CUBA TRAVEL U.S.

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Cubanews is written for Americans who travel to Cuba and want to know or read about what is happening in Cuba.  We select and write articles that we think will interest you the most.  We happen to believe that today the American news media is little more than organizations owned by rich guys and manufacturers of war equipment marching in lock-step with the American politicians they helped put into public office.  All the more reason to read Cubanews for the stories many in our government and the media don't want you to hear.

You can subscribe to the written version of Cubanews for $50 per year or $250 for a lifetime subscription.

15 more votes will make travel to Cuba veto proof

U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Union City, is part of a group that will introduce legislation in the next week to open up travel to communist Cuba, he said. Calling the U.S. ban on travel "embarrassing," the West Tennessee congressman said every time an attempt is made to lift a travel ban, there are more votes. "There were 262 votes last time; 287 is veto-proof. There are 65 or 70 votes in the Senate to do something different in Cuba," he said. Tanner returned from a five-day trip to Cuba, including a four-hour meeting with leader Fidel Castro. Tanner was one of eight lawmakers making the trip as members of the Cuba Working Group, which is pushing for changes in American policy toward Cuba. The group has an equal number of Republicans and Democrats in its membership. Tanner's interest in opening up Cuba for travel and trade stems from looking out for the agribusiness community in his 8th Congressional District, he said. State-run companies already are purchasing soybeans, tobacco, corn and cotton from Tennessee farmers, Tanner said. "What we're trying to do is expand the list of goods and commodities that can be exported into Cuba. They need equipment, (like that made by) International Harvester, tractors, bulldozers. The infrastructure's not good. We need another market to export to," he said. Tanner described Castro, who's been in power since 1959, as "very engaging, showing his age (76) physically and his mind is sharp." The Cuban leader is trying to find "hard currency" that he no longer gets from the Soviet Union, Tanner said. "The Canadians and Europeans are down there with joint ventures galore. We're sitting here penalizing ourselves," he said. Tanner told how the group was having coffee in a cafe and struck up a conversation with a native. The Cuban said before Castro, under the Fulgencio Batista government, Cubans had no education, medicine, jobs or housing. "We've got all of that under Castro, but nowhere to go or nothing to do," Tanner recalled the Cuban saying. What this particular Cuban and others want are tourists, the congressman said. Tanner said he considers it "wrong" for the American government to tell Americans they can't go to Cuba. "I'm going as long as the Cubans will let me in and out," he said. Tanner has been in Congress since 1988. He's a member of the Ways and Means Committee and its subcommittees on trade and select revenue measures.

Cuba says more than 100,000 Americans visited last year illegally

Town hall Meeting between US Congress and the Cuban People

American lawmakers propose a town hall meeting with U.S. Congress members in Cuba

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Mon Mar 10, 3:23 PM ET

HAVANA - Eight American lawmakers working to change U.S. policy toward Cuba said Monday they would ask the communist government to let as many as 25 members of Congress conduct a town hall meeting with the Cuban people later this year.

"It would be a demonstration of American democracy," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass.

Ideally, Delahunt said, the town hall meeting would be broadcast live on Cuban television and radio — just as was a speech by former President Jimmy Carter last year.

"It is time to forget the rancor, the bitterness of the past," Delahunt said at a news conference. He called for "civil and respectful discourse" between the two nations.

Cuban authorities gave no immediate indication whether they would support the proposal.

During his visit to Cuba last May, Carter spoke to the Cuban people in a live, uncensored broadcast, revealing to them the existence of a grass roots campaign to guarantee civil liberties on the Caribbean island.

While calling on America to drop its embargo, Carter also called on Cuba to make democratic reforms.

Members of the congressional delegation said they would formally submit their proposal to Fidel Castro's government before returning to the United States on Tuesday.

Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said the delegation would submit new legislation next week calling for an end to restrictions that effectively bar most Americans from visiting Cuba. The bill would be co-sponsored by 50 lawmakers, half of them Democrats and half of them Republics, he said.

"We believe that the embargo, and the travel ban in particular, is a sanction not on Cuba, but on Americans," Flake said.

The group of lawmakers arrived in Cuba on Friday for a five-day trip aimed at better understanding the island's politics and economy.

All eight lawmakers belong to the Cuba Working Group, which is pushing for an end to travel restrictions for U.S. citizens and an easing of four decades of trade sanctions.

Both organizers and Cuban officials described the group as the largest delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit communist Cuba.

In addition to Delahunt and Flake, the group included Democratic Reps. John Tanner of Tennessee, Nita Lowey of New York, and Dennis Moore of Kansas. Also in the delegation were Republican Reps. Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Dennis Rehberg of Montana and C.L. "Butch" Otter of Idaho.

The group was organized by the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., policy group that promotes U.S.-Cuban dialogue.

Bush has included Cuba in his "Axis of Evil"

George W Bush has pretty much created a nightmare for himself.  In his State of the Union message last year, he included Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Cuba in what he called the "Axis of Evil".  Many in the media are either "stupid" or they are trying to cover up this insanity coming from the Bush Administration.  They seem to want to insist that the Axis of Evil, includes only Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

So what will happen if Bush invades Iraq?  I frankly have seen no "hard evidence" that Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction.  Neither have the weapons inspectors.  But the Bush Administration is on course to invade around the middle of this month (March), with or without the support of the United Nations.  If they succeed, then don't be surprised to see an invasion of Iran next fall and then Libya next spring.  In my opinion, they will not invade the one million man army of North Korea until after the elections of November 2004.  Watch for a pullback of the 37,000 American troops along the DMZ and the a nuclear attack to finish off the North Korean Army.  That is my opinion!

So where does Cuba, Russia and China fit in?

In my opinion, if things don't go well with these wars and the economy continues to decline leading to Bush going down in the polls and being in danger of not being re-elected....watch for an October surprise,  about Halloween night right before the early November elections.  Americans always rally around our presidents when we are at war.  Yes, I am saying an attack to take out Fidel Castro, with some US government invented excuse.  In reality, almost everything we are told about Cuba is an "outright lie".

Bush may also try to take out Russia and China if there is a second Bush administration.  He has already stated we will be at war for many years to come.  Remember that this man (Bush) has only a 91 IQ, the lowest in the history of our presidents.  14 points below the average high school graduate.

So, Americans who care about Cuba, Russia and China, need to begin right now to make sure this does not happen.

George W. Bush
Must Answer to the People
Vote To Impeach!

I have just returned from Cuba where I observed the following:

The life for the average Cuban has improved in recent times.  How?  It appears to me that lots of Cubans are now gaining weight.  That means more food is available.  Why?  Food in the amount of at least $250 million has been purchased from the United States.  Additionally, Cuba has taken a lot of their land out of sugar cane production and is in the process of converting it to other types of food such as tomatoes, cucumbers, malanga, citrus fruits, and just about any other product that they can make grow in their climate.

On the other hand, there still is not enough beef, pork, fish or chicken.

Blackouts are not so normal now.  In the past there was a Cuban joke that when an aircraft flew over Cuba it looked like Christmas, because there were flashing lights constantly resembling the flashing lights one might see here at Christmas time.  The joke was that there were so many lights being turned off and on because of the blackouts that flying over Cuba reminded one of the flashing lights at Christmas time.

Things that have not changed....the Cuban people are as friendly as ever....among the nicest in the world.  Reports of a crackdown with regard to the working Cuban girls, seem to be false, as I have received reports that they are still ready and willing.  A number of American bachelor parties are still going to Cuba and loving it.  As a father of a beautiful daughter, I do not like it, but for now, it is helping many Cuban families get those almighty American dollars that helps them make purchases in the dollar stores of the necessities in life, such as toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, vitamins, sanitary napkins, paper, pens, envelopes, cooking oil, etc.

On the negative side, the Customs and Immigration people in Mexico have become jealous.  For example they are making it more difficult for Americans to return from Havana and not get their passports stamped.  Why?  While tourism in Cancun is way down right now for Spring break, it is way up in Cuba.  Tourism in Cuba was up about 35% in November, 40% in December and 33% in January.  No figures available yet for February, but all the hotels in Old Havana are already "sold out" for March and much of April.  In my opinion, the Mexicans are intentionally trying to make it difficult for Americans to travel to Cuba.  Americans might think of slipping some money into their passports (such as $10) to see if that won't get the Mexicans to not stamp your passport.  Bribery has always worked in Mexico.

The Cubans simply make it very clear that they will not stamp passports of Americans.

Upon my return to the United States in Dallas, I breezed thru US Customs and Immigration without even one little problem.  I even told them that I had been to Cuba.  The Immigration officer marked a big number one on my Customs and Immigration form and even circled it.  After I picked up my luggage and was turning in my form, the Customs man said, "Have you been to Cuba".  I said "yes".  He said are you bringing back any Cuban cigars?  I said "no, that I wasn't bringing anything back from Cuba" and he simply waived me on thru.

I have said before, many times, that is seems to me that it is up to each individual US Customs and Immigration officer to decide if he wants to give Americans a hard time or not.  In my case, I have been to Cuba about 160 times.  When the US Immigration officer punches my name in, that information obviously comes up on his computer screen.  That person then marks your customs form with a code.  In my case a circled number one.  Uncle Sam knows that I am perhaps known as the leader of the charge to restore the "freedom to travel" in this country.  So, what I am saying is that when the biggest thorn in their side, as well as a person who has given the Bush family "hell", passes thru unmolested....that is a good sign to me.  Of course that computer screen might also say, that Dan Snow, is known to make a scene right in front of dozens or maybe even hundreds of other Americans in that room about the lack of "freedom to travel" in this country...for that reason and the fact that many are unhappy with the way things are going in this country, some of those officers might choose not to give me a hard time right now.  They know that I welcome the challenge, just as I had challenged the Mexicans earlier in the day.  The Mexicans were doing their best to silence me....but it didn't work.  At least that is my opinion.

8 from US Congress arrived on March 7

Eight American lawmakers working to ease U.S. restrictions for trade with and travel to Cuba arrived here Friday for a five-day trip aimed at better understanding the island's politics and economy.

All of the lawmakers are members of the Cuba Working Group, which is pushing for changes in American policy toward the Caribbean island, including an end to travel restrictions for U.S. citizens and an easing of four decades of trade sanctions.

Both organizers and Cuban officials described the group as the largest single delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit communist Cuba.

The lawmakers include Republican U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake, of Arizona; Jo Ann Emerson, of Missouri; Dennis Rehberg, of Montana; and C.L. Otter, of Idaho.

Also in the delegation are Democratic U.S. Reps. John Tanner, of Tennessee; Nita Lowey, of New York; Dennis Moore, of Kansas; and William Delahunt, of Massachusetts.

Restrictions that prohibit most Americans from traveling to Cuba are "a violation of the rights of the citizens of the United States," said Philip Peters of Lexington Institute, the Arlington, Virginia, policy group that organized the trip.

"If Americans could come here freely, they would bring benefits to the island and its citizens," Peters said.

During their stay, the lawmakers are expected to meet both with Cuban officials and dissidents. They are returning to the United States on Tuesday.

Fidel Re-Elected to his 6th term in Cuba

Fidel Castro was elected to his sixth term on Thursday, March 6.  During his acceptance speech, he threatened to close down the US Interest Section in Havana.  Essentially, Castro is not happy with the new Chief, James Cason, and more or less believes them to be a nest of spies.

Castro is the longest ruling head of a government, acknowledged that he won't be around forever, but said, "I promise that I will be with you, if you wish, for as long as I feel that I can be useful---and if it is not decided by nature before.  At the end of this term he will be 81 years old.

Fidel visits China and Vietnam

PRESIDENT Fidel Castro paid official visits to Viet Nam and China, before and after (respectively) attending the 13th Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“I’m truly surprised, more than surprised, astonished at what the Vietnamese people have accomplished under the direction of their Party,” he affirmed shortly before beginning official talks with top Vietnamese leaders. 

The Cuban Revolution leader was officially welcomed by three of the Asian nations’ top leaders: Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of the Communist Party; Tran Duc Luong, president of the Republic; and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Before the official event, Fidel received the acclaim of the thousands of cheering people waving flags of both countries who filled the streets adjoining the presidential palace. 

During his stay, the Cuban President paid tribute to Vietnamese martyrs; visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum; and laid a floral tribute at the bust of José Martí, in a Hanoi park named after the Cuban national hero. 

The island’s delegation, including Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, Council of State members José M. Millar and Carlos Valenciaga, Communications and Informatics Minister Ignacio González Planas, World Economic Research Center director Osvaldo Martínez and Central Bank president Francisco Soberón, visited the Saidon-Hanel industrial zone, touring the Orion-Hanel electronics factory currently producing a million computers annually. 

Fidel thanked the company for their donation of 500 computers, valued at $372,000 USD. The machines are mainly destined for an inter-hospital network. 

He commented that Cuba would be willing to cooperate with the corporation — a joint enterprise with foreign capital earning a gross income of $30 million USD a year — and introduce its product onto the Latin American market.

Fidel also visited the Polytechnic University of Hanoi, where he spoke to more than 1,000 students and teachers. He pointed out that the world is currently going through an unsustainable and unbearable crisis. “This means we are getting closer to great changes. This powerful globalizing empire will not last as long as the Roman Empire,” he prophesized, stressing that Cuba and Viet Nam are demonstrating the phases of new society.   

TALKS WITH JIANG ZEMIN

In a fraternal and friendly atmosphere, Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin held official talks during the first day of the Cuban leader’s stay in Beijing. At the close of this edition, Fidel had arrived in the Asian country for a four-day visit. 

According to Prensa Latina, the Cuban leader will probably mmet with Hu Jintao, vice president and general secretary of the Communist Party; People’s national Assembly President Li Peng; Prime Minister Zhu Rongji; and Deputy Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. 

SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL AND CREDIT COOPERATION FOR $6 MILLION USD

At the end of discussions, the two leaders presided over a brief ceremony in which Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas and Chinese Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Minister Shi Guangsheng signed a scientific-technical cooperation agreement. 

Both ministers also signed an accord granting Cuba $6 million USD of interest free credit with a five year period of grace. 

At a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kong Quan confirmed that relations between Havana and Beijing have always been steady and both nations subscribe to understanding and mutual aid. According to the spokesperson, Cuban-Chinese relations have room for expansion and this visit had deepened mutual trust, allowing both leaders to carry out an in-depth dialogue on bilateral ties and increase economic and business cooperation, among other sectors.
 

All Hotels in Old Havana are "sold out" for March and most of April

That is the rumor that we are hearing.  Old Havana hotels are "sold out" for all of March and much of April.  Some hotels in other parts of Havana still have some rooms.  Many flights are also full.  If you want to go....better sign up now!

900 attend Havana Cigar Festival

Hundreds of Cigar Lovers Gather in Cuba

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Tue Feb 25, 1:41 PM ET

HAVANA - "Que rrrrrrrrrrrrrico!" the Tropicana nightclub singer trilled, strutting in plumed headdress and ruffled train through a cloud of cigar smoke as hundreds of tobacco aficionados paid homage this week to the world's finest stogies.

About 900 people traveled to Havana for the Fifth Annual Habanos Festival, which began Monday night at the city's historic Tropicana. The celebration includes visits to tobacco plantations and cigar factories, and meetings of collectors of cigar memorabilia.

The high point of the yearly gathering is the elegant cigar dinner and auction on Friday night. But President Fidel Castro, who has traditionally attended and helped auction off elaborate humidors stuffed with special cigars for tens of thousands of dollars, was not expected back in time from his current Asian tour.

A new event this year will be a fashion show of clothing created for the tobacco festival by Christian Dior and other international fashion houses.

The Habanos Festival comes as the island struggles to overcome damage to the industry caused by last year's pair of hurricanes in the tobacco-growing western province of Pinar del Rio.

It also comes as the communist-run government fights a growing business in counterfeit cigars. Although often made with stolen Cuban tobacco, the fake stogies carry falsified cigar rings and are packaged in fake boxes marked with well-known labels — Cohiba, Partagas, Romeo y Julieta. Customs officials here reported seizing about 720,000 cigars of dubious origin last year from departing travelers at airports.

Nevertheless, Habanos S.A., the Cuban cigar marketing firm, maintains that exports have not been significantly affected. While refusing to give exact numbers for cigars produced and exported last year, Jaime Garcia of Habanos S.A. told reporters recently that annual export income from cigars remained steady at about $240 million.

"We are expecting an increase" in 2003 export sales, Garcia said earlier this month during a news conference about the cigar festival. Habanos S.A. is a partnership of the Cuban government and the European firm Altadis to market the island's cigars worldwide.

Festival participants visited an exclusive cigar factory Tuesday in the western "El Laguito" section of the city where many of the country's foreign diplomats live.

"Making a cigar is an art," factory director Maria Emilia Tamayo Gonzalez told hundreds of visitors who filed past rows of tobacco workers fashioning the brown leaves into coveted Cohiba cigars.

"This factory has a very beautiful story because it was established by Comandante Fidel Castro with the idea of bringing women into the workplace," Tamayo said.

Factory workers said Castro exclusively smoked Cohibas from their shop before he gave up cigars years ago for health reasons.

Also Tuesday, a trade fair of tobacco-related products was opening at the city's Conventions Palace while the first of several seminars for tobacco experts was getting under way.

The festival's opening Monday night featured a dinner of lobster, beef, chicken and pork, served by candlelight and washed down by Spanish red wine.

Then came the world-famous show under the stars at the historic Tropicana amphitheater, highlighting statuesque women in body stockings accented with a few ruffles and bows.

Balancing towering headdresses dangled with beads and bangles, the sequined dancers pranced and pirouetted across the broad wooden stage as trumpets blared and Congo drums pounded. "Que rico!" — how rich! — one singer trilled.

"Ba-ba-LUUUUUU!" a middle-aged male singer in a glittering gold jacket and bow tie crooned from a platform high above the stage. "Ba-ba-LU, ay-EE!" he cried, invoking the Afro-Cuban deity Babalu Aye.

"Cuba is known for three things," orchestra leader Pachito Alonso, son of the late, great bandleader Pacho Alonso told the crowd. "Rum, tobacco — that's why you are here — and music! So get up and dance!"
 

US Senator criticizes Cuba policy

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA, 22 (AP) - North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad criticized Cuba's centralized economy and one-party rule Saturday and argued that ending U.S. travel and trade restrictions would bring positive change to Cuba.

"I am leaving with a strong feeling that this is an economic system that is not working as well as it should," the Democrat told an afternoon news conference. "It falls short."

As for communist Cuba's political system, "it is a one-party state that does not enjoy the freedoms and the democracy that has contributed to the United States' success," Conrad said.

But Conrad also criticized U.S. policy toward the Caribbean island nation.

While the United States is waging a war against terror, "I think it's unwise to continue a policy of hostility toward a country 90 miles off our shores," Conrad said.

Dropping restrictions on American travel to Cuba "is more likely to bring about political changes in this country than our current embargo policy."

Conrad has backed legislation to end long-standing restrictions that prevent most U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba and favors eliminating the four-decade old embargo preventing most American trade with Cuba.

One new exception to the embargo is a law allowing cash sales of U.S. farm goods to the island nation.

Conrad traveled to Cuba on Wednesday and was returning to the United States later Saturday.

Cuba accuses the United States of harboring terrorists

Cuban Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said his country "has never carried out, financed, tolerated or permitted a terrorist act, not even in self-defense."

And he said Cuba has been the target of violence and conspiracies by Cuban-exile groups based in the United States.

"Terrorism against Cuba continues to be carried out with absolute impunity from United States territory," he said.

The United States didn't speak at the meeting and U.S. diplomats declined to comment on the Cuban accusations.

Cuba now has 403 joint ventures worth $5.93 billion

Some 56 percent of foreign investments in Cuba come from the European Union (EU), according to a report by the Ministry of Foreign Investments and Economic Cooperation. The island's 403 international joint ventures with state-owned businesses have a total capital investment of $5.93 billion, principally in the tourism, biotechnology, basic industry, construction, food and agriculture. Figures published in the official weekly Granma International indicate that 20 percent of these ventures are based abroad. The report also notes that Spain has the greatest number of ventures in Cuba (105), followed by Canada (60), Italy (57), France (18), Britain (14), Mexico (13), China (12), Panama (10), Germany (9) and the Netherlands (8). According to the same report, preparations are underway to sign a financial cooperation agreement between EU and Cuba, the only Latin American country that has not signed such an agreement. Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Minister Marta Lomas said that in 2002, sales of goods and services approached $2 billion, and exports rose to more than $674 million. Most new joint ventures between foreign companies and the Cuban government were initiated in construction and basic industry.

 

White House axes an end to the embargo

Fidel:  Ideas are the most important resource for saving humanity

• IDEAS are the most important resource for saving humanity, affirmed President Fidel Castro in the Karl Marx Theater at the closing session of Pedagogy 2003, a congress that brought together in Havana more than 4,000 educators from 40 countries.

Fidel went on to say that ideas are an essential instrument in our species’ battle for its own salvation and that they are born of education. For that reasons the future development of education has huge political, social and human connotations.

The president added that as education is the element par excellence in the search for equality, well-being and social justice, one can thus understand better why he has described the current profound revolution taking place in the Cuban education in search of higher objectives through the transformation of society itself, one of whose fruits will be a general integrated culture extending to all citizens. "More than 100 programs have been designed to that end which, together with the Battle of Ideas, are moving ahead, and some of which have already become promising realities," he noted.

Wow!  Our borders are really secure.  YUK!

We should all be greatful to the Bush Administration for the great Homeland Security they are providing.  What a joke!  Four Cuban coast guardsmen defected Friday, docking their patrol boat at a Key West resort, walking into town and surrendering to a police officer, authorities said.

The men, dressed in their military uniforms, approached Officer Matt Dorgan at about 4 a.m. and told him they wanted to surrender, Key West police spokeswoman Cynthia Edwards said. One man had a Chinese handgun holstered to his side, which he allowed Dorgan to take.

Officers searching their boat docked at the Hyatt Marina Resort found two loaded AK-47 machine guns along with ammunition. The boat was still flying a Cuban flag.

"They were happy to be here and were compliant with all of our requests," said Officer Tara Koenig, a Spanish-speaking officer Dorgan called for assistance.

She said the men told her they had been on patrol about 1 a.m. when they decided to defect.

"My impression is that it was a last-minute decision," Koenig said. "They were patrolling, talking about living at the poverty line when they said 'You know what, the United States is only 90 miles that way.' So they set the heading on their boat, terminated communication with Cuba and headed straight here."

Edwards said the men were taken to the Monroe County jail, where they will be turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. An INS spokesman did not immediately return a call Friday.

Cubans who make it to U.S. soil are usually allowed to remain in the country, while those intercepted at sea are generally returned to Cuba.

The men's patrol boat has been turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard. A Coast Guard spokeswoman had no immediate comment and it could not be determined if the U.S. military had been tracking the men before they arrived at Key West.

No one answered the phone at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington on Friday morning.

From the Cuban newspaper (Granma)

Senators introduce legislation to end the Cuban Embargo

Finally, some good news for a change: two Senators have introduced a bill to end the embargo on Cuba! And more good news: You can make four quick-and-easy POSITIVE phone calls today that will help move the U.S. toward normalized relations with Cuba:

· Call to THANK Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Hagel for taking the lead on Cuba policy by sponsoring “win-win” legislation that is good for American farmers, businesses, and travelers, and good for Cuban citizens.

Senator Hagel (R-Nebraska): 202-224-4224 or 308-236-7602
Senator Baucus (D-Montana): 202-224-2651 or 406-657-6790

· Call your OWN Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the “United States-Cuba Trade Act of 2003.” You can reach your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121. Ask them to contact Timothy Punke (224-4677) with Senator Baucus or Dayna Cade (224-5804) with Senator Hagel.

Thanks -- we'll keep you posted as additional Senators join the legislation as co-sponsors!

Maybe Bush should admit to his own terrorist training centers in Florida

The White House might have announced that it was initiating a war on terrorism, but in its own backyard extremist groups Cubans and Venezuelans are plotting and receiving military training to attack their own countries of origin.

In their determination to bring down Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, the capos of the F-4 organization, who have admitted their involvement in acts of terrorism against Cuba, plus the so-called Venezuelan Patriotic Front — led by a coup officer from the Venezuelan army — have signed a "civil-military alliance", according to The Wall Street Journal.

The F-4 Commandos are led by 56-year-old Rodolfo Frómeta and the Patriotic Front by coup member Captain Luis Eduardo García, (aged 37). During last April’s failed coup d’état, he was one of the first military dissidents to attack the Caracas Presidential Palace in order to topple the South American country’s democratically elected president.

According to the daily, the two groups are committed to uniting their "combined military experience and exchanging espionage information" in their attempts to attack the legitimate authorities in Havana and Caracas.

García himself revealed that he is offering military training to 50 F-4 Commando members at a firing range located in the Everglades swamps; 30 of the recruits are Cuban-American and the rest are Miami-based radical dissidents.

Miami has become the refuge for a growing number of anti-Chávez extremists, in the midst of an exodus in which some 10,000 Venezuelans have gravitated to the city in the last three years.

"New arrivals" discover a well-established Cuban-American community whose most radical sectors are particularly enthusiastic allies in the fight against Chávez, notes the publication.

Castro on HBO in May 2003

Film director Oliver Stone takes on Castro

By Daniel A. Grech. Dgrech@herald.com. Posted on Tue, Jan. 28, 2003 in The Miami Herald.

PARK CITY, Utah - In the opening scene of the documentary Comandante, Oliver Stone asks Fidel Castro how he stays fit.

The dictator, wearing trademark green fatigues, walks to a corner of his office and faces the camera. Castro checks his pulse, then begins walking brisk laps around his book-lined office.

''I am like a prisoner,'' Castro says of his devotion to running communist Cuba, "and this is my cell.''

