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Bolivia's Evo Morales praises Castro in Cuban TV interview

LA HABANA, 20 (AFP) - Evo Morales, the outspoken leftist who claimed victory in Bolivia's presidential election, praised President Fidel Castro in an interview with government television.

"I want to tell you that this year I dreamt of joining the anti-imperialist struggle of Fidel and the Cuban people," he said in a message to the Cuban people.

"Now I have the opportunity to be with him in this struggle, in search of peace with social justice," he said.

Morales praised the resilence of Cuban in resisting the decades-old US trade embargo against the island. "I hope the government of the United States lifts it some day."

"I want to tell the Cuban people, its government and its leaders: thank you, for showing how to govern, to Latin America and the rest of the world, and for defending its dignity and sovereignty. A special and revolutionary greeting to all the Cuban people," Morales said.

The 46-year-old former coca grower, who has pledged to be a thorn in Washington's side, is set to become the first indigenous head of South America's poorest country.

Exit polls gave Morales more than the 50 percent of the vote needed to win. His nearest rival, Bolivian former president Jorge Quiroga, conceded defeat late Sunday.

Morales, who is set to take office on January 22, said he was "very happy" because voters gave him more than half the votes, thus avoiding the presidential selection from being thrown to Congress, as mandated by the Bolivian constitution.

"The people know who I am and the dirty campaign (against me) did not work. Those who used to kill us with bullets and are now trying to kill us with lies have failed, because the people know what our movement is about," he said.

China Grants Cuba Credit During Communist Party Official's Visit

HAVANA, 20 (AP) -- China granted Cuba a line of credit worth 50 million yuan, about US$6.2 million (euro5.2 million), as part of a pact signed during a visit by a senior Chinese Communist Party official, Cuba's state-run press reported Tuesday.

The line of credit will be used to buy "general materials" from China and carry out several economic projects, the island's domestic news agency AIN reported.

The official, Luo Gan, is a member of China's ruling Politburo Standing Committee and he was meeting with several top Cuban officials including Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon and Vice President Carlos Lage.

Luo said his visit was a "reflection of the profound feeling of friendship between the two countries," according to AIN.

The two nations established official relations in 1960, making Cuba the first Latin American country to create ties with China.

Cuba's close relationship with the former Soviet Union sometimes led to tense relations with China when the two large Communist powers were feuding. But since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, political and commercial ties have steadily strengthened. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the island last year.

Ueberroth Wants Cuba in Baseball Classic

AP, Tuesday December 20, 10:11 AM.

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth called on the Bush administration to reverse its decision to keep Cuba out of next year's World Baseball Classic.

Ueberroth, a former baseball commissioner and head of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said last week's decision by the Treasury Department to deny Cuba a permit to play in the 16-team event will damage American efforts to host the Olympics in the future. Olympic host countries must guarantee all nations can participate.

"It is important to any future bid city from the United States that this be reversed," Ueberroth said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's disappointing. This will impact IOC members negatively. This may be the only example of a country prohibiting competition on an international scale."

When Ueberroth headed the 1984 Olympics, he worked with the Reagan administration to ensure that Cuba would be allowed to participate.

"It was a difficult discussion and difficult negotiating," Ueberroth said.

Cuba ultimately chose to join a boycott of the Los Angeles Games but did send athletes to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where it won nine gold medals and 25 medals in all. I

Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said last week that generally speaking, "the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest."

Cuba is scheduled to play its first-round games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and also would play there if it advances in the tournament, scheduled for March 3-20. The semifinals are in Anaheim, Calif., and the final in San Diego.

Baseball officials hope a revised plan will gain approval. For instance, when Cuba came to the United States this year for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, no payments were made directly to the Cubans. One soccer official said some money was given to Cuba by the Caribbean Football Union, which is based in Trinidad and Tobago.

U.S. Convenes Anti-Castro Panel

AP. Tuesday December 20, 10:31 AM.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday chaired the second session of a panel to "hasten and ease a democratic transition" in Cuba and spoke of change partly by denying the Castro government money and supplying the Cuban people with information.

Official U.S. policy is to undermine the planned succession in Cuba from President Fidel Castro, 79 and apparently ailing, to his 74-year-old brother, Raul. It has been left unclear how to bring that about, although Cuba has been under an economic embargo from the United States since 1961, two years after Castro took power.

President Bush appointed the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba in late 2003 under the leadership of Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, and received its first recommendations in May 2004.

In a statement after the meeting, Rice noted that the panel was formed "to explore ways the U.S. can help hasten and ease a democratic transition in Cuba."

