Yahoo! December 29, 2000
Cuba may continue U.S. phone cuts
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Cuba, which earlier this month cut all direct telephone
communications with the United States, reserves the right to take additional
measures, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Thursday.
Since the Dec. 15 move, most attempts to call Cuba from the United States
have been unsuccessful. But callers in Cuba have been able to get through to the
United States.
Perez Roque told a news conference that "we have not decided whether to
take it farther, something that we keep among our options.'' The foreign
minister did not offer specifics.
Cuba blocked the direct telephone service between the two countries in
retaliation for the refusal of U.S. phone companies to pay a new 10 percent tax.
American telephone company officials said they did not intend to pay the new
tax because it is prohibited under the U.S. trade embargo.
Cuba, China Sign Military Accord
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Cuba and China have signed an agreement to increase
military cooperation between the countries, the official Communist Party daily
reported Thursday.
The Granma newspaper did not give specifics, saying only that the accord was
designed to strengthen "brotherhood and fraternity'' between the two
communist militaries.
The agreement was signed Wednesday by Gen. Fu Quanyou, a top general for the
Chinese People's Liberation Army, and Gen. Alvaro Lopez, a deputy minister of
Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. The Chinese general is in Cuba for a five-day
visit.
Gen. Raul Castro, Cuba's Defense Minister and the younger brother of
President Fidel Castro (news - web sites), attended the ceremony.
For three decades, the Soviet military provided Cuba with military training
and weaponry. But since the 1991 Soviet collapse, Cuba has moved to increase
ties with China.
Cuba wants more trade integration
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Cuba's new membership in a trade group for developing
countries should help the communist nation survive in a world economy dominated
by the United States, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Thursday.
Cuba joined the trade pact of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in
mid-December, a decade after losing its former socialist allies with the breakup
of the Soviet Union and nearly 40 years after the United States imposed
commercial sanctions.
"Cuba believes strongly in the necessity of the integration of Latin
America and the Caribbean as an indispensable condition for the survival of our
countries in a world that is increasingly unjust and unequal,'' Perez Roque told
a news conference.
"Only united will our countries be able to successfully confront the
expansionist appetites of the insatiable neighbor,'' he said, referring to the
United States, which he said "tries to impose its desires on the rest of
the world.''
But he denied Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's assertions
this week that Cuba wanted to join Mercosur, the South American trade bloc that
comprises Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Cardoso had said Cuba's
supposed request for membership in the organization was unrealistic.
"Cuba has never asked for membership in Mercosur,'' Perez Roque said
during a news conference called to respond to Cardoso's comments.
"The government of Cuba would never insist upon joining an organization
such as Mercosur,'' Perez Roque said. "Because of its geographic reach,
background and objectives, it would not be logical for a Caribbean nation such
as Cuba to be a member.''
Perez Roque did acknowledge that Cuba was negotiating side agreements with
Mercosur to lower trade barriers on certain products that Cuba wants to export
to and import from the South American bloc members.
Copyright © Yahoo!
Inc.
Copyright © 2000
The Associated Press. | 