[NYTr] RHC Weekend News Summary - 3/20/04

[nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com]

RHC Weekend News Summary - March 20, 2004

* Solidarity Groups in Geneva Demonstrate in Support of Cuba
* Chávez Says Cuba-Venezuela Cooperation Worries Region's Oligarchies
* OSPAAAL Marks First Anniversary of US Aggression on Iraq
* Pinar del Río Advances to Semifinals in Cuban Baseball Post-Season

* Hundreds of Thousands Worldwide Protest on Iraq War Anniversary
* Argentine Court Annuls Menem's Amnesties for Dictatorship Leaders
* Noam Chomsky Reluctantly Endorses John Kerry
* Bush Campaign Offering Banned Gear Made in Burma


Solidarity Groups in Geneva Demonstrate in Support of Cuba

Havana, March 20th (RHC) - Groups in solidarity with Cuba from France,
Belgium, England, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Switzerland, met on Friday
in Geneva to express their support for the Caribbean island as one of
the world examples in the protection of human rights.

Dozens of Swiss people, accompanied by over a hundred representatives
from other European countries, gathered on Friday afternoon in the
Square of Nations to express their support of Cuba's struggle to
defend their Revolution.

Present in the demonstration were Cuban permanent UN Ambassador Ivan
Mora and the head of the island's delegation to the 60th Meeting of
the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Juan Antonio Fernández.

Participants demanded the end of Washington's over-40-year-old
blockade of Havana and the release of the five Cuban political
prisoners incarcerated in U.S. prisons.

On Friday night, several conferences were given at the Gandhi Hall,
including one by French Remmy Herrera who spoke of the causes of the
U.S.'s persistent hostility against Cuba. He noted that Cuba and
Venezuela are examples for Latin America in the fight against
Washington's intentions to impose a neoliberal political and economic
model in the region.


Chávez Says Cuba-Venezuela Cooperation Worries Region's Oligarchies

Havana, March 20th (RHC) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on
Friday that the new integrating model of Cuba and Venezuela worries
the oligarchies of the region.

Speaking in a ceremony to bid farewell to the country's ambassadors to
Cuba, Iran and India, the Venezuelan leader spoke thoroughly of the
current relations of cooperation and friendship that exist between the
two Caribbean nations.

He referred to Cuba's help in several social programs implemented by
his government like the Robinson and the Deep Inside the Community
(Barrio Adentro) missions, aiming at improving the people's literacy
and health levels, which, he said, will not stop.

In regards to the health initiative, he noted that, with the help of
Cuban medical personnel over the last year, they had been able to
implement a comprehensive and preventive health system that has
benefited 12 million Venezuelans who now receive medical attention in
their homes.

Finally, Chávez urged the new diplomats to continue spreading the
truth about the Venezuelan revolutionary process and its work in favor
of the majority of the Venezuelan people.


OSPAAAL Marks First Anniversary of US Aggression on Iraq

Havana, March 20 (RHC) -- The Havana-based Organization of Solidarity
with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) marked on
Friday the first anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Addressing OSPAAAL member nation ambassadors present in the
organization's headquarters in the Cuban capital, Vietnamese Nguyen
Xuan Vuong, member of the Executive Secretariat of the group, read a
declaration against war and occupation of Iraq that has caused the
death of over 15 thousand Iraqi civilians and a great damage to the
country's heritage.

The document demands Washington's immediate withdrawal from Iraq and
it expresses the organization's solidarity with the people of
Palestine and condemn the actions of the U.S.-backed Israeli
government.

The declaration calls on other international organizations and the
international public opinion to support the cause of the Iraqi people
and to stop the U.S. occupation of what once was the cradle of
civilization.


Pinar del Río Advances to Semifinals in Cuban Baseball Post-Season

Havana, March 20th (RHC) - Pinar del Río became the first team to win
a spot in the semifinal stage of the Cuban baseball championship on
Friday when they beat host Isle of Youth 9-1 at the "Estadio Cristóbal
Labra".

The victory for the Greenlegs came behind an excellent pitching by
right-hander Vladimir Baños who scattered six hits in seven innings,
and a 14-hit offense led by left-fielder Juan Miguel Miranda, with a
homerun, a double and three RBIs.

It was the third consecutive triumph for the Greenlegs who now travel
back to their headquarters in Pinar del Río where they will wait for
the winner of the other quarterfinal best-of-five series of the
Western Division between Sancti Spíritus and defending champions
Industriales.

On Friday night, the Roosters of Sancti Spíritus took an important 8-5
win over the Blues of Havana at the "Estadio Latinoamericano" in the
Cuban capital and they now lead their series 2-1. The fourth game
takes place on Saturday.


Hundreds of Thousands Worldwide Protest on Iraq War Anniversary

March 20 (RHC) - Anger over the war in Iraq remained sharp Saturday on
the first anniversary of the US invasion as protesters took to the
streets across much of the globe, urging an end to the occupation that
many of them were blaming for the increase in international terrorism.
Thousands marched through central London - some waving placards
calling President Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist" - and
demonstrators held a huge rally in Rome, where organizers said up to
300,000 people turned out. Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and other
European countries also saw protests, while demonstrations took place
earlier in Japan, Australia and India. Protesters outside the US
Embassy in the Philippines capital, Manila, clashed with riot police.