"Reconvening the commission at this time sends an important message to the people of Cuba, the current dictatorship and our friends and democratic allies," she said. That message is, she said: "After 46 years of cruel dictatorship, now is the time for change in Cuba."

Rice said the commission's effectiveness comes from integrating the administration's Cuba policy with all agencies of the federal government. By doing that, and implementing the first report's recommendations, she said: "We have empowered Cuban civil society to better organize and advocate for democratic change; we have established measures that denied millions of dollars in revenue to the dictatorship; we are breaking the regime's information blockade on the Cuban people; and we have drawn greater attention to the dictatorship's deplorable treatment of the Cuban people."

Rice said she reconvened the commission to come up with more ways "to help Cubans hasten the day when they will be free from oppression and to develop a concise but flexible strategic plan that will help the Cuban people move rapidly toward free and fair democratic elections."

It will not be imposed on the Cuban people, Rice's statement said, "but rather is a promise we will keep with the Cuban people."

The main goal, she said, is "to marshal our resources and expertise and encourage our democratic allies to be ready to support Cuba when the inevitable opportunity for genuine change arises."

Rice said the commission's new report will be completed by May 2006, when it will report to the president its "updated recommendations to hasten democracy and an interagency strategic plan to assist a Cuban-led transition."

The anti-Castro rules in place have drawn some opposition from Cubans in the United States, especially restrictions on travel and sending money to Cuba. Many Cuban-Americans and Cuban residents of the United States are important sources of income for families still on the island.

Top Cuban Energy Official Invites U.S. Executives to Meet in Mexico

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- In a letter to U.S. energy company executives, Fidel Rivero Prieto, President of Cuba Petroleo, told his counterparts from the U.S. energy sector that Cuba " ... would be very pleased to do business together ... " and invited them to meet with him and his Cuban colleagues at the U.S.-Cuba Energy Summit scheduled for February 2-4, 2006, in Mexico City.

Citing the need for " ... investments by additional foreign companies," Rivero wrote that the meeting in Mexico " ... will permit us to provide the information that is most useful to your company ... and we will have the opportunity to learn about your products and services. In this way," Rivero wrote, "both of us will be prepared to discuss real business opportunities as soon as that is possible."

This historic U.S.-Cuba Energy Summit is being organized by Alamar Associates (http://www.alamarcuba.com) which has organized five previous Cancun Business Summits which have brought more than 500 U.S. executives together with their Cuban counterparts.

The Energy Summit is being sponsored by the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association (http://www.uscuba.org) along with Caterpillar, Port of Corpus Christi, Louisiana Department of Economic Development, Valero Energy Corporation, Lafayette Economic Development Authority, National Foreign Trade Council, and USA*Engage.

The Summit, which had been originally scheduled for Cancun in December, was changed due to the hurricane damage and now will be held at the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel in Mexico City, February 2-4, 2006.

"With Spain, China, Canada, Norway, and India signing agreements to explore in Cuban waters less than 100 miles from our shores in the Gulf, it is time for U.S. firms to understand what is going on and what the future business potential might be," said Kirby Jones, President of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, "and this event offers U.S. executives the opportunity to do just that face-to-face with their Cuban counterparts."

Cuba will send to the Summit in Mexico a high level delegation led by Fidel Rivero Prieto, President of CubaPetroleo, and will include officials and specialists from the Cuban Ministry of Basic Industries, Union Electrica, and Ministries of Foreign Trade, Foreign Investment, and Foreign Relations.

"I am looking forward to meeting one-on-one with this distinguished group of Cuban officials and specialists to discuss the real business potential for Southwestern United States. Cuba with its recent discoveries offers our business community another option for oil and gas exploration and discovery," said Ruben Bonilla, Chairman of the Port Authority of Corpus Christi.

The Summit agenda will include presentations and Q & A sessions with all the Cuban specialists; each company will have a private one-on-one meeting arranged with Cuban counterparts; experts will discuss the current laws and prospects for change; and presentations will be made by energy companies already doing business in Cuba.

"Nobody wants to be left out and the potential of business in this new market for Louisiana companies is significant. This meeting will allow companies from our state to meet Cuban counterparts and get in on the ground floor," said Mike Olivier, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development.

The full text of the letter and complete information about the U.S.-Cuba Energy Summit can be found on its web site at http://www.uscubasummit.org.

Source: Alamar Associates

Top rights award ceremony held without blocked Cuban winners

STRASBOURG, 14 (AFP) - A French media rights group and a Nigerian lawyer received the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov prize on Wednesday, but Cuban co-laureates could not attend because they had been prevented from leaving Havana.

Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders - RSF), Hauwa Ibrahim and the five founders of a Cuban protest movement called The Ladies in White were the 2005 winners of the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The speaker of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, "deplored the attitude of the Cuban authorities" in not authorising the five wives and close relatives of political prisoners to leave Cuba.

The Ladies themselves have called on the European Parliament to send a delegation to Cuba to hand over the prize in person and to see "the cruel and arbitrary conditions endured by our prisoners and families," according to Blanca Reyes, the exiled wife of poet and journalist Raul Rivero.

The first winner of the prize, Nelson Mandela, was also unable to collect it person, in 1988, since he was still detained at the time. After he was released, the parliament held an extraordinary session for his speech.

Hauwa Ibrahim was chosen this year because of her defence of Nigerian women accused of adultery who faced being stoned to death, and youths sentenced to amputation under Sharia law.

RSF head Robert Menard accepted the award on behalf of the organisation and called on parliamentarians to defend the "universal" values of democracy.

Andrei Sakharov, who died in 1989, was a Russian nuclear physicist and civil rights campaigner who helped develop a hydrogen bomb before campaigning against nuclear proliferation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for championing human rights in the Soviet Union.

The 2004 winner of the prize was Kofi Annan and the United Nations.

After last week's Caribbean Summit in Barbados, 2008 White House Hopeful Daniel Imperato issued a statement on US Relations with Castro, Cuba, and the Caribbean.

(I-Newswire) - West Palm Beach, FL - December 20, 2005 - After last week's Caribbean Summit in Barbados, 2008 White House Hopeful Daniel Imperato issued a statement on US Relations with Castro, Cuba, and the Caribbean.

"I strongly recommend that the United States of America and its people take serious retribution of the fact that some of the closest land to our border consists of Cuba and the Caribbean. Our administration and our president, in my opinion, along with previous administrations, have been neglecting, what I feel could be one of the most important strategic parts of our very own security in the United States of America, the Caribbean islands and Cuba," expressed Imperato.

The summit focused on health care cooperation and cultural exchanges, but a major focus was on Cuba and its thorny relationship with the United States

Imperato felt that now was the time to embrace Cuba and help them become democratic.

"I strongly suggest that our administration embrace Fidel Castro and Cuba, administer them and assist them in becoming a free society. While our government is focused all the way to Iraq, we are not even looking at our neighbor," stated Imperato.

Just as democracy is to help our relations in the Middle East, Imperato felt that democracy could help our neighbor to the south, Cuba.

"I believe in order to breakthrough and establish stronger relations with our island neighbor, that Fidel Castro, his people, and his government, must be liberated. We the people of the United States America have a duty and obligation to support democracy in the free world. Our neighboring Cuba needs our support and I say its time that we give it," asserted Imperato.

When Imperato becomes empowered to represent the United States he said he looks forward to "setting an example with our closest neighbor Cuba by opening relations, mending wounds, and repairing diplomatic ties with Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean."

Also Imperato felt that the rest of the world was taking an interest in the region while we were focusing elsewhere.

"Furthermore the Caribbean and Cuba have become investment hubs for foreign nations around the globe which could very well jeopardize our security," contended Imperato.

Additionally, Imperato felt that if the United States didn't take action with Cuba someone else would.

"Mark my words that if we do not address the Cuban situation with Castro that Chavez will. We can't lose this opportunity for freedom with one of our closest neighbors," said Imperato.

About Daniel Imperato

Daniel was born and raised in Boston, Mass ( 1958 ), and began his business career in 1977 transforming the manufacturing facilities in Israel through adapting them to the global marketplace along with bringing financing to the factories for global expansion. Daniel brings over thirty years of experience in global business planning and development and has personal relationships at high levels around the world. Daniel has consulted for Fortune 500 corporations, is currently a Papal Knight with honors from the Vatican, and a board member for the African Center Foundation, a United Nations NGO.

Daniel has been a resident of West Palm Beach, Fl for over 10 years, and has devoted his time towards many worthwhile causes including our youth, and HIV/AIDS. He has unique value, explosive energy and the ability to achieve what most others cannot. Daniel is also a dedicated businessperson with morals and values that are based on trust and integrity. Presently, he has organized a Presidential Exploratory Committee in order to gauge support for a possible run at the White House in 2008.

This Release was approved by Imperato For President 2008, the Official Presidential Exploratory Committee for Daniel Imperato.

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