Relevant News
by Fidel castro

Significant events have taken place in our country lately.On October 28, at 7:30 am, the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the physical disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos; the sad event occurred one stormy evening as he was traveling in a light aircraft from Camaguey to the capital, along the north of Cuba. He had fought his last victorious battle against the tyranny in Yaguajay, at the end of December 1958. The mausoleum was dedicated in that area where the remains of those who fell during the war in the Las Villas North Front or after January 1st, 1959 have been laid to rest; they will later be joined by those who fought with his Invading Column or connected with it in the center of the island, and who are still alive. Somebody then called him the Hero of Yaguajay and the title sticked to him. But he was more than that: he was the Hero of the Antonio Maceo Invading Column. The brave commander was advancing with his light column towards Pinar del Rio, and he would have reached its mountains if he had not received an order from the Sierra Maestra to stay in the center of the island and fight there with Che under his command. It was not necessary to put him at risk in that mission which was an incorrect interpretation of the historic circumstances. On January 2, he started with Che the historic march to the capital. There is so much to research and to reflect on that event!Following a decision of the Party and the Government, as of this 50th Anniversary his steel silhouette shines together with that of the Heroic Guerrilla from the Revolution Square, guarding the statue of Our National Hero Jose Marti. Also on October 28, at 9:00 in the morning, as fate would have it, the debate started on the resolution introduced by Cuba against the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the US to our homeland. Numerous leaders from Third World countries spoke moving words that gave testimony of their appreciation for the indomitable and supportive country that for half a century has faced the ruthless and genocidal empire which emerged in the proximity of our island. A great number of countries felt that Cuba’s resistance was a struggle for their own right to sovereignty.The discreet and supportive work of our people from the first years of the Revolution, and its heroic resistance despite the United States’ cruel blockade, was not forgotten by the overwhelming majority of the 192 sovereign states of the world.The irrefutable arguments of our Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez sounded like a terrible pounding in that room sitting at the very heart of New York, and very close to Wall Street.For the first time in many years of debate, every UN member state took part in the discussion of the thorny and compromising issue.Even the European allies --members of NATO-- and the developed, consumer-oriented and rich countries that make up the European Community felt obliged to express their disagreement with the economic blockade of Cuba. Our foreign minister gave a vigorous reply to the justifying and plaintive remarks of the USrepresentative.When the President of the Assembly took a vote on the resolution, of the 192 states present only three delegations voted against Cuba: the United States and its ally in the Palestinian holocaust, Israel, and the island of Palau. An American lawyer with Israeli citizenship, the representative of Palau, --a 281.2 sq. miles territory in the Pacific Ocean which spent nearly fifty years under the Yankee administration-- sided with the United States at the UN. Two other states abstained and 187 condemned the blockade.However, as fate would have it, these were not the only remarkable events for Cubans that day. That evening marked the end of the visit to our Homeland of Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), accompanied by Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Both represent the two most important international agencies taking responsibility for that crucial task. Last Tuesday I had the honor of meeting with them.Since the issue of the A H1N1 influenza epidemic is of such great interest to every nation, especially those of the Third World, which have been the most affected by the consequences of plundering and exploitation, I asked them to make space in their tight schedule to have this meeting.Despite the concern and efforts of our ministry of Public Health and its information programs intended for our people, I felt it could be advisable to delve into the epidemic subject.Public health was one of the causes that made a Revolution necessary in Cuba. It is not my intention to relate the progress obtained which has turned us into the country with the largest number of medical doctors per capita in the world –an example of what can be done for other peoples— even when this nation has been blockaded and attacked for half a century by the mighty empire. Our Homeland was not only the victim of a ruthless brain drain but also a target of biological aggressions by the US administration that not only used viruses and bacteria against plants and animals but also against the population. The dengue fever afflicted more than 300 thousand people. Actually, serotype 2 was introduced in Cuba and the hemisphere when it was not present as an epidemic in any other country.Leaving out many data to make the story short, suffice it to remember in this Reflection that the dengue is transmitted by the mosquito but the A H1N1 influenza spreads more easily and directly through the respiratory tract.Our people should know that at the end of World War I, an influenza epidemic took the lives of tens of millions of people at a time when the population of the planet hardly exceeded 1.5 billion. On the other hand, humanity