The irony of the comment, made by a man who has imprisoned dissenters throughout his four-decade reign, is suggested moments later when a hand-held digital camera closes in on Castro's shoes.

SNEAKER FAN

The leader of one of the world's last noncapitalist states wears Nikes.

This visual cue -- coupled later by a cameraman's roll of the eyes and Stone's quizzical look after Castro blusters, ''I am a dictator to myself, a slave to the people'' -- is a moment of skepticism in an otherwise sympathetic portrait of America's longest surviving antagonist.

It's not that Stone, the lightning-rod director of political dramas like JFK and Nixon and sociocultural commentaries like Natural Born Killers and Wall Street, doesn't ask the tough questions: on repression, on mortality, on nuclear war. And it's not that Castro refuses to answer.

''Evasions are in the eye of the beholder,'' Stone explained following Comandante's world premiere Jan. 18 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. "With Mr. Castro it is hard to say what is evasive and what's not. And his elusiveness is always charming.''

This charm is unambiguous throughout the 93-minute documentary, which airs on HBO in May and was culled from 30 hours of interviews over three days in February 2002.

The 76-year-old dictator, appearing trim and mentally agile, tosses off references to American culture and Stone's career while avoiding personal questions and evading political ones.

On watching the movie Titanic on video: ''I think it should be seen on the big screen.'' On President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the subject of JFK: ''I have never believed the theory of the lone gunman.'' On Stone's offer to smuggle Viagra into Cuba: "So you want to kill the enemy with a heart attack.''

'Fidel is magnetic and charismatic,'' Stone said. "He is a movie star.''

Comandante will not be shown in the Miami International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 21 to March 2. The festival's new director, Nicole Guillemet, said she learned of the film after she had already finished programming the documentary portion of the festival, which includes a documentary on Cuban rafters called Balseros.

Guillemet downplayed the cinematic importance of the Comandante, saying more than 70 films have featured Castro. Still, she recognized the film's potential to inflame the Cuban exile community and admitted it would have been a difficult movie to air in her first year as director.

''No one should go into any job to shock,'' Guillemet said. "You program for a community, not for yourself.''

A NEW LIGHT

Stone said he wants his audience, including exiles, to see Castro ''in a new light and as a person.'' The director's portrayal masterfully manipulates Castro's grace and wit for film, transforming a strong man and ideologue into a charming elder statesman.

Comandante jumps from extreme close-ups of Castro's hands, beard and shoes to wide-angle shots of the film crew that, as Stone explained, got ''rid of the fourth wall'' to "create an atmosphere where accidents are permitted.''

At one point, Stone, stuffed in the back seat of a government-issue Mercedes with Castro and his official translator, begins rooting through the car.

He finds a box of candies and a pistol. ''It's a good thing I didn't bring any secret papers with me,'' Castro says, marveling at Stone's audacity.

While nonconfrontational -- Stone is careful not to look Castro in the eyes -- Stone can be a dogged interviewer, cutting the long-winded dictator short and asking about the various political crises that have spotted his lengthy career.

''You want to know everything,'' Castro says. "It's difficult to escape his questions.''

Despite Castro's charm and Stone's solicitousness, Comandante has moments of real discovery.

''I have not spent much time with my children,'' Castro admits at a lavish dinner with a son and grandson. "Perhaps I am not a good father.''

While Stone said he plans to make the raw footage available to scholars, Stone's intention with Comandante is clearly to entertain. He makes no attempt to show the desperation and poverty of the Cuba presented in Balseros, which follows seven rafters as they escape Cuba and later, after five years in the United States. Balseros screens at the Miami film festival at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Gusman theater and will be shown on HBO in late 2003.

Instead, Stone dug for, and found, moments that delight and infuriate and, ultimately, rivet.

''One of the greatest benefits of the revolution,'' Stone induces Castro to say, "is even our prostitutes are college graduates.''

Cuban tourism is up 33%

Cuba wants ``safe and sane recreation'' for its visitors, Fidel Castro said. ``Besides, I don't see any future for a tourism that doesn't guarantee the safety and health of its visitors.'' The government is struggling to control problems associated with increased tourism to the island, especially drug sales and use blamed mostly on a growing number of visitors. The number of visitors to the island jumped 33 percent in January compared with the same month in 2002, giving officials hope that tourism is recovering from a drop in international travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The number of visitors dropped 5 percent last year to 1.6 million. Cuba's socialist government began developing tourism in the early 1990s to diversify its economy after losing its most important trade partner, the Soviet Union. It now boasts 40,000 hotel rooms island wide. Tourism is now Cuba's No. 1 source of foreign income, with 1.6 million visitors generating about $2 billion last year - despite the slump.

The sad saga of Will-Bob's sailboat trip to Cuba

Cuba opens their largest hotel

FIDEL OPENS PESQUERO BEACH, THE LARGEST HOTEL IN CUBA
For a tourism of wholesome recreation, culture and relaxation

DURING the opening ceremony of the Pesquero Beach Hotel, President Fidel Castro affirmed that he does not see any future in a tourism that cannot guarantee health, safety and wholesome recreation.

He stressed that visitors to Cuba will find neither gambling nor a drugs trade, and those that try to use the developing industry as a means to introduce narcotics onto the island will have very little opportunity to expand their business.

"We are opening this hotel and complex today to promote a tourism of peace, health and security that may be enjoyed by children and families, young people, adults and the elderly; for a tourism of wholesome recreation, culture and relaxation," the Cuban president stated.

Fidel went on to say that the Revolution had transformed people into human beings and the active constructors of a superior society, thus explaining the possibility of promoting tourism. Before 1959, the population of Holguín province had only 166 doctors, the average life expectancy was 50 years of age and the infant mortality rate stood at 80 per 1,000 live births. The most recent infant mortality figure is 7.33, the number of doctors offering their services is in excess of 4,800 and the life expectancy rate 76 years.

Referring to the importance of the tourism industry for other nations in the region, he noted that Cuba is not only thinking along these lines, but is calling for cooperation to create a Caribbean tourism.

"Today, we are opening an exceptional hotel, completely constructed using Cuban funds," reiterated Fidel, who gave details in his 90-minute speech on advances in the tourism industry from 1990 when Cuba occupied 23rd place in the Americas in terms of visitors. Currently, the island is the ninth preferred destination on the continent, with a total of 1,686,716 visitors last year, expected to increase by some 200,000 more in 2003.

From 1990 to date 27,000 new rooms have been added, as well as infrastructural, related and support services, while direct employment from tourism in the last few years has risen from 54,000 to 100,000.

The majority of tourists visiting Holguín orginate from the following nations: Canada with 36%; Germany, 24%; Britain, 11%; Italy and France, 7% each; and Switzerland, 5%. Fidel commented that when the U.S. government respects the right of its citizens to travel freely to the island, Cuba will see a mass influx of U.S. tourists.

He referred to Christopher Colombus’ arrival in the same region

on October 28, 1492 and mentioned the incalculable ecological potential of the area: beaches, bays, caves, natural spas, areas of beautiful underwater scenery and hundreds of sunken Spanish shipwrecks.

Since its conception, key concerns for the complex have been respect for ecology, integration with nature and the rescue of the area’s cultural and historical heritage. Three national bodies are responsible for hotels in the zone: Cubanacán, Islazul and lastly, Gaviota, which controls the majority of establishments. There are 18 hotels, 72.6% with 4- or 5-star rooms out of a possible 4,799, which could rise to as many 25,000 in the next few years, without damaging the environment.

Other plans to widen tourism development in the area are almost at the point of completion. The most notable of these are the narrow gauge railroad that links Guardalavaca with Gibara; the wildlife breeding center on the southeast coast of Naranjo Bay, that aims to repopulate the rainforests and bio-parks with species bred in captivity, and Blue Rock where visitors can enjoy eco-tourism and interact with domestic and non-domestic fauna; the Museum of Sugar in the Rafael Freyre sugar mill; the Regional Amusement Park; the Guardalavaca Shopping Mall and a heliport that offers aerial excursions. 

Republicans kill legislation to allow travel to Cuba

97.61% of Cubans Vote

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba's Communist Party said Monday that more than 97 percent of voters showed overwhelming support for the nation's socialist system by electing 609 candidates who ran uncontested for parliament.

While Fidel Castro and millions of other Cubans voted in Sunday's general elections, many dissidents labeled the process a farce and refused to participate.

About 8.1 million of Cuba's 8.2 million registered voters went cast ballots, prompting the Communist Party daily Granma on Monday to declare the elections "overwhelming proof of popular support for the nation, the revolution and socialism."

There was no immediate word on what percentage of ballots were deposited either spoiled or blank, a sign of protest during elections here. Several leading dissident groups encouraged voters to protest either by abstaining or by spoiling or leaving their ballots blank.

"We are perfecting our revolutionary and socialist democracy," Castro told hundreds of cheering supporters during a lengthy address after voting in the eastern city of Santiago.

He later told reporters the island's dissident movement had been manufactured by the United States, saying Washington wanted to "destroy our nation, but had not been able to."

"This is an important day for all of Cuba," Vice President Carlos Lage said after voting in his neighborhood.

Lage called Cuba's elections "truly democratic and free" because candidates here do not spend huge amounts of money on campaigns.

'Voting is practically obligatory'

Since all the candidates ran unopposed, voters either could mark or leave blank the circle next to each name on their ballot.

Several leading dissident groups announced they would not vote and called on others to abstain or annul a ballot by marking it incorrectly or casting it blank.

In an unusual protest Saturday evening, dissident Mayelin Cedeno erected a sign outside her Havana home reading, "No to the electoral farce. No to the vote. No to more of the same."

"It occurred to me after hearing Castro on the television. He said that in Cuba there is democracy and that's not true," Cedeno said. "Voting is practically obligatory to keep from being humiliated."

About 100 neighbors crowded outside Cedeno's home in their own protest, chanting pro-government slogans and waving signs reading "Viva Fidel!"

All Cubans over 16 can vote, and though it is not obligatory, pressure to participate is high. Many Cubans say they would rather vote than be scolded by a relative, neighbor or co-worker.

Castro was among the candidates seeking re-election to the National Assembly. He has led Cuba for 44 years, initially as premier and now as president.

In May, opposition leaders delivered a petition with 11,020 signatures demanding election reforms, but the government has ignored the so-called Varela Project.

Castro became irritated by a reporter's question Sunday about the initiative, saying, "Let's talk about serious things, not silliness."

Elian's father among the winners

Parliament's duties include approving laws proposed by Cuba's ruling Council of State, headed by Castro. It also reconfirms Castro's presidency on the council in the weeks after the general elections.

A first round of balloting in October elected members of Cuba's municipal assemblies.

The other half include many internationally known figures, such as Juan Miguel Gonzalez, father of Elian, the Cuban boy at the heart of the international child custody battle in 2000 and folk singer Silvio Rodriguez.

Gonzalez voted in Cardenas, a coastal community about a two-hour drive east of Havana where he and his son live.

As Gonzalez was interviewed by Cuban state television, Elian could be seen in the background, dressed in his school uniform and guarding the election urns with several other schoolchildren -- an election day tradition here.

Castro urges Cubans to vote

"What is needed is an overwhelming and energetic victory that demonstrates to the enemy our unity and force," Castro said on Friday in a reference to the United States during a nationally televised program on the election.

Washington has maintained an economic embargo against Cuba for more than 40 years and seeks to isolate the government internationally.

Castro said Cubans should cast their ballots for all candidates presented on two slates for the National Assembly and provincial assemblies as part of a revolutionary strategy to defend the country "in the face of the most powerful empire in the world and in history."

The candidates are unopposed and the number of candidates is equal to the number of seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies.

Voters can check a box for all the candidates, or vote for one or more of them, or none. The Communist Party is the only legal political party in Cuba.

About 98 percent of Cuba's 8 million registered voters regularly turn out for general elections, which are held every five years. Cuba has 11 million people and everyone over 16 can vote.

More than 90 percent cast their ballot for the official slates and around 5 percent leave them blank or spoil them.

The country's small dissident movement, as in the past, has called on voters to stay home or spoil their ballots.

Dissidents say the turnouts are so high because voters fear they will be branded as counterrevolutionaries and ostracized at work and in their neighborhoods if they stay home.

The government denies such allegations.

"This is not an election because in an election you can choose between diverse options," said dissident Vladimiro Roca, who was released from prison last year after serving a five-year term.

Cuba considers internal political opposition to be inspired by its enemies, the U.S. government and anti-Castro Cuban-American groups.

Castro, in power since a 1959 revolution, described Cuba's electoral system, where the candidate slates are picked by the official trade union federation and other mass organizations, as "a super democracy."

The 76-year-old Cuban leader, dressed in his traditional military uniform, slammed Western democracies, saying money and publicity were behind the nomination of candidates and their elections.

Castro singled out the United States, where he said President George W. Bush won "without the majority of votes," and with the help of Cuban exiles in Miami who used "force, lies and money" to win the state of Florida in the 2000 election, a victory that delivered the White House.

A report about some of our own CIA's terrorist thugs

Their leader was the elder George H. W. Bush.  They bombed airplanes, assassinated foreign leaders, bombed buildings and killed travel agents going to Cuba, sold illegal drugs and much, much more.  In fact they are still doing it!

THE CIA AND TERRORISM
As long as there are blond ghosts

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD (Special for Granma International)

IF there was any need to demonstrate the total innocence of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States for having committed the “crime” of counteracting the criminal plans of Miami terrorists, the recent death of Theodore “Ted” Shackley, the CIA’s most famous spy, spectacularly reveals the level of danger coming from Miami that Cuba has faced for over 40 years.

His friends called him the Blond Ghost due to his reticence to be photographed, according to his official biographer David Corn, author of Blond Ghost, Ted Shackley and the CIA’s Crusades - an apology for the master spy’s crimes (it’s worth noting how the empire’s press honors its most notorious spies, authorizing them the epithet “master spy”).

But we’d have to make an enormous effort to find anything romantic in his life. With a diabolical wish to destroy the Cuban Revolution, the Blond Ghost headed Miami’s unfortunately famous CIA station, code name JM/Wave, later devoting himself to torturing prisoners and the large scale trafficking of heroin during the Viet Nam war. He went on to lead the drug trafficking operations that had been developed in Central America by terrorist duo Félix Rodríguez and Luis Posada Carriles.

Afterwards Shackley moved to Berlin where he used his knowledge of German to try and recruit agents from the Socialist bloc. At the beginning of 1962, he was chosen to head, from Miami, the Operation Mongoose plans against Cuba, ordered by President John F. Kennedy. Those plans were of top priority for the CIA, which had an annual budget of more than $500 million USD - a fabulous amount in those days.

Installed in some refurbished timber office buildings in the midst of 1,571 acres of land leased from the University of Miami and patrolled by guards, Shackley masterminded the anti-Cuba terrorist operation under the cover of a company called Zenith Technologic Enterprises.

David Corn writes that from that base, Shackley’s agents created a facade of businesses - boat stores, travel companies, real estate firms, detective agencies - aimed at providing services for the “station” and cover for his employees. Over 100 vehicles were leased to JM/Wave.

CIA warehouses on the site hid various types and makes of weapons plus all the necessary supplies, including caskets. Medical personnel, psychologists and even polygraph experts were assigned to JM/Wave. It possessed dozens of real estate properties - from small apartments to truly palatial residences - used for secret activities. Operational sites were located all over the region; terrorist training camps existed in various keys off the coast and the Everglades swamps, one disguised as a private hunting lodge.

Just identifying some of the individuals that Shackley suckled at his Miami terrorist farm is enough to realize the class of criminals, murderers and drug traffickers that he encouraged and guided.

It was the Blond Ghost who recruited Félix Rodríguez, training him alongside Luis Posada Carriles; Rodríguez was later chosen for a team specializing in murder. In 1967, Rodríguez organized the operation against Che Guevara in Bolivia and oversaw his execution, an act that he continues to glory in from his million-dollar Miami mansion. In 1970, the same terrorist resumed his work for the maestro Shackley in Viet Nam and Laos before being sent to Central America, once again with Posada, who had escaped from a Venezuelan jail where he was imprisoned for a criminal attack on a Cubana Aviation passenger plane.

Other Shackley pupils in Miami were Chi Chi Quintero, the future commander of the Contras; Frank Sturgis and Rolando Martínez - the two Cuban-American plumbers involved in the Watergate scandal along with E. Howard Hunt; plus many other cruel Cold War undesirables.

It was in Asia, after 1970, that Shackley wrote some of the most sickening pages of his true history. From the CIA’s Saigon headquarters, the Blond Ghost headed the genocidal Phoenix program, dedicated to the torture and murder of Vietnamese patriots; Air America, the CIA’s undercover air company; and the Nugan Hand bank, specializing in money laundering.

He simultaneously ran million-dollar heroin trafficking operations out of Laos for people of such dubious merit as Col. Oliver North and Richard Secord.

Incredibly, the drug was sold on two markets: to the many GI heroin addicts, and also in the United States itself via the Santos Traficante father and son, both cronies of former mafia godfather of Havana, Meyer Lansky.

In 1973, Shackley was directing all the CIA operations in Latin America when Salvador Allende’s democratically elected government was smashed by the fascist general Augusto Pinochet’s bloodthirsty coup d’état.

From May 1976 until December 1977, Shackley was CIA assistant director and responsible for all the covert operations required by the company’s new director - none other than future president George Bush - and then under Stansfield Turner. It was Turner who dispensed with him during a selective shake-up of the secret services ordered by Jimmy Carter’s administration.

In disgust, Shackley officially retired in 1979… in order to create Research Associates International, a consulting firm whose alleged objective was to promote security strategies for corporation executives. But there is no doubt that he continued developing his covert activities.

Ted Shackley was a three-time recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence medal, the top decoration given by the CIA.

The Blond Ghost died from cancer at his home (4907, Sangamore Road, Bethesda, Maryland State) on December 9, 2002. In the hours following his death, the maestro’s memory was fêted in a Miami Herald article where Shackley’s most repugnant activities assumed a patriotic and glorious nature.

Quoted in the Herald, his biographer Corn commented: “in a certain way, Shackley was the archetypal covert Cold War bureaucrat who took orders from above - running secret wars, undermining elected governments, compromising journalists and political opponents overseas - and made them a reality.”

He wasn’t “the mastermind behind presidents and CIA directors’ secret operations, he was their implementer… so he avoided the moral questions that accompany such actions and embodied the mentality. The ‘end justifies the means’ of the establishment’s national security.”

HOW MANY DEAD BODIES?

How many dead people, how many dead bodies did Shackley leave behind on a journey that took him from the Berlin sidewalks to the Laotian jungle? In Cuba alone, the victims of his cynical Operation Mongoose decisions, taken in his sinister JM/Wave hideout, run into the hundreds if not thousands. Worse still, in the case of Viet Nam, U.S. sources estimate that Operation Phoenix caused the death of more than 70,000, mostly National Liberation Front collaborators and activists. In Laos, Shackley’s men ended their trafficking with the Hmong tribe by massacring over 20,000 of its members.

When the five patriots currently detained in the empire’s prisons risked their lives in a fight to counteract the murderous plans of the Miami mafia, they were confronted by Ted Shackley’s heirs, individuals motivated by the same criminal mentality that believes “the end justifies the means.”

As long as there are other blond ghosts in Miami, Cuba has no other remedy than to protect itself from such terrorists who never, ever, hesitated when it came to using whatever means necessary to attack the Cuban Revolution.
 

Cuba calls this article the "truth" about the US interest in Iraq

Terrorism and oil:
Washington’s fatal obsession

CONTROL over oil constitutes a permanent and fatal obsession of the Bush administration. Despite its economic riches and extensive atomic arsenal, in addition to other weapons of mass destruction, Washington can only feel secure with total dominion over that fuel.

Under the pretext of combating terrorism, oil is nothing less than the cornerstone of the U.S. government’s strategy implemented in the wake of the dramatic events of September 11. It shouldn’t take too long for the majority of humanity to figure out the real motives behind Washington’s crusade.

With the consequences of the massive bombardments of Kabul and other Afghan cities along with the occupation of Afghanistan still fresh, the White House has announced a new military campaign: this time the target is Iraq, whose territory U.S. and British warplanes are still widely bombing.

Now, while asserting that Baghdad will not comply with the UN exigencies, the White House is sending warships and troops to the region in conjunction with pressures on other countries to join the bellicose confrontation.

While Pentagon experts predict that a war against Iraq will last but a few weeks, other specialists, including some in Britain, the United States’ central ally, believe it would be a protracted and bloody confrontation. Such arguments hail from renowned institutions such as Medact, a British affiliate of the International Association of Doctors for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

That agency is warning that U.S. aggression against Iraq could cause between 268,000 and four million deaths.

The research was based on consultations with doctors, nurses and specialists in Iraq, the United States and Britain.

General Peter Gratton, former commander of the Australian armed forces, stated that from a military point of view the report is accurate.

The British organization, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, states that between 48,000 and 260,000 people from both sides would die as a direct consequence of combat. At the same time, a subsequent civil war in Iraq would cause an additional 20,000 deaths along with a further 200,000 due to lasting damage to health resulting from such a war.

The above-mentioned study estimates that in the worst-case scenario - involving the use of nuclear weapons during the conflict - the number of deaths could reach some four million.

In continuation, the report’s author, Jane Salvage, an international health consultant, hypothesized as the strongest possibility that U.S. aggression against Iraq would begin with a heavy air assault on military objectives and infrastructure, including the destruction of highways, telecommunications centers and electrical energy sources. A subsequent invasion from the south of Iraq, to take the oil wells, would be a primary objective. An invasion from the north is also a distinct possibility, according to the report, in order to take key cities like Baghdad, resulting in the destruction of civilian installations.

She adds that a conventional war would bring about hunger and epidemics, millions of refugees and a collapse of the Iraqi economy, plus the potential destabilization of neighboring governments. The financial burden would be enormous for everyone, with predicted costs in arms, aid and reconstruction approximate to $150-200 billion USD.

Despite international uncertainty created by the danger of another war unleashed by the George W. Bush government, Washington analysts are predicting a strong U.S. military presence after the fall of Saddam Hussein and, of course, occupation of the Iraqi oilfields, which constitute 12% of the world’s total hydrocarbon reserves. Coinciding with the acceleration of attack plans, the U.S. National Security Council has proposed the formation of an army of exiled Iraqis, which, alongside the U.S. forces, would occupy that Arab country’s territory.

With that objective, the first groups of officers who are to train a force of 3,000 opponents of the Baghdad government, transforming them into vanguard shock troops, have arrived on a NATO base in Hungary. Thus the numbers of U.S. casualties will be reduced. That is more or less what was done in Afghanistan, where Northern Alliance troops were deployed for most of the combats, while U.S. aircraft bombarded Afghani cities and positions in relative safety.

This is the plan set in action by Washington after Congress assigned $100 million USD to Iraqi opposition organizations.

Nonetheless, in the case of an occupation of Iraq, it has not been clarified how the White House will resolve that country’s role in the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and who would represent it in the cartel. In that context, analysts believe that that aspect of U.S. strategy will determine the beginning of OPEC’s subordination or its liquidation with the occupation of Iraq and its oil resources.

Denouncing those plans, Tarik Aziz, the first Iraqi deputy minister stated that Washington’s policy objective in the Gulf is to seize its oil.

The OPEC controls two thirds of world exports of hydrocarbons and its members are the greatest beneficiaries of the situation created by the United States in Iraq and by pro-U.S. elements in Venezuela, which have led to mounting increases in the price of the essential resource.

Quotes on the New York Stock Exchange, which have reached their highest level in two years, aided by fears of a war in Iraq and the oil strike in Venezuela, raised futures, in this case for February, to $32 USD per barrel, the highest quote since January 2001.

Increases were likewise recorded on the London Stock Exchange in Brent oil, while West Texas or U.S. topped sweet crude reached $27.32 USD per barrel.

Studies reveal that, in the hypothesis of a delayed conflict in Iraq, the quote on a barrel of oil could oscillate between $50-60 USD, which would produce a debacle on the world market of the so-called black gold. Concern is accentuated in Germany, France and other European Union nations, because a U.S. offensive could interrupt consignments of fuel from the Middle East, where the most important producer nations are located.

Uncertainty is increasing among consumers, and a possible cold snap in the United States this winter could raise the demand for crude, with prices spiraling to above $30 USD. At the same time the U.S. Energy Information Agency has warned that the country’s oil refineries will have to reduce their production of gasoline, heating fuels and other products if the Venezuelan opposition continues disrupting production.

The U.S. Oil Institute reported a 3.8% drop in provisions from that country last August in comparison with 2001, while gasoline reserves were also down 1.8%.

Some economists are affirming that the long-term effect on the world’s largest economy is as dependent on the Venezuelan strike as on the probability of a war in Iraq. Others have recalled that the United States has hydrocarbon reserves for 15 or 30 years.

Energy equivalent to 210 million barrels of oil is consumed daily throughout the world, with 38% of that volume derived from 75 million barrels of oil, 22% from natural gas and the rest obtained from other energy sources.

The United States, the largest consumer of hydrocarbons, extracts and refines 12% of world consumption, but uses 25%, and thus has to import large volumes of fuel from Venezuela, Mexico and the Arab world, principally. If that Northern power had to produce all the hydrocarbons it consumes, its non-renewable energy sources would be exhausted in just over four years. So, where is the oil it urgently requires to cover its approaching energy deficits? Well, in the Middle East, which contains 65% of world reserves; in Venezuela, the fifth largest exporter of oil on the planet; in Iraq with 115 billion barrels in reserve and double the potential of Africa, where 7% of existing oil is located, among other places.

It is worthwhile considering that combating terrorism is not the only reason for the U.S. power strategy. So is oil, whose world domination it is seeking. That is the truth.
 

Cuban tourism is down for 2002...but only slightly

HAVANA, January 7 (Oscar Espinosa Chepe) - Approximately 1,700,000 tourists visited Cuba in 2002, 74,541 fewer than in 2001, according to a televised report by Tourism minister Ibrahim Ferradaz.

