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Cubans surround US mission with black
flags
HAVANA, 7 (AFP) - Cuba inaugurated a "mountain
of flags" outside the United States'
mission in Havana with a 24 hour vigil featuring
138 black banners with white stars honoring
Cuban victims of terrorism.
With President Fidel Castro watching, the
flags were raised as well to effectively
block views of a huge electronic billboard
on the US mission's facade.
The billboard has irked Cuban authorities
since it was set up on January 16 with messages
promoting democracy and human rights.
"They are white stars on a black mantle,
as light of a land which mourns for the
death of its children and the pain of their
relatives", said theater director Carlos
Alberto Cremata, speaking in front of President
Castro.
Cremata also heads the association of relatives
of the 73 victims of an attack that destroyed
a Cuban airplane in 1976.
Cuba wants the United States to extradite
the alleged mastermind of the attack, Luis
Posada Carriles, for trial in Venezuela
where he has been charged for the attack.
Carriles is being detained by authorities
in Texas.
Starting a 24 hour vigil, the hundreds
of people in front of the US mission raised
the tall flags as a single bugle pierced
the silence.
They also held up 138 photographs of the
victims of the 1976 crash and other attacks
Cuba deems terrorists assaults.
"From this moment and during 24 hours,
to symbolize eternal pain, children, young
people, workers, the aged, mothers, hold
up together the photographs that represent
all the absent loved ones today" said
Cremata.
Hoisted on flagpoles at least 20 meters-
(66 feet) tall, the banners completely blocked
views of the billboard on the US mission
from several angles.
Castro invites Iranian leader to Cuba
HAVANA, 7 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has reportedly accepted an invitation
to visit Cuba from President Fidel Castro,
in gratitude for Cuba's support of Iran's
nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad accepted the invitation in
Tehran from Cuban Ambassador Felipe Perez
Roque. During his visit here, the Iranian
leader will attend the September 11-16 Non-Aligned
Summit in Havana, the daily Granma said.
On Saturday in Vienna, Cuba, Venezuela
and Syria voted against a resolution of
the International Atomic Energy Agency to
refer Iran to the UN Security Council over
a nuclear program the West suspects is weapons-oriented.
The Iranian president recently publicly
thanked Cuba for its "dignified and
principled" position during the IAEA's
special meeting, which ended in a 27-3 vote
in favor of reporting Iran to the UN council.
Separately, Granma announced that Iranian
Parliament President Ghulam Ali Haddad Adel
has accepted an invitation to visit Cuba
from Cuba's National Assembly.
Chavez Honored in Cuba With U.N. Prize
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer, February 3, 2006.
HAVANA - Venezuela's president was honored
Friday with a U.N. prize named for a Cuban
independence hero, a day after the Bush
administration likened Hugo Chavez to Hitler.
Chavez was visiting Havana amid an intensifying
propaganda war between Washington and Latin
America's leftist leaders. Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld compared Chavez to the
Nazi leader and warned Thursday about populist
leadership in Bolivia and Cuba.
Venezuela's vice president fired back Friday
by comparing the Bush administration to
the Third Reich, while Cuban President Fidel
Castro said "more dangerous are those
who possess dozens of thousands of nuclear
weapons," referring to the U.S. government.
Some 200,000 Cubans crowded Revolution
Plaza for Friday night's ceremony granting
Chavez UNESCO's 2005 Jose Marti International
Prize. Castro himself handed over the framed
certificate to Chavez, a close ally.
The forum gave Castro and Chavez a chance
to pat each other on the back and promote
regional solidarity while bashing the U.S.
government. Thousands of young Venezuelans,
Bolivians and other Latin Americans studying
medicine for free in Cuba attended the ceremony,
screaming their support for both leaders.
Marti, who died in 1895 during Cuba's war
of independence with Spain, has been glorified
in Cuba as the ultimate anti-imperialist,
a label both Chavez and Castro have embraced
for themselves in their struggles with the
United States.
Far from regional heroes, the U.S. government
considers Chavez and Castro to be populists
who threaten individual rights.
Rumsfeld expressed the same fears about
Bolivia's new leftist president, Evo Morales,
during a National Press Club appearance
Thursday. "We've seen some populist
leadership appealing to masses of people
in those countries. And elections like Evo
Morales in Bolivia take place that clearly
are worrisome."
"I mean, we've got Chavez in Venezuela
with a lot of oil money. He's a person who
was elected legally - just as Adolf Hitler
was elected legally - and then consolidated
power and now is, of course, working closely
with Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales and others."
Castro rejected Rumsfeld's comments, defending
Morales and populism in his hour-long speech
before Chavez took to the podium.
"Populist leaders are those who concern
themselves with their people, with health,
with education," the Cuban leader said.
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente
Rangel Friday called President Bush "the
North American Hitler."
Rangel compared Bush's administration to
that of the Third Reich, accusing Vice President
Dick Cheney of "trafficking in war"
and calling Rumsfeld a "delinquent"
and an "arms dealer."
"The unacceptable comparison of President
Chavez with Hitler is a concrete indication
of the desperation that reigns at this moment
in the governing circles of Washington,"
said Rangel.
Chavez himself did not appear to mention
Rumsfeld's comments upon arrival to Cuba
early Friday, when he was received at the
Havana airport by Castro. Front-page photographs
in the island's newspapers showed the two
with broad grins. Chavez told Cuban reporters,
"A kiss for Cuba, which I love."
Before the award ceremony, Chavez inaugurated
an international book fair dedicated to
Venezuela, calling Cuba "a nation of
people I love as my own."
"Every day, I love Cuba more,"
he said.
Many speculated he would swing by the open-air
Anti-Imperialist Plaza, where the Cuban
government has launched a mysterious building
project directly in front of the U.S. diplomatic
mission in Havana.
The project, which included dozens of tall
flag poles, appears to be an attempt to
block a gigantic electric sign put up by
American officials in January with streaming
text of sayings about freedom and excerpts
from the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
The Marti prize was created by UNESCO in
1994 on the initiative of Cuba to recognize
an individual or institution contributing
to the unity and integration of countries
of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is
awarded on the recommendation of a seven-member
international jury that includes Nadine
Gordimer, the South African Nobel Prize
for Literature laureate. Earlier recipients
of the $5,000 prize include the Mexican
sociologist Pablo Gonzalez Casanova and
the Ecuadorean painter Oswaldo Guayasamin.
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