the South African people have in the organization. He said it was further motivation to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the establishing of diplomatic relations between the two countries to take place on May 11.

On Saturday, the Cuban delegation headed by Lazo will attend the inauguration ceremony of the new South African President.

The Cuban delegation came from concluding an official visit to Botswana, where the Lazo met with President Seretse Khama Ian Khama, who thanked Cuba for its contribution to his country's development in healthcare, education and sports. The Botswanan president reaffirmed his interest in consolidating bilateral relations and widening exchanges in tourism,
cattle raising, agriculture and mining.

(Presidente de Sudfrica recibe a Esteban Lazo)

Work of Cuban Health Institution Acknowledged by UN

HAVANA, Cuba. The Cuban Research Center on Longevity, Aging and Health (CITED) was given on Thursday the status of Collaborator of the Pan-American and World Health organizations (PAHO-WHO)

PAHO-WHO Regional Advisor for Aging and Health, Enrique Vega, noted that with the incorporation of this Cuban institution, a total of seven such distinctions have been granted in the Americas.

Dr. Vega underlined the leadership, capacity and ability of CITED, a center founded on May 7, 1992, by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, another example of his forward vision.

CITED is a reference center for the training of human resources, and excelling among its achievements are the improved quality of its services, the creation of protocols and practical guide books for the attention of the elderly, and the development of geriatric surgery.

Regarding the implications of the health of the aging population —a world phenomenon—, Vega insisted in that public health systems should increase their awareness of the needs of this age group, with respect to healthcare, social security and other benefits.

The 17th International Seminar on the Attention of the Elderly, in which Cuban and foreign experts debated how to encourage active aging, was held on May 7-8, coinciding with the 17th anniversary of CITED.

In Cuba, life expectancy is almost 78 years. The figure of Cubans over 60 years of age is now near two million people, representing 17 percent of the population.

(Reconoce Naciones Unidas a institución cubana de salud)

International Museum Day to be Celebrated in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba. Cuban museums will open their doors free of charge for visitors on May 17, the day before the celebration of festivities for World Museum Day.

Activities to mark the date will include meetings with founders and tributes to historians and local chroniclers.

Added to these collateral activities organized by the National Council of Cultural Heritage are the workshop “History and Reality of Museums”, with themes such as The Triumph of the Cuban revolution and the Implementation of Museum Policy, Cubasí web site reports.

In 1977, the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) established May 18 as International Museum Day.

Since then, the International Council of Museums selects a theme or message each year inviting to reflect on the role of these institutions in society.

On this occasion, the theme is Museum and Tourism, as a way to promote encounters between different cultures.

Invitations to museums in Cuba are almost permanent, especially in the summer, where the project Rutas y Andares offers family tours of different spots in Old Havana, organized by the Office of the City Historian.


(Festejarán Día internacional de los museos en Cuba)

New Program to Train Doctors in Tanzania

HAVANA, Cuba. Officials from the Cuban embassy in Tanzania said a new program to train doctors on the insular territory of Zanzibar is underway and that there are excellent perspectives for its development.

A working visit made to that territory of the United Republic of Tanzania by Counselor Dionisio Molina and Second Secretary Miriam Viamontes verified the high academic level of Cuban professors and the interest shown by the 39 young people in Zanzíbar toward their studies.

The tour ended with a visit to the remote island of Pemba in the Indian Ocean, where nine Cuban health professionals are offering their services and are now making preparations to have the new doctor training program ready with an initial enrolment of 15 students.

The medical cooperation provided by Cuba is unprecedented in the impoverished island of Pemba, the local authorities told the visiting diplomats, the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s web site reports.

Similar perspectives are opened in the continental territory of Tanzania, where the introduction of a program to train health professionals advances.

At present, 26 Cuban volunteer workers are offering their services in Tanzania, where special emphasis has been made in the training of human resources, as a way to support the effort of the African nation to satisfy the demands of its population in the sphere of public health
services.

(En Tanzania Nuevo Programa de Formación de Médicos)