The minister made no mention of income figures for the year. In 2001, gross income from tourism was 1,804,400,000 dollars, down 5.6 percent from 2000. Ferradaz said tourism picked up during November and December, 2002, which, he said, boded well for the rest of the high season ending in April.

Tourism authorities have said that 1,500 new hotel rooms were added in 2002, for a total available of 40,000. Another 2,000 are expected to be added in 2003.

In recent years, tourism has supplanted sugar cane as the mainstay of the Cuban economy. Recently, the government announced the definitive closure of 70 sugar mills, mostly outdated facilities that were not economically sustainable.

Visitors to Cuba come mostly from Europe. Cuban authorities recently announced several of the most popular facilities, such as Varadero beach, Jardines del Rey, and Cayo Largo del Sur, would start accepting Euros. It is expected the measure will be extended to other facilities soon.

Cubans will vote on January 19

With a trial run on Sunday January 12, in preparation for the January 19 general elections, Cubans are putting the finishing touches on what is expected to be one of the elections with the greatest participation in the revolutionary period. According to the Tribuna de La Habana newspaper, the functioning of the information and communication systems will be verified. During this third electoral event of the last 10 years, more than 8 million citizens are convoked to directly choose 609 deputies to the National Assembly (Parliament) and 1,199 provincial delegates, who will represent voters until 2008. Considered 10 years ago as one of the most important reforms in the Cuban democratic system, the 1992 Electoral Law stipulates that general elections be held every 5 years. The approval of the legislation expanded direct and secret voting of the Cuban population to the National Assembly and provincial delegates, something that was in carried out before by the municipal assemblies. This new process, convoked in July 2002 by Cuban President Fidel Castro, has two stages. The first, already concluded, included the taking office of more than 14,000 delegates and the formation of 169 municipal assemblies, and the second will be completed with the election of the representatives to the Parliament and provincial governments. This is not a simple municipal election, but the beginning of national general elections, said Fidel Castro in statements to reporters shortly after he cast his vote during the municipal elections in October 2002. He pointed out that the candidates elected in the municipal elections would comprise almost half of the national Parliament and also have the faculty to approve the candidatures of the delegates to the provincial governments and the Parliament itself. During 43 years of Revolution, Cuba has carried out 11 electoral processes, which have been characterized by massive attendance at the ballot boxes. The electoral authorities said that popular support for the candidates and the socialist system is not only seen by the turnout, but also in the high number of valid ballots in which the electorate's will is clearly defined. Reports from the National Electoral Commission (CEN) confirmed that in the municipal elections, 7 million 997,983 citizens over 16 years old took part. The event was characterized by the massive participation of voters (95.64 percent) and the smoothness with which it was developed, together with the low index of annulled ballots (5.23 percent). The current Popular Power Government structures were established in 1974, initially in the western province of Matanzas, as a pilot project, and later the experience was spread to the entire nation. The most recent elections for deputies to the National Assembly and delegates to the 14 provincial assemblies took place in 1998, with a participation of 98 percent of the registered voters.

Cuba reports 26% growth in tourism for November -December

Havana Cuba's leisure industry reported a steady growing trend in tourist arrivals, especially during the last two months of 2002. According to sources from the tourist sector, Varadero Beach, one of Cuba's major destinations, set a record for a day in December, with 20,900 guests in its hotels. At the same time, the country reported 50,290 guests in a day, thus confirming the success of the current high tourist season. Varadero has reported an increase in daily stays, thus showing a gradual recovery of that destination, whose 48 hotels receive 44 percent of all travelers visiting Cuba. Authorities from that beach resort recalled that Varadero reported 26-percent growths in November and December 2002. Prospects are good in major sources of vacationers to Cuba, especially in Canada, which has shown a dramatic increase in flights to the largest Antillean Island.
 

Cayo Coco will be the world's hottest spot in a few more years.

Watch out Cancun and Jamaica -- When European charter airlines begin direct flights to this sandy key in the coming weeks, Cuba will be taking another step to recover its position as a premier tourist destination in the Caribbean. Flamingos, iguanas and alligators on a nature reserve are an added attraction for tourists looking to lie on sun-soaked snowy-white beaches and sip daiquiris. Last month, Cuba's communist authorities opened an international airport able to receive wide-bodied jets on Cayo Coco, the largest of a string of hundreds of keys along Cuba's north shore known as Jardines del Rey. Cuba has already built 11 high-end hotels on Cayo Coco and neighbouring Cayo Guillermo to draw vacationers from Canada, Britain, Germany and Spain. Havana is also banking on the lifting of a U.S. travel ban some time soon -- a move that would bring Americans to the Cuban keys, which are 250 miles (400 km) south of Nassau in the Bahamas. "Twenty years from now these keys could be the premier resort in the Caribbean," said Philip Agee, director of the Havana-based online travel agency cubalinda. "These islands go on and on for hundreds of miles and offer a fabulous combination of beach, scenery and wildlife. There is a huge market out there for almost virgin islands like these," said Agee, a former CIA agent. Proximity to the Gulf Stream allows for good sport fishing and Cuba plans a marina for 400 yachts and deep sea fishing boats. A golf course is also in the works on Cayo Coco. Spanish and Canadian entrepreneurs see potential in the islands and have invested through hotel management deals and joint ventures with Cuba's communist state. Spain's Sol Melia hotel chain runs six hotels in the Jardines del Rey keys, out of the 23 it manages in Cuba. The new airport is operated by AENA, a Spanish airport-management company. Regular charter flights are planned to Cayo Coco by Air Canada, Austrian carrier Lauda Air and Condor, Lufthansa's charter company. Tourism experts said the direct flights will give Jardines del Rey a boost because tourists will no longer have to travel overland from other Cuban airports. But the islands have an overcapacity of hotel rooms that may not get filled until American tourists arrive, they said. "Cayo Coco is a beautiful destination with a number of nice hotels. But some of them were built too quickly and seem too big. I'm not sure they can fill them all in the short run. Maybe when the American tourists arrive," said Bernd Herrmann, a Havana-based travel industry executive. Cuba was once the favorite Caribbean playground for Americans, when Mafia bosses ran Havana's nightlife. But the casinos and prostitution rings were shut after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959. American-owned hotels were expropriated and tourism moved elsewhere, to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica, whose resorts partly owe their success to communism in Cuba.  Cuba turned to tourism again, after the collapse of its international sponsor, the Soviet Union, over a decade ago, and the industry rapidly displaced sugar as the island's top earner of hard currency. The trade is recovering from the dip in world travel after the September 11 attacks on the United States. Last year, 1.7 million tourists visited Cuba, slightly below the number of arrivals in 2001 (1.77 million), generating $1.85 billion in badly needed cash for Cuba's dilapidated economy. Cuba estimates that more than 1 million Americans would visit as soon as Washington abolished the travel ban, which has been enforced for four decades as part of an economic embargo against Havana. U.S. cruise companies are planning to add Havana to their itineraries when that day comes. U.S. farmers and food industries are lobbying hard to end the travel restrictions so that Cuba can earn more dollars to pay for purchases of American food products allowed under a recent easing of the trade embargo.

Cuba's health system has eradicated 9 diseases in past 10 years

Cuba's health system has successfully eradicated nine diseases in the country over the past ten years, thanks to the development of biotechnology. According to experts, Cuba's immunization program has contributed to eradicating such diseases as poliomyelitis, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, tubercular meningitis, newborn tetanus, the congenital rubella syndrome, and post-mumps meningo-encephalitis. The Cuban health system, which provides 13 vaccines, is one of the most complete in the world, and covers a vast sector of the country's population. Cuba's biotechnological centers produce most of the vaccines used in the country, including those against meningitis and hepatitis B, among others. The Cuban population under 22 years of age is immunized against hepatitis B, whose incidence rate is the lowest in the world. Cuban researchers are working on drugs to fight diseases such as dengue fever, AIDS, hepatitis C and meningitis C.

Cuba is protecting their wetlands

Cuba Saves Five Internationally Important Wetlands

ENS Correspondents,Environment News Service Tue Jan 7, 8:26 AM ET Add World - OneWorld.net to My Yahoo!

GLAND, Switzerland, January 6, 2003 (ENS) - Cuba has set aside some of the most important wetlands in the Caribbean for protection from development and climate change. Calling them "extraordinarily valuable," the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention announced Monday that the Cuban government has designated five areas for the List of Wetlands of International Importance.

Designation of wetlands under the Ramsar Convention brings increased publicity and prestige for the lands, and the increased possibility of support for conservation and wise use measures. The five Cuban sites include an array of coastal wetland types and provide support for many species of plants and animals, some of them rare or endangered.

The efforts by Cuban authorities to designate these new sites have been assisted by the Living Waters Program of WWF, the conservation group. They are added to the large site that Cuba had previously listed under Ramsar, Cienaga de Zapata, a major wintering site and stopover for North American migratory water birds, also a WWF project.

At 313,500 hectares (1,210 square miles) Buenavista Bay, in Cuba's central region, is already a national park, a protected area, and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. As described by Julio Montes de Oca of the Ramsar Secretariat, who describes all of the five Cuban wetlands, Buenavista Bay includes extensive beaches and dune systems, coastal lagoons, mangroves and karstic mound formations that are unique within the Cuban archipelago.

Currently, there are no human settlements within the Buenavista wetland, but various economic activities take place in the area, among them commercial and sports fishing, forestry, cattle farming and tourism. Conservation efforts are centered on regulating these activities as well as on improving management capacity of the site which contains important plants and animals, as well as areas of high archeological, speleological, and cultural value.

The second newly designated wetland is located in the second largest island of the Cuban archipelago, occupying the southern part of the Isla de la Juventud, including the Ciénaga de Lanier marshland. Its 126,200 hectares (487 square miles) includes semi-deciduous forests, reef lagoons, marine grasslands, mangroves and peatlands.

Within the Caribbean, the site is a truly unique mosaic of ecosystems, says de Oca, amongst them a karstic plain connected to the island's southern coast. This subterranean drainage system yields clear waters that favor the formation of coral reefs. A number of threatened species are present, including green turtles, loggerheads, and American crocodiles.

The main threats to the site include forest fires, the future increase of tourism activities in the area, and the possible effects of climate change.

There are six protected areas within the third newly protected site known as Gran Humedal del Norte de Ciego de Ávila. It occupies the northern part of the Ciego de Ávila province, spanning most of its coast, its immediate maritime zone, and adjacent islets.

This wetland includes two unique coastal water reservoirs, Lagunas de la Leche and La Redonda, which feed the area's subterranean basins. There are marsh forests, marsh grasslands, and mangroves. The site is inhabited by large populations of greater flamingos and double-crested cormorants, as well as other more rare species such as darters, and West Indian whistling ducks. The site's rich marine life provides abundant fishing, and its scenic beauty has made it the country's third largest tourism area.

There are two protected areas within the next wetland site. "The largest delta in Cuba and one of the most important in the Caribbean," says de Oca, "the Humedal Delta del Cauto is an intricate system of estuaries, lagoons, marshes and swamps of singular beauty."

Its inaccessibility and difficulty of transit have kept human effects to a minimum here. There are some of the best preserved mangroves in Cuba, and vulnerable and endangered animal species inhabit the site, among them the endemic Cuban parakeet and Cuban tree-duck.

The Humedal Delta del Cauto is also considered a major contributor to the productiveness of the fisheries in the Gulf of Guacanayabo, where the Río Cauto flows out to the sea.

Finally, the 22,000 hectare (85 square mile) Humedal Río Máximo-Cagüey is an "extremely fragile marine-coastal ecosystem undergoing salinization," says de Oca. Located at the mouth of the rivers Máximo and Cagüey, with a number of keys in the shallow waters, this area is the largest nesting site for flamingos in all the Caribbean and the Antilles, and it is also a refuge for other migratory birds from across the Americas.

Large populations of American crocodile and Caribbean manatee, both vulnerable species, inhabit the Humedal Río Máximo-Cagüey. There are mangrove forests, swamp evergreen forests, and other, unique evergreen forests.

Adverse factors affecting the site are related to human activities in the catchment area, including upstream deviations of the water supply and pollution from agricultural residual waters.

There are presently 135 countries that are Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention, with 1,235 wetland sites, totaling 106.6 million hectares (411,585 square miles), designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

Cuba Travel USA is a tour operator

Please note in the article (Cayo Coco's new airport) below that "Cuba keeps relations with 318 tour operators."  We were the very first American's to sign a contract with Cuba after their Revolution.  It was on July 4, 1977.

Brazil sees coalition with Venezuela and Cuba

Brazil Sees Coalition With Venezuela, Cuba

By Alan Clendenning, Associated Press Writer.

BRASILIA, Brazil 2 (AP) - Breakfast with Hugo Chavez, dinner with Fidel.

The first day in office for Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, projects the image of a leftist alliance in Latin America — one that Chavez, Venezuela's president, has already nicknamed the "Axis of Good."

Such an alliance could hinder U.S. efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas stretching from Alaska to the tip of Argentina by 2005.

Despite the perception of a new Latin American troika, doubts abound that Silva really wants to form a bloc with such close ties to Chavez and Castro, Cuba's leader.

But by giving Latin America's other two leftist leaders such a warm welcome a day after his inauguration, Silva gets huge political mileage in Brazil, where Castro and Chavez are revered by the far left of his party.

The United States sent trade representative Robert Zoellick to the inauguration, seen by the Brazilians as something of a snub because Zoellick suggested last October that Brazil's only trading partner would be Antarctica if it did not join the hemispheric trade zone.

Silva responded by calling Zoellick "the sub secretary of a sub secretary of a sub secretary" during his election campaign.

At the breakfast meeting, Chavez asked Silva to send technical experts from Brazil's state-owned oil company to replace some of the 30,000 Venezuelan state oil workers who have joined a crippling nationwide strike. Silva said he would consider the request.

And before dining Thursday night with Silva, Castro told Associated Press Television News that Brazilian (news - web sites)-Cuban relations will grow stronger now that Brazil has its first elected leftist president.

Arriving at Silva's rural retreat 20 miles outside Brasilia for dinner, Castro shook hands and signed autographs for about 50 cheering Silva supporters. He did not speak with reporters.

Castro and Chavez had front-row seats in Congress at Silva's inauguration Wednesday, where an estimated 200,000 Brazilians waved red flags. Many were dressed in red and white clothes, the colors of Silva's Workers Party.

The Cuban and Venezuelan leaders had dinner together, and talked until 4 a.m. Thursday at the Brasilia hotel where Castro is staying.

But experts said Silva's efforts to accommodate Castro and Chavez in Brasilia could be carefully calculated political window dressing.

Silva angered his party's left wing by appointing fiscal moderates to key cabinet posts, but needs its help to push programs through Congress, where he lacks a majority.

"Embracing Castro and Chavez, the symbols of anti-U.S. influence in Latin America, gets Silva political capital in Brazil," said Stephen Haber, a Latin American expert at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "But this is a dangerous game, you go too far one way or the other and this will blow up in your face."

Silva doesn't want to scare away investors, who already sent the value of the Brazilian currency, the real, down 40 percent last summer over fears that his administration might not follow responsible economic policies.

So far, Silva seems to be pleasing his supporters without spooking financial markets. The real, which ended down 35 percent last year, finished stronger Thursday as the market reacted positively to second-tier finance ministry appointments.

Named to the posts were a mix of left-leaning, moderate and liberal economists with strong credentials, along with officials from the administration of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso who will keep their posts.

Chavez coined the "Axis of Good" term after Silva was elected in October, hailing the victory and saying Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba should team up to fight poverty.

"We will form an 'axis of good,' good for the people, good for the future," Chavez said at the time.

But Brazilian political scientists dismissed the possibility of an "Axis of Good" being created by the meetings between Silva, Castro and Chavez.

"There is no way this represents the beginning of Chavez' 'Axis of Good' and much less the 'Axis of Evil' imagined by right-wing Americans," said Luciano Dias, a political scientist at the Brasilia-based Brazilian Institute of Political Studies.

Silva, who is popularly known as Lula, "would never even consider creating a nucleus of leftists in Latin America, he is too smart for that," Dias said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher would not comment Thursday on the possibility of the alliance.

Chavez left his strikebound and politically riven country despite the crippling work stoppage aimed at toppling him from the presidency of the world's fifth largest oil producer.

Silva also has a compelling reason for staying on friendly terms with Chavez: The long border the two countries share.

"Brazil worries very much about violence in Venezuela spilling over into Brazil," Haber said. "So you want to have peaceful relations with the Venezuelan, regardless of who is in charge."

During his breakfast with Silva, Chavez also brought up the idea of increasing cooperation among Latin American state-owned oil industries and set up a company called Petro-America.

"It would become a sort of Latin American OPEC," Chavez said. "It would start with Venezuela's PDVSA and Brazil's Petrobras (news - web sites)," and could come to include Ecopetrol from Colombia, PetroEcuador from Ecuador, and PetroTrinidad from Trinidad and Tobago."

Last week, Cardoso's outgoing administration sent a tanker to Venezuela carrying 520,000 barrels of gasoline, but that barely dented shortages around the country.

If Silva decides to help Chavez with Brazilian oil workers, it probably won't accomplish much either, said Albert Fishlow, who heads Columbia University's Brazilian studies program.

"If he does it will be minimal and not enough to affect the situation," Fishlow said.

Many American students now going to school in Cuba

U.S. college students studying abroad are increasingly bound for Cuba

AP. Thu Jan 2, 4:12 PM ET

NEW YORK - Although Europe remains by far the top destination for U.S. college students studying abroad, more and more are choosing to enhance their education at an exotic location closer to home: Cuba.

Long off-limits to all but a few Americans, Cuba allowed 905 U.S. students to visit during the 2000-01 school year, a 64 percent increase over the year before.

The number is expected to grow the next time figures are released as students increasingly turn to the only communist nation in the Western Hemisphere.

"It's sort of forbidden fruit," said University of Nebraska senior Shane Pekny, part of a contingent of 12 communications majors who will visit Cuba this month.

Before traveling to Cuba, a school must first obtain a license from the U.S. Treasury Department prohibiting the students from engaging in commercial enterprise during their visit. Each student must also obtain a visa from Fidel Castro's government.

The vice president of educational services at the Institute of International Education said the mystique about a country largely inaccessible to U.S. tourists since 1963 is just part of the attraction.

"I think universities around the United States are seeing this as a good site to give students the opportunity to look at a lot of issues at once," Peggy Blumenthal said. "To look at the issue of Cuba, per se, is to look at a communist system compared to a capitalist system, as well as the opportunity to look at transition issues" facing a developing nation.

During their one-week visit, Pekny and his classmates plan to study such things as Cuban agriculture, the impact on Nebraska farmers should the U.S. trade embargo be lifted, and the mechanical magic that keeps 1950s-vintage American cars on Cuban roads.

"The Cuban mechanics are practically gods," said Drake University philosophy professor Jonathan Torgerson, who has taken groups from Des Moines to Cuba every year since 1996.

If relations between the United States and Cuba are normalized, Torgerson believes college students deserve part of the credit.

"We have forged the way in terms of making contacts," he said.

Omar Lopez, a spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation — the powerful Miami-based group of anti-Castro exiles — said U.S. students who travel to Cuba are being used by Castro. Lopez pointed out that visits with dissidents or the jails holding political prisoners are not part of the itinerary.

"What they're trying to do is have a charm offensive aimed at the United States," he said.

Sarah Phend was charmed during the three months she spent in Cuba last summer taking classes, working on a farm and mingling with ordinary citizens.

"Cuba was always something I'd been taught to fear," said Phend, a senior communications major at Goshen College in Indiana. "And then, when I went, I wasn't afraid of it anymore. When I got back I could tell people Cuba is a very good place."

Convinced she saw the real Cuba, Phend has spent the months since her return regaling classmates, relatives and others with tales about the people met during her visit.

"Sometimes I wish I could talk to George Bush about Cuba and say, 'Look, dude. These people aren't evil. What's your problem?'" Phend said.

On the Net:

Institute for International Education: http://www.iiepassport.org

Cuban American National Foundation: http://www.canf.org

1414 arrive by cruise ship

Cuba starts year with record load of cruisers

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Cuba's key tourism industry started the new year on a positive note on Thursday as the cruise ship Sunbird sailed into Havana Bay with a record 1,414 passengers -- the largest single load of cruise passengers to visit the island.

The towering ship arrived at Havana's cruise ship terminal on Thursday morning and was to sail on to Cuba's smaller Island of Youth later in the evening on its way to Grand Cayman, said a spokesman for the Silares terminal management firm.

During 2003, Silares expects 120 cruise ship visits -- double the visits of 2002.

Cuba is trying to recover from a slump in tourism following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which prompted many would-be travelers to stay home out of fear. A recent government report said tourism here was down 5 percent in 2002.

When the doors open to Cuba, some say 10 million Americans will want to go...Florida hopes not

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 Posted: 10:32 AM EST (1532 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Whenever Congress debates an end to the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba, Maria Aral's charter flight company gets calls from Americans eager to book a trip to Havana.

Aral's ABC Charters and other tourism companies and state and local officials are preparing for the day when people might be free to travel to the island that is only 90 miles from Florida.

Since 1963, most Americans have been prohibited from visiting Cuba. Only people with relatives in Cuba, U.S. government officials and professionals such as journalists and doctors can make the trip. President Bush said earlier this year that a substantial softening of U.S. policy would only come after the communist government of Fidel Castro is out of power.

When that day comes, Florida officials hope for a jump in tourism.

The state's tourism marketing agency, Visit Florida, commissioned a survey that found many people who want to visit Cuba would prefer to combine a weeklong trip to Florida with an excursion to the island. Fewer than one in 10 would skip the state altogether to visit Cuba.

But some parts of the state -- for example, the Florida Keys -- fear they could lose business to Cuba. Key West is closer to Havana than to Miami.

Harold Wheeler, who heads the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, said his group has created a plan to market trips to Cuba as an ideal side trip from the Keys, and vice versa. He expects Cuba's shortage of high-quality hotels would help keep the Keys as the main destination.

"We realize there's going to be a great curiosity to go to Cuba," Wheeler said. "The key is how we position ourselves."

One approach, Wheeler said, is for Key West to promote cultural and sporting aspects it shares with Cuba. For example, literary enthusiasts in Key West for the annual Ernest Hemingway celebration could speed over to Cuba for a day to visit the writer's former Havana hangouts. Avid fishermen could try their luck in waters off the Keys and Cuba.

Carnival Cruise Lines has looked at the possibility of sailing to Cuba and would consider it an excellent opportunity if the travel restrictions were lifted, said Jennifer de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for the Miami-based company.

But the world's No. 1 cruise line would not add Cuba as a destination immediately after the ban, preferring to wait for the country to develop its tourism infrastructure as well as a democratic political system, she said.

Tourism officials in Miami would not discuss specifics of their plan to promote post-ban tourism. But unlike officials in the Keys, they do not appear concerned about losing business. They said they expect to keep visitors coming by touting Miami's reputation as a modern, cosmopolitan area that also has miles of tropical beaches.

"The kind of client that we now attract in Miami is very much an upscale client," said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. "That's not the clientele that's going to want to go to Cuba."

He pointed out that it took almost 10 years to transform Miami Beach from a rundown swath of oceanfront land into a swank city of luxury hotels and fashionable nightclubs and restaurants. Cuba would need decades and billions of dollars to do the same, he said.

In 2001, 69.8 million people visited Florida, according to Visit Florida. During the same period, Cuba had about 1.8 million visitors, with the largest percentage -- about 350,000 people -- arriving from Canada, according to Cuba's Tourism Ministry.

While Canadian tourists are free to travel to Cuba, they have mixed feelings about vacationing there, said Ellen White, president of the Canadian Snowbird Association. Cuba lacks modern hotels and other amenities.

"My husband wouldn't want to go -- they only have one golf course," she said.

Editors note:  Cuba currently has about 14 golf courses either under construction or in the planning stages.  Cuba also has more than 400 conventions or seminars scheduled for 2003 and they do have very modern hotels managed or co-owned by some of the best hotel companies in the world.  Some of our clients have visited Cuba 40 times, hundreds more than 10 times.  What does that tell you?

Comments from Fidel about his health

To my compatriots:

I have been told that many citizens are interested in knowing about my current state of health. I will explain this in the best possible way.

The ridiculous and inopportune fact that I was removed from circulation took place in the following manner. On the night of Monday, December 16, I discovered a certain indisposition on the outside part of my left leg, more or less between my knee and ankle. I noticed it was red, hot and a bit painful. It looked like an ant or a mosquito or some other insect had bitten me. I remembered how that morning, I had been scratching that part of my leg. Without realizing, I had torn the skin on my leg. Undoubtedly, opportunistic germs generally present in the skin itself took advantage of the wound and penetrated. Doctors are used to attributing these kinds of mishaps to the ubiquitous staphylococci bacteria that sometimes causes diseases. That night they recommended cold compresses and keeping my leg horizontal. I was unable to walk. They also gave me some tablets to take.

I followed their instructions to the letter on December 17 and 18. I was especially worried about a commitment that I had on the 18 with diplomats on the island. I couldn’t miss it and decided to go. In the early hours of the 19, after several hours of exchanging opinions, talking and looking after the guests, I went to bed noticing that my leg was looking more inflamed and red. The discomfort had increased. Initially it was considered a cellulitis problem that had to be prevented from developing into lymphangitis. I had the commemoration for the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Federation of University Students (FEU) planned for the following day, Friday, 20 and the final session of the National Assembly on Saturday 21 at 10:00 a.m., two extraordinary activities that I could not fail to attend.

Cold compresses, strong antibiotics and keeping my leg horizontal were the orders I received. That’s how I spent the 80th FEU commemoration, watching it on television. My great dilemma was the last National Assembly session; my Olympian record of attendance, perhaps a world record, was at risk of being lost. To disobey or not to disobey again doctors’ orders?

