Yahoo! April 17, 2001.
Cubans Tout 40 Years of Socialism
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 17 (AP) - Hoisting an automatic rifle into the air before tens of
thousands of chanting Cubans in military uniforms, President Fidel Castro (news
- web sites) declared Monday that the socialist system he brought to Cuba 40
years ago was here to stay.
"Workers and farmers, humble men and women of the fatherland: Do you
swear to defend this revolution to the last drop of blood?'' Castro asked the
sea of people, repeating the speech he gave on the same street corner on April
16, 1961.
"We swear!'' the crowd responded, many of them thrusting old wooden and
metal Kalishnikov or FAL rifles into the air. Others furiously waved tiny paper
Cuban flags of red, white and blue.
"Workers and farmers, this is the socialist and democratic revolution
of the humble, with the humble and for the humble,'' Castro declared, again
repeating from his earlier speech. The date also marks the anniversary of the
founding of the Communist Party of Cuba.
"The socialist of today is much superior to that of our dreams back
then,'' Castro said.
During a speech of more than an hour, Castro recounted the island's
advances, impossible without socialism - a low infant mortality rate, a high
literacy rate, electrification and clean drinking water for virtually all 11
million Cubans.
The vast majority of those in the crowd Monday were in uniform. The crowd
included high officials and politicians as well as Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who
successful fought to bring his boy Elian back to Cuba last June after a U.S.
custody battle.
The original declaration by Castro came a little more than two years after
the Jan. 1, 1959, triumph of the Cuban revolution that brought him to power. It
also came just one day before 1,500 CIA (news - web sites)-trained exiles landed
on Cuba's southern coast in the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.
Helms Meets With Mexican President
By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY, 17 (AP) - Waving and grinning from his car after meeting with
President Vicente Fox (news - web sites), U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms appeared at home
in a country he has long denounced.
Helms flew Monday to Mexico City for a three-day trip that includes a
historic joint meeting with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and its Mexican counterpart. On Tuesday, the five U.S. senators planned to meet
with Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda, who has often met Helms' attacks with
criticism of his own.
But the two sides appear to be putting aside their differences - or at least
discussing them. The visit, Helms said, was a way to "help solidify the
emerging friendship between our two governments.''
For years, the North Carolina Republican has attacked Mexico, accusing its
government of widespread corruption and lackluster drug-fighting efforts.
Helms, one of Cuba's most vocal opponents, has denounced Mexico's ties to
the communist island. He also voted against the North American Free Trade
Agreement and opposed a U.S. rescue of Mexico's economy during the 1995 peso
crisis.
For his part, Castaneda once called the Helms-Burton law - designed to
punish foreign companies investing in Cuba - an "absurd tragicomedy.''
But things have changed in Mexico, and both sides appeared to be responding.
When Fox took office Dec. 1, he ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional
Revolutionary Party.
Although the new president has appealed to the left by sending an Indian
rights bill to Congress and promising to restart stalled peace talks with the
Zapatista rebels, the former Coca-Cola executive is also a devout Roman Catholic
and a member of the conservative National Action Party.
His administration has been received favorably by many Republicans in the
United States.
Mexico was President Bush (news - web sites)'s first foreign trip after
taking office. He and Fox spent a day at the Mexican president's ranch, pledging
closer cooperation against drug smuggling, energy shortages and immigration
problems.
And in January, a delegation of senators led by Texas Republican Phil Gramm
proposed a guest-worker program to bring Mexican workers legally into the United
States.
Helms has said Wednesday's meeting with Mexican legislators "will be,
to the best of our knowledge, the first time in history that a committee of the
U.S. Congress has held a joint meeting on foreign soil with a committee of
another nation's congress or parliament.''
Joining Helms were Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Lincoln
Chafee, R-R.I.; and John Ensign, R-Nev. They are expected to discuss
immigration, drug smuggling and trade.
Fox has urged U.S. officials to allow more Mexican workers and to legalize
those already there - an idea that Helms doesn't seem to support.
However, Helms' committee passed a bill earlier this month that would
eliminate the demand that U.S. presidents rate countries on their efforts to
combat drug trafficking.
Mexico, and most other nations, have denounced the certification program as
insulting and hypocritical coming from the world's largest drug-consuming
nation.
Pulitzer for Elian Photographer
By Terry Spencer, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 16 (AP) - Alan Diaz had been preparing for his Pulitzer Prize-winning
photograph long before he heard the footsteps of federal agents running toward
the house where Elian Gonzalez slept.
For months, the photojournalist had been talking to the Cuban boy's
relatives and getting to know the house and its surroundings. Now, in the
pre-dawn darkness last April 22, that preparation was about to pay off.
"It's going down!'' Diaz yelled as he grabbed his camera, which he'd
placed beneath a towel to protect it from the early morning dew. He jumped the
fence into the side yard of the Gonzalez family's Little Havana home, paused to
set his shutter speed and strobe light and then ran through a door opened by a
relative.
"Where's the boy?'' he yelled in Spanish, as Elian's frantic relatives
scurried around the living room. A man pushed Diaz toward the boy's bedroom,
where he threw on the light. Elian wasn't there.
He pounded on the bedroom door across the hall, which Elian's aunt opened.
Diaz could see 6-year-old Elian being held in the closet by Donato Dalrymple,
who had helped pull the boy from the Atlantic five months earlier.
Inside the room, Diaz took the photograph of a federal agent with an assault
rifle confronting a screaming Elian and a stunned Dalrymple.
That photo won Diaz the 2001 Pulitzer on Monday for spot news photography.
"It's awesome! I can't believe it!'' Diaz, 53, said as he was mobbed by
co-workers.
"It's a great picture, just a great picture, and we're very pleased for
Alan that he won,'' AP President and CEO Louis Boccardi said.
"It's an amazing job by an amazing, talented photographer,'' said Vin
Alabiso, an AP vice president and the executive photo editor.
The raid also produced a Pulitzer for The Miami Herald, for breaking news
reporting. After the raid, Elian was reunited with his father and eventually
returned home to Cuba.
Miami Herald Publisher Alberto Ibarguen said the boy's story had elements
that divided Miami, with many Cubans angry about the raid and many non-Cubans
angry about the protests that followed.
"Husbands and wives wouldn't talk to each other, co-workers had
arguments. This was a very, very emotional time in Miami and I think we did a
fantastic job and covered it in a way so that anybody who was interested could
find their story reflected in the pages of the paper,'' Ibarguen said.
About 40 reporters, editors and photographers shared in the coverage,
Ibarguen said. All gathered in the newsroom and cheered the announcement.
He said he was proudest in the week following the raid when the number of
reader letters shot up from about 1,000 to about 8,000 and almost all were
opinions about the raid - not about the paper's coverage of it.
"That was enormously satisfying and this recognition by the Pulitzer
board is absolutely wonderful icing on the cake,'' Ibarguen said.
Diaz was a free-lance photographer when he was hired by the AP to take daily
pictures of Elian soon after the boy arrived in November 1999. His mother and 13
other Cubans had tried to flee across the Florida Straits, but their boat sank.
Elian, who was lashed to an inner tube, and two adults survived.
Since the photo, Diaz's life has changed dramatically. A free-lancer for 12
years, the AP hired him for a full-time position in June. He has won many awards
and been sought after for interviews by other journalists.
"Everything turned around on me,'' Diaz said. "I don't mean that
in a bad sense of the word, but now everybody wanted to hear from me. I'm not
used to that.''
Copyright © Yahoo!
Inc.
Copyright © 2000
The Associated Press. | 