had much less scientific and technical resources available than today.This reality, however, should not lead us to be overconfident. When such epidemics break out, resources are needed to prevent and fight them, as it was the case with yellow fever, polio, tetanus and others, and the vaccines that for years have protected children and the population at large from many extremely harmful diseases.Today, there are also other types of vaccines, especially those protecting the people from various flu viruses, which are given to those cases at greater risk due to permanent or temporary causes.Our people should be mindful that it is more difficult to have vaccines against certain viruses because of their genetic mutations, as it is the case of those related to the A H1N1 flu and others.The highly developed and rich countries have quite sophisticated and costly laboratories. Even Cuba, despite underdevelopment and the Yankee blockade, has been able to establish several labs for the production of vaccines and medications.Internationally, there is a logical fear of the abovementioned flu, given its dissemination capacity and its effects on certain more vulnerable persons. Aside from the aspects related to the international cooperation offered by our doctors, who have given CubaCuba among the countries which have been given a priority due to its international cooperation and its capacity to immediately vaccinate the most vulnerable through its network of hospitals.Dr. Chan knows that wherever the Cuban doctors are, they will cooperate in the speedy vaccination of the people.These are obviously positive news for our compatriots. However, we must bear in mind certain circumstances.It will be several weeks or maybe two or three months before the first vaccines get here.The main concern of the WHO is that the mutation capacity of the virus may quickly overtake the effect of the vaccines and then it would be necessary to start again the search for another effective vaccine. In my view, this determines the importance of an adequate network of medical services as we have in our country and of the systematic orientation to a population with high educational levels to obtain its cooperation in the relevant actions.The lack of adequate medical services in many countries, including the United States where nearly 50 million people do not have access to medical care, raises considerably the number of potential victims. That country has declared a state of Health Emergency. Two days ago, I listened to a report that between November and March the A H1N1 flu could be the cause of 90 thousand deaths in the United States since winter favors the development of the epidemic. I wish such estimates are wrong and there is no such damage. With a population that is at least 27 times that of Cuba, it would be tantamount to over 3 thousand deaths in our country, and many million people in the world, in spite of the scientific breakthroughs.The initial symptoms of the A H1N1 appeared in Mexico in the first quarter of the current year, and almost simultaneously in the United States and Canada. From there it extended to Spain, one of the first European countries where the epidemic spread.When the current US President lifted the restrictions to Cuban Americans for traveling to Cuba, the epidemic had already extended to many states of the union. Thus, the four countries where the largest number of tourists and other travelers originate were precisely those where the epidemic had mostly spread in the world.The first carriers of the virus here were travelers from overseas. Relatively few people were infected in our country and for months we had no virus-related deaths but as the virus extended to every province, mainly those with a higher number of relatives resident in the United States, it became necessary to purchase new laboratory equipment for the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute and to multiply our efforts, while still fighting dengue.So, we were faced with the intriguing situation that, on the one hand, the United States authorized the traveling of the largest number of virus carriers while, on the other, it banned the acquisition of equipment and medication to fight the epidemic. Of course, I don’t think it was the intention of the US administration, but it is the reality resulting from the absurd and shameful blockade imposed to our people.With the equipment purchased elsewhere we are in a position to know, with absolute precision, the total number of people affected by the epidemic and those whose death may be related to the presence of the virus.Fortunately, in addition to the services and the well-trained medical personnel in our country, there is in the international market an antiviral medication particularly effective when given to the people with clear symptoms of carrying the virus and to those providing direct care to them.We have that antiviral and also the necessary raw material to continue producing a similar amount to that available; additionally, we shall spare no effort to have the indispensable doses.Even if many countries fail to provide the international agencies with the relevant information about the epidemic, for lack of networks of services and medical personnel, we know that our government is determined to communicate with absolute accuracy to such agencies the number of cases and deaths related to the epidemic, as we have always done with the public health data of Cuba.Fortunately, our country has an extensive network of healthcare services. The possibility to provide immediate care to those afflicted by the disease is real; we also have a sufficient number of medical doctors with quality training, many of whom have fulfilled honorable and unforgettable internationalist missions.
-Fidel Castro Ruz, October 30, 2009

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
The Cuban Embargo
By SAUL LANDAU

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to end the US Economic, Financial and Commercial Embargo of Cuba. The Cubans claim the embargo cost them over $242 million in 2008 alone. The embargo, Cuba claims, makes foreign capital unavailable because investors face possible sanctions for doing business with Cuba. Public opinion polls – elite business opinion agrees – show a majority favor dropping the embargo and travel ban. Instead of scrapping it, however, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton cling to their inheritance, in policy terms equivalent to scientists insisting the world is flat.Nothing succeeds like failure in imperial Washington. George W. Bush exemplified failure in school and business. As Texas Governor, he presided over more executions than any previous governor. As President, he became a cruel joke – on the world. He praised Chief Michael Brown --“You’re doing a heck of a job Brownie” -- after Brownie’s agency failed to respond to – or even know about -- Hurricane Katrina. He insisted on nonexistent WMD and links to Al-Qaida that “justified” his invasion of Iraq. He pissed away America’s surplus through neglect and his deregulation policies cost the economy and the world’s environmental struggle dearly. Bush’s disasters lasted for eight years. Washington’s failed Cuba policy has endured for 49. “Give it time,” say its proponents.In July 1960, Eisenhower cut Cuba’s sugar quota to punish Cuba for expropriating US companies. The Soviet Union formally entered the US-Cuban dispute to buy Cuban sugar. In October, he imposed a partial embargo that Kennedy completed in February 1962, by which time Cuba had expropriated all US companies. The words of the embargo are written, however, in invisible blood ink. Responding to Castro’s disobedience in early 1959, Eisenhower had authorized Cuban exiles to launch terrorist attacks on Cuba. He ordered a CIA overthrow of the regime in early 1960, but withheld the order to unleash 1,500 Cuban exiles the CIA had trained to invade the island In April, after almost three months in office, President Kennedy succumbed to pressure and sent the exiles to their defeat at the Bay of Pigs, staining the young president’s reputation. Instead of trying to clean that dark spot following the fiasco by coming to terms with Cuba, Kennedy sought revenge: assassination attempts and thousands of armed attacks against Cuba. Ironically, before Kennedy signed his tightened embargo order, he ordered an ample supply of his favorite Cuban cigars.Administration officials knew better than to ask the obvious question: what exactly did Cuba do to the United States to merit terrorism and economic strangulation? The answer then and now: disobedience; lack of respect; refusal to abide by Washington’s interpretation of a 19th Century Doctrine signed by President James Monroe.In August 1961, Fidel offered an olive branch in response to the armed assaults. Che Guevara met with Richard Goodwin, JFK’s Latin America adviser. If Cuba cut military ties with the Soviets, stopped exporting revolution and compensated expropriated US companies, would Kennedy cease his violence?Kennedy, puffing on a cigar Che had sent him, responded. “Weakness” he declared. “Turn up the heat.” One month later, Fidel went to his last deterrent. Soviet Premier Khrushchev stationed nuclear missiles on the island. In October 1962 came the Cuban Missile Crisis. In February 1963, Kennedy authorized a travel ban and in July froze US-based Cuban assets. Kennedy lawyers smiled guiltily when Washington bullied Latin American states to expel Cuba from the Organization of American States (OAS) despite the absence in the OAS Charter of grounds for expelling Cuba. “Kennedy relied on the Monroe Doctrine as the overarching guideline that overcame such trivialities,” Paul Warnke (President Johnson’s Assistant Defense Secretary) winked at me in 1980.Ford and Carter relaxed the embargo and travel ban. Reagan retightened them. Succeeding presidents (including Obama) responding to various interests – but not the national interest – diddled with the screws as well.Reagan privatized Cuba policy, transferring it from Washington to the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. Cuba survived. Cubans needing certain medicine or medical equipment urgently from the United States suffered – as did the Cuban economy and thus all Cubans. In the 1990s, I tried unsuccessfully to convince then Congressman Robert Torricelli to not pursue his “Torricelli Bill.” I said the embargo hurt most Cubans materially. He said Cubans could buy supposedly banned equipment elsewhere, claiming Cuban propaganda promoted “the pain argument.” Logically, if the embargo didn’t hurt Cuba, why maintain it? To punish Fidel – symbolically!Does Washington define success –like the drug war? -- by gloating over decades of consistent failure? Will Obama remain stuck in this incongruous Cuba policy legacy or exhibit some cojones?

Amnesty International and / y Bloqueo >< Cuba

Obama should follow UN lead on Cuba embargo

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/obama-should-follow-un-lead-cuba-embargo-20091029,

29 October 2009
Barack Obama should follow the lead of the UN General Assembly and take all necessary steps to end its economic embargo against Cuba, said Amnesty International on Thursday, after the UN body condemned US sanctions against the island.

Amnesty International said that it believes the embargo is particularly affecting Cubans’ access to medicines and medical technologies, putting lives at risk.
In a record vote, 187 countries said the US should end its embargo against Cuba.
The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution. Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.
It is the 18th consecutive year the UN has passed such a resolution and the first under President Obama.
"The US embargo against Cuba is putting at risk the lives of millions by preventing them from accessing vital medicines and medical technologies," said Kerrie Howard, deputy director of Amnesty International's Americas programme. "These sanctions are immoral and should be lifted immediately."
Because of the US embargo, Cuba faces severe restrictions in importing medicines, medical equipment or technologies from the USA or from any US company abroad. The sanctions also limit other imports to the island and restrict travel and the transfer of money.
According to data from the United Nations, Cuba’s inability to import nutritional products for consumption at schools, hospitals and day care centres, is contributing to a high prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia. UNICEF reported that in 2007, 37.5 per cent of Cuba's children under three years old had anaemia.
Children’s health was also put at risk by a decision from US syringe suppliers to cancel an order of three million disposable syringes made in 2007 by UNICEF’s Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization when it became known that the units were destined for the implementation of a programme in Cuba.
Read More
Cuba: The US embargo against Cuba: Its impact on economic and social rights (Report, 2 September 2009)