In Tokyo, as many as 30,000 people turned out to protest Japan's
involvement in the war, organizers said. The country has sent 1,000
personnel to Iraq, its largest foreign deployment since the Second
World War. Waving placards reading "Drop Bush, Not Bombs!" protesters
marched in the rain. Demonstrators in Cairo vastly outnumbered by riot
police burned copies of the US flag. Anti-war demonstrators gathered
throughout Middle Eastern capitals.

Protesters in Sydney, Australia held aloft an effigy of Prime Minister
John Howard in a cage, saying it represented Australian terror
suspects detained at the US military prison camp in Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba. Howard's government sent troops to Iraq, despite overwhelming
public opposition, and some repeated allegations that he lied about
the reasons for going to war. Demonstrators also held rallies in South
Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa.

In the United States, the anti-war umbrella group United for Peace and
Justice organized protest rallies in some 250 cities across the
country. Leading up to the anniversary, over 500 demonstrators in San
Francisco took direct action by temporarily shutting down the
headquarters of the Bechtel corporation to protest the firm's
exploitation of the Iraqi people and misuse of US tax dollars.
Organizers of the protest charged that Bechtel has used its close ties
to the Bush administration to get 3 billion dollars worth of contracts
to repair water systems and schools while Iraqi children are still
playing in sewage and the walls of the country's schools are still
crumbling.

The anniversary of the invasion comes as the Bush administration find
itself increasingly on the defensive in trying to answer difficult
questions about Iraq's alleged and, to date, undiscovered weapons of
mass destruction and the unproven links between Saddam Hussein's
government and the September 11 terror attacks.


Argentine Court Annuls Menem's Amnesties for Dictatorship Leaders

Buenos Aires, March 20 (RHC) - A court in Argentina has annulled two
of 10 amnesties for dictatorship leaders decreed by former President
Carlos Menem in the late 1980s. Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral
also ordered Friday the capture of Jorge Olivera Rovere, the only one
of six former dictatorship leaders affected by the annulled amnesties
who is not either deceased or under arrest on charges of human rights
violations. Suárez Masón and Juan Sasiain are facing charges related
to the kidnapping of babies born to women in secret detention and
torture centers.

In his ruling, Canicoba Corral said the amnesties allowed the
Argentine state to renounce the truth and the cruellest state
terrorism in the country's history to go unpunished. Argentine human
rights activists say that it's now left up to the country's Congress
to take action and bring all of the ex-military junta leaders before
justice. The amnesties decreed by Menem between 1989 and 1990
benefited some 300 top dictatorship officials and torturers. Argentine
President Néstor Kirchner stated: "It's about time."

Late Friday, Kirchner became the country's first president to tour the
infamous Navy Mechanics School, which in the late 1970s was converted
into the military's largest secret detention and torture center. He
was accompanied by survivors of the navy installation, where the
government is building a museum to keep alive in the nation's
collective memory the horrors of that period of Argentine history.

The museum is to be inaugurated on March 24, the 28th anniversary of
the military coup that led to a seven-year rein of terror. The same
day that the amnesties were annulled, prominent Argentine human rights
activist Hebe de Bonafini - president of the women's organization that
since 1976 has staged weekly protests in front of the presidential
palace demanding to know the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared
children and grandchildren - denounced having received another death
threat.


Noam Chomsky Reluctantly Endorses John Kerry

March 20 (RHC) - Renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky has reluctantly
endorsed Democratic presidential contender John Kerry, saying that
he's a "fraction" better than his rival. Professor Chomsky - a
linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a
renowned chronicler of American foreign policy - said there were
"small differences" between Senator Kerry and the Republican
president.

But, in an interview on the politics website of the British news daily
The Guardian, he added that in a system of immense power those small
differences "can translate into large outcomes." He describes the
choice facing US voters in November as "the choice between two
factions of the business party," though, he added, the Bush
administration was so "cruel and savage" that it was important to
replace it.

Chomsky said that Kerry is sometimes inaccurately described as
`Bush-lite', and that despite the limited differences both
domestically and internationally, there are differences. The political
theorist who is oftentimes termed a "leftwing guru" by mainstream
media outlets, added that Bush and the people around him "are deeply
committed to dismantling the achievements of popular struggle through
the past century no matter what the cost to the general population."


Bush Campaign Offering Banned Gear Made in Burma

Washington, March 20 (RHC) -- The George Bush administration has been
marred by another scandal, though this time not related to Iraq. The
president's official merchandise Web site for his re-election campaign
has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from
the US last year to punish its military dictatorship. The merchandise
sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a 50 dollar fleece pullover,
embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing a label stating
it was made in Burma, now Myanmar.

US media outlets are reporting that Bush campaign officials did not
return calls seeking comment. The imports are potentially an issue
because the outsourcing of jobs has become a hot political topic in
the election. Bush last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and
Democracy Act, saying "The United States will not waver from its
commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma."
Violators of the import ban are subject to fines and jail, according
to the US Treasury Department. Burmese textile workers earn as little
as 7 cents per hour, according to the human rights group National
Labor Committee.

Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor
Committee, said the slip-up showed a lack of conviction on the
administration's part. Kernaghan stated: ""Given the debate about
outsourcing, it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff
made in the most brutal country on earth, known for things like child
labor and sexual slavery," adding that "It shows a crude indifference
to this issue." The National Basketball Association recently vowed to
stop selling Burmese-made sweatshirts after a campaign by the NLC.

Compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu