CUBA
NEWS
Yahoo!
Cubans Show Up in Force at Americas
Summit
By Dan Molinski, Associated
Press Writer, November 3, 2005.
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, 3 (AP) - Cuban
leader Fidel Castro was the only leader
excluded from the Summit of the Americas
in this seaside Argentine town, but that
did not stop a Cuban delegation from making
the trip.
On Wednesday, about 300 Cubans milled around
a sports complex several miles away from
the luxury hotel where the summit will take
place Friday and Saturday.
Mostly dressed in red and white sweatsuits
with "CUBA" emblazoned across
the back, they arrived to take part in a
"People's Summit", where thousands
of leftist activists are holding rallies
and marches to protest the U.S.-supported
Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Their goal: to prevent U.S. officials from
using the fourth Summit of the Americas
as a springboard to renew FTAA talks. The
talks have been stalled for years, but are
taking center stage with the gathering of
President Bush and 31 leaders from Latin
America and the Caribbean.
"We're here to show our combative
spirit against free trade and all the other
falsities drummed up by Bush, the imperialist,"
said Julio Martinez, a 37-year-old director
of a youth communism center in Havana.
Cuba, a communist-run adversary of the
U.S. government for four decades, is prohibited
from participating in the summit, sponsored
by the Organization of American States.
Among the Cubans on hand in Mar del Plata
was Cuba's world record-holding high jumper,
Javier Sotomayor, who shyly said he opposes
Bush but has nothing against Americans.
"Look, one of the reasons I even took
up high jumping was because I was in awe
at watching the American high jumper Dwight
Stones," said Sotomayor, who set the
record in 1993.
Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba's parliament speaker
who is leading the Cuban contingent, is
scheduled to take part in a thousands-strong
march through the streets of Mar Del Plata
on Friday. About 8,000 police and soldiers
are deployed in the city to prevent violence.
Martinez said Cuba's opposition to the
United States stems from capitalism and
the misery he claims it causes.
"We're against the American system,"
he said. "And this opposition is only
enhanced by having someone like Bush at
the helm."
Martinez said Cuba's presence in Mar Del
Plata also is designed to offer solidarity
for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who
is also a leftist but democratically elected.
Chavez, a frequent Bush critic, plans to
use the summit to protest capitalism and
promote his "Boliviarian" revolution.
He is using profits from Venezuela's huge
oil reserves to fund socialist initiatives
in a political movement loosely based on
the ideals of Simon Bolivar, the South American
independence hero.
Cuban Minister Expects U.S. Embargo
Win
AP, November 3, 2005.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
said Wednesday he expected an "Olympic
record" style victory next week when
the U.N. General Assembly votes on an annual
resolution to condemn the four-decade- old
U.S. embargo on his communist-run country.
"No one in the world supports the
blockade except for President Bush, his
regime and the extremist and violent groups
in Miami," Perez Roque told The Associated
Press in an interview, using the term his
government prefers to describe the long-standing
trade and travel sanctions.
Roque also said Bush shouldn't attend the
Summit of Americas in Argentina this weekend,
claiming that he is neither liked nor respected
in Latin America.
"President Bush should take note of
the rejection of his regime by Latin America,"
he said.
Communist-run Cuba, an adversary of the
United States for more than four decades,
is the only country in the hemisphere that
was not invited to the summit hosted by
the regional Organization of American States.
But he said Cuba was looking forward to
taking part in a competing "People's
Summit" and march in the coastal resort
of Mar de Plata and had sent a large delegation.
For 13 consecutive years, the U.N. gathering
has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the
embargo and this year is expected to be
no different.
"We could have an Olympic record!"
for the string of victories for Cuba, the
foreign minister said. "This is one
of the resolutions most supported in the
United Nations."
Cuba has launched a broad public relations
campaign drawing attention to its complaints
against the embargo before the Nov. 9 vote
at U.N. headquarters in New York. Cuban
embassies around the world have granted
interviews to media in those countries,
while the island's state-run newspapers
and broadcast reports have been providing
almost daily coverage.
The embargo, in place since 1961 with the
goal of toppling Fidel Castro's socialist
system, has been steadily tightened under
Bush's two terms, creating "the hardest
chapter of the blockade," Perez Roque
said.
The foreign minister repeated his government's
charge that the sanctions have cost Cuba
more than $82 billion over the decades and
noted that now 70 percent of the island's
more than 11.2 million people were born
after sanctions were imposed.
The foreign minister says he remains hopeful
that he will see the sanctions end in his
lifetime, "but while President Bush
is there, the blockade is going to remain."
Venezuela Must Consult U.S. on Jet Moves
AP, November 3, 2005.
The U.S. ambassador said Wednesday Venezuela
must consult with the United States before
transferring any U.S.-made warplanes to
another country.
President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday he might
share Venezuela's U.S.-made F-16 fighters
with Cuba and China because the U.S. hadn't
upheld its obligations to supply replacement
parts for the F-16 fighters.