Obama debe tomar nota voto ONU y levantar embargo Cuba: Amnistía

LONDRES (Reuters) - El presidente estadounidense, Barack Obama, debe tomar nota del rechazo en la ONU al embargo comercial de 47 años contra Cuba y buscar cómo eliminar las sanciones que amenazan la salud de millones de cubanos, dijo el jueves Amnistía Internacional.
El embargo estadounidense fue condenado el miércoles en la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas por 18o año consecutivo, con un récord de 187 votos contra tres. Sólo Israel y Palao apoyaron a Estados Unidos.
"Barack Obama debería seguir el liderazgo de la Asamblea General de la ONU y dar los pasos necesarios para terminar con el embargo contra Cuba", dijo el grupo de derechos humanos en un comunicado.
Obama prometió "relanzar" las relaciones con Cuba y eliminó restricciones para que los cubano estadounidenses visiten y envíen remesas a sus familiares en la isla.
Pero el presidente dijo que no apoyaría la eliminación del embargo, una decisión que depende del Congreso, hasta que las autoridades comunistas de la isla muestren avances en derechos humanos.
Cuba culpa a las sanciones impuestas durante la Guerra Fría de muchos de sus problemas económicos y dice que deben ser levantadas unilateralmente y sin condiciones.
Amnistía Internacional, un grupo que denuncia abusos a los derechos humanos en Cuba y tiene prohibido visitar la isla, dijo que el embargo complica el acceso de la nación a jeringas, vacunas y productos nutritivos para sus niños.
"El embargo estadounidense contra Cuba está poniendo en riesgo las vidas de millones al evitar que accedan a medicinas y tecnología médica", dijo Kerrie Howard, vice directora de Amnistía Internacional para las Américas.
"Estas sanciones son inmorales y deben ser levantadas inmediatamente", añadió según el comunicado.

Cuban Foreign Minister Refutes at the UN Statements by US Ambassador

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 28 (acn) Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez refuted on Wednesday before
the UN General Assembly the distorted statements made by US ambassador Susan Rice with regard
to the US blockade against the Caribbean nation.
In the exercise of his right to reply, Rodriguez refuted the stance taken by Rice before
the General Assembly by way of which she tried to impose the US point of view that the
blockade that for almost five decades her country has maintained against Cuba shouldn’t be
discussed at the international forum for being “a bilateral issue.”
The Cuban report and the resolution project, named “Necessity to put an end to the
economic, commercial and financial blockade the United States imposes on Cuba” was replied by
Rice, who, after saying that every state has the right to establish its commercial relations
with another as it thinks fit, tried to minimize the current effects the criminal policy has
on Cuba.
“It is not true that the blockade is a bilateral issue between the United States and Cuba
since the Torricelli and the Helms-Burton laws of 1992 and 1996, respectively, make it a
policy that sanctions third countries for trading with Cuba” highlighted the Cuban FM.
In the framework of the 27th plenary meeting of the 64th period of sessions of the UN
General Assembly, the Cuban resolution project, codified as A/64 L 4, had an unprecedented
victory on Wednesday, with 187 votes in favor.
Only the United States, Israel and Palau opposed the project, thus repeating their position
of last year, when Cuba obtained 185 votes. Abstentions were, like in 2008, those of
Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Rebate canciller cubano a embajadora estadounidense

La Habana, 28 oct (AIN) El canciller cubano Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, rebatió hoy en la ONU los planteamientos tergiversadores de su similar estadounidense, Susan Rice, acerca del bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba.
En el ejercicio de su derecho a la contrarréplica, Rodríguez Parrilla rebatió la postura expuesta ante la Asamblea General por Rice en la cual trató de imponer la opinión estadounidense de que el bloqueo, que durante casi cinco décadas Washington ejecuta contra la Isla, no debe ser discutido en el foro internacional en tanto se trata de “un asunto bilateral”.
El informe cubano y su proyecto de resolución, titulados “Necesidad de poner fin al boqueo económico, comercial y financiero que los Estados Unidos de América ejerce contra Cuba” fue replicado por Rice, quien luego de plantear que cada estado tiene el derecho de establecer sus relaciones comerciales con otro según le plazca, trató de minimizar los actuales efectos que la criminal política tienen para la isla caribeña.
No es verdad que el bloqueo sea un asunto bilateral entre Estados Unidos y Cuba en tanto las leyes Torricelli de 1992 y Helms-Burton de 1996, la convierten en una política que sanciona a terceros por comerciar con Cuba, resaltó el diplomático cubano.
En el marco de la 27 reunión plenaria del 64 período de sesiones de la máxima instancia internacional, el proyecto de resolución cubano, codificado como el A/64 L 4, obtuvo un triunfo sin precedentes este miércoles al obtener 187 votos a favor.
Sólo Estados Unidos, Israel y Palau, se manifestaron contrarios, repitiendo así su posición del año anterior, cuando La Habana obtuvo 185 votos favorables. Las abstenciones fueron, al igual que en 2008, las de Micronesia e Islas Marshall.
Impuesto oficialmente por el presidente John F. Kennedy en 1962, el bloqueo estadounidense es considerado por los cubanos como un paso hostil establecido por Washington desde el mismo año del triunfo revolucionario, 1959, en tanto desde esa época comenzaron a verse las restricciones contra la Isla.
Las leyes Torricelli y Helms Burton de 1992 y 1996 respectivamente, completaron el pretendido marco legal estadounidense de esa política.