Worst of all was knowing that before antibiotics and other modern medicine, rest was the only therapy and that even with these medicines without rest cellulites or lymphangitis cannot be cured. I had no other remedy than to resign myself. I had a duty to protect my beloved left leg. I used it for practicing many sports, also for playing soccer, running round the sports track, jumping, swimming, climbing mountains, walking thousands of kilometers in the Sierra Maestra; I traveled with soldiers in the Escambray and Girón, and took part in the Combative People Marches. It was my guiding leg in politics. It never failed me. I could not betray it now.

The three or four days that they promised me stretched to more than a week. The lesion finally developed into the beginnings of lymphangitis, but rest and medication reduced it to almost nothing. Very little remains for my left leg to be completely better.

You cannot imagine what I’ve learned about cellulites, lymphangitis, antibiotics, compresses etc. etc. in the last few days. I’ve become an even fiercer enemy of mosquitoes and other dangerous insects. I swear I will never scratch a bite again.

However, no one should think that I’ve been wasting my time. Thanks to television I’ve closely followed the most important events both inside and outside the country. And thanks to the telephone I’ve been in constant contact with all my necessary companions. I’ve been busy with more affairs than I normally deal with. I’ve had more time to read, and to sleep one or two hours more than usual. An average of 16 clear hours a day.

You can’t imagine the value of a good rest. I’ll remember it with the same gratitude as the 22 months I spent in prison after Moncada. Never in my life have I read so much or been so much master of my time as in those days. Afterwards came the Revolution and the daily tasks that turn us into slaves. If to this we add the special period, we lose all notion of time, Saturdays, Sunday or Mondays, holidays or rest days. The agreeable labors of a revolutionary become an addiction and there is never enough time, even though ones efforts might multiply until infinity.

I don’t wish to make this tale of a rest too long. I am fine, dear compatriots, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of the Revolution.

Thank you for the sentiments of solidarity that have been transmitted to me in many ways.

Fraternally,

Fidel Castro

December 24, 2002

11.30 p.m.

Otto Reich is gone

There are 28 accidents per day in all of Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- With its economy emerging from a decade of stagnation, Cuba finds itself suddenly overwhelmed with traffic -- a situation that officials say is endangering lives.

Cubans who depended on bicycles to get them through fuel shortages of the 1990s are getting behind the wheel again, and the resulting gridlock has prompted new traffic laws along with steep fines. They take effect on January 1.

With traffic accidents the leading cause of violent death on the island, and the fourth cause of all deaths, order must be restored to Cuba's streets and highways, said Lt. Col. Francisco Buzon, head of the traffic division of the National Revolutionary Police.

Among other things, drivers will be banned from using a cell phone with their hands, playing overly loud music, or abandoning a car with engine problems in the road -- a common practice.

A national traffic safety commission is also being created to study creation of a new and more complete code of traffic laws while more traffic police will be assigned to the streets.

New fines will begin at $1.50 -- a significant penalty in a nation where the average government worker's monthly salary is only about $17.

Authorities hope the new law will "increase caution and responsibility by drivers," said Maj. Raul Mora, of the Interior Ministry's Legal Division.

There are an average of 28 traffic accidents daily in this country of 11 million, resulting in an average of three deaths and 28 injuries, Buzon said.

While the number of accidents has remained roughly the same over the past several dozen years, the number of deaths has increased. "And that is our concern," he told a news conference Friday.

After the collapse of the former Soviet Union more than a decade ago, petroleum supplies dried up and many people took to the streets in bicycles to get to work or school. As Cuba's economy has slowly recovered, cars have slowly returned to the nation's roads.

Sales to Cuba could hit $1 billion by 2005

According to the president of the Farm Bureau and Cuban officials, sales of American foods and other approved products could reach $1 billion by 2005. 

Cayo Coco's new airport

Cuba has a modern airport at Jardines del Rey tourist resort, in Ciego de Avila province's northern keys, to contribute to the development of the tourist industry. When opening this airport, Cuban vice president Carlos Lage said the importance of this facility lies in that it considerably shortens the distance for tourists once they arrive in the Island and head for hotels in this tourist resort. Previously tourists had to travel over 100 kilometers by road. The vice president confirmed that the Island has about 40,000 hotel rooms for international tourism, keeps relations with 318 tour operators and tour agencies from around the world and 61 airlines from different nations travel to Cuba. "The past and the present of the Cuban Revolution, the security, calm, the protected environment and a healthy, educated and cultured people, make Cuba an exceptional tourist destiny, confirmed the leader. Civil Aeronautics Institute president Rogelio Acevedo stated that the new airport is the eleventh international airport in Cuba and will have a capacity for 600 departing and arriving passengers and could receive up to 1 million200,000 visitors per year. Lage explained that the airport has a 3,000-meter runway, a parking zone for three airplanes and is designed to be extended at a later date in correspondence with the long-term development of Jardines del Rey tourist resort. Another project inaugurated in the northern keys of this region was the El Baga Nature Park, the only of its kind in Cuba. This park, with an extension of 770 hectares, has an interpretation center and various paths where tourists can observe the virgin nature of the region, which has 156 species of plants, 86 types of birds and a variety of reptiles and amphibians, many of them endemic to the zone.  The airport was built at a cost of $33.6 million USD and 49 million 300 thousand Cuban pesos (the same quantity of US dollars at the official change rate) according to Granma newspaper. Cuban Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Fernandez and ambassadors Jesus Gracia Aldaz and Michael Small, from Spain and Canada, respectively, attended the opening ceremony at the two new facilities at the Jardines del Rey tourist resort.
 

Many improvements, including a golf course, coming to Cayo Coco

Ciego de Avila, Cuba - (PL) - Gaviota SA has added a new international level in Jardines del Rey, the second most important beach resort in Cuba, according to official sources. Ministry of Tourism"s delegate in this city, Raul Naranjo, told Prensa Latina that Gaviota-Cayo Coco resort with 50 rooms will operate as a three star plus hotel. The hotel is in Palma Real, one of the most attractive zones on this Islet, very close to the beach line, and services and entertainment meet the preference of the Italian market, Naranjo pointed out. The first tourist facility of Gaviota SA in northern Ciego de Avila keys, 267 miles east of Havana, has two restaurants, three bars, a swimming pool, gym and first aid station. Jardines del Rey currently has 10 hotels and two villas for foreign guests visiting the Island. This tourist region, formed by Coco and Guillermo keys, currently has 3,250 rooms for visitors, who enjoy nautical, nature and other recreational activities. About 30 flights currently arrive at Cayo Coco and Ciego de Avila airports weekly, mainly from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Argentina. Naranjo added that the sector intends to consolidate current markets and receive other visitors such as Russians and French in this area. The delegate emphasized that the new Gaviota hotel will start operations in 2003, and two others will be built, as well as an 18-hole golf course, Cayo Coco Mall, a submarine park and a first aid unit. This year, Jardines del Rey beach resort -known for its beaches, fine sand and natural beauties- will receive some 165,000 tourists and contribute $90 million to Cuba, a 4 percent increase over last year.
 

CNN reports (December 25)....Cuban tourism from the United States is up 35-40% over the holiday season

Younger travelers send number of holiday trips to Cuba soaring

Cuba-bound U.S. flights and reservations are reaching historic levels during the holiday season this year, according to several travel agencies.

''This month of December has been extraordinary,'' said Armando García, vice president of Marazul Charters. "The number of reservations is almost double those in July and August, when there is also an increase in sales.''

Not only are there more travelers but they are younger.

''When I started my transportation business in 1991, the average age of people traveling to Cuba was 68 to 75 years old,'' said John Cabañas, owner of C&T Charters in Miami. "Now, the average age is 40 and below.''

The spike in reservations for this month is up an estimated 35 percent to 40 percent compared to December 2000, when Miami experienced bookings not seen since 1959, agents said.

Additionally, the actual number of flights to Cuba also has increased. C&T Charters, for example, has scheduled at least 27 flights to Cuba this month compared to its average of 16 monthly flights.

''All the flights are full,'' Cabañas said. "We are at a 93 percent of our capacity for all the month of December in airplanes that have 206 seats.''

That amounts to about 5,000 travelers in December, up from the average of 3,200 passengers on C&T Charters flights each month.

ROBUST NUMBERS

Overall, at least 26,500 passengers were booked on 240 flights out of Miami this month, agents said. At Miami International Airport, a total of 99 flights left between Dec. 16 and 24, and an additional 11 are scheduled for Christmas Day, an MIA spokeswoman said. Compare that to a total of 144 flights in the full month of November.

''In general, there has been an increase from year to year,'' said Zachary Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs in Miami. "As additional airlines have been given permission to travel, there are more flights and more travelers.''

National statistics from the Federal Aviation Administration were not available.

Analysts attribute the rise to a change in travel policy, as well as to a new breed of younger travelers.

''Most of the Cuban-American community that travels to Cuba nowadays is younger than it used to be,'' said Pedro González Munné, director of a Miami-based company that promotes travel to Cuba. "They are people who came to Miami in the past eight or nine years and also the second generations born here who are in touch with their families in Cuba.''

Cabañas also attributed the increase to newer arrivals.

''More people are in touch with their families in Cuba and that is something crucial to explain this growth. Family is family and it surpasses any political situation,'' he said.

Family reunification is not the only reason people travel to Cuba. More native-born Americans also are starting to travel to the island, González Munné said.

"People are receiving more information about Cuba, its culture and reality, so they find it interesting and travel to learn more about its art, its music and everyday life.''

An estimated 180,000 Americans visit Cuba each year, and about 30 percent of those are not on the island to visit relatives, Cuban government statistics indicate. About 50,000 of the travelers go through third countries, circumventing the U.S. travel ban to Cuba.

Under current U.S. laws, legal travel to Cuba is restricted to people with relatives there, students, educators and such professionals as journalists, doctors and athletes. Cultural exchange programs count.

Bob Guild, Marazul Charters New York's organizer of trips for professors and students, agrees that this year there is a bigger interest among Americans in travel to Cuba. The agency sent 1,300 academic travelers to Cuba this year, compared to 800 last year.

''We found out,'' Guild said, "that Cuba is a particularly intriguing place for people to go compared to other destinations.''

Fidel Castro bedridden for a week...maybe more

'I have sworn never to scratch a bite again'

Wednesday, December 25, 2002 Posted: 12:18 PM EST (1718 GMT)

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for a week, told his countrymen on Wednesday that an insect bite that had caused his left leg to swell up will keep him in bed for another few days.

In a letter published on the front page of Cuba's state-run newspapers, the 76-year-old leader reassured Cubans he was recovering from an infection he got from scratching a mosquito or ant bite over a week ago.

"I am well, dear compatriots, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of the revolution," Castro said, referring to the one-party communist society he built in Cuba after seizing power in a 1959 guerrilla uprising.

Castro said he had developed lymphangitis from a staphylococcal infection of the skin. Lymphangitis indicates the spread of bacteria to the bloodstream and can cause life-threatening infections.

On Saturday, Castro missed a session of Cuba's National Assembly for the first time in 25 years, informing legislators in a letter that doctors had ordered him to rest up for three or four days.

"The three or four days that they promised me have extended to more than a week," he said in a detailed account of his illness published by the Communist Party daily Granma.

"The lesion finally became the beginnings of lymphangitis, but rest and medication have reduced it almost to zero," he said, saying he would have the use his left leg again soon.

"I have sworn never to scratch a bite again," Latin America's most famous leftist joked, adding that he had led his most important political battles with his left leg and it had never failed him.

Leader's disappearances draw attention

The aging leader generates speculation in Cuba and abroad every time he disappears from public sight in a country where details of his health are state secrets.

In June of last year, Castro stunned Cubans in Cuba and in exile when he fainted during a speech under a blazing sun.

The episode raised questions about the political future of the Caribbean island after he is gone. Castro's designated successor is his brother and army chief, Raul Castro, aged 71.

Castro has slowed in recent years, but continues to give three-hour speeches and hold late-night meetings with foreign visitors with his legendary stamina.

Most flights and hotel rooms regarding Cuba are "sold out"

Most flights from Canada are "sold out" thru January.  Most flights from Cancun are "sold out" until after the first of the year.  Most flights to Havana are "sold out" until January 7 from Nassau.  Just about every hotel room in Havana is "sold out" thru the holidays.  The Cubans are pretty happy!

Cuban tourism down 5% in 2002....down 22% in USA

Cuba's socialist economy has been recovering from the 1990s crisis due largely to a boom in tourism, which now earns more than all exports combined, or $1.85 billion in 2001.

The economy averaged 4 percent growth annually between 1997 and 2002 while tourism averaged 13 percent growth. Tourism declined 5 percent this year, Rodriguez said, after stagnating in 2001.

Local analysts said Cuba's main foreign exchange earners tourism, family remittances and sugar all suffered this year, leaving the government short cash to meet debt payments and buy imported oil.

A decline in foreign investment and credits have made matters worse, the analysts said.

Rodriguez warned that a possible war in Iraq next year would further increase oil prices and force the government to adopt emergency measures.

United Airlines and US Air have already filed for bankruptcy, others have simply closed down.  300 travel agencies per month are closing their doors, down more than 12,000 in the last year.   War with Iraq will bring and end to many more, vastly increase oil prices and cause a major increase in terrorism, some are saying!

Cuba says UN weapons inspectors have found no evidence

UN analyzes Iraq’s report
Inspectors have found no evidence against Iraq

UNITED NATIONS (PL).- Caught up in U.S. war rhetoric, the UN Security Council is today analyzing the Iraqi report on weapons of mass destruction, in a session that could prove crucial. Yesterday Mohamed al Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that there is no evidence to suggest that the Arab country has any development program for these types of weapons.

As previously arranged, Hans Blix, head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) is to present an initial evaluation of the 12,000-page report handed over by Iraq on December 8, in strict fulfillment of the Resolution 1441 30 days earlier.

Although in principle the contents should only be available to the UNMOVIC and the IAEA, Washington immediately received a copy and, a few days later, more arrived for the four other permanent members of the Security Council: Britain, France, Russia and China.

The 10 non-permanent members only obtained on Tuesday (December 17) a copy of a few thousand pages, "cleansed" of what the UN inspectors qualified as "sensitive information," alluding to countries that supplied materials for the previous Iraqi programs.

Sources that had access to the document stated that Iraq admitted to having tried in the past, without the necessary capacity, to produce nuclear weapons, while expounding in detail its total abandonment in 1991 of any attempt to develop chemical or biological military hardware.

To date, as confirmed by daily communiqués circulated here, the approximately 100 inspectors who had total freedom of access to all Iraqi installations, without previous warning to the authorities, have not found any evidence that Iraq has concealed any information.

Nonetheless, prior to the Security Council meeting, senior U.S. figures were confirming that the Arab country committed flagrant violations of its obligations.

On Tuesday, John S. Wolf from the State Department met with Blix, with the apparent objective of exercising pressure in favor of the military attack option.

At least one senior White House official commented to an important national newspaper that Thursday was going to be their big day, in allusion to the Security Council deliberations.

Observers note that despite heavy U.S. pressure, the other members of the Council, including its closest allies, believe it is premature to talk of flagrant violations, the pretext sought by the warmongers.

Cuba's unemployment is 3.3 %

Alfredo Morales Cartaya, minister of labor and social security, has informed the National Assembly that by the end of this year Cuba’s unemployment rate will stand at 3.3%, one of the lowest in the world, adding that is a notable reduction of unemployment on the island.

Morales told legislators that from 1995 (when the economy began its recovery) to date, 712,000 jobs have been created in Cuba, almost half of them in agriculture, education, public health, the sugar agribusiness industry, communal services and gastronomy.

From January to November of this year, he noted, some 14,000 new jobs have been created and the goal is to complete December with a total of 150,600, the planned target figure. Among the new jobs, 45% have gone to women and 66% to young people.

The minister also highlighted the influence of the Revolution’s current social programs. Some 31,352 jobs have been created in the last two years, including 7,900 in the social services, 6,325 in elementary schools, 741 in nursing — including young people graduating from the special courses — 89 in high school teaching, 12,390 in informatics and 1,230-plus as video and television room operators.

Morales also noted that in parallel with the country’s economic recovery, there has also been an increase in the number of workers to have received pay rises within a system based on productive results and the national business improvement program, as well as an increase in social security and assistance benefits, to which 11% of the GDP is allocated.

Cuba is now 5th most visited nation in the Americas

Bush may tighten travel to Cuba...won't bother us!!!

New Nature Park at Cayo Coco

Ecotourism will increase in the Jardines del Rey tourist resort with the opening of El Baga Nature Park in December, confirmed official sources. Luis Pacheco, general representative of the park in central Cuba's northern keys, told press that visitors will receive detailed information on the natural values of this zone at the Interpretation Center, one of the 32 facilities of this complex. The 1,730-acre center will open at 60 percent in mid-December. El Baga also has a pier, a Taina village and exhibits of iguana, turtle, bird, crocodile, fish and hutia that are in semi-captivity. Among the main attractions are paths through Bagá and under the Arbol Dorado, two emblematic places of great beauty, which will help the visitors to appreciate Cayo Coco"s natural patrimony. According to Pacheco, at the first state the Nature Park will offer about 30 services, among them gastronomic services, with two cafeterias, a restaurant and mobile shops, as well as rents of bicycles, horses and speedboats. The zone is ideal for ecotourism with its different modalities, such as land and water tours, animal and bird watching, as well as nautical sports, including diving, the park representative pointed out. This nature park, valued at $8 million, will be the main motivation for foreign visitors who prefer this tourist complex, the third most important in Cuba (after Havana and Varadero). Pacheco predicted they expect to receive 25,000 tourists each year, since there is capacity for about 200 tourists daily. About 160,000 tourists annually enjoy Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo complexes, 15 percent of whom have a preference for nature, highlighted Pacheco.  The second stage will conclude in the first half of 2003, and among the options will offer a buccaneer galleon, a pirate history room, a lizard forest, bat cave, cactus garden and sun clock.
 

New Resort with 944 rooms opens in Holguin

The 944 room Playa Pesuero Resort near Holguin is now open. The cost was over US$ 90 million and when full will have 2000 workers.

Half the world lives in poverty...1 billion in extreme poverty

THE State of the World Population in 2002, a magnificent socio-demographic study published on an annual basis by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) for the last 25 years, this year focuses on the link between populational poverty and vulnerability.

Reflecting on the publication, Luis Gómez Echeverrí, resident UN coordinator in Cuba, affirms that it has been demonstrated that where there is greater poverty, this is not solely reflected by a rise in the fertility rate. In other words, when there are more births - in their majority unwanted - other populational disasters increase, such as maternal mortality, infant mortality, perinatal mortality and HIV and AIDS, together with other sexually transmitted infections.

That is the case in the 49 least developed countries, but these tragedies are not confined to them. It is calculated that half the world population is living in poverty and that one billion persons are living in extreme poverty.

That explains why in many countries basic population indices leave much to be desired. If poverty and lack of economic growth are combined with a dire spectrum of populational disasters, the opposite is likewise clear, Gómez Echeverrí notes.

He goes on to add that if better reproductive health is promoted, that propitiates economic growth and thus poverty is reduced. It is absolutely true that poverty involves much more than a lack of income, as it brings with it inequality, illiteracy, ill health and disease.

He recalls that of the eight development goals approved by governments at the Millennium Summit sponsored by the United Nations last year, seven of them depend to a high degree on access to reproductive health services being expanded.

On the other hand, he highlighted the excellent example given by Cuba in relation to reproductive health. He added that on the island, where women enjoy equal rights with men, reproductive health services for both genders have succeeded in reducing to the minimum health indicators that are provoking alarm in other countries.

The UN Population Fund, Echeverrí affirmed, “is proud to support this effort, not only in the field of health but also in that of educating the younger generations. The UN resident coordinator extended greetings to all those involved in this “fruitful effort, whose results are not only exemplary in terms of protecting the Cuban population, but also demonstrate that they are possible, even in the midst of economic difficult junctures such as those Cuba is currently experiencing.”

Directly attacking poverty is a priority for the planet, affirms the UN report on the state of the world population in 2002.

According to that agency’s projections, the world population will continue to grow with a predicted 9.3 billion people by the year 2050. The urgency of this international call is intended to make all governments aware of what that means.

How many millions of cubic meters of drinking water will be needed for humanity’s survival is a serious question in terms of the current situation of that precious liquid, whose scarcity is evident in various regions. In Peru, for example, almost 90% of its inhabitants live in an area with close to 2% of the large resources of available water, making it essential for the country to import substantial volumes of food.

The planet currently has 6.211 billion inhabitants, but the number of persons living on very few dollars per day has increased to around three billion. The energy that charges industries and facilitates services is basically generated from oil. However, hydrocarbon reserves are rapidly declining.

Some researchers have stated that the United States, the largest world consumer, has exploitable oil deposits for just 15 or 20 years.

The report points to a reduction in fertility rates and demographic growth. However, the distance separating the rich from the poor continues growing. It affirms that poverty, ill health and fertility have the highest rates in the least developed countries, whose populations have tripled in relation to 1995. It is envisaged that they will almost triple in the next 30 years.

In the least developed countries, life expectancy stands at 49 years and only one out of every 10 children reaches the age of 10. This is reflected in the global discrepancy between rich and poor, which is increasing. The difference between the 20% richest nations and the 20% poorest is 74 to 1, according to calculations made at the end of the last century.

The UN document emphasizes the situation of women, whose numbers are higher than those of men among the persons living in poverty. While economic growth and higher incomes might reduce gender inequality, they do not eliminate all the barriers blocking women’s social participation and development the report warns, and calls for the adoption of measures that would guarantee those rights.

These measures include the battle against HIV and AIDS, given that women constitute almost half of the total of adults infected.

The report calls attention to the situation of the countries most affected, in which the pandemic is already stalling economic growth and their economies.

It emphasizes that even when many of the developing countries have increased access to basic education over the last 10 years, the poor continue being those with the least possibilities of schooling. It states that tests compiled in a varied group of developing countries reveal that a large percentage of public spending directed towards education pays for the government actions on behalf of the rich.

Another point highlighted by the report is that urgent action is imperative in order to reduce poverty in the developing countries, by helping women to avoid unwanted pregnancies and eliminating illiteracy and discrimination based on gender.
 

American students question Castro on equality

More than 600 American students are in Cuba

THE Semester at Sea program, organized by the University of Pittsburgh, has once again landed on Cuban soil.

This is the seventh time that the academic ship has arrived in Havana, the last port of call for over 600 young people from 269 U.S. universities who set off from Vancouver, Canada on August 31. Their three-day stay on the island is an opportunity for them to find out about Cuban realities.

The young people’s agenda includes visits to historic places such as the Bay of Pigs, Havana museums, cultural and student centers. On their arrival they went to the University where, in the words of Oniel Díaz, president of the Federation of University Students, the Alma Mater received them with open arms.

In his welcoming address, Díaz confirmed that they would meet “young people who can tell the difference between the U.S. people and more than 40 years of anti-Cuban inhuman policies.”

The visitors enjoyed a concert of traditional music by Pancho Amat, one of the country’s most talented tres players; a banner floating over the proceedings read: “Down with terrorism and war, we want peace”.

After, the visitors took part in a conference on Cuban democracy and the electoral system, then watched a video giving general information about the island.

They were also able to listen to the daily experiences of a group of U.S. students enrolled on a postgraduate course at the University of Havana as part of a program of academic exchanges with various U.S. universities. A young woman studying modern culture told them that Havana is like a second home to her. Her suggestions: contact with people in the street, the Malecón (seafront drive), movies at the recently inaugurated Latin American Film Festival, and books on Cuba.
 

Elian turns 9

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Life has never been the same for Elian Gonzalez since an ill-fated attempt to take him to the United States left his mother dead and made him the focus of an international tug-of-war.

The boy turned 9 years old in his hometown on Friday before the eyes of the press and with celebrations in all of the city's schools.

Elian remains an icon on both sides of the Florida Strait -- a symbol of betrayal to many Cuban-Americans furious at his return to Cuba and a the focus of a major publicity campaign for the communist government on the island.

Cuban officials say they have tried to create a relatively normal life for the child who lived under the constant vigilance of television cameras during his seven-month stay in the United States from November 1999 to June 2000.

But few 9-year-olds have a museum dedicated to the fight for their custody or see their birthday celebrated in schools throughout their hometown. Cardenas is about 85 miles (140 kilometers) east of Havana.

The Communist Party youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde dedicated a full page to Elian on Friday, publishing photos that showed him in a suit and tie alongside his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez and sitting atop a horse and a motor scooter with relatives.

Castro himself showed up for Elian's 7th birthday in 2000, less than six months after U.S. officials returned him to Cuba.

Elian was rescued off Florida after his mother and most of the other passengers traveling illegally from Cuba to the United States died when their boat capsized.

The boy was temporarily placed with relatives in Miami who, backed by other Cuban exiles, fought to keep the child in the United States.

In response, Castro organized nearly daily rallies to demand that Elian be returned and reunited with his father.

Elian returned to Cuba on June 28, 2000, after a legal battle that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Editors note:  Elian Gonzales must be given credit for opening the eyes of most Americans as to the truth about what is going on in Cuba and about the influence the Miami Cubans have over the White House and the Congress of the United States.  I call it the "bribe money".  If Americans want to know the real truth about Cuba....the only way they will ever know is to go and see for themselves. 

Fishing and hunting continue their downward trend in America

A comparison of estimates from the 1991, 1996, and 2001 Surveys reveals that millions of Americans continue to enjoy wildlife recreation. While the number of sportspersons fell from 40 million in 1991 to 37.8 million in 2001, their expenditures increased from $53 billion (adjusted for inflation and comparability between Surveys) in 1991 to $70 billion in 2001.

