Yahoo! May 7, 2001
Fidel Castro Leaves for Middle East
HAVANA, 5 (AP) - President Fidel Castro left Cuba on Saturday for a tour of
the Middle East and Asia, beginning with a stop in Algeria.
Castro planned to visit "friendly countries'' after stopping in
Algeria, state television said, but gave no further details. Because of security
concerns, the communist government rarely releases details of Castro's travel
schedule.
However, Iran and Malaysia have said in recent days that Castro would be
visiting their countries.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Castro would arrive Monday, leading a
high-ranking delegation of political and economic figures, Iran's official
Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Castro will make his first official visit to Malaysia on May 11-13, Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Friday.
Castro may also visit Qatar. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said
during a visit to there in February that Castro would likely visit this year.
Such a trip is rare these days for the 74-year-old Cuban leader. Castro's
travels in recent years have been concentrated largely in the Western
hemisphere, mostly for regional summits in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Housing Secretary Martinez Returns
By Janelle A. Weber, Associated Press
MIAMI, 5 (AP) - On Feb. 6, 1962, a 15-year-old Cuban refugee named
Melquiades Martinez arrived in the United States scared and alone.
He was taken to Camp Matecumbe, a makeshift home for more than 400 Cuban
youths, given two cookies and a carton of milk. He spent that first frightening
night sleeping on an Army-style bunk bed.
On Saturday, nearly 40 years later, Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Mel Martinez returned to that temporary home, holding the hands of his wife,
Kitty, and 7-year-old son, Andrew.
"Everywhere I go people talk about my story. I'm only now the focal
point because I get to hang out in the Oval Office,'' Martinez said before a
packed audience of Cuban-Americans who also came to the United States through
Operation Pedro Pan.
"It is your story,'' said Martinez, whose eyes were brimming with
tears. "It is the story of all of us and I hope I will always be able to
carry our story with dignity and pride.''
Martinez appeared at the camp reunion during a short break from his official
duties during a three-day trip to Miami. He met Friday with the Latin Builders
Association to assess how HUD can better serve Miami-Dade County.
Before his remarks Saturday, Martinez signed his name in a guest book, just
as he had on an index card the first night. He then looked at a group of
pictures, including one showing his name and birth date printed along with
scores of other names.
More than 14,000 unaccompanied children were sent out of Cuba between
December 1960 and October 1962 as part of Pedro Pan. Martinez only stayed at the
camp 46 days. Many stayed longer.
Like others in Pedro Pan, Martinez had to leave his family in Cuba. He said
his only happy memories of the camp were playing basketball and the day he was
told he could leave.
Martinez said he jumped into the camp pool with his clothes on when he
learned he would go to live with a foster family. He was reunited with his
parents in 1966.
"There was no learning curve. We reunited very quickly,'' Martinez
said. "They didn't know the ways here. I had to be the parent.''
After a short ceremony Saturday, Martinez shook the hands of other
Cuban-Americans who spent time at the camp.
"This is great. I'm seeing people that I haven't seen in 39 years,''
said Juan Pujol, 55, a Miami businessman, who came to the United States when he
was 16.
Pujol said his parents sent him to Miami because he was having problems with
authorities for being a practicing Catholic. Pujol, who was never reunited with
his parents, said he was glad they made the decision they did.
"If it wasn't for that, I would probably be dead or still in jail
because I wasn't going to put up with the political situation,'' Pujol said.
Black U.S. Farmers Urge Cuban Links
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA (AP) - After touring Cuban farms where the soil is plowed with oxen
and crops grow pesticide-free, black American farmers urged closer links with
their Cuban counterparts amid U.S. efforts to sell crops to the island.
The farmers also said Cuban farmers could teach them much about the
advantages of producing food the simple way their grandfathers did.
"We would like to bring some our farmers here so they can really get
the feel of a typical farm family,'' said Ben Burkett, who still runs the family
farm in Petal, Miss., that his great-grandfather founded 116 years ago.
As the delegation from the Federation of Southern Cooperatives prepared to
wrap up its visit to Cuba this week, Burkett said the group would also like to
bring Cuban farmers to the United States to see how their American counterparts
live and work.
The U.S. federation represents 75 cooperatives of small farmers and credit
unions and more than 10,000 mostly black families in 11 southern states.
Connections with the Cuban agricultural industry will be invaluable when
U.S. trade sanctions are eliminated and American farmers are able to sell their
rice, poultry and other products to Cuba, said Shirley Sherrod, the federation's
Georgia director
"The United States trades with China,'' said Mike Espy, a former U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture who joined the trip. "The United States trades
with Vietnam. To isolate Cuba and not trade with it is illogical.''
The U.S. Congress last year passed a law allowing the direct sale of
American goods to Cuba for the first time in four decades but barred the
American government and banks from financing such sales.
Havana has said that it would not buy a single grain of American rice under
the existing legislation.
Copyright © Yahoo!
Inc.
Copyright © 2000
The Associated Press. | 