Obama speaks to Cuba, via Spanish Prime Minister
October 26, 2009 by Alan Harten
* Spain sends more financial aid to Cuba
Financial aid to the Caribbean island of Cuba from Spain has risen dramatically to nearly €35 million this year, up...
* Obama speaks to Cuba, via Spanish Prime Minister
Barack Obama the president of the United States has asked Spain to pass on a message via the Spanish Prime Minister...
* Cuban and Spaniard released from Cuban jail
A visit by the foreign minister of Spain to Cuba on a goodwill mission, has prompted the release of two...
* Spain to take some Guantanamo prisoners
Spain is looking at the Washington bilateral summit next week, as the time to secure a deal with the US Government...
* Moratinos under fire for not meeting with Cuban activists
Miguel Angel Moratinos, who is the Spanish foreign minister, is visiting the Caribbean island of Cuba, and has already had a...
Barack Obama the president of the United States has asked Spain to pass on a message via the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero calling for democratic reform in Cuba.
Six days after the Spanish prime minister met with Obama the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, visited Cuba and met with its current President Raul Castro.
A US official stated on Sunday that Obama told Moratinos that the Castro regime should be encouraged to improve human rights, and take steps towards reform.
The US and Cuba have had poor relations since Fidel Castro led a revolution to bring communism to Cuba in 1959.
The US official also said that Obama told Zapatero that while change in relations will not happen overnight, now is the time to for both countries to start taking steps towards diplomatic friendliness, as the US continues to strengthen its relations with the Caribbean and Latin America.

Fidel Castro's sister: "I worked with CIA in Cuba"
By Pascal Fletcher
MIAMI (Reuters) - The younger sister of Fidel and Raul Castro, Juanita Castro, collaborated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency against her brothers' rule in Cuba before going into exile in Miami in 1964, she said on Sunday.
Juanita Castro, 76, who has not spoken to either of her brothers for more than four decades, made the revelation to the Spanish-language TV channel Univision-Noticias 23 on the eve of the publication of her memoirs about Fidel and Raul Castro.
The book in Spanish entitled "Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History," co-written with Mexican journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, is being published on Monday.
After initially supporting Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, Juanita Castro said she became disillusioned by the way her elder brother was executing opponents and moving the island toward communism.
"I began to become disenchanted when I saw so much injustice," she said in an interview with Collins broadcast by Univision-Noticias 23.
Juanita Castro said that from her house in Havana, she had worked to shelter and help those who were being persecuted by Fidel Castro's government. "My situation in Cuba became delicate because of my activity against the regime," she said.
She told Collins that one day a person close to both her and Fidel Castro brought her an invitation from the CIA asking her to collaborate with the U.S. spy agency.
"They wanted to talk to me because they had interesting things to tell me, and interesting things to ask me, such as if I was willing to take the risk, if I was ready to listen to them -- I was rather shocked, but anyway I said yes," Juanita Castro told Collins.
Collins said that "in this way began a long relationship with the arch-enemy of Fidel Castro, the Central Intelligence Agency."
"During three years, from 1961 to 1964, at the risk of her own life, the work of Juanita Castro was to save the lives of her compatriots long before she left for exile in Miami," Collins added, without giving more details.
Juanita Castro, who worked quietly in Miami for more than three decades running a community pharmacy before retiring in late 2006, last spoke to her brother Fidel at her home in Havana in 1963 when their mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, died of a heart attack. She last spoke to her other brother Raul in 1964, just days before she left Cuba to go into exile, she said.
Former leader Fidel Castro, 83, who established a one-party communist system in Cuba after the 1959 revolution and ruled the island for nearly half a century, last year handed over the presidency to his younger brother Raul Castro, 78.
Juanita has been a strong critic of Fidel Castro's communist rule in Cuba, saying he betrayed the democratic principles he originally claimed to espouse by turning to Marxism and aligning Cuba with the Soviet Union.