But U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield
said the 1982 contract on the sale of the
planes "says precisely and clearly
that the Venezuelan government has the obligation
to consult before transferring those planes
to any other country in the world."
"We don't have any doubt the Venezuelan
government will comply with the terms of
that contract," Brownfield told the
Venezuelan television channel Globovision.
Venezuela purchased its fleet of 21 F-16s
in 1983. Until Chile acquired a fleet in
2003, Venezuela was the only Latin American
country to possess the warplanes made by
Lockheed Martin.
Chavez and President Bush will attend the
Summit of Americas in Argentina starting
Friday. Asked about the possibility the
two leaders might meet, Brownfield said:
"Anything's possible in a perfect world,
in a perfectible world."
Castro offers advice on Maradona's show
AP, November 1, 2005.
Soccer great Diego Maradona has had some
impressive guests on his new TV show, from
former rival Pele to British pop star Robbie
Williams. But he's never interviewed anyone
quite as weighty as Fidel Castro.
Despite Maradona's efforts to lighten the
mood, Cuba's president stuck mainly to serious
musings about his old comrade Che Guevara
and hemispheric politics.
Castro warned US President George W Bush
to stay away from this week's summit of
leaders of the Americas, to which Cuba was
the only nation not invited.
"It would be better for him to find
a pretext and not go. This is seriously
an error, the FTAA is already dead and buried,"
Castro said during a five-hour interview,
which aired in part on Monday night.
The stalled US proposal to create a Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) has been
slammed by left-leaning Latin American leaders
as potentially harmful to local economies.
Maradona urged his compatriots to join
him at an anti-Bush march in Mar del Plata,
Argentina, where the US president will attend
the November 4-November 5 summit.
Castro joked that Maradona could become
the target of assassination attempts, like
those against him, if the soccer legend
got labelled a 'subversive'.
And he said Bush should not underestimate
Argentines' strong opposition to the US
administration.
"We are in solidarity with you and
with Argentina," Castro told Maradona.
"We have fought for decades, and we
will be happy knowing that you are there."
Maradona spared no praise for the 79-year-old
Castro whom he considers a friend and a
father figure.
One of the best soccer players of all times,
Maradona captained Argentina to World Cup
victory in 1986, but drug abuse undermined
his career and health. He battled cocaine
addiction for nearly four years in Cuban
treatment centres.
Maradona began a new career as a television
host in August.
At the start of the program, Maradona emerged
wearing a military jacket identical to Fidel's,
which he said was a gift from the Cuban
president.
"I am truly proud to have this. I
love him," Maradona said.
Venezuela Is Cuba's No. 1 Trading Partner
Venezuela Becomes Cuba's
No. 1 Trading Partner, Cuba's Foreign Commerce
Minister Says
HAVANA, 31 Nov. (AP) -- Venezuela is now
Cuba's top trading partner with $1.4 billion
(euro1.2 billion) in commerce annually --
mostly in petroleum exports from the South
American nation, Cuba's foreign commerce
minister said Monday.
Cuba is now buying $1.1 billion (euro910
million) worth of Venezuelan petroleum annually
on highly preferential terms, along with
another $300 million (about euro250 million)
in Venezuelan food, construction materials,
and other products, Foreign Commerce Minister
Raul de la Nuez said on the first day of
the International Fair of Havana, the island's
annual trade fair.
"At this moment (Venezuela) indisputably
is Cuba's top trading partner," he
said.
Cuba, in return, provides Venezuela with
medical and other professional services,
including thousands of doctors and health
care workers.
Political ties between the two countries
have become increasingly tight in recent
years under the leadership of presidents
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro
of Cuba, who share a close friendship.
The administration of U.S. President George
W. Bush has grown alarmed by the alliance
in recent years, with some American officials
characterizing Chavez and Castro as troublemakers
who are trying to destabilize weak Latin
American democracies -- an accusation both
leaders deny.
De la Nuez predicted trade between the
two allied nations could reach $2 billion
(euro1.7 billion) annually by the end of
2006.
The trade fair, featuring products from
more than 40 nations, runs through Saturday
at the Expo Cuba fairgrounds on the capital's
western outskirts.
American Farmers Relish Cuban Trade
Fair
By Anita Snow, Associated
Press Writer. October 31, 2005.
U.S. Farmers Relish Opportunity
to Display Goods As Cuba's Annual Trade
Fair Opens for Business
HAVANA (AP) -- Farmers brought California
vegetables, North Carolina turkeys and Arkansas
rice to Cuba's annual trade fair Monday,
showing that Americans are still hungry
for the communist country's market despite
U.S. rules that make trade difficult.
More than 300 representatives of 171 American
firms confirmed they would attend the International
Fair of Havana, which runs through Saturday,
said Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food
import company Alimport.
"We have a larger American participation
this year despite the restrictions,"
Alvarez said as he toured the Expo Cuba
fairgrounds on Havana's outskirts. "But
the (Bush) administration has created serious
obstacles for small and medium-sized companies."