Fishing — Fishing continues to be a favorite pastime in the United States. In 2001, 16% of the U.S. population 16 years old and older spent an average of 16 days fishing. Comparing results of the 2001 Survey and the 1996 Survey reveals that the number of all anglers declined 3% and overall fishing expenditures fell 17% — a 16% drop in trip and a 22% drop in equipment expenditures.

From 1991 to 2001, the number of all anglers declined 4% and expenditures increased 14%. Saltwater fishing increased 22% but freshwater fishing declined by 6%.

Hunting — Six percent of the U.S. population 16 years old and older, over 13 million people, hunted in 2001. They spent an average of 18 days pursuing their sport. The number of all hunters declined by 7% from 1991 to 2001 and there was a 12% drop in expenditures (not a statistically significant change).

Comparing 1991 to 2001, the number of all hunters declined by 7%. Although the number of all hunters fell, the number of big game and migratory bird hunters remained constant. The decreases occurred in small game (-29%) and other animal (-26%) hunting. Hunting expenditures increased 29% from 1991 to 2001, primarily due to equipment expenditures.

There is good and bad in every government and governmental system

HE WAS NOT what one might have expected. Pudgy with perfect hair and a neatly trimmed mustache, wearing a pin-striped suit and a shiny gold watch and wedding ring, he could have walked through downtown Manchester, or downtown Manhattan, without attracting a glance from anyone.

As this man sat before us in his nice clothes, with his twinkling jewelry and his styled hair, trying to convince us how great life in Cuba was, we wondered how many Cubans could eat for a year on the money it took to buy his wardrobe and send him to the United States to seek out gullible Americans and turn them into friends of Fidel.
 

Note:  We remind you that about 10% of the Cuban population has left to live in another country.  13 million illegals from Mexico and Central American live in the United States, where on the other hand more than 2 million Americans have chosen to live in other countries, many have renounced their US citizenship.  In fact there are hundreds of Americans living in Cuba....not all are criminals or escaping the IRS!

Tourism up in October but down for the year

All new nature center at Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo

Cuban students are at the top in Latin America

Cuba leads Latin America in primary education, study finds

BY CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON.- Cuba, a Marxist nation with profound economic difficulties, leads Latin America in primary education, a regional task force has found.

In test scores, completion rates and literacy levels, Cuban primary students are at or near the top of a list of peers from across Latin America, the task force reported.

Indeed, the performance of Cuban third and fourth graders in math and language so dramatically outstripped that of other nations that the United Nations agency administering the test returned to Cuba and tested students again, according to a coordinator of the study.

"They went back to Cuba and retested because there was some anomaly," said Jeff Puryear, the co-director of the Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas, which helped organize the task force. "This is a good, solid, reliable comparison."

The task force highlighted the results of the first region-wide test of primary students, which was administered in 1998 by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.

"Cuba far and away led the region in third- and fourth-grade mathematics and language achievement," the panel said. "Even the lowest fourth of Cubans students performed above the regional average."

Cuba’s educational system, along with health care, has been a priority of the government of President Fidel Castro since the early days of the revolution four decades ago.

The findings are especially remarkable since the island has lived under an American economic embargo for decades and lost its Soviet patron – and billions of dollars in subsidies – a decade ago, plunging Cubans into a period of austerity, blackouts and food shortages. Government planners say they have diverted funds from other areas to bolster schools and hospitals, which nonetheless have deteriorated.

The findings for the rest of Latin America were grim. The study, which is to be presented Friday by the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, reported that quality remains low, inequality remains high and few schools are accountable to parents and local communities.

Cubans will vote on January 19

Second stage of elections convened
• Delegates to provincial assemblies and deputies to the National Assembly deputies to be elected on January 19 

MORE than eight million Cubans eligible to vote will exercise that right on January 19, to elect deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power and delegates to the 14 provincial assemblies, who will serve for the next five years.

The second phase of the general election — the first concluded on November 16 when 169 Municipal Assemblies (local government) were established — was announced in a Council of State agreement signed by its president, Fidel Castro.

The last elections to select deputies took place in November 1998, with a 98% turnout for both processes.

The first stage saw the election of 14,946 local government representatives for an equal number of constituencies. 

Almost half the 600 National Assembly and 154 provincial assembly members were elected in the municipalities.

A national commission consisting of the island’s social organizations, headed by the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC), nominates the remaining candidates.

Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo, head of the National Electoral Commission, recently explained that the Municipal Assemblies have the power to totally or partially approve or reject the nominations, thus reflecting their democratic content. 
 

Changes on Cuba Embargo are dead for this year...we will try again in 2003!

Legislation will be introduced again next year.  Congress will face new proposals to relax the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba next year, advocates say, probably highlighted by a bid to allow U.S. tourism to the next-door nation in the Caribbean.

Food was exempted from the embargo two years ago. But proposals for further easing have faltered, partly due to opposition by House Republican leaders like Tom DeLay of Texas, who will become majority leader in January.

With time running out for this month's “lame duck'' session, there was little chance Congress would alter the embargo this year. Adjournment, expected later this week, would kill proposals to allow tourism, remove limits on the amount of money Americans can send to relatives in Cuba and lower obstacles to sales of food and medicine.

“Travel is the crown jewel'' in the tussle over U.S. sanctions, said Brian Alexander of the Cuba Policy Foundation, which supports an end to the embargo.

Alexander foresaw debate over smaller issues as well as lightning rods like the travel ban. U.S. tourism to Cuba is banned in most cases. This year's initiatives foundered because ``Congress ran out of time to do its business,'' he said, not due to a lack of interest among lawmakers.

“We're going to be continuing to focus on the travel ban,'' said a spokesman for Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican and a leader of the bipartisan Cuba Working Group in the House. The group also would permit private U.S. financing of food exports. Only cash sales are allowed now.

In the U.S. business community, there was interest in exempting sales of farm equipment from the embargo, viewed as a logical expansion of the food sales. If dairy cows can be sold, so should U.S. milking machines, the reasoning went. A congressional sponsor for the idea has not been found.

Enlarging the agricultural exemption would be a change in tack from the current drive to let U.S. banks underwrite food sales to Cuba.

It also would be less of a challenge to President Bush's pledge, made last May 20, to veto changes in the embargo until a new government is installed in Havana, said one person versed in the matter.

Havana was forecast to buy $165 million in U.S. food and farm exports this year, a dramatic change from two years ago when Castro swore his country would never buy a single grain of rice until the economic embargo was lifted entirely.

About 200,000 U.S. citizens visited Cuba last year, most of them arriving under one of the exceptions allowed to the travel ban. About 120,000 Cuban Americans visited and 80,000 of the rest of us.  About 60,000 Americans evaded the ban by traveling through a third nation.

Some 1.8 million tourists visited Cuba last year. Cuba has encouraged tourism as a source of hard currency.

When Congress convenes for its new session, there will be some shifting among the posts that could influence the debate on Cuba policy.

Embargo supporter DeLay, now the assistant Republican leader in the House, will become majority leader. Indiana Republican Richard Lugar, a skeptic of unilateral embargoes, will become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, succeeding Castro critic Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, who is retiring.

“How far any legislation moves in 2003 will be directly proportional to the level of economic activity between the United States and Cuba,'' said John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. ``If activity remains constant or increases, the constituency in the House or Senate will increase proportionally.''

Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the largest U.S. farm group, the 5.1 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation, said she expected sentiment would continue to build for more trade with Cuba.

AFBF president Bob Stallman and five state Farm Bureau presidents were scheduled to arrive in Cuba on Monday for a five-day visit. They are expected to meet Pedro Alvarez, head of Cuba's state-run food importing company and to visit a dairy processing plant and a sugar mill.
 

Bush welcomes Jimmy Carter and other Nobel Prize winners to White House

'We're proud for what you've done'

Monday, November 18, 2002 Posted: 5:30 PM EST (2230 GMT)

President Bush welcomed America's Nobel laureates to the White House Monday, including former President Jimmy Carter, who has criticized the current administration regarding Iraq, Cuba and North Korea.

Carter, 78, won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his "untiring effort" to resolve international conflicts peacefully and to advance democracy and human rights.

In awarding the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee issued a thinly veiled rebuke to Bush, contrasting Carter's success on Middle East peace through diplomacy with Bush's determination to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by force if necessary.

With Carter at his side in the Oval Office and flanked by five other 2002 Nobel winners, Bush quipped: "Of course, I welcome somebody who spent a lot of quality time here."

"These Americans are a great honor to their fields and a great honor to our country and we're proud to have you here," Bush said. "We're proud for what you've done, for not only America but for the world."

In September, Carter voiced alarm at the administration's threats to take military action against Iraq without the approval of the United Nations. He said had he been a member of Congress, he would have voted against the resolution allowing Bush to use force to disarm Iraq.

But Friday, he said in a CNN interview he was grateful that the administration had changed its position and decided to go to the United Nations. On November 8, the Security Council unanimously approved a tough, new resolution.

"There will be inspections. We're going to concentrate on weapons of mass destruction and we're going to work with other countries," he said. "So I'm very pleased with the latest developments, hope and believe that there's a good chance for the U.N. resolutions to be honored."

Carter also has prodded the administration to end the four-decade-old trade embargo on Cuba. He visited the Communist island in May.

In addition, the former president has been critical of Bush for failing to build on previous diplomatic efforts with North Korea. Carter helped negotiate a failed agreement in 1994 under which Pyongyang was to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The pact became moot last month when North Korea admitted it still had such a program.

The other Nobel laureates lauded by Bush were:

• Raymond Davis of New York (Physics)

• John Fenn, of Virginia (Chemistry)

• Riccardo Giacconi, of Washington D.C. (Physics)

• Robert Horvitz, Massachusetts (Physiology/Medicine)

• Vernon Smith, Virginia (Economics)

Cuba puts black American farmers at front of the line

Cuba Puts African-American Farmers First in Line
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
November 15, 2002

(CNSNews.com) - The Cuban government has agreed to buy food directly from America's black farmers - an agreement the NAACP considers a major boost for those farmers.

"This is an historic announcement and one that I personally find very heartening," said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume Friday in a statement from Havana. "President Fidel Castro promised to establish trade links with black farmers and it appears he has kept his word."

Mfume has been in Cuba for most of the week, leading a delegation that included John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. The group met with Pedro Alvarez, the director of Cuba's food import company on Thursday, and it also met Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Castro, according to Mfume, promised African-American farmers they would have full access to Cuba's $1.5 billion import agricultural market.

According to an NAACP statement, Alvarez told Boyd that if an African-American farmer can deliver the many tons of food that Cuba wants to buy, "you will not be standing line behind anyone."

He said Cuba would be buying more than a billion dollars' worth of food in the coming year.

Mfume said he and Boyd will hold additional talks to iron out final agreements before signing a contract for food products such as rice, chicken quarters, flour and other grocery products.

A change in U.S. law now allows the Cuban government to purchase U.S. food, as long as it's on a cash-only basis.

The Castro government issued no official reaction.

But Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), himself a Cuban exile, scoffed Friday at Mfume's announcement.

"I wish Cuban farmers could live and farm freely in Cuba, and that people around the world would support the Cuban people's right to live free of tyranny. Instead, we continue to see shameful examples of support for a racist, totalitarian tyranny which has oppressed the Cuban people for over four decades," Diaz-Balart told CNSNews.com .

The Cuba Policy Foundation, a group that opposes the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, believes the more agricultural trade between the U.S. and Cuba, the better off both sides will be in the future.

Brian Alexander, a spokesman for the Cuba Policy Foundation, called the black farmers' deal with Cuba a positive gesture."

"Any instance when you have an increase of American exports, it's good for the American people," he said.

"I know that black farmers in the South in particular have been hard hit by the embargo, so this should come as welcome news to them. This is yet another crack in the (Cuban economic) embargo's dam and another way for the United States to try to crack its policy toward Cuba," Alexander told CNSNews.com.

President Bush has said he will not lift the Cuban economic embargo, imposed in 1961, until the Castro regime honors human rights, releases political prisoners and holds free and fair elections.

Fat Cubans?

The Castro government apparently thinks a lot of Cubans are eating too well and getting too fat. A team of government nutritional experts has started handing out pamphlets detailing how Cubans should acquire healthier eating habits and modify their diets.

"Black World Today" reported Friday that the government started the nutrition campaign following a survey that found most Cubans don't eat enough fresh fruit.

The typical Cuban menu includes pork, fried plantains (a kind of banana), fried vegetables, rice, beans, and few fresh fruits and vegetables, which are expensive in Cuba. Sixty-two percent of the Cubans surveyed said they rarely or never ate fresh salads.

The government survey also found that many Cubans prefer soft drinks and other artificially flavored beverages instead of natural fruit juices.

The Castro government called on Cubans over the age of two to eat fruits and vegetables every day, use vegetable oils instead of animal fats, consume more chicken or fish, reduce sugar and salt consumption and exercise to stay in shape.

The government also admonished Cubans to avoid the temptation of skipping breakfast.

Last month, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said malnutrition in Cuba rose from five percent of the population in the 1990-1992 period to 13 percent between 1998 and 2000.
 

UN votes to end embargo 173-3

November 12, 2002

For the 11th time: the UN votes in favor of ending blockade on Cuba

UNITED NATIONS (PL).- On Tuesday, November 12, the United Nations General Assembly clearly and overwhelmingly pronounced in favor of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba.

For the 11th time, the UN’s most representative body adopted a resolution on the issue with 173 countries in favor and three against (the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands). Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia and Malawi abstained.

The voting reflects the ever-increasing international repudiation of the U.S. policy of harassment toward Cuba, taking into consideration last year’s figures when 167 countries voted in favor, considered at the time to be the highest number of votes since debates on the subject began in 1992.

The text recalls the declarations made by the heads of state and government at the Ibero-American Summit on the need to end the unilateral application of economic and trade measures against other states that affect the free development of international trade.

In the very next line it expressed concern over the spread and application of laws and provisions such as the 1996 Helms-Burton law, whose extraterritorial effects affect the sovereignty of other states, the legitimate interests of organizations or persons under its jurisdiction, and the freedom to trade and navigate.

The executive body reiterates previous calls to all states to abstain from promulgating and applying laws and measures such as the afore-mentioned Helms-Burton, in fulfillment of their obligations with the UN Charter and international law.

It once again urges states that are continuing to apply existing legislation and measures of this type to repeal or neutralize them in the shortest possible time, and in accordance with their legal machinery.

It calls on the UN secretary general to prepare a report on the fulfillment of the resolution adopted and present it to the General Assembly in its next session.

Thus, it notes, the theme: “The need to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba,” is to be placed on that agenda.

The proposal finally adopted was presented by Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, president of the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power.

Representatives from Mexico, China, Viet Nam, Venezuela, Laos, Sudan, Togo, Myanmar, Zambia, Jamaica (on behalf of the Caribbean Community-

CARICOM), and Belarus also spoke in favor of the resolution at the plenary session.

Namibia, Tanzania, Iraq, Libya, Zimbabwe, Syria, Japan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark (on behalf of the European Union), the Russian Federation and Australia also expressed their support for the resolution.
 

With President Bush and Republicans now in charge, improvements regarding Cuba relations are unlikely...American's cherished liberties are also disappearing

With the Bush Doctrine controlling the USA today, it is unlikely that any Cuba legislation will ever reach the floor of the Senate for a vote.  Trent Lott, Dennis Hastert and Tom Delay will make sure  nothing good regarding Cuba ever happens.  Nothing is what Bush wants and that is exactly what he is going to get.....nothing, when it comes to Cuba!

Americans can say good-bye to most of their cherished privacy, from now on....every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill will be observed by Homeland Security.  Every Website you visit, every e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book, every event you attend....will be made available to the Department of Defense.

All your records about a drivers license, passport application, judicial and divorce records, complaints from your neighbors, will become the object of your government's interest.  Even a record of the toll bridges you cross will be sent to Uncle Sam.

The British are expanding their version of the Freedom of Information Act, while this Administration has all but eliminated it.  One of the first things President George W. Bush did was to make it virtually impossible to get information regarding his fathers (Bush-Quayle) Administration and that of the Reagan-Bush Administration.  I wonder what they are trying to hide?  Not really....in fact, I know much of what they are trying to hide....bribe money, cronyism, lies, illegal activities and corruption!

Does all this sound like a new American Gestapo to you.....it does to me!

Editors note:  The only way to change policy regarding Cuba will be with both the US House of Representatives and the Senate having enough votes to override a George W. Bush "veto".

While the Bush Administration sleeps, Canadians will improve relations with Cuba

Mytchell Mora openly defies travel ban...way to go Mytchell

U.S. citizen refuses to accept travel ban

MYTCHELL Mora, a U.S. citizen from Beverly Hills, California, does not ascribe to the laws of his country prohibiting him from traveling to Cuba because he considers them unconstitutional.

Over the years Mora has traveled many times to Cuba. Then, in 2001, he was forced to confront the Treasury Department, which threatened him with a fine. He not only refused to pay the fine, but has traveled to Cuba yet again, this time notifying the press of his intentions.

On his return, he wants to demonstrate to the court the absurdity of legislation that attempts to impede him from traveling to this country.

It’s not that Mytchell Mora is unpatriotic. He affirms with conviction that he loves his country dearly and that is why he wants to demonstrate the shameful nature of this law.

The fines imposed by the Treasury Department are, in effect, unconstitutional. Theoretically, if he has committed a crime, he should be considered innocent until proven guilty before a court of law. But in the case of these penalties, there are no legal proceedings with which to fight them, thereby constituting a violation of his rights, states this young man, who has been the subject of articles in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Cigar Aficionado.

In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment that in practice would eliminate restrictions on travel to Cuba. According to that legislation, the Treasury Department cannot spend funds on applying the measures implemented in October 2000 to limit travel to the island.

On that occasion, 240 lawmakers voted to lift the travel ban, while 189 voted to maintain restrictions. Some 12 hours later, President George W. Bush rejected the results of the vote, thus fulfilling his promise to the extremist Miami circles that contributed to his ascent to power.

Despite restrictions and maneuvers by the Bush Administration to stop U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba, they are continuing to visit the island in large numbers. In fact, they presently constitute a significant percentage of the clientele in some of the best-known hotels in Havana.

The New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council estimates that approximately 160,000 U.S. citizens traveled to the island in 2001, twice as many as the year before.

The obdurate U.S. government opposition goes against the grain of strong public opinion throughout the United States, not only in favor of lifting the travel ban but also a series of hostile measures imposed on Cuba for more than four decades.

Opinion polls consistently show that the majority of U.S. citizens do not support the absurd maintenance of an obsolete Cold War policy that has failed to evolve with the times.

Mytchell Mora’s anger and his determination to act as a good citizen who simply wants his constitutional rights respected, confirms this.

Mora intends to return to his country on Tuesday, November 5, via Los Angeles International Airport (LA-X), where he will demand to be arrested. If they don’t do it, the weakness of this anti-constitutional law will be demonstrated, he affirms.

Editors note:  Americans seeking to know how to get around the US travel ban should consult our website  www.cubatravelusa.com  Then click on the button at the top called Travel Tips and follow those instructions....if you follow those instructions, more than likely you will not have problems.

Cuba signs Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty....US still refuses

ON November 4 in Moscow, Cuba handed over the instrument of adhesion to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). With Cuba’s inclusion, this brings the number of states that are part of the cited instrument to 188.

At the moment of joining, our government has repeated its principled position that, for Cuba, military doctrines upholding the possession of nuclear weapons are unsustainable and unacceptable, while reiterating its belief that no country or group of countries should be allowed a monopoly of nuclear weapons or their quantitative or qualitative development.

Cuba considers that the only way to overcome the NPT’s original shortcomings and its selective and discriminatory core is by meeting the objective of the total elimination of nuclear weapons, thus guaranteeing equal security for all.

At the same time, Cuba has declared that, in fulfillment of the Treaty’s provisions, the legitimate right of states to have full access to nuclear energy for peaceful ends must be respected. Thus, the imposition of unilateral restrictive measures in the exchange of equipment, material and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy must end.

By adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Cuba is reaffirming its position that non-proliferation measures should not constitute an end in themselves, but one step in the process leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons and complete and general disarmament, under strict and efficient international control.

Cuba’s decision goes beyond its national interests and is a demonstration of the political will and commitment of the Cuban state to the promotion and consolidation of the United Nations, multilateralism and international treaties related to disarmament and weapons control. It also constitutes a contribution to the international community’s efforts in favor of peace, security and a world free of the enormous danger that nuclear weapons represent.

Havana, November 5, 2002.
 

Spielburg criticizes Cuban Embargo while in Cuba

HAVANA....Film director Steven Spielberg criticized the U.S. trade embargo against this communist-run island after arriving on a trip to meet with young Cuban cinematographers and attend a festival showing eight of his films.

"I personally feel this embargo should be lifted," Spielberg told a news conference at a Havana hotel Monday. "I don't see any reason for its existence beyond grudges carrying into the 21st century."

Spielberg said he had seen several Cuban films in the past and found their scripts to be "interesting and passionate." "I am here to meet a very rich and varied culture," he added before being swept away for a tour of architectural renovation projects in Old Havana.

The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industry invited Spielberg to Cuba, where he will meet with Cuban filmmakers and visit the International School of Film and Television, which trains students from around the world in the moviemaking arts.

On Tuesday night, Spielberg will launch the festival of his films by attending the Cuban premiere of his most recent film, "Minority Report." Other films to be presented during the festival at four Havana theaters and in video salons across the island are "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jaws," "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," "Empire of the Sun" and "Duel."

Spielberg is also scheduled to visit Havana's main synagogue to meet the Jewish community and attend a reception with U.S. diplomats and their families stationed in Havana.

Accompanying Spielberg on the trip are his wife, actress Kate Capshaw; cinematographer Janusz Kaminski; and television director Jake Paltrow.

Bush Administration has sent out 391 letters so far this year

George W. Bush has made it very clear that he does not believe in the "freedom to travel" and has sent out 391 letters threatening to fine Americans for having traveled to Cuba.  Some say the Bush administration sent out 766 letters in 2001.  Others say it was 698. No matter, about 80,000 Americans, other than Cuban Americans, visited Cuba in the past year, 60,000 illegally.

From our point of view, myself, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild receive an average of about 2 calls per day.  That tells me that almost every American that is getting a letter threatening a fine, is contacting us.  Thus far we have gotten nearly 100% of those receiving these letters off the hook, at least for now, and at least for the ones we know about.  Not one person who has received one of these letters and then contacted us, followed our instructions on asking for a hearing, has ever heard from the Bush Administration again.  We won't be happy until all 100% have our help.

Bush says he is cracking down.....we say we are easily winning!  So far it hasn't been too hard to outsmart this "Home Grown Texas Dope"....91 IQ and all!  Help us to find every American who gets in trouble with Bush...so we can help them.  We support freedom 100%.  Bush doesn't!

US continues effort to cause hunger and sickness among Cubans

October 31, 2002

CUBA PRESENTS NEW REPORT AGAINST THE BLOCKADE AT THE UN
Economic losses in excess of $70 billion US Dollars

 Complete text of the report:
 

Embargo has cost Cuba $70 Billion

November 1, 2002

US Blockade Affects Cuba's International Relations

Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque asserted Wednesday that lifting the US blockade imposed on Cuba for over 40 years would contribute to regional and global distension.

Removing Washington's economic, trade and financial sanctions on Havana would eliminate factors interfering in the Island's relations with Latin America and the European Union (EU), said Perez Roque.

During the presentation of the draft resolution against the blockade that Cuba will submit for the eleventh consecutive year to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on November 12, the Cuban minister said that the unilateral US measure has a strong extraterritorial character.

He stressed that this is not a bilateral issue (Cuba-US). By introducing the resolution, we are not driven by national interests but the need to preserve international rights that should be respected and observed by all countries.

Perez Roque further stated that Cuba considers the resolution support to the efforts made by US congressmen, farmers and much of the Cuban community residing in that country, to change the "erroneous, absurd and unexplainable" policy.

The Cuban top official noted that lifting the blockade would contribute to increasing the economic potentialities of the US people.

Everybody will benefit (with the blockade's removal), except the Miami minority, a stubborn sector of rightwing Cuban Americans that have profited for decades from the hostile US government policy, said Perez Roque.

The resolution titled "Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba," is not an act against the US people, who, he emphasized, is not to blame and are also victims of the hostility.

The document introduced to the UN Secretary-General indicates that Cubans continue suffering the genocidal policy of Washington, which tries to break the Cuban will to defend its freedom, self-determination, independence, social justice and equity.

The report stated that economic war causes serious and damage to Cubans' material, psychic and spiritual well being. It accused President George W. Bush of tightening the already strict blockade and using anti-Cuban rhetoric with threats against the Island to seek electoral benefits for himself and his family.

Among the text's conclusions, the document shows that Cuba has suffered economic losses exceeding $70 billion US Dollars, due to the US blockade.

The Washington blockade will continue affecting the Cubans' basic human rights such as the right to health and food, the resolution added. It notes that the recent sale of food to Havana by US companies, without the objection of the Bush administration, cannot be interpreted as an easing of the economic embargo officially imposed in 1962.

The food purchases took place under strict restrictions and many obstacles.

With the Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) Acts, the White House institutionalized and systematized the extraterritorial imposition of its blockade on Cuba and other nations, the resolution concluded.

In 2001, 167 states pronounced before the UN in favor of ending the unilateral measures imposed on the Caribbean country. That number could increase at the voting this coming November 12, according to Perez Roque. (PL)

Editors note:  There is not one thing either Christian or American about trying to starve a people into submission.  The Bible says, "You should defend those who cannot help themselves.  Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice." (Proverbs 31:8)

Cuba launches campaign to end embargo

Cuba launches anti-embargo campaign two weeks before UN vote

AP/ Wed Oct 30, 1:09 PM ET

HAVANA - Saying Americans are also victims of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, the communist country on Wednesday launched its annual campaign leading up to next month's United Nations vote to condemn the trade sanctions.