La CIA entró en la familia Castro
Juanita, hermana de los líderes de la Revolución cubana, revela que trabajó para la agencia estadounidense
JUAN-JOSÉ FERNÁNDEZ - Miami - 26/10/2009
Juanita Castro siempre fue la hermana díscola y contraria a sus hermanos Fidel y Raúl. Exiliada en México en 1964, pasó después a Miami, donde hasta hace dos años tuvo una farmacia. Hoy se ponen a la venta sus memorias tituladas "Fidel y Raúl, mis hermanos. La historia secreta", publicadas por la editorial Santillana. Ayer, en la cadena Univisión, reveló lo que se venía anunciando desde hace días con frases como "el secreto mejor guardado", "algo estremecedor", "confesión impactante". Trabajó para la CIA, la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de Estados Unidos.
Entrevistada por la periodista María Antonieta Collins, que le ha escrito el libro, Juanita, de 76 años, comentó que la fue a ver "una persona cercana a Fidel y a ella". Y añadió: "Me dijo que traía una invitación de la CIA, que ellos querían hablar conmigo, que tenían cosas interesantes que decirme y cosas interesantes que pedirme. Que si yo estaba dispuesta a correr ese riesgo, si estaba dispuesta a oirlos a ellos. Yo me quedé medio choqueada (sic), pero de todas maneras le dije que sí".
"De esa forma empezó una larga relación con el archienemigo de Fidel Castro", señaló Collins. Un secreto guardado por seis personas durante 48 años. Desde 1961 a 1964, aún dentro de Cuba, Juanita ayudó incluso a muchas personas a evitar la represión revolucionaria.
Ya había declarado muchas veces que no estaba de acuerdo con sus hermanos y que por eso rompió con ellos. Ahora lo dice con todo lujo de detalles. Es la quinta de los siete hermanos Castro.
Su marcha de Cuba
Con el triunfo de la Revolución, tras haber ayudado antes a sus hermanos recaudando dinero, se dedicó a construir clínicas y hospitales, pero unos meses después, con las detenciones, los fusilamientos, las confiscaciones, todo cambió. "Me empecé a desencantar cuando vi tanta injusticia. Teníamos la tendencia de echarle la culpa a los subalternos, pero las órdenes venían de arriba, de Fidel, del Che, de Raúl", dice.
Tras la muerte de su madre, el 6 de agosto de 1963, a la que recurrió muchas veces para ayudar a gente, se dio cuenta que ya no iba a tener su protección. "Tenía una situación delicada por mis actividades", comenta, "y mientras ella estaba a mi lado a ellos les hubiera costado más trabajo tomar medidas en contra mía".
Por eso, en junio del año siguiente se fue de Cuba. Fidel estaba especialmente enfadado con ella y Juanita siempre ha dicho que Raúl era más humano y cariñoso con su madre. Y con ella. Fue él quien le consiguió un visado para viajar a México donde escribió un comunicado para la prensa en la que rompía con la Revolución.
Juanita vio por última vez a Raúl el 18 de junio de 1964, el día antes de marcharse. En los dos últimos años, con motivo de la enfermedad de Fidel, a pesar de las diferencias, declaró públicamente que lo sentía como hermana, reacción que fue criticada por los sectores más radicales del exilio, en el que siempre se ha mantenido con gran discrección.
Las intervenciones televisivas van a continuar durante toda la semana en los informativos de Univisión. La cadena llegó a un acuerdo con Santillana para desgranar el libro, que se pone a la venta en Estados Unidos, España, México y Colombia tras mantenerse unas medidas de seguridad máximas para guardar la confidencialidad. Ya en 1999, Collins convenció a Juanita para escribirlo, pero sólo ahora sale a la luz.
Tras la primera gran revelación ya se anuncian nombres o claves, como quién se atrevió en Cuba a proponerle a la hermana de Fidel que colaborara con la CIA, los testigos o lugares de las reuniones, y el resto de detalles familiares hasta ahora desconocidos.
© EDICIONES EL PAÍS S.L. -