Cuba has been under an American trade embargo
for more than four decades, but a law passed
by Congress in 2000 allows American food
to be sold directly to Cuba on a cash basis.
For the past four years, Cuba has contracted
to buy more than $1.4 billion in American
farm goods, including shipping and hefty
bank fees to send payments through third
nations, Alvarez said.
Nevertheless, he said sales have remained
relatively stagnant since last year because
of recent U.S. regulations that require
Cuba to pay for the goods in full before
they leave American ports. Cuba paid $474
million to buy American farm goods last
year, including transportation and banking
costs, compared with $409 million for the
first 10 months of 2005, Alvarez said.
"But by the end of the year we hope
to purchase an amount equal or slightly
superior to that of the previous year,"
he added.
Marvin Leherer of the USA Rice Federation,
which markets and promotes U.S. rice domestically
and abroad, said American rice sales to
Cuba this year have been down a bit, "mostly
because of the problems with the terms of
payment" created by U.S. rules.
"It's definitely made things harder,"
Leherer said as he set up the Rice Federation's
booth at the fair.
But rice farmers are determined to keep
selling to Cuba because it is a key future
market, Leherer added.
"This is a huge market for rice. We
have to be here," he said. "Cuba
imports as much or more than Mexico with
just one-tenth of the people."
Other American companies with booths at
the fair included agribusiness giants Cargill
Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland, as well
as poultry producer Gold Kist Holdings Inc.
and Del Monte Foods Co., a producer of canned
and packaged fruits, vegetables and tuna
fish.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman was due in
Havana later Monday to attend the fair and
shore up contracts totaling $30 million
that he set up on a trip in August. Of that,
only $2.5 million in great northern bean
sales has been completed. The beans are
to be shipped to Cuba in November.
Cuba is also expected to finalize purchase
of 300 cows from the northeastern U.S.,
primarily Vermont.
Other countries represented at the fair
include Canada, France, Spain, Venezuela,
Brazil, China and Vietnam.
International Fair of Havana: http://www.cepec.cu/ingles/fihav3.htm
Castro Praises Maradona's Anti-U.S.
Stance
By Bill Cormier, Associated
Press Writer, Nov 1, 2005.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Cuban leader
Fidel Castro told Argentines in a taped
interview with soccer legend Diego Maradona
that he welcomed the athlete's plans to
take part in anti-U.S. protests at the upcoming
Summit of the Americas.
Maradona, who traveled last week to Cuba
to conduct the interview for his popular
weekly talk show, is scheduled to ride Thursday
in a celebrity protest train taking opponents
of President Bush from Buenos Aires to the
Argentine resort of Mar del Plata for the
summit.
Bush arrives in Mar del Plata the same
day for the summit with 33 Latin American
and Caribbean leaders. Thousands of protesters
started massing in the town Monday to hold
a "People's Summit" to air their
gripes against the Bush administration.
Asked about the upcoming summit, Castro
told Maradona in the interview broadcast
Monday night that the United States has
a "very pestilent name" and he
welcomed efforts by protesters to orchestrate
dissent against Bush.
As for Maradona, the Cuban president added:
"I'm happy that you are going to be
there."
Speaking to reporters in Argentina on Sunday,
Maradona cited the U.S. invasion of Iraq
as one reason he opposes the Bush visit.
"No to Bush!" Maradona declared.
"We're going to say it in the streets:
Fellow Argentines, we will be waiting for
you at the march."
Bush opponents have vowed to gather thousands
of anti-Bush demonstrators in Mar del Plata
for a peaceful citywide march Friday, the
day the summit begins.
Security is being tightened in the popular
resort 230 miles south of Buenos Aires,
with some 10,000 police and security forces
already deployed ahead of the summit.
Argentine officials said they will have
sufficient police forces on hand to counter
any violent protests like those at past
summits. The heads of state are meeting
at a Mar del Plata luxury hotel in the center
of the security corridor.
Leaders are expected to hold talks on free
trade, job creation and other issues, including
bolstering democracy throughout the hemisphere.
In the interview with Maradona, Castro
predicted that U.S. efforts to lower trade
barriers across the Americas - an ambitious
proposal called the Free Trade Area of the
Americas - would ultimately fail. Free trade
efforts have lost steam since the first
Americas summit in 1994.
Castro has frequently chided U.S. efforts
to organize the proposed trade group, saying
it constituted an effort by the United States
to "annex" Latin American nations.
Castro is the only Latin American leader
who will not attend the summit. He is not
permitted to participate because Cuba is
not a member of the Organization of American
States, which organizes the summit.
Maradona, 45, who retired from soccer in
1997 amid battles with cocaine addiction
and other health problems, led Argentina
to the 1986 World Cup title and 1990 final.
In 2000, FIFA chose him and Pele as the
greatest players in soccer history.
| 