"This is not a move against the United States," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said at a news conference about Cuba's resolution calling for an end to the embargo. "This is a move against a wrong-headed policy."

The foreign minister said Cuba did not blame Americans for their government's policy against the island, in place for more four decades. "They are also victims of this absurd policy," Perez Roque added.

The U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to vote Nov. 12 on the annual resolution declaring the "necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."

In Cuba's report to the U.N. Secretary on the resolution, submitted on July 15, the government declares that the sanctions have caused more than $70 billion in damages to the Caribbean country.

The sanctions were imposed in the early 1960s, after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.

"The policy of blockade has inflicted and continues to inflict serious and onerous damages on the Cuban people's material, psychological and spiritual welfare, while hindering its economic and social development," Cuba's report says.

"The U.S. blockade has forced consecutive generations of Cubans to live under a climate of permanent hostility and tension," it added.

For 10 years in a row, the U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly for an end to the U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba. Last year, only the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands voted in favor of maintaining the sanctions.

74 year old woman fights fine for traveling to Cuba

95.64% of the Cubans voted on October 20

New Sandals Hotel at Varadero to open this month

Carter criticizes Bush policy on Cuba once again

WASHINGTON.-On October 14, former U.S. president and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter once again criticized current U.S. President George Bush’s policy on Cuba. AFP reports that Carter also urged the ending of the over 40-year long embargo (blockade) of the island.

There’s no doubt that the vast majority of U.S. people want reconciliation with Cuba and for travel restrictions and the economic embargo to end, Carter told Sky Radio, a company producing audio visual programs for six U.S. airlines.

He commented that his government’s mistaken policy restricts the freedom of its own citizens, not Cubans.

I don’t see why U.S. citizens can’t go wherever they want in the world if it’s not dangerous. If there’s no danger in Cuba, then why can’t they go there, he asked.

Carter also affirmed that prohibiting U.S. farmers from selling goods on credit to Cuba suffocates the farmers’ freedom, highlighting that the business and farming community plus a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate have voiced their desire to change that policy.

Bush has threatened to veto any loosening of the blockade approved by Congress. Carter explained that the obstacle lies in a small but powerful group of Cuban Americans, above all those living in Miami, who have a great effect on Florida election results.

The former U.S. president recalled the importance of Florida’s votes for the result of the 2000 presidential elections, but added he was confident that things will change when Florida is no longer a decisive factor in the campaign.

The current U.S. president’s brother Jed Bush governs the state of Florida and likewise relies on the support of the Miami Cuban Americans.

Carter visited Cuba in May, when he took the opportunity to express his support for an end to the blockade and for better relations with the island.
 

Cubans voted for their representatives to the Peoples Power on October 20

Details will be published as to how many communists, non-communists, women and students were elected will follow ASAP.  In Cuba, it is communist party members running against non-communists.  Last elections, about 30% of those elected were non-communists.  97.1% of those eligible to vote, voted.  Seems to me to be at least as fair or fairer than for those Americans voting in Florida, where the election was obviously fixed.  57,700 Floridians were not allowed to cast their vote.  Fixed by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris with $4 million!   Some say as many as 90% of those would have cast their votes for Al Gore.  Gore lost by 357 votes.  HMMMMM!

More on the Fidel interview with Barbara Walters of ABC

FIDEL INTERVIEWED BY ABC
The majority of U.S. citizens oppose the blockade

PRESIDENT Fidel Castro affirmed that the U.S. blockade imposed against Cuba for over 40 years is part of a political reasoning that the majority of U.S. citizens do not support. A number of business persons, farmers and senators from both major parties increasingly oppose the economic blockade and are in favor of having their constitutional right to travel returned, thus allowing them to visit the only country in the world prohibited to them, he stated.

During an interview granted to the journalist Barbara Walters of the U.S. network ABC, Fidel referred to Congress initiatives for lifting the economic trade restrictions and the maneuvers full of amendments and changes making such initiatives ineffective. The U.S. people, he said, are a decisive factor in eliminating the U.S. government’s hostile policy on Cuba. And above all, they can’t be tricked by old rhetoric.

The head of state recalled how the movement against the embargo (as the blockade is called in the U.S.) emerged from representatives of both U.S. parties and assured that sooner or later the current, or any other president, will have to adopt more correct, civilized and just measures on the issue.

ELIÁN’S CASE MULTIPLIED OUR ALREADY HIGH OPINION OF U.S. CITIZENS

Among other subjects addressed in the interview, fully transmitted by Cuban television, Fidel considered that the case of Elián González multiplied the high opinion Cubans had of U.S. people and their ethical principles.

He pointed out that the island has never harmed any U.S. inhabitant and Cuban leaders have always shown special respect for the U.S. people.

Fidel emphasized that for the past forty years no U.S. citizen has ever been treated with hostility, nor has the U.S. flag been set alight on the island.

Responding to a question on the country’s freedom of expression and opening up, he questioned whether it was possible to speak of freedom to defend ideas in counties with 20-35% illiteracy and 90% functional illiterates.

When asked about the so-called Project Varela, he replied that the National Assembly (Parliament) has the prerogative to analyze that petition and will be the one to respond. “We don’t reject anyone. It will be analyzed, there won’t be any tricks. They will decide its outcome,” he explained.

CUBA WOULD NEVER COMMIT TERRORIST ACTS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES

Later in the interview, Fidel said the accusation that a small country like Cuba could commit a terrorist act against the United States or any of its citizens was an absolute and ridiculous lie.

However he did comment on existing documents proving the thousands of terrorist acts carried out from U.S. territory during the past forty years and acknowledged by historians and other figures.

However, he added, in 43 there has not been one single case of a U.S. citizen dying as a result of any Cuban action against the United States. No one has received even the slightest injury from this country.

We have kept and will continue to keep the promise we made in public that Cuba would never harm the United States,” he emphasized.

Fidel also declared that the accusation that Cuba produces chemical weapons is a lie. “It’s a lie, ridiculed even by former U.S. president James Carter when he visited our country,” he highlighted and recalled: “On that occasion I stated that I was willing to invite scientists to visit the places where we could hypothetically be making that type of weapon.”

With respect to Iraq, the Cuban president categorically denied having sent Saddam Hussein a message of solidarity. “In any case, we support a political solution without war. There are many people in the world who oppose that aggression,” he noted.

THE ISLAND NEVER ASKED THE USSR TO ATTACK THE U.S.

In reference to the days of the October Crisis in 1962, Fidel clarified that Cuba never asked the former Soviet Union to attack the U.S., highlighting that there were problems of interpretation in those tense moments.

We were on the brink of nuclear war, and faced with the possibility of a U.S. invasion we also considered an attack on the USSR from U.S. bases in Turkey and Italy a remote possibility.

He revealed that he recalled an episode from World War II and had recommended Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev not to land the first blow if the situation worsened. This motivated Krushchev to declare shortly after that he was annoyed with Cuba as the island had asked him to attack the United States. Fidel emphasized that that he had strongly declared we had never requested such a thing.

Whilst further analyzing the October Crisis, the Cuban leader explained that at the time some people thought the island would become a military base for nuclear missiles, in a search for a balance in world powers. He commented that Cuba would never have accepted serving as a missile base to favor military balance in the world, because Cuba has built a legitimate Revolution and could not have allowed itself to be in the center of a conflict.

Castro, "Cuba never had control and never planned to keep nuclear weapons in Cuba"

On the most volatile day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States sent Fidel Castro a message claiming the Soviet Union was about to betray him, according to papers released Saturday. The bid to drive a wedge between Castro and the Soviet leadership, prepared by U.S. officials but sent as a letter from the Brazilian government, asserted the Soviet Union was negotiating to withdraw nuclear missiles from the Caribbean island in exchange for concessions from NATO. In fact, the United States and the Soviet Union had not reached a deal, and the Pentagon was readying an attack on the missile sites within 48 hours. The letter, released at a 40th-anniversary conference on the crisis, is the only known attempt by the United States to communicate with Cuba during the 1962 standoff. Castro on Saturday acknowledged receiving the message and said he ignored it. The U.S. discovery of Soviet missile bases in Cuba on Oct. 14, 1962, forced a confrontation that brought the superpowers to the brink of global thermonuclear war. "Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missiles is now in preparation on that imprisoned island," President John Kennedy announced in a televised address on Oct. 22. "The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere." Kennedy ordered a blockade on the island, mobilized troops for an attack and demanded that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev withdraw the missiles. October 27 is widely considered the most dangerous day of the crisis. In rapid succession that afternoon, an American U-2 spy plane strayed into Soviet airspace, a second U-2 was downed by an anti-aircraft battery in Cuba and a Soviet submarine commander readied a nuclear strike on a U.S. destroyer. New surveillance photographs revealed the Soviet missiles had been placed on their launchers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended an air strike and invasion to start within 48 hours. That day, Kennedy's Executive Committee of National Security Advisers approved the letter to Cuba. Kennedy reportedly thought it was poorly drafted; Castro on Saturday agreed. The two-day conference drew veterans from all sides of the confrontation, including Castro, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and former Soviet KGB agent Nikolai Leonov. Other documents released Saturday indicate the crisis, generally considered to have ended when Krushchev agreed on Oct. 28 to take back the missiles, lasted well into November, largely because Cuba balked at Soviet concessions to the United States. Krushchev had agreed to withdraw the weapons in return for a public pledge by Kennedy not to invade Cuba and a secret commitment to pull U.S. missiles out of Turkey. Castro, who had proposed a five-point plan including a U.S. withdrawal from the Naval base at Guantanamo, had been left out of the negotiations. While the missiles were withdrawn, nuclear tactical weapons remained in Cuba until Nov. 20, according to documents. Castro said Saturday that Cuba never had control of the weapons and never intended to keep them.

House introduces bill to normalize relations with Cuba

U.S. House introduces bill to normalize relations with Cuba
AFP - 10/13/2002

WASHINGTON - Twenty-three members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba.

The bill, introduced Friday, is sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans, California Democrat Cal Dooley's office said.

"I strongly believe that the best way to support democratic change and human rights in Cuba is by promoting trade and travel, which would engage the people of Cuba," Dooley said.

"There is strong bipartisan support for a change in policy with Cuba, and I believe that we must once again re-examine our approach."

The measure aims to set a date for the expiration of the Helms-Burton Law, which in 1996 made law and tightened the full U.S. economic embargo that has been imposed on Cuba since 1962.

In July, the House of Representatives voted 262-167 in favor of a measure that would ban using federal funds to enforce U.S. restrictions on its nationals' travel to Cuba.

"United States sanctions against Cuba have failed to promote democracy, denied Cubans access to food and medicine and undermined trade relations between the U.S. and its strongest allies," Dooley's office added in a statement.

The Senate has not yet voted on the measure, and President George W. Bush has promised to veto it.

The United States and Cuba do not maintain full diplomatic relations and have only Interests Sections in each other's respective capitals.

Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize

Jimmy Carter has won the Nobel Peace prize for this year.  Thanks Jimmy...for your trip to Cuba and your efforts to make a more peaceful arrangement between our two countries.

OSLO, Norway — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday ``for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.''

We should all remember that Jimmy Carter is the man who ended travel restrictions to Cuba almost immediately after he came to office in January of 1977.  He also is the man responsible for the U.S. Interest Section being in Havana, Cuba, and the Cuban Interest Section being in the United States.

On the other hand, it was the Carter Administration (Secretary of State Cyrus Vance) who told the lie that there was a Soviet Combat Brigade in Cuba.  The reason told later for the lie was to prevent Fidel Castro from being elected President of the Non-Aligned Nations.  The Lie did not work.

We should also remember that it was the Reagan-Bush Administration that told the lie, "that Cuba had increased its efforts to destabilize the governments of Latin America", that cost us our freedom to travel to Cuba.  That lie and those travel restrictions remain today!

Editors note:  Way to go Jimmy!

40 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis

Red Cross wants to help Cuba

Democracy is not the only way to be..American student's view

Yasmin Khawja '03 doesn't like seeing things in black and white.
And, after spending last spring semester at the Universidad de la
Habana in Havana, Cuba, she has become even more attuned to shades
of gray. Her experiences in Cuba have given her a unique political
ideology that may cause many Americans to stop and reconsider their
own views.

Khawja's semester abroad progressed without major incident until her
last week in Cuba, when she was suddenly informed that she had been
selected to represent all the American students participating in
Butler University's Cooperating Programs in the Americas (COPA).
Khawja was invited to speak at a gathering of former President Jimmy
Carter, his American delegation, Cuban President Fidel Castro, other
Cuban dignitaries, and Cuban and American students.

The evening's main focus was Carter's nationally televised address
to the Cuban people. Khawja got to share the spotlight when she gave
a six-minute speech in Spanish about her and her fellow students'
experiences during their four months in Cuba. "I was asked to speak
about the experiences of the American students in Cuba and keep it
as [apolitical] as possible," she explained.

The next morning Khawja was invited to Carter's farewell dinner in
the Palacio de la Revolución, and spoke with both Carter and Castro.
Since she had wanted to meet Castro since high school, a dream was
coming true, and her excitement when describing "Fidel" was
palpable.

Meeting Castro lived up to Khawja's high expectations. "He's a
genius in economics, personal relations, politics and religion," she
asserted. She was also very impressed with his resilience, and
explained that it was incredible to meet "somebody who has the guts
to stand up to an American superpower."

As much as Khawja respects Castro, she recognized that it can be
hard to see his actions as positive while the Cuban economy
falters. "There are a lot of internal deficiencies in Cuba that can
and should be addressed to help improve their economic hardships,"
she said.

Khawja also noted that the U.S. embargo isn't helping the economic
situation. She saw the effects of the embargo daily while there, she
said. "[The embargo] is completely outdated, useless, and a personal
vendetta of U.S. government officials who have an inferiority
complex and pretty much can't stand to have their pride hurt," she
said.

Not all her expectations of Cuba were realized during her months
abroad. She expected to find that all Cubans were self-sufficient,
happy and ardent supporters of Castro. "I learned it was much more
complicated than what I thought," she said.

But even after witnessing the many difficulties Cubans face daily,
Khawja remains a supporter of Castro's philosophy. "I still very
much believe that it's the underlying ideology and unrelenting
emphasis on specific values by Castro, despite outside opposition
and not much ideological external support, that has gotten Cuba to
the point of development that it is at," she said.

Khawja's experiences have led her to conclude that the United States
and Cuba are not as different as one might think. In her opinion,
both countries have many positives and negatives. Just because each
nation does things differently doesn't make one method better than
another. "The emphasis is placed by the government on things they
believe to be important," she said.

Khawja argued that there are definite flaws with the American
system, so Americans should not be so quick to attack communism. She
described the Cuban system, explaining the underlying humanistic
ideals inspiring it. "Democracy is not the only way to be," she
said.

In her months abroad, Khawja witnessed how a set of universal values
was very much instilled in the Cuban people. These values led her to
question the shortcomings of American democracy. "I think that most
of us who went saw a lot of the flaws of the American system," she
said.

Since returning from Cuba, Khawja has been struck by how strongly
opinionated many Americans are on issues involving Cuba. "I think
Americans, all of us, need to think about our views on the
situation," she said.

She believes everyone would benefit from asking themselves what they
really know about Cuba and Castro, and where they are getting this
information. "The American view on Cuba is so restricted by the
media and political powers that it has just propelled ignorance from
lack of contact," she said.

Back in May, Khawja ended her speech with this line: "What I have
offered have been our experiences, not solutions; although, through
our experiences here, we know that we are part of the solutions."
The solution to the conflict between the United States and Cuba is
not one that can be easily resolved, she said, but is determined to
try.

Through efforts like Khawja's, she said, the American people might
begin to reconsider more than just their attitudes towards Cuba.
Khawja hopes that in questioning their biases towards Cuba,
Americans will begin to ask "more questions about what's going on
right now and what we're involved in all over the world."
 

Ventura:  US barred his wife and then spied on him

The repairs begin

"Cuba's been so demonized"..."They're too warm to be grouchy old communists"

Mark Arneson has a stamp in his passport most people don't: Cuba's. Arneson legally visited Cuba with a group of students this summer using a special travel license the Treasury Department granted to the University.  Under the U.S. embargo, American citizens' travel to Cuba is restricted. The license is a two-year authorization to faculty and students who qualify, said Kathleen Sellew, the Office of International Programs faculty services director. "The license benefits us because we as an institution can approve of programs that we feel are necessary and feel bolster our programs," Sellew said. Arneson's group went this summer through the Student Project for Amity Among Nations, where each of the students chose individual research projects. The projects include reserach topics such as the Chinese community in Cuba, holistic medicine and Cubans' perceptions of American women. The project also went in the summer of 2001, before the license was issued.  Arneson said his first impression of Cuba was "mouth-dropping amazement. It was like stepping back in time. "You work through the awe and amazement and it made it a very real place of real people." Alyssa Wetzel, a global studies and Spanish senior who went on the project's first trip, said she had the same connected feeling. "It was a really euphoric experience for me," Wetzel said. "It's a beautiful country with a real sense of community." Wetzel, who loves to cook, focused on food as an expression of the Cuban experience. She said she admired Cubans' ingenuity in using the resources they had, including converting semi-trailers into buses and creating satellites out of scrap metal. Wetzel said her experience also led to frustration with U.S. policy concerning Cuba. "Cuba's been so demonized," Wetzel said, adding that the lack of laissez-faire attitude in the United States affected her. Faculty members have utilized the license for research in their fields. Dr. Daniel Rose, extramural programs director at the University's School of Dentistry, has visited Cuba twice with the University's license and is exploring the possibility of bringing dental students with him on his next trip. Rose has an invitation from the Cuban government to have an exchange - which he thinks would only be one-way - and he said he hopes to bring fourth-year dental students with him to work with Cuban dentists and learn about Cuba. "It provides an opportunity for students to see another health care system and see a cultural exchange on a professional and human level," Rose said. During his past visits, Rose met with Dr. Carlos Dotres Martinez, the Cuban minister of public health, to discuss the exchange. "They are very gracious and like to show their system," Rose said. "Whether you agree with them or not, they're proud of it." The cultural exchanges between the University and Cuba haven't always been one-way. Ron Caple, a professor at the University's Duluth campus, has twice hosted Uvaldo Orea Igarza, a fellow chemistry professor from Cuba. He said they are looking at the chemistry of the bark of a ecalyptus species that grows in Pinar del Rio. Caple said getting Igarza here was "almost impossible." He used the help of Congressman James Oberstar, D-Minn., to get Igarza's visa approved. Caple has visited Cuba five times, and he said he wants to develop an exchange program that makes two-way exchanges easier. "The embargo has not worked," Caple said. "It sounded like a good idea initially, but it never worked." He said Gov. Jesse Ventura's trip last week to Cuba to open up business between the two countries was a good idea. "The Canadians are doing it, we should too," he said. "They are very well-trained, well-educated, warm people," Caple said. "They're too warm to be grouchy communists." Wetzel said her experience in Cuba has benefited her internationally focused major. "I feel like I'm in a historical moment to go (to Cuba) at this time," she said. "Hopefully the embargo will end tomorrow and I can go to Cuba whenever I want." 
 

Havana Cigars find their way to America....but  maybe no more

The 39-year-old ban on trade with communist Cuba hasn't stopped America's rich and powerful from enjoying their favorite stogies. Experts say America is awash in Cuban cigars despite government efforts to cut off the flow at the borders. Politicians, movie stars, business moguls and others willing to pay $50 a pop can easily tap into a brisk black-market trade, they say. "I would say that you could get them at 90 percent of the cigar stores in the country, maybe 80 percent -- I know 50 percent," said Diana Silvius, owner of a Chicago cigar shop who said she refuses to sell Cuban cigars.

10,000 tobacco curing sheds were flattened by the most recent storms Isidore and Lily.  Will this have a big affect on Havana Cigar production....only time will tell.

40th anniversary of the Missiles of October....October 11-13

Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara is among American protagonists expected at a conference in Cuba this month marking the 40th anniversary of the missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.  Also attending the conference, which will focus on Cuba's role in the crisis, will be Arthur Schlesinger Jr., former special aide to President John F. Kennedy, Cuban organizers said. "This was the most dramatic episode of the Cold War, and perhaps of all contemporary history," said Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, a key organizer. Fernandez said he hoped the academic conference bringing together American, Cuban and former Soviet protagonists would evolve in "a cordial spirit of analysis, without tensions, insults or hatred." The conference's aim is to shed light on events leading up to the crisis, which peaked when the United States learned there were Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba - an island just 90 miles from the United States. Following several tense days of negotiations with Washington, Nikita Khruschev withdrew the weapons without consulting with Havana - a move that enraged Fidel Castro government. Former presidential speech writers Richard Goodwin and Ted Sorensen, and then-CIA analyst Dino Brugioni, will also take part, said Fernandez. He said Castro is among the Cuban protagonists invited to participate. Also taking part in the Oct. 11-13 event will be a number of Soviet military officials, Fernandez said. There will be two days of seminars and a day of visits to sites related to the crisis, including a former missile silo in the western state of Pinar del Rio. The nonprofit, non-governmental National Security Archive at George Washington University also has been invited. The international affairs research institute maintains an extensive archive on declassified U.S. government documents. Fernandez said the Cuban government will release a number of formerly classified documents on the crisis in conjunction with the conference. During a similar conference on the Bay of Pigs last year, Cuban organizers worked with National Security Archive directors to release a wealth of U.S. and Cuban documents on the unsuccessful CIA-backed invasion attempt. Fernandez, also a key organizer in last year's conference, is a retired military officer who helped lead Cuban troops during the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion the year before the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.

Cuba buys $90 million worth of American foods

New American food sales to communist Cuba reached nearly $90 million Monday at an agribusiness fair aimed at whetting the island's appetite for U.S. farm products and chipping away at the 40-year trade embargo, Cuban officials said.

As the fair neared the end of its last day Monday, Cuban officials said they had signed contracts for about $89 million in U.S. farm products — almost double what they initially hoped for.

Deals for as much as $13 million more in sales were still being discussed and would be announced in the coming days, said Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import concern Alimport.

"The embargo has been weakening," President Fidel Castro said Monday afternoon after signing one of the largest contracts of the fair, a $17.1 million deal with agribusiness giant Cargill, Inc. of Minneapolis.

Cuban officials hope the U.S. food fair and resulting sales will lead to more trade with the United States and a further weakening of the American trade embargo against the island, gradually imposed in the early 1960s shortly after Castro came to power. A 2000 U.S. law allowing American food sales to Cuba is an exception to those sanctions.

Cuba started taking advantage of the law in November, and before the fair began had purchased more than $140 million in American food. With the new deals, that number has grown to nearly $230 million.

President George W. Bush has said he will not support any easing of the embargo until this socialist country embraces democratic and economic reforms. But a growing number of U.S. lawmakers and American farmers looking for new markets have pressed for an easing of regulations.

Dressed in a dark slacks and a long-sleeved white guayabera shirt for the signing ceremony, the 76-year-old Castro credited growing opposition to the trade sanctions within the United States to "the efforts of Americans themselves, many politicians and farmers."

The contract for corn, soybeans, soybean oil and turkey drumsticks was signed by Cargill Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Robert Lumpkins, who expressed hope that the show and sales would "strengthen the bridge between our two countries."

"All of these developments are only one step toward broadening our relations with Cuba," said Lumpkins. "We will continue to support efforts to further normalize the commercial relationship between our two countries

Archer Daniels Midland,the primary sponsor of the five-day fair of American farm products, signed contracts for slightly more than $17 million during the event, organizers said.

Also on Monday, Castro initialed a contract with Kaehler's Homedale Farms of St. Charles, Minn., for the $75,000 purchase of 50 beef cattle and three bulls from breeding.

The Cuban president chatted with farm owner Ralph Kaehler's two sons, Cliff, 13, and Seth, 11, who cared for the family's livestock on display. The boys also initialed the contract and toasted its signing with soda pop while the grown-ups sipped on champagne.

At the fair Sunday morning, some exhibitors began giving away food products brought for display. Goldkist Inc. of Atlanta gave away 600 pounds of frozen chicken in 5-pound packages to delighted Cuban visitors. The chicken was gone in five minutes.

There were more food giveaways on Monday, as scores of Cuban visitors lined up for small bags of chewing gum from Wm. Wrigley Jr. of Chicago. Fair organizers said about 1 million sticks of gum were given away over five days.

The exhibition, which opened Thursday, featured 288 exhibitors from 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The show and participants are fully licensed by the U.S. government to be in Cuba, which remains under a trade embargo after more than four decades.

Senator Robert Torricelli is gone

Senator Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) has dropped out of the race for Senate in New Jersey.  The Senator was the author of the Torricelli Act, which may have killed thousands of Cubans.  This bill passed Congress, was signed by the President, and prohibited the sale of food and medicines to the Cubans through foreign subsidiaries of American companies.  Cuba had been buying hundreds of $millions worth of those products through those subsidiary companies.

Editors note:  Denying food and medicines to Cuban babies and the elderly is something for another world....not to be the policy of the United States of America.  Torricelli is simply a corrupt crook (bought and sold by special interests) just like the vast majority of other politicians in this country.  Shame on us!

86% of the American people want embargo ended

The vote couldn't be any clearer than this CNN poll of 4414 Americans on September 27:

>             Should the United States lift its trade embargo against
Cuba?
>             Yes     86%  3795 votes
>             No     14%  619 votes
>             Total:  4414 votes
 

Castro charms Americans in Cuba

$200 million in sales have already been signed by Castro and Americans companies in the past year.  Quite apart from any deals struck here, the landmark
U.S.-Cuba trade show that ends Monday (September 30) has been a public relations
windfall for Fidel Castro, who has played the solicitous host with
charm and mastery.  Almost all TV networks and most American newspapers have reported in detail.