España media entre EE UU y Cuba OBAMA A ZAPATERO
"Decidle a Raúl que si él no da pasos tampoco yo podré darlos"
El futuro de Cuba fue uno de los ejes de la cumbre entre España y EE UU del 13 de octubre en la Casa Blanca
MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ / MAURICIO VICENT - LA HABANA - El Pais
"¿Cómo ves la situación de América Latina? -Desde mi punto de vista, la situación de la región gira en torno a dos ideas principales.Primero, está resistiendo la actual crisis económica mejor que en ocasiones anteriores y mejor que otras zonas del mundo.
"¿Cómo ves la situación de América Latina?
-Desde mi punto de vista, la situación de la región gira en torno a dos ideas principales. Primero, está resistiendo la actual crisis económica mejor que en ocasiones anteriores y mejor que otras zonas del mundo. Segundo, con la excepción de Honduras, los demás países disfrutan de un periodo de estabilidad política, con la consolidación de sistemas democráticos.
-¿Y Cuba? Nosotros estamos dando pasos, pero si ellos no dan pasos también, será muy difícil que podamos continuar.
-Moratinos va a viajar a Cuba en los próximos días.
-Que les diga a las autoridades cubanas que comprendemos que no se pueden cambiar las cosas de la noche a la mañana, pero que, pasados unos años, cuando se mire hacia atrás, debe quedar claro que éste fue el momento en el que empezaron los cambios. Si no es así, habrá una profunda decepción".
Éste fue, con bastante aproximación, según fuentes diplomáticas, el intercambio de opiniones sobre Cuba que el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, y el jefe del Gobierno español, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, mantuvieron el pasado día 13 en la Casa Blanca.
Por vez primera desde 2004, España y EE UU hablaron sobre Cuba en tono amistoso, casi de complicidad. Fue el propio Obama quien suscitó la cuestión, lo que demuestra, a juicio de las fuentes consultadas, que forma parte de su agenda personal.
Igual que Israel, Cuba no es para EE UU sólo, ni principalmente, un asunto de política exterior, sino una cuestión doméstica. La comunidad de origen cubano asentada en Florida ha demostrado en el pasado que, como el lobby judío, puede desequilibrar la balanza electoral.
Días después de la cita de la Casa Blanca y antes de viajar a Cuba, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, charló por teléfono con la secretaria de Estado de EE UU, Hillary Clinton. Hablaron de la crisis de Honduras y del conflicto de Oriente Próximo, pero no de Cuba. El asunto había quedado zanjado en Washington.
"Raúl Castro ha recibido positivamente la elección de Obama, a quien tiene un gran respeto, y ha acogido también satisfactoriamente ciertos actos y decisiones que ha tomado", declaró Moratinos el pasado lunes, tras reunirse durante casi tres horas con el presidente cubano.
Durante el mandato de Bush, Washington apretó las tuercas al régimen castrista, endureciendo las condiciones del embargo. La mayoría de estas nuevas restricciones han sido desmontadas por la nueva Administración: se han liberalizado las condiciones en las que los cubano-americanos pueden viajar a Cuba, así como las remesas de dinero que pueden enviar a sus familiares en la isla. Ha habido otros gestos simbólicos, como el desmantelamiento de las pantallas electrónicas de la fachada de la Oficina de Intereses de EE UU en La Habana, desde las que se difundían mensajes que el régimen consideraban hostiles.
Lo más importante, con todo, ha sido la reanudación del diálogo político con La Habana, interrumpido en 2004, en asuntos como la inmigración o las comunicaciones postales. Para sorpresa de la delegación española, el canciller cubano, Bruno Rodríguez -quien sustituyó en marzo a Felipe Pérez Roque, caído en desgracia junto al ex vicepresidente Carlos Lage-, subrayó el calado de las conversaciones con Washington. "Dicen que sólo hablamos de restablecer el servicio postal, como si fuera puramente técnico, y no reparan en que no puede haber correo directo sin una línea aérea regular entre los dos países", subrayó. Actualmente sólo operan vuelos chárter entre la isla y algunas ciudades de EE UU, como Miami y Nueva York.
El viaje de Moratinos a Cuba vino precedido, en septiembre, por el de Bisa Williams, subsecretaria adjunta en funciones del Departamento de Estado. Según se ha sabido ahora, la alta funcionaria visitó en prisión a reclusos con doble nacionalidad cubana y estadounidense, lo que no sucedía desde hace décadas.
Posteriormente, las autoridades de La Habana comunicaron a la enviada de Hillary Clinton que permitirían salir del país a Elsa Morejón, esposa del doctor Óscar Elías Biscet, un conocido disidente que sigue en prisión.
Las relaciones de EE UU y Cuba han entrado así en una fase de deshielo, pero aún falta mucho para que caiga el último muro de la Guerra Fría en el Caribe: el embargo económico decretado en 1962 por otro presidente demócrata, John F. Kennedy.
Moratinos, por su parte, ha redoblado la apuesta y se ha comprometido en La Habana a que será "objetivo prioritario" de la presidencia española de la UE, en el primer semestre de 2010, negociar un acuerdo de asociación entre la UE y Cuba, lo que supone derogar la Posición Común aprobada en 1996 a iniciativa de Aznar. Una apuesta arriesgada, pues la República Checa, Suecia e incluso Alemania se resisten a dar nuevos pasos mientras no los dé el régimen cubano. Casi como Obama.
Derechos humanos y 'realpolitik'
Nelson Aguiar, el disidente excarcelado el pasado martes, tras la entrevista del ministro Miguel Ángel Moratinos con Raúl Castro, tiene previsto acudir hoy a la Embajada española en La Habana para agradecer la gestión diplomática y solicitar un visado para recibir atención médica en España.
Aguiar, de 64 años, dirigente del Partido Liberal Ortodoxo, pertenece al grupo de los 75 detenidos en la primavera de 2003, de los que 53 siguen entre rejas. Condenado a 13 años, le quedaban siete por cumplir, pero su delicado estado de salud -fue operado dos veces en la cárcel y padece hipertensión- llevó a Moratinos a pedir su excarcelación por razones humanitarias. Aguiar ha explicado que el día 16 fue visitado en prisión por un oficial de la Seguridad del Estado, quien le anunció que habría liberaciones con motivo de la visita del ministro español. "Me dijo que si Moratinos pedía la libertad de un preso, ése sería yo". Pese a ello, agrega contundente: "Yo no me siento moneda de cambio de nadie".
Además de excarcelar a Aguiar, La Habana puso en libertad al empresario español Pedro Hermosilla, detenido desde el 23 septiembre por un caso de corrupción, y autorizó la salida del país de Omelio Lázaro Angulo, un disidente que ya disfrutaba de licencia extrapenitenciaria por motivos de salud y ahora podrá cumplir su deseo de reunirse con su familia en Costa Rica y viajar después a España, según ha manifestado.
Estas medidas de gracia, aunque cicateras, han servido a Moratinos para defender la eficacia de su apuesta por el diálogo con las autoridades cubanas. "La política [de presión y aislamiento del régimen castrista], defendida por el PP no ha logrado liberar a un solo preso", alega el ministro. Según sus cifras, en marzo de 2004 había 300 presos políticos en Cuba y ahora quedan 206. "Que son muchos, de acuerdo, que es inaceptable, de acuerdo, pero la realidad es que hemos avanzado". A cambio, Moratinos ha renunciado a reunirse con los disidentes durante su estancia en Cuba y ni siquiera ha delegado en un alto cargo de su departamento para que los reciba, como hizo en su anterior viaje en abril de 2007, lo que le ha valido críticas de la mayoría de los grupos de la oposición. "Prefiero que me critiquen, y haberlos liberado", responde.

