Yahoo! December 1, 2000
Venezuelans Arrive in Cuba
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 30 (AP) - Helped by nurses and paramedics, 50 ailing Venezuelans
arrived here for medical treatment by Cuba as part of Venezuela's agreement to
provide the communist country with oil.
The medical treatment "is part of a cooperation agreement in which Cuba
offers services and sells goods and Venezuela pays with petroleum,'' Venezuelan
Ambassador Julio Montes told reporters at the airport.
Under the agreement, Venezuela exports an unspecified amount of oil to Cuba
in exchange for medical services, sports training and sugar.
Montes traveled to Havana on Thursday from Caracas aboard a Boeing 707 from
the Venezuelan Air Force, along with 50 patients, each one accompanied by a
relative. Nearly a third of the sick Venezuelans are children.
The patients suffer from heart and neurological problems, orthopedic
ailments, even drug addiction - but none is terminally ill, Montes said. All are
poor and unable to pay for the medical care they need at home.
Montes said that another 5,000 Venezuelans are on waiting lists to
participate in the new program. A second group is to arrive in Cuba on Dec. 15
and a third on Jan. 8, he said.
Treatments are expected to last anywhere from a week to several months, the
ambassador said.
Cuba Asks Extradition of Exiles
PANAMA CITY, Panama 30 (AP) - Cuba has filed a formal request seeking the
extradition of four exiles it claims plotted to kill President Fidel Castro
(news - web sites) at a recent summit, Panama said Thursday.
The four have been in prison since their arrest on Nov. 17 only hours after
Castro made the accusation of a plot to kill him at the Ibero-American Summit in
Panama City. The foreign ministry said it received the extradition request on
Wednesday.
Cuba earlier detailed allegations against the four men, including Posada
Carriles, a 72-year-old anti-Castro radical who left Cuba after the 1959
revolution.
Posada Carriles is wanted in Venezuela, where he was convicted in absentia
for involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner in which 73
people died. He denies involvement in that incident but has admitted organizing
hotel bombings in Cuba meant to scare off foreign tourists.
The exiles' attorney has said he expects the four men to be charged in
Panama. Police say they found plastic explosives near the Panama City airport
that might be linked to the group.
Soccer President Visits Cuba
HAVANA, 29 (AP) - The president of soccer's governing body arrived here
Wednesday to explore the possibility of developing interest in soccer on this
baseball-crazy island.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter was greeted at the airport upon his arrival by
Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, who is also director of the Cuban Olympic
Committee, and Humberto Rodriguez, president of the National Institute of
Sports, known by its Spanish acronym INDER.
Blatter's visit - his first to Cuba - was to last just 24 hours and was part
of a tour of the Caribbean and Central America. He was accompanied by Michel
Platini, his adviser, and Jack Warner, president of soccer's Confederation of
North, Central America and the Caribbean, or CONCACAF.
They were scheduled to travel Thursday to Guatemala.
FIFA has been trying to promote soccer on the island, which has never really
caught on in this country that embraces baseball as its national pastime. The
soccer governing body last year gave $1 million to the Cuban Soccer Association
in hopes of developing interest in the sport.
Group Suggests Easing Cuban Embargo
By Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 29 (AP) - The United States should ease the Cuban embargo to
help the island's transition to a post-Castro era and reduce chances of U.S.
military intervention, a Council on Foreign Relations panel recommended
Wednesday.
The task force urged that the United States eliminate travel restrictions to
Cuba, allow regular commercial flights between the two nations and permit U.S.
companies whose businesses were nationalized by Cuba to resolve their claims by
entering into joint ventures in Cuba.
It also recommended increased U.S.-Cuban cooperation in fighting drugs,
helping resolve the Colombian civil war and developing military-to-military
contacts.
"Our recommendations seek to build and strengthen bridges between the
Cuban and American people, promote family reunification, address current and
future matters of U.S. national security, promote labor rights and facilitate
resolution of property claims and further expose Cuba to international norms and
practices,'' the task force said in a report.
The report made no recommendation whether the United States should lift its
38-year-old embargo, which is aimed at pressuring democratic reforms on the
communist-ruled island.
The 23-member task force, which includes liberals and conservatives, was
co-chaired by Bernard W. Aronson and William D. Rogers, Democrats who held
high-level State Department jobs under Republican administrations.
The group's first report, issued two years ago, recommended expanded
contacts between Americans and Cubans. A month later, President Clinton (news -
web sites) adopted many of its recommendations in announcing his "people-to-people''
policy, which relaxed travel restrictions.
Some of the new recommendations may be more difficult to implement because
they require legislation, not just executive orders.
To lift the travel ban, for example, Congress would have to reverse a vote
it took in September. As part of a compromise easing restrictions on sales of
food and medicine to Cuba, Congress prohibited U.S. financing of any sales and
converted into law existing travel restrictions to Cuba.
The new report aims to build on the earlier one, seeking ways to promote
peaceful democratic change.
The report said President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s communism will
not survive him, and "many Cubans, including many who hold official
positions, understand that a transition to a democratic and free-market Cuba is
inevitable.''
It said chaos could erupt, however, if Castro should die or become
incapacitated. Fighting could break out, and thousands of Cubans could attempt
to flee, which could prompt demands for U.S. intervention.
"We believe the United States should now adopt a series of measures
that may reduce the chances of U.S. military involvement should Cuba's
transition go awry, and by doing so, make Cuba's peaceful transition to
democracy more likely,'' the report said.
Some of its two dozen recommendations were questioned in dissenting opinions
by task force members. Susan Kaufman Purcell, vice president of the New
York-based Americas Society, said lifting the tourism ban would do little to
help Cubans because the Cuban government owns all the hotels.
"Allowing unrestricted travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens under existing
conditions in Cuba would overwhelmingly benefit the Cuban government at the
expense of the Cuban people,'' she wrote.
Peter Rodman, director of national security programs at the Nixon Center,
described the report as "more the product of impatience than of analysis,''
noting a lack of change in Cuba in the last two years.
"Any idea that the measures in this report will foster political change
are an illusion,'' he wrote.
The report was also criticized by the anti-Castro Center for a Free Cuba.
"I believe that many of the suggestions advanced by the council will
help for the most part the Cuban government, and that means resources for
repression,'' said the center's executive director, Frank Calzon.
On the Net:
Council on Foreign Relations: http://www.cfr.org
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