The old man of history has left some of his American guests aglow.
Others are shaking their heads at his pure political skill.

At the fair's official dinner Saturday night, Castro delivered a 20-
minute speech, thanking the Americans here for their "initiative and
courage" and praising the "great values and human virtues we have
always recognized in the American people."

Given the Bush administration's avid commitment to the 43-year-old
trade embargo, and Cuba's deep desire to see it end, the presence of
more than 700 U.S. farmers, businesspeople and journalists has
provided Castro with a unique opportunity to advance his agenda.

He has made the most of it, working the hall, hosting intimate
receptions and large extravaganzas, making cross-cultural gestures
of solidarity between communist Cuba and the American heartland.

At a gala performance of Cuban entertainers, a choir sang "Camptown
Races" and a Christian hymn. Little Cuban and U.S. flags are paired
everywhere. Interpreter at his side, Castro has held a series of
private state-by-state gatherings, lingering, joking, playfully
debating with his astonished guests, plunging into the minutiae of
crop production, livestock herds and child nutrition.

Eleven Iowans dined at the presidential palace Friday, where "El
Comandante" greeted them at the door and saw them out long after
midnight. They had their pictures taken individually with Castro.
The women went home with roses, the men with Cohiba cigars.

"It's really hard for me to say this as a child of the '50s
and '60s, but the man was funny!" said Iowa Agriculture Secretary
Patty Judge. "Just one-liner after one-liner."

Measuring out portions of buffalo milk for the group to sample,
Castro worried he wouldn't have enough. He turned the occasion into
a mock political science discourse.

"When we make the portions small but everybody's getting the same
milk and there's milk left over, that's socialism," Castro said,
laughing "hysterically," according to Judge. "If we pour out all the
milk and share equally, that's communism."

He digressed at length about the Cuban revolution, telling Judge
that "if he was that ruthless he would not have won, because the
people's support was with him."

Meeting with Kentuckians on Thursday, he cited America's
Revolutionary War-era slogan of "No taxation without representation."

Sounding like a Republican knocking big government, he suggested
that America's new slogan should be "no taxation."

His guests have learned that he eats little, asks lots of questions
and talks about a great many things.

Castro lavished special attention on one young, articulate and
affable Minnesota farm family caring for the five pairs of U.S.-bred
bison, sheep, pigs, beef cattle and dairy cattle here. Breeder Ralph
Kaehler, his wife, Mena, and his sons Cliff, 13, and Seth, 11,
talked livestock with Castro in the exhibition hall.

The Cuban leader then made them his special guests at the Thursday
night gala at the Karl Marx theater; he sat with the blond-haired
boys at his side while Cuba's finest dancers, singers and musicians
performed to rousing ovations.

When Castro entered the theater, Americans joined Cubans in standing
and warmly applauding the 76-year-old autocrat - a sight that left a
striking impression on many in the audience.

"Who would have thought 400 or 500 Americans would stand up and clap
for Fidel Castro? That doesn't happen every day," said Kirby Jones,
a veteran consultant on business in Cuba.

Some interpreted it as a natural and polite response to a hosting
head of state; others detected more enthusiasm in the applause than
they would have expected.

In his speech Saturday, Castro cast U.S. policy as placing as much
of a burden on America as on Cuba, calling for an end to the embargo
so "the hard-working American farmer will never again have to worry
about finding markets" for his output.

If the trade show has been a PR coup for Castro, perhaps the biggest
reason is that he has allowed the Americans themselves - suited
corporate types, "regular" farm and business folk from the Deep
South and upper Midwest - to make his case for him.

"If you believe as (President Bush) has said, he's for free trade,
why not trade with our neighbors to the south?" Georgia Agriculture
Commissioner Tommy Irvin, a Democrat, said after celebrating a
contract to ship rice to Cuba.

Here was Irvin, like many other Americans on the trip, embracing
Cuba while criticizing the Bush administration's foreign policy.

Are they being used?
Does this make these Americans servants of Castro's propaganda or
objects of his manipulation, as Bush officials and anti-Castro Cuban-
Americans suggested in advance of the trade show?

Some Americans here, such as Ralph Kaehler, are quite openly
impressed by Castro, saying they find him genuine, funny and
inquisitive.

"I hear all that stuff about how oppressed the people are. I don't
see that," Irvin said in an interview. (At a recent anti-embargo
conference in Washington, a Human Rights Watch official said the
Cuban regime is guilty of "systematic and massive human rights
violations.")

Some approvingly recite Castro's boasts about Cuba's record on
health and education. Some can only be described as star-struck by
his personality and historical celebrity.

Playing to the crowd
Others, though, offer no defense of the Cuban government and begin
with the premise that Castro is extracting as much political value
out of them as he possibly can.

Wisconsin businessman Tim Riemenschneider found it odd seeing Castro
treated like an icon as he worked the exhibition hall Thursday.

"I'm a (former) military guy sitting there, saying, 'What's wrong
with this picture?' " said Riemenschneider, international director
for Chiquita Processed Foods, a private-label vegetable packer
headquartered in New Richmond.

He assumes Castro, in embracing his U.S. guests, wants to "jam this
down President Bush's throat." And he expects the trade show will
help accomplish Castro's agenda, sending hundreds of businesspeople
back to America with sharpened interest, producing more political
pressure to ease the embargo further.

But even those who regard themselves as realists about the Cuban
regime dispute the notion that they're simply being "played."

Their argument: The food sales are legal; they are being paid; and
trade benefits both sides, the U.S. and Cuba.

"We've got everything to gain and nothing to lose," Irvin argued.

"I think we're all grown-ups," Judge said. "Most of us have been
around the block a time or two and we can sort things out. The
Cubans are definitely putting their best foot forward and rolling
out every red carpet they've got."

But, Judge said, "I can sell them the products without ascribing to
his form of government."

Jesse asks Castro about JFK

HAVANA -- Gov. Jesse Ventura accomplished one of the missions of his trip to Cuba on Friday, obtaining from Fidel Castro an absolute denial of the Cuban leader's alleged involvement in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Ventura raised the JFK assassination with the Cuban president during an hour long meeting, which the governor described as a "private" and friendly encounter that focused more on Ventura's past as a professional wrestler than on trade or politics.

As he had vowed to do before he left for Cuba -- and before he even knew whether he would get an audience with the Cuban leader -- Ventura prodded Castro on a topic that has long fascinated conspiracy buffs.

"The only thing I will say on that subject is he said to me, 'We would never be so crazy to do something like that,' " Ventura recounted. "I agree with him. Why would they? That would be suicide for the country of Cuba."

Ventura said Castro took no offense at the question, in what could well be the first time any U.S. public official has raised the subject with him in a direct encounter.

"When I asked about it, I said, 'Do you mind if I ask something personal?' " Ventura said. "He said, 'You can ask me anything you want.' "

It was not the first time Minnesota's governor has sprung a surprise question on a world leader. In a meeting with the Dalai Lama in May 2001, he asked the Buddhist spiritual leader if he had seen the American comedy movie "Caddyshack," which contains a Dalai Lama character.

'Spellbinding'

Ventura's meeting with Castro, 76, whom he described as "spellbinding," was the highlight of a four-day trade mission that ends today. Ventura also spent part of the day talking to 70 specially invited students at the University of Havana, including five from Minnesota who are spending the semester in Cuba.

Sam Polk of St. Paul, a student from Kenyon College, Ohio, has been in Cuba for three weeks and said he has found few residents of the island nation who know anything about Ventura. "One guy in my hotel had heard of him, because he knew about the WWF [World Wrestling Federation]," Polk said.

Cubans, who learn much of what they know about the outside world on three government-controlled TV stations, have tended to express more interest in Ventura's status as a political independent during his visit than in his past career in wrestling, a sport few have seen.

Ventura's 10-minute speech recounted his humble beginnings in south Minneapolis, his family's work ethic and his father's dream of owning a lake cabin. The talk was preceded by a video of his political and show business highlights.

"My speech is very self-serving, in a way," Ventura explained beforehand. "It's about me. People might know a little about me here, but not as much as in other parts of the world. You don't get pro wrestling here."

As he has throughout his visit, Ventura emphasized the importance of personal and business connections that transcend the political differences that separate the two Cold War enemies.

"I am here because I believe that if we are successful business partners, there is a better chance that we can someday be better friends," he said. "I know that many think I am naive. But I don't think so."

Ventura rattled off a long list of great Cuban baseball players who became Minnesota Twins, including Tony Oliva. He also recounted the legend -- altogether unconfirmed -- that the Twins' forerunner, the Washington Senators, once owned the rights to Castro as a baseball player.

Castro did not bring up the subject in his talk with Ventura, which took place in a small room off the main floor of the U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana.

The meeting was closed to the media, other than to New York television documentarian Elizabeth Tracy, a St. Paul native who is working on a piece about renewed U.S. food and medicine exports to Cuba.

Tracy, who was given special access to Ventura's entourage, was permitted to film the meeting for several minutes, at which point she heard Castro laughing "as Jesse described some wrestling moment."

The two leaders met in a hastily arranged VIP lounge that "looked like a furniture showroom," Tracy reported. Castro, she said, "was definitely being charming."

No flag burning

Ventura confirmed that Castro, a lawyer-turned-revolutionary, showed a clear interest in the governor's career as a pro-wrestler-turned-politician. "He wanted to know how we can be body-slammed, fall and still get back up," Ventura said. "So clearly Mr. Castro is something of a wrestling fan."

According to Ventura, the two men did not discuss the U.S. economic embargo against the island nation, Cuba's human rights record, or even cigars, one of Ventura's big points of interest in Cuba.

"We did not get political at all," Ventura said. "It was a friendly person-to-person meeting of two people who haven't met before."

Ventura presented Castro with a hand-crafted and painted Minnesota loon, made by the Jennings Decoy Co. in St. Cloud. It was engraved with a message in Spanish saying, "With the best wishes of the Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura."

While Ventura got no gift in return, he said he received a strong message from Castro about his socialist nation's affection for the United States, despite a 42-year freeze in diplomatic and economic relations. "He made me aware that never has an American flag been burned in Cuba," Ventura said.

Ventura, who knows something about show business, said he found himself drawn to the force of Castro's personality, like many others who have met Cuba's leader: "You wait to hear what he has to say, even through an interpreter. That says a lot."

Case not closed

Castro's charm did not stop Ventura from indulging his curiosity about the JFK assassination, which happened when Ventura was 12. Conspiracy theorists, including Ventura, have long dismissed the official Warren Commission report that attributed the shooting on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas to drifter Lee Harvey Oswald.

The assassination has variously been attributed to the CIA, to Castro and the Mob. In Havana, Ventura crossed Castro off the list. At the same time, he found a way to blame another familiar enemy -- the media -- for letting the story die.

Asked to explain his interest in the JFK assassination, Ventura answered: "Because you're not. The United States media has bought into that fabricated Warren Commission, and that's why I'm interested in it.

"That was a homicide. There was never a trial, and therefore the homicide remains open forever. The case is never closed."

Ventura initially expressed some hesitation in talking about the discussion he had with Castro about Kennedy, saying, "Why, everybody thinks you're a kook if you don't believe Oswald did it."

As reporters pressed, he added that Castro had made him "aware of a few things that I have yet to read about, I will tell you that, in all the books that have been written."

Ventura declined to say what they were, other than that Castro "absolutely" denied the long-rumored involvement of the Cubans, and that he believes him.

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC have all covered the Food-agribusiness expo in Cuba....where was FOX?

All the major TV networks have covered the Food-agribusiness expo in Havana, on it's first day, except FOX.  That should tell you something about "Fat Cats" owning major TV networks.  Right-wingers like Rupert Murdock, owner of FOX, can't be counted on for "fair and balanced" news...as they claim.  Brit, O'Reilly, Greta, Hannity, Ollie....all tilted way to the right!  Minimal time is given to Democrats, Independents or Liberals. 

America used to be a great country when we had Cronkite, Howard K Smith and Huntley Brinkley. News was news....not a profit making venture.   Now the War mongers like GE own NBC, General Dynamics owns CBS, Disney owns ABC, Bill Gates owns MSNBC, Time-Warner owns CNN.  My hope is that Americans will stop allowing themselves to be brainwashed Americans....tune them out!  Find a way to watch the BBC or CBC in Canada for news that is really fair and balanced.  Even Cuba's Granma International has become more believable than the American media!  Maybe that is why 70% of the British do not want war with Iraq and 80% of the Canadians believe the United States is responsible for September 11.

Editors note:  For those who want war and are Christians too....the clear and undeniable truth is in Jesus's "Sermon on the Mount" (Mathew 5).  Jesus said in Mathew 5:43, "There is a saying "love your friends and hate your enemies."  But I (Jesus) say: "Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you!  In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven."

That old saying an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...is not the way of Jesus.  He said, "If you are slapped on one cheek, turn the other too."

Jesus also said:  Mathew 5:9..."Happy are those who strive for peace...they shall be called the sons of God".

Ventura wants US to drop 40 year old embargo

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Jesse Ventura said Thursday the United States should drop its 40-year trade embargo on Cuba.

"How can we switch them to capitalism if we don't work with them?" the governor of Minnesota told CNN at a trade fair in the Cuban capital. "Then the evolution could well take place, you don't know."

The fact that the Cuban government is communist need not be an obstacle to closer trade relations, said Ventura, who was attending the event as a booster for Minnesota products, which were on display.

Asked if he wanted President Bush to lift the embargo, Ventura said, "In the long run, it's what I'd like to see happen."

He said Cuban President Fidel Castro came by the Minnesota display, but the two had not met one-on-one.

Ventura dismissed critics who have accused him of giving aid and comfort to the enemy by visiting the island nation. "I'm a capitalist from the word 'go,'" he said. "Anyone who's ever looked at my career knows I believe in capitalism."

Still, he said, "at age 51, I like having friends better than I do enemies."

The former Navy SEAL noted that 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam, "and yet we have no problem today trading with Vietnam."

He also urged Americans to be skeptical of reports by some U.S. government officials that the Cuban government is so short of cash it will not pay companies to trade with the island.

"Let's remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a fraud, and our government told us that was real," he said about the event that sparked U.S. military involvement in Vietnam during the 1960s.

In the August/September issue of Cigar Aficionado, the governor was quoted as saying, "I hate embargoes. Sure, partly because I'd love to have easy access to Cuban cigars, but mostly because embargoes won't work."

Ventura dismissed the suggestion that his desire for Cuban cigars might be coloring his feelings about the embargo. "My favorite cigar right now is made in the Dominican Republic," he said.

Last month, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticized Ventura for his plan to attend the exposition.

"While I don't expect you to cancel your trip, I strongly believe doing so would be the right thing to do," the governor said in a letter to Ventura. "I encourage you to consider other options as you look for opportunities to expand international trade for your state."

The U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition is scheduled to end September 30.

Exhibit organizers predicted 18,000 to 20,000 people will attend the expo and more than 150 companies, organizations and government offices from 30 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico would participate.

The embargo on U.S. trade with the communist nation was altered by the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. It authorized the export of food and agricultural products from the United States to Cuba.

Since last December, U.S.-based companies have sold to Cuba-based entities $109 million worth of agricultural and food products, the conference organizers said.

This year, Cuba ranks 54th of 180 countries in terms of agricultural product purchases from United States-based companies, up from 138th last year and 180th in 2000, the organizers added.

750 American business executives are in Cuba

750 American business executives are in Cuba today (September 26) for the agribusiness expo.  So are 288 businesses and 33 state organizations.  People like Governor Jesse Ventura are there.

Maybe Cuba's most important day.....September 26, 2002

Cuba Ag Show May Aid Embargo Debate

By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Tue Sep 24, 3:01 Pm Et.

HAVANA (AP) - Promoters of American food products attending an agribusiness expo here this week could influence U.S. debate on ending 40 years of trade sanctions against the island, Cuban officials said Tuesday.

"I think this will have an important impact when those friends of Cuba go back home to the United States," said Pedro Alvarez, the head of Cuba's import food agency Alimport.

Alvarez told a news conference the large number of participants — 288 — in the U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition beginning Thursday showed "a desire by the (American) business community to restore normal relations with Cuba."

The exhibitors, from 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, collectively manufacture or distribute more than 3,000 different products. Florida has the most exhibitors with 32, followed by Illinois with 21.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Cuban President Fidel Castro ( news - web sites) are expected to attend the fair.

Alvarez said he expects Cuba will sign "a significant number" of contracts with the American exhibitors to buy more U.S. food and agricultural products.

The conference comes as U.S. lawmakers fiercely debate whether to retain or ease a long-standing trade embargo and rules barring most Americans from traveling to the communist island. Cuba favors an end to both the embargo and travel restrictions.

President Bush ( news - web sites), backed by Cuban exiles in south Florida, says he will not allow any easing of restrictions until Cuba embraces democratic and economic reforms.

But a growing number of lawmakers from farm states, including many Republicans, support legislative efforts to ease or eliminate the restrictions.

In an exception to the sanctions, the U.S. Congress approved a 2000 law that allowed the first direct commercial sales of American food to Cuba in four decades.

Many participants in this week's four-day expo were among the first American agribusinesses that began selling products to Cuba late last year.

Cuba initially refused to buy "a single grain of rice" under the law because it does not allow American financing for the sales, which must be made in cash.

But after Hurricane Michelle caused extensive damage to central Cuba in November, authorities began taking advantage of the law to replenish food reserves used to feed storm victims.

Since then, Cuba has purchased about $140 million worth of American food, Alvarez said.

U.S. food products sold to Cuba include corn, rice, wheat, frozen chicken parts, beans, turkey, apples, peas, eggs, onions, pork, lard and branded food products such as baby food, cookies and condiments.

Alvarez said if the U.S. trade sanctions were eliminated, Cuba could buy up to 70 percent of the $1 billion in food it imports annually from the United States. That figure was expected to grow to $1.5 billion in the coming years, he said.

Scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon, Ventura will be the third U.S. state governor to visit the island since the 1959 Cuban revolution that brought Castro to power.

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, a Republican, visited Cuba with a trade delegation earlier this year. Fellow Republican Gov. George Ryan of Illinois has come here twice, in 1999 and again this year.

Castro has said he plans to stop by the exhibition organized by PWN Exibicon International LLC of Westport, Conn.

Three Republican U.S. Representatives are also scheduled to attend: Sonny Callahan and Terry Everett of Alabama and Harold Rogers of Kentucky. The agriculture departments of a dozen American states are also sending representatives.

Hurricane Isidore passes Cuba...no loss of life or injuries

HAVANA, Cuba (September 21 8:30 a.m.)  As Hurricane Isidore slowly moved toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early Saturday, life-threatening rains continued to batter Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds topping 100 mph, has already dumped more than two feet of rain on Cuba and pounded the western coast with a storm surge of eight to 12 feet above normal.

Parts of western Cuba could get up to 30 inches more rain, although the hurricane's center is moving toward Mexico.

Editor's note:  There was no damage to the Havana area or areas east of Havana.  However, some flights on Thursday evening (September 19) and all day Friday (September 29) had to be cancelled.  Damage to Western Cuba in Pinar del Rio Province is still being examined.

Regime change:  We overthrew Cuba 104 years ago

Editors note:  Uncle Sam....stop lying to us.  Leaving the impression that overthrowing the Saddam Hussein government in Iraq would be a first is simply a bunch of BS.  In recent years, didn't we overthrow the government of Panama, Grenada, Haiti and tried to overthrow the government of Nicaragua in our illegal effort with the Contras.  Even trained the Contra leaders how to lie to the US Congress!  Our government has overthrown just about every nation in this hemisphere or assassinate their leaders in the past 100 years!  No wonder most of the rest of the world now hates us.  SPARE US, PLEASE!

Bush will veto

Cuba Summit In Washington DC on September 17

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As Members of Congress prepare
to vote
this Fall on lifting current restrictions on Americans' ability to
travel to
Cuba and to provide food and medicine to the island, the bi-partisan
National
Summit on Cuba will demonstrate the broad support across the U.S.
for easing
the 40-year old embargo.
    The Summit -- to be held on Tuesday, September 17 at the
National Press
Club in Washington, DC and extending into a Lobby Day led by Cuban
Americans
on Wednesday, September 18th -- is expected to send a shock wave
through the
political establishment, particularly as it will debunk the
perception of
pro-embargo solidarity among Cuban-Americans and the national
Republican
Party.
    The Bush Administration is sending Dan Fisk, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of
State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State, to
present its
approach to Cuba.  U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) will moderate an
audience
question and answer session with Fisk following his speech.
    The Summit audience will include state delegations comprised of
important
local leaders who will educate Administration officials and Congress
on how
different policy approaches might better serve their diverse
interests.  State
officials from Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Illinois, Florida,
California (where
a state resolution calling for the embargo's end passed August 26,
2002) and
other states will present and discuss avenues for change.  A new
national
survey will be released at the Summit.
    An estimated 500 Cuban American leaders from at least 10
different groups
will on September 18th hold a Press Conference, panel discussions,
meet with
elected officials and the White House, and launch a major new
initiative for a
new approach toward Cuba.
    Other Summit speakers include:

     * U.S. Representatives Jeff Flake (R-AZ), George Nethercutt (R-
WA),
       William Delahunt (D-MA) and other members of the House Cuba
Working
       Group.

     * U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) as keynote, Christopher Dodd
(D-CT)
       with closing remarks

     * (Ret) General Charles Wilhelm, former Chief Commander U.S.
Southern
       Command, on "Our National Interest, Our National Security"

     * Bay of Pigs veteran Alfredo Duran, President, Cuban Committee
for
       Democracy, on "A Changed Political Equation"

     * Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of Human Rights Watch Americas

     * Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation

     * Bill Reinsch, President of the National Foreign Trade Council
and of
       USA Engage, a coalition, of more than 650 U.S. corporations,
and a
       former U.S. Department of Commerce official

     * Video appearances by Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Paul
Volcker and
       others

    On July 23rd, the House of Representatives voted 262 to 167 to
bar
enforcement of restrictions on travel, 251 to 177 to end the cap on
money sent
to Cubans (both sponsored by Flake (R-AZ) and approved by voice vote
a measure
to lift all licensing for humanitarian trade with Cuba (Moran R-KS),
all part
of the Treasury Postal Appropriations Bill.  For the first time, an
amendment
brought forth by embargo supporters (Goss-R-FL) that would have
conditioned
free travel on the President certifying that Cuba is not involved in
terrorist
activities was defeated 247 to 182.
    U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) sponsored language on the 2003
Foreign
Operations Appropriations bill calling for $3 million to be spent to
fund
narcotics interdiction efforts between the U.S. and Cuba.  The
Senate must
still approve its Treasury appropriations bill; Sen. Byron Dorgan,
who chairs
the subcommittee in charge of the bill, already added language to end
enforcement of the travel ban.  Other amendments on humanitarian
trade and
remittances are expected to be voted on the floor. Past Senate votes
indicate
clear majority support for allowing financing for humanitarian sales
to Cuba.
    These legislative moves toward more engagement with Cuba are
expected to
culminate in the Senate/House Conference Committee of the Treasury
appropriations bill likely to take place the end of September. 
President Bush
has indicated that he may veto the bill (which funds the Department
of
Treasury's Al Queda hunt as well as the U.S. postal system) if it
contains
language easing the embargo on Cuba.
    "The Summit will show that a majority of Cuban Americans join
with other
Americans in supporting the upcoming votes on free travel, easier
humanitarian
trade and lifting the cap on money sent to Cuba because these
measures are in
the best interests of the people of both nations," said Silvia
Wilhelm,
President of Miami-based Puentes Cubanos who is leading the Cuban
American
groups coordinating the events of the 18th.
    For the past three years, U.S. Rep. Tom Delay has personally
intervened in
scheduled appropriations conference committee votes in order to
thwart change
on Cuba despite a unanimous 2001 Resolution issued by his home state
of Texas
calling for a complete end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.  House
Majority Leader
Dick Armey (R-TX) recently caused headlines when he said his votes
to sustain
the embargo were cast out of loyalty to two Cuban American Republican
colleagues in Miami.
    "It is time for my former colleague Tom DeLay and remaining
elements
within the Republican leadership to stop thwarting the will of
Congress and
the American people on Cuba," said former 34-year Congressman from
Tampa and
WWII war hero, Sam Gibbons who will co-chair the Summit with Bob
Stallman,
President of the American Farm Bureau and former President of the
Texas Farm
Bureau.
    According to Lissa Weinmann, Summit Coordinator: "The Summit is
aimed at
breaking several destructive myths about the Cuba embargo regarding
its
political support and its efficacy. We hope to provide Congress and
the
Administration with the substantive rationale and political cover
for a new
approach to Cuba that fulfills our national interests."
    The Summit is sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation,
Americans
for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba (AHTC), the World Policy Institute,
and
supported by the USA Engage coalition of more than 650 U.S.
corporations. For
more information, see:  http://www.nationalsummitoncuba.org.



