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June 18, 2002.
Dry Pea Shipment Leaves for Cuba
Tue Jun 18, 2:09 Am Et . By John K. Wiley, Associated Press
Writer
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - For the first time in more than four decades, a
shipment of dry peas from Washington state has been shipped to Cuba.
"Today is a historic day. For the first time in 42 years, we will be
shipping dry green peas grown in Washington ... to the largest market in the
Western hemisphere," Tim D. McGreevy, executive director of the USA Dry Pea
and Lentil Council, said Monday at a tour of Spokane Seed Co., one of three area
companies involved in the sale.
The 5,000 metric ton sale amounts to about $1.1 million, McGreevy said. The
peas come from Washington state and North Dakota, he said.
Recently relaxed trade sanctions against the communist country allowed Cuba
to order 20,000 metric tons of dry green peas and lentils grown in the United
States.
Because of increasing prices and dwindling supplies, the remainder of the
sale could be filled in September, after the 2002 crop is harvested, McGreevy
said.
"This shipment represents a new era of trade with Cuba," Sen.
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said after a tour of the Spokane pea processing plant.
"The pea and lentil market represents a big, long-term opportunity for the
Northwest."
Cantwell was a member of a delegation of influential Washington state women
who visited Cuban Premier Fidel Castro in January to push for sales of
Northwest agricultural products, including apples and peas.
Cantwell said she hopes to be able to announce a similar deal for Washington
state apples later this month.
The Cuban food import agency, Alimport, paid cash for the shipments because
credit bans remain in effect.
Cuba currently imports an estimated 170,000 metric tons of dried peas from
Canada.
Cuba Claims Signature Drive Success
Mon Jun 17, 7:17 PM ET
HAVANA (AP) - With more than 7 million signatures collected over two days,
Cuba declared broad support Monday for a constitutional amendment to make its
socialist system "untouchable." Opposition leaders warned of the
gravity of making any system impossible to change.
State newspapers reported that 7.4 million signatures had been gathered for
the official campaign since Saturday morning. The signature campaign closes at
noon on Tuesday.
"This is huge," Defense Minister Raul Castro said Sunday night on
state television. "It is a demonstration of the strength of the revolution,"
said Castro, Fidel Castro 's younger brother and his designated successor.
"Citizens don't know the real reasons" for the official signature
drive, top opposition leaders said Monday in a statement to international news
organizations. "We alert the people to the grave consequences of
perpetuating this political regime above the sovereign right of the people to
change and choose their political and economic system."
The opposition leaders demanded that the government publish the proposals in
the opposition's civil liberties drive, the Varela Project, so Cubans know there
is an alternative to the current official campaign declaring Cuba's economic,
political and social systems "untouchable."
They have said that the official campaign ratifying socialism is an attempt
to erase the Varela Project proposals, and have questioned whether most people
are signing the official petitions of their own free will.
Cubans have noted privately that signing the document was a very public act
that lacked the secrecy of the voting booth and that they would draw attention
to themselves if they failed to sign. Although none described intense pressure
to sign, many said they felt compelled to do so in a society where political
loyalty can affect many aspects of daily life.
"We demand a popular consultation so that Cubans themselves decide
whether they want legal changes laid out in the Varela Project," the
opposition leaders wrote.
Those opponents included Elizardo Sanchez, a veteran human rights activist;
Vladimiro Roca, who recently was freed after five years in prison for
criticizing Cuba's Communist Party; and Oswaldo Paya, of the non-governmental
Christian Liberation Movement and a lead Varela Project organizer.
Activists last month submitted more than 11,000 signatures to the National
Assembly seeking a referendum to ask voters whether they favor civil liberties
such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral
reform and amnesty for political prisoners.
Most Cubans first heard of the Varela Project last month in a speech by
former U.S. President Jimmy Carter when he visited the island, but don't know
what its proposals say.
Fidel Castro, 75, has repeatedly insisted that Cuba will remain socialist
after his death.
Cuba Ballgames to Appear on U.S. TV
Mon Jun 17, 6:01 PM ET
HAVANA (AP) - Four games in the final round of Cuba's national baseball
series will be tape-delayed on cable television in the United States next month,
according to officials of a Brazilian company that reached the agreement with
the island nation.
It will be the first time since the revolution in 1959 that Cuban baseball
games will been seen on American television.
The Brazilian firm, Tampico & Co. Sports, was formed two years ago to
produce and distribute sports programming from around the Caribbean, said
Rodolfo De Athayde, the company's representative for Cuba and Central America.
In exchange for the rights to the Cuban national finals, Tampico will
provide Cuba with soccer and other sports programming it has the right to, said
Loic Gosselin, general manager of Tampico & Co. Sports.
Gosselin, a French citizen who visited Cuba this week to wrap up
negotiations with Cuban officials, said his company would sell the Cuban
baseball programming to TVN, a California-based cable TV concern.
The taped versions of the Cuban baseball finals will be transmitted on July
8, 9, 12 and 14 in California, New York, Washington, Texas, New Jersey, and
Chicago — but not in Florida, home to the largest Cuban exile community in
the United States
The programming will be offered both in Spanish and English, he said.
The contract between Tampico, the commercial arm of communist Cuba's radio
and television industry and Cuba's National Sports Institute have been going on
for more than 1 years, Gosselin said.
"For us, the important thing is to start, to set a precedent that will
let us develop the broadcasting of Cuban baseball in the United States,"
Gosselin said.
Humberto Rodriguez, president of the sports institute, said the deal "will
continue to the promotion of the development of baseball on the island."
U.S. to Complain to Cuba at Meeting
Mon Jun 17, 3:19 Pm Et . By George Gedda, Associated Press
Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States will complain to Cuban authorities at a
meeting in New York that Cuba has been preventing citizens with U.S. visas from
traveling to the United States, a State Department official said Monday.
Representatives of the unfriendly neighbors meet Tuesday as part of periodic
exchanges they hold about migration.
The official said U.S.-Cuban agreements dating from the mid-1990's generally
have achieved their objective of safe, legal and orderly migration to the United
States.
According to the official, who asked not to be identified, President Fidel
Castro 's government often delays providing exit visas to Cubans with
professional training or to families of anti-Castro dissidents.
The United States also has concerns about Cuba's treatment of would-be
migrants who are returned to the island by U.S. authorities and Cuba's alleged
refusal to accept the return of migrants who arrive on U.S. shores but are
ineligible to remain.
Many of these cases date from the Mariel boat lift of 1980, when more than
100,000 Cubans fled Cuba for the United States.
Also on Tuesday's agenda are how to combat the smuggling by criminal
organizations of Cubans to the United States.
The U.S. delegation to the talks will be headed by Daniel Fisk, a deputy
assistant secretary of state. The leader of the Cuban side will be Rafael Dauza,
who handles North American affairs for Cuba's Foreign Ministry.
The agenda will be limited to migration. As part of a U.S. policy adhered to
by administrations for years, no discussions are allowed with Cuba on political
subjects. | 