AGENDA:
Tuesday, September 17

8:00 am Convene at National Press Club, Washington DC (529 14 St.
NW) registration and coffee
8:30 am Greetings: Summit Co-Chairs Sam Gibbons, former 34-year U.S.
Representative from Tampa and
Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation, from
Texas.
9:00 am U.S. Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ), member of the House
Cuba Working Group.
9:15 am The Flag Follows Trade: David Frey, Kansas Wheat Commission,
Gary La Grange, Director, Port of New Orleans, President of the Gulf
Coast Ports Association of the Americas and Kirby Jones, Cuba
business consultant, Alamar Associate, on the impact of recent food
sales to Cuba on heartland farmers, communities. William C. Lane,
Caterpillar, Mario Baeza, President, Trust Company of the West Latin
America Partners. and Mark Entwistle, former Canadian Ambassador to
Cuba on international implications of Helms Burton and the embargo
and current investment practices in Cuba.
Bill Reinsch, Chairman, USA Engage Coalition, former U.S. Commerce
Dept. official, moderates.
10:00 am Democratic and Economic Impetus for Free Travel. Ian
Vasquez, Cato Institute. Burton Rubin, American Society of Travel
Agents. Daniel Aruca, Marazul Travel, New Jersey. Dorothy Robyn PhD,
Brattle Group, on domestic economic impact of lifting travel
restrictions to Cuba. U.S. Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) moderates.
10:30 am Our National Interest, Our National Security: (Ret) General
Charles Wilhelm, former Chief Commander U.S. Southern Command. Larry
Johnson, Berg Associates, former Clinton State Dept. terrorism
expert. Sam Dryden, Emergent Genetics, CO on Cuban bioengineering.
Speaker on narcotics interdiction cooperation. Phil Peters,
Lexington Institute, moderates.
11:15 am Changed Political Equation: Cuban Americans Seek New
Approach. Former Bay of Pigs veteran Alfredo Duran, President, Cuban
Committee for Democracy. Miami pollster Max Castro on new support
for change. Silvia Wilhelm Puentes Cubanos, moderates.
11:45 am Embargo's Impact on Human Rights, Medicine and Culture Here
and In Cuba: Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch, joined by
prominent Cuban dissident Elizardo Sanchez. Whitney Addington, MD,
American College of Physicians. Meryl Marshall Daniels, immediate
past Chairman and CEO, Academy of Television Arts and Science.
12:15 am Lunchtime Speaker U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
12:30 am Lunch Service Begins: Video Presentation (10 minutes)
Voices on Cuba (featuring Paul Volcker and others clips of ordinary
Cuban people) Introduced by former U.S. Rep. Bob Edgar, who heads
the National Council of Churches and Cuban guest Reinero Arce,
President, Cuban Council of Churches
1:00 am The Bush Administration's Point of View: Dan Fisk, U.S.
Department of State. Introduced by Rep. JoAnn Emerson (R-MO), who
will moderate audience Q & A.
1:30 am Changed Political Equation, Local Leaders Speak Out. Susan
Parker, Alabama State Auditor and candidate for U.S. Senate. Georgia
Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin. Delia Perez, Illinois State
Office of Intl. Trade Development. Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma State
Dept. of Commerce. Texas State official to discuss 2001 Texas State
Resolution. CA State Senator Kevin Murray discusses 2002 resolution.
Commissioner Joe McLash, Manatee County, FL. Lloyd Moore,
Mississippi Delta Council.
2:15 am Policy Prescriptions for Change: Audience discussion on
current avenues for change. U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA).
Janice O'Connell, Professional Staff Member, Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. Richard H. Stanley, the Stanley Foundation and
HON Industries, Iowa. Julia Sweig, Council on Foreign Relations
moderates discussion with audience.
3:00 am Closing Remarks: Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

*indicates unconfirmed.
  
  
Other Events
 
 
Summit Day, Tuesday, September 17:

Public Opinion Polling on American attitudes toward the embargo
released

A full-page ad in a major U.S. daily newspaper quantifying American
support for free travel and humanitarian trade as a matter of U.S.
national interest, coordinated by Americans For Humanitarian Trade
With Cuba

Reception Summit Night for Summit Attendees and Speakers

Next Day, Wednesday, September 18:

Leading pro-engagement Cuban American groups host a Lobby Day and a
Capitol Hill Panel on the changed dynamics of this important
community with delegations from Miami, New Jersey and other states
blanketing the Capitol

Bipartisan Congressional Breakfast hosted by the American Farm
Bureau with U.S. Senators and members of the House Cuba Working
Group

 

Cold War is over; Environment is more threatened than ever

CUBA’S FOUR PROPOSALS FOR THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT
Two things missing: political will and access to financial resources

Your Excellencies:

Unavoidable obligations in our country, derived from a colossal effort for our people’s social development, particularly in the educational, cultural, health and scientific spheres, which is multiplying its capacity to face the blockade and the effects of the international economic crisis, preserve the Revolution and guarantee its independence in the midst of bellicose policies, threats and risks, have prevented our president from traveling to Johannesburg on this occasion.

Ten years ago, President Fidel Castro noted the following ideas:

“An important biological species: the human being, is at risk of disappearing due to the rapid and progressive liquidation of its natural living conditions.

“… We are becoming aware of this problem, as it is becoming almost too late to prevent it.

“… Consumer societies are fundamentally responsible for the atrocious destruction of the environment.

“The solution cannot be to halt the development of those who need it most…

“If we want to save humanity from this self-destruction, wealth and available technology must be better distributed, there has to be less luxury and squander in a few countries in order to decrease poverty and hunger on a large part of the earth.

“Let the ecological debt be paid and not the foreign debt.

“Let hunger rather than people disappear.

“Now that the alleged threat of communism has disappeared and there is no longer a pretext for cold wars, arms races and military costs, what is preventing us from immediately devoting those resources to promote Third World development and combat the threat of the planet’s ecological destruction?”

After 10 years of more insanity and extravagance for some -the minority- and more poverty, illness and death for others - the majority - those words in this room resonate on our conscience. His questions remain unanswered.

However, it is fitting to ask three new questions:

Virtually none. One decade later things have not improved. On the contrary.

The environment is more threatened than ever.

While the Kyoto Protocol is being shipwrecked, victim of an arrogant boycott, carbon dioxide emissions, far from diminishing, have increased by 9%, and in the most polluting country by 18%. Today, the seas and rivers are more contaminated than in 1992; the air is more contaminated; 15 million hectares of forest are devastated every year, almost four times the surface area of Switzerland. The way of life in the developed nations, as the main predators, is as unsustainable as that of the others. The North contaminates by squandering, the South in order to survive.

A large part of the planet’s population is living in critical conditions: 815 million hungry, 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty, 854 million illiterate adults and 2,400 million people without basic sanitation are proof of this. Forty million suffering from or infected by the AIDS virus, two million deaths from tuberculosis and one million from malaria per year, are further proof. Eleven million under-fives will die this year from preventable causes, which in addition to being yet more proof, is also a crime.

The world is more unjust and unequal than 10 years ago.

The breech, far from closing, has widened. The income gap between the rich and poor countries was 37-fold in 1960, 60-fold when we met in Rio and is currently 74-fold.

The economic and political order imposed on the world by the powerful. This is not only profoundly unjust, but also unsustainable. The heritage of colonialism and the fruit of imperialism continue to privilege a small number of countries that were developed on the blood and sweat of the immense majority of the world’s peoples. Their international financial institutions and especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF) respond to the interests of the governments of a few developed nations, particularly the most powerful ones; to various hundreds of transnationals; and to a group of politicians whose electoral campaigns have been financed by them. In order to defend these illegitimate and minority interests the majority of the world’s population is subjected to poverty and desperation.

The IMF, a public institution born of an explicit acknowledgment of the role of the state, given that the market was unable to solve problems, has paradoxically become the main instrument via which neoliberalism was imposed on a globalized world. The poor countries -the majority - had to accept the infamous Washington Consensus. The rich and developed countries - the minority - have given themselves the luxury of defaulting on it; they have not opened up their economies, nor have they eliminated subsidies.

We, the developing countries, the principal victims in this new lost decade, have been unable to struggle in unison to defend our rights, we have not known how to ally millions of workers, non-governmental organizations, and intellectuals in the developed nations who have also called for major changes.

There are two things that we lack today: political will and access to financial resources.

Hypothetically assuming that the political will is going to break forth as a result of this Summit and the idea that time is running out, and that if this new Titanic sinks then we will all perish, the question then rests on guaranteeing the resources that will allow our countries to obtain fresh, stable finances on concessionary and unconditional bases.

The Cuban proposals to obtain this are:

• To introduce a development tax of just 0.1% on international financial transactions. This would generate almost $400 billion USD per year, which, through good administration by the UN and its system of institutions could change the current situation.

• To immediately condone the foreign debt of the developing countries, which have repaid the amount more than once over. This would mean that our countries would not have to spend $330 billion USD each year on this, a quarter of our income from the export of goods and services.

• To take the immediate step of agreeing that 50% of military spending budgets will be placed in a fund made available to the UN for sustainable development. This would mean a sum of almost $400 billion USD, half of which would originate from one country alone - the most powerful and wealthy one, and also the one most responsible for contaminating the environment.

• To guarantee the immediate fulfillment by the developed countries of their commitment to dedicate 0.7% of their GDP as official development aid. This would up their contribution of $53 billion USD in 2000 to almost $170 billion in 2003.

These are only a few ideas. If we then add the establishment of a new international financial structure that includes demolishing the current IMF and replacing it with an international public institution that would respond to the interests of all, the development of a fair and equal trade system guaranteeing special and differentiated treatment for the developing countries, plus the strengthening of multi-lateralism and the role of the UN based on unrestricted respect for its Charter, we may than say that this Summit has been worthwhile.

Thank you very much.
 

National Summit on Cuba on September 17

-- Georgia's Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin will speak at the National Summit on Cuba being held next Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Irvin is one of the state leaders chosen to speak on the Changed Political Equation panel. Commissioner Irvin will talk about how food trade with Cuba has changed and can continue to change the agricultural economy in Georgia.

The National Summit on Cuba is set for Tuesday, September 17, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Co-chaired by Sam Gibbons, former 34- year U.S. Representative from Tampa, Florida, who was chairman of the U.S. House Trade Subcommittee, and Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation from Texas, the summit is sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation, Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba (AHTC), the World Policy Institute, and supported by the USA Engage coalition of more than 650 U.S. corporations.

"This summit affords me the opportunity to interact with national leaders and other state and local leaders in the Congress, the business and trade community, and in the Cuban American community who recognize the changes that have occurred over more than 40 years that render the embargo, as it is, ineffective," Commissioner Irvin said. "Congress has several opportunities to lift the restrictive trade policies on food, travel and medicine in legislation scheduled by the end of this month."

Irvin will travel to Cuba the following week in September for the first U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana.

Americans are saddened and embarrassed by the terrorist attacks our own government has committed.

Entering this singular museum, where Cuba guards the proofs of horrors committed against her people over decades, produces shudders from head to foot. Last year some 20,448 people visited the Interior Ministry"s "Salon of Attacks", to see first hand the terrorist aggressions that have marked the lives of many Cubans here. Everyday more people come to the Fifth Avenue museum (Miramar), among them US citizens, and are amazed by the documents, photographs and even weapons and ammunition cataloguing the truth of Cuba"s denunciations of the terrorism she has suffered. "The US citizens who visit us are saddened and embarrassed by the terrorist acts their governments have done to Cuba, and speak of the disinformation in their country about this," curator Ileana Gela said. The researcher explained that terrorism, which doesn't discriminate or pardon anyone, has left several September 11th's in Cuba, although US hegemonic history only recalls last year's attacks on Washington and New York, which of course were lamented by all the world. It was September 11 in 1980 that Cuban diplomat to the United Nations, Felix Garcia, was killed on the streets of New York. His name is engraved on the list of more than 3,000 victims of anti-Cuban terrorism and the more than 2,000 mutilations caused by terrorism, since the 1959 Revolution. The curator pointed out that the principal target of the enemies of the Revolution has been President Fidel Castro, the archetype of such attacks, with more than 600 assassination attempts, evidence of which are in the museum. Gell related an example of Fidel Castro's benevolence in these matters, with his document declaring that no would-be assassin should receive the death penalty, because he said, the Revolution is strong and has nothing to fear. The first counter-revolutionary organization, "White Rose" was founded in 1959, and between then and 1965, 300 organizations with similar aims were catalogued, with complicity of the then US administrations. Museum director José Angel Sáliva Pino noted that the "Salon of Attacks" demonstrates 43 years of terrorist scourge, principally aggressions by the US government's intelligence services. The enemy did not wait until the Revolution defined its socialist character (in 1961). but showed its claws already in October 1959 when planes burned sugarcane plantations, Saliva Pino declared in an forceful tone, giving many more examples. He pointed out that while his country faces this danger from the United States, Cuba [and he implied not the US] was included on the list Washington compiled of nations promoting international terrorism. The Cuban people are not afraid of this list, not because they don't want to live, but on the contrary, because no one has the right to accuse them of terrorism, much less the United States that has jailed five young Cubans who were fighting terrorism, and accused them of endangering the security of that country. Sáliva Pino was referring to Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González and Fernando González, who received harsh prison sentences for compiling information about terrorist plans against their country. Their photos are exhibited by the front door of the Museum, and printed allegations concerning their Miami trials are available to visitors in several languages. The five were honored in December with the decoration "Heroes of the Republic" because their information saved their people from death, and also served to warn of criminal acts in which US citizens could have died. For Cubans, the imprisonment of the five is a paradox in the US crusade against international terrorism, keeping those who warned of danger behind bars while the real terrorists freely walk the streets there. Orlando Bosh is an example of this. Bosh lives in the United States, although he is a fugitive of justice from Venezuela where he was found guilty of blowing up a Cubana de Aviacion plane in 1976 that cost 73 lives. The case of Luis Posada Carriles is also not closed. Posada is a known anti-Cuban terrorist, accused of multiple criminal attacks against his country of origin, including the Cubana plane, and a chain of attacks in 1997 that caused one death. In 2001, Fidel Castro revealed Posada Carriles and accomplices were present in Panamá with plans to assassinate him at the Ibero-American Summit. Although he has remained under arrest, the manipulations and pressure from the United States may succeed in obtaining his absolution yet again. In all times there is only one kind of terrorism, never a "good" terrorism and a bad one, as advocated by the United States, concluded the veteran who directs this singular Havana museum.

Jesse Ventura asks George W Bush for an apology

It's good that Gov. Jesse Ventura knows something about bullies -- because political bullying is what he is getting from the Bush administration about his scheduled Sept. 25-28 trade mission to Cuba. Ventura has stood his ground nicely thus far. He will need to keep it up. To date, the administration has sicced Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and State Department Assistant Secretary Otto Reich on the Minnesota governor to condemn the planned trip. Reich suggested that a visit by Minnesota's governor might so flood Cuba with American dollars that an otherwise-imminent collapse of Fidel Castro's regime would be postponed. He went on to hint that Ventura might be drawn to "sexual tourism" in Havana -- a remark that justifiably prompted the governor to demand an apology. It's a marvel that Reich can suggest with a straight face that after 40 ineffectual years, the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba is finally on the verge of changing the Cuban government. But then, as a former lobbyist for the Bacardi Martini rum interests, Reich has had years of practice touting a pro-embargo line. As Ventura spokesman John Wodele pointed out, the Bush administration does not speak for a majority of Americans on trade with Cuba. Just how far American opinion tilts toward normalizing relations is reflected in a June 2001 resolution passed by the Texas Legislature. The resolution calls on Congress to end the embargo and lift all travel restrictions between the United States and Cuba. Several other states have since followed suit. The argument advanced by the resolution is sound: The embargo has failed. Rather than giving the Cuban people a reason to depose Castro, it has helped him retain power by allowing him to make a scapegoat of Uncle Sam. Further, the embargo has withheld from the Cuban people the many benefits -- economic and otherwise -- of U.S. trade, while denying Americans free travel and access to a nearby market. Ventura plans to join 10 or more Minnesota exhibitors at the U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana, the first of its kind licensed by federal authorities. His expenses will be paid by the exhibitors, not Minnesota taxpayers. His plans call for him to do what governors have routinely done. Governors are useful in drawing attention to Minnesota companies and establishing official connections that facilitate trade. Ventura has done as much on trips to Japan, Canada, Germany, Mexico and China, and has demonstrated that he is good at it. Jeb Bush is counting on the Cuban-American vote -- and on the donations of Florida's affluent Castro-haters -- to help him win reelection this fall. That, more than serious foreign policy considerations, may explain the heat Ventura is taking from the Bush brothers about his travel plans. Ventura should let the bullies kick up all the dust they want -- and keep his date in Havana.
 

Venezuela resumes oil shipments to Cuba

On Sunday, September 8, Venezuela resumed shipping oil to Cuba, after halting 5 months ago when the Hugo Chavez government was about to be overthrown.

53,000 barrels of oil per day are being shipped to Cuba that includes 2% financing and 17 years to pay.  Venezuela claims that Cuba owes them $142 million.  Cuba just made a payment of $29 million.

In truth, Venezuela is doing a similar deal with most Latin American countries under Chavez rule.

Cuba Proposes writing off the debt

Cuban VP predicts Cuba will be self sufficient in energy by next year.

Havana, Sep 03, 2002  -- All of Cuba's energy needs will be met by the island nation's domestic petroleum production by the beginning of next year, Vice President Carlos Lage has announced.

In comments late Monday, Lage said recent investments in the sector would allow Cuba to meet its goal of being self sufficient in energy.

The vice president highlighted the modernization of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectrical Plant, which has undergone a $45 million overhaul, as making the goal possible.

Located 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of the capital Havana, the plant is currently undergoing tests and dry-runs and is expected to begin operations next month.

Lage, who is responsible for overseeing the Cuban economy, explained that the cost of a ton of fuel oil on world markets was $160 while that produced locally was only $61, providing significant savings for the cash-strapped government.

This year, Cuban oil and gas production is expected to rise to 4.1 million tons.

But the vice president warned that despite the new resources, energy-saving measures and cutting fuel consumption would still be required.

Pardons and refunds should be given to those who have been prosecuted or fined for having traveled to Cuba.

The Constitutional Rights of Americans have been dwindling away for many years and now after September 11....they are in a downhill rush!  We must reverse this nasty trend!

Be realistic, travel to Cuba is harmless for Americans citizens or to the government of the United States.  We can visit the countries of the really bad guys so why not to Cuba?

To think that money from tourists will keep Fidel Castro in power is among the lamest excuses and lies ever invented by our government.  In fact, probably the very opposite is true!  Name one situation where tourism kept a dictator in power?  There aren't any! 

Add to this the fact that the reasons given by the Office of George H.W. Bush, under the Reagan - Bush Administration, for banning travel to Cuba, have turned out to be an "outright lie" according to Dr. Wayne S. Smith, our man in Havana at the time.  David Mac Michaels, a former CIA analyst on Cuba and Central America, said he had looked at all the "top secret" information on Cuba and called the reasons for the travel ban a "fraud".

So, now the shoe is on the other foot.  Those who were prosecuted or fined by these laws of lies, must be made whole.  Those prosecuted criminally should be given unconditional pardons and those who have been fined should be given their money back....plus!

Those who told the lies (primarily then Vice President George H. W. Bush and his cousin John Walker Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Treasury) should be prosecuted under USC 1001 for knowingly and willfully lying to the American public.  These characters knowingly tried to revoke one of our most cherished Constitutional Rights with their lies and have gotten away with it for more than 20 years (Since May 15, 1982).  Aren't they just as bad or worse than our numerous Corporate Crooks?  I recommend a jail cell for the same amount of years as the American people had to do without this most cherished of Constitutional Freedoms.

The Senate vote on "free travel" is only days away

5 killed in rare crime 30 miles west of Havana

ARTEMISA, Cuba  -- Assailants entered a home in a village in western Cuba and killed five people, including four members of a family, apparently by cutting their throats, relatives of the victims said Saturday.

Such crimes are rare in Cuba. The attack comes nine months after five people, including a couple from Miami and an 8-year-old boy, were shot and killed in their car on a road from Havana in a robbery attempt.

The latest attack took place Thursday in a farm outside of Artemisa, about 30 miles west of Havana.

"It seems that they entered to steal, said Camilo Martin, a cousin of one of the victims, Osmel Martin. "People here are very worried."

Cuban authorities have released no details about the case. Police and Interior Ministry officials have the farm sealed off and a ministry official asked reporters to leave its entrance.

"People want the killers to be caught," said Martin, adding that his cousin had been the farm's guard and the other victims -- two men and two women -- lived on the small farm.

Martin identified the other dead as farm owner Felix Chacon; his brother-in-law Jorge Felix; and his 23-year-old niece, Evelise. He did not know the identity of the one remaining victim.

Jesse Ventura has called Cuban Embargo "stupid"

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Citing a lack of "basic freedoms" in Cuba, Gov. Jeb Bush urged Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to reconsider his plans to attend a trade exposition there next month.

"While I don't expect you to cancel your trip, I strongly believe doing so would be the right thing to do," Bush said in a letter, dated August 29, to Ventura. "I encourage you to consider other options as you look for opportunities to expand international trade for your state."

But a spokesman for Ventura said the Minnesota governor did not agree with Bush's "isolationist approach" and would not alter his plans.

Ventura will help promote the sale to Cuba of Minnesota-produced food and agricultural products at the U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition, to be held September 26-30 in Havana, his office said.

Exhibit organizers predict 18,000 to 20,000 people will attend the expo and that more than 150 companies, organizations and government offices from 30 states and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico will participate.

Editors note:  Way to go Jesse.  It is nice to see the lying Bush Boys put in their place.  It is so sad that they have managed to "brainwash" so many of the ignorant in this country.

California Senate approves resolution to end Cuban embargo

One man's view of Castro and Clinton

By MARC HANSEN
Register Columnist
08/29/2002

Jerry Crawford was a 13-year-old student at Lincoln High School when John F. Kennedy told the Soviet Union to pull its nuclear missiles out of Cuba.

He remembers the fear and the uncertainty. Like everyone else then, he wondered whether we were on the brink of world war. You can live 100 years and not forget something like that.

Crawford is 52 now. His hair is white and his memory long.

He's a big-shot lawyer involved in international biotech issues and a part-time player in Iowa Democratic Party politics.

He is a guy who once played golf at the Wakonda Club with Bill Clinton. Not counting Secret Service agents and media, they had the course to themselves.

That's something else you remember forever, even if you happen to be a known Friend of Bill.

A few weeks ago, Crawford took a trip to Cuba. His group arrived Sunday and returned Thursday.

The kid who lay in bed at night wondering whether the end was near spent an entire day with Fidel Castro.

"For anyone my age who watched those events," Crawford said, "it was hard to believe I was really sitting with him, discussing them."

Did you tell him how he scared the hell out of you?

"No, but I wish I'd thought of that."

There wasn't much he didn't think of across the 71/2-hour visit. At one point, Crawford had the last standing Marxist-Leninist all to himself.

"I had assumed when I got to know Bill Clinton," Crawford said, "that I'd never meet anyone else that brilliant and that charismatic, but I was wrong."

Crawford was there on behalf of his clients, who want to peddle their eggs, produce, seafood and dairy products.

This is a new thing. Two years ago, Congress passed a law letting U.S. businesses sell food to Cuba. Cash only. No credit.

Cuban-born Americans who think the law will lead to the end of the embargo aren't thrilled with the deal.

Neither are some members of Congress who want to know why we're cozying up to North America's foremost despot.

When Crawford returned, his 13-year-old son had some questions.

"Dad," the boy said, "he's a communist, right?"

"Yes."

"And he's the enemy of our country, right?"

"Well, at different times our country has thought so."

"If he's a communist and an enemy of our country, why are you spending time with him?"

The other side says ending the embargo will result in the beginning of improved relations and economic opportunity. Besides, we do business with China and North Korea.

"Castro said he thinks the quality of protein he can get from soybeans is superior to the quality of protein he can get from his livestock and is far less expensive to produce," Crawford said. "I know he hopes to import a considerable amount of soybeans and corn. He's also interested in importing pork and beef. There's a great opportunity for Iowa."

Patty Judge, Iowa's secretary of agriculture, agrees with Crawford and most of the people he met in Havana. It's only a matter of time before the embargo comes off.

"I know they have a need for corn as livestock feed," she said. "They've also told me they don't have enough pork in their country. Any time you can create trade opportunities for Iowa commodities, that's a positive."

Crawford doesn't want to get into the good and bad of life in Cuba. He wasn't there to make moral pronouncements on Castro or his country. He was there to help his clients make a buck.

The meeting wasn't only about chickens and eggs, though. It was about many things, including Castro's two great passions, medicine (specifically the war against AIDS) and the importance of education.

He even seemed interested, Crawford reported, when talk turned to the local-option school tax in Polk County.

He told the story of the illiterate soldier.

During the guerrilla movement of the "50s, the soldier received a love letter but couldn't read it. He gave the letter to his friend, who read it to him, and told him what to write back.

"He told us he saw firsthand what a demeaning experience illiteracy was," Crawford said, "and vowed to do something about it."

Not long ago, Castro made another big change.

Middle school students, as we know them here, would no longer rotate from teacher to teacher. They'd stay with the same teacher all day.

"We don't need Einstein teaching math," he told the Americans. "These students need one teacher, one adult figure, who gets to know the student intimately. If one of our math specialists didn't like that idea, we said fine, go teach at university . . . if you can find a job."

Castro also talked about baseball, another passion, and the million-dollar salaries that can't seem to keep our major leaguers from going on strike.

It costs 520 times more to see the Baltimore Orioles play, Castro said through a smiling interpreter, than to see an excellent game in Cuba.

At one point, he picked up a bat and showed the form that made him the athlete of the year at his Jesuit preparatory school.

They talked about the Little League World Series.

"He said if we settled our differences, they could sell us information on the actual ages of the Little League players from the Dominican Republic."

They talked about Castro's meeting with the pope.

"He noticed that this pope talks about the promise of heaven instead of hell," Crawford said. "He thinks that's a great thing, especially for someone from a tropical climate. Maybe to an Eskimo the prospect of hell doesn't seem too bad. But for someone from his climate, it seems too much to ask to endure an eternity of it as well."

Even at 76, the old man doesn't miss much. Wine was served during the long lunch. Glass after glass.

Crawford, who hasn't had a drink in nearly 13 years, abstained. Again and again.

Later, when Crawford complimented one of the paintings hanging from the dining-room wall, Castro said, "You appear to like my artwork better than my wine."

Among other things, Crawford also learned that Castro:

Wears black Reeboks with his crisp green military fatigues. Stays up all night. Exercises at least once a