PENN TO 'INTERVIEW CASTRO FOR MAGAZINE ARTICLE'
SEAN PENN has jetted to Cuba to interview FIDEL CASTRO for a newspaper article, according to local reports.
The Oscar winner - who has come under fire for his support of the anti-U.S. revolutionary and his president brother Raul - is claimed to have flown to the communist country to discuss how U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has affected Cuba.
The interview with the former leader will reportedly be used for an article Penn is writing for America's Vanity Fair magazine.
The Mystic River actor has been heavily criticised for his connections to Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with a U.S. journalist accusing him of discrediting his good work in the gay community by lending his support to the controversial politicians.

Sean Penn comparte con artistas cubanos
http://www.cubadebate.cu/especiales/2009/10/26/sean-penn-comparte-con-artistas-cubanos-en-la-isla-de-la-juventud-fotos/,

La Asamblea de la ONU y una prueba decisiva para Obama
Hugo Moldiz Mercado
El martes 28 de octubre, en plano corazón del imperio, la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas aprobará, por décima novena vez consecutiva, una resolución de enérgica condena al bloqueo que Estados Unidos mantiene contra Cuba desde hace 47 años y de contundente pedido de su inmediata finalización. De eso no hay duda. El pueblo y el gobierno de ese pequeño archipiélago se alzarán, una vez más, victoriosos ante una de las acciones más criminales que imperialismo haya osado jamás ejecutar y mantener contra país alguno.
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=93965,

Entrevista a Pascual Serrano, autor del libro “Desinformación”
“La gran patraña de los medios es intentar crear estados de opinión escudados en decirnos que nos están informando”
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=93967,

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five

Without Any Exception Whatsoever?

By RICARDO ALARCÓN de QUESADA

Venezuela’s formal request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles was well founded. There is an Extradition Treaty between Venezuela and the United States, ratified by both countries in 1922, which has been implemented for a century.

Venezuela followed the letter of the law, with its Supreme Court issuing an arrest warrant for the fugitive who had absconded from a Venezuelan prison in 1985. The Venezuelan government formally transmitted its extradition request to the United States government on June 15, 2005.

According to the Treaty, Washington should have immediately detained Posada and submitted his case to a federal court for an extradition process in which the Secretary of State would have the final word. That’s how Montesquieu's idea of “separation of powers” allegedly works in America.

But nothing of the sort has happened. The US government has instead chosen not to detain Posada Carriles or to submit the case to a federal court for extradition.

The US could have also detained Posada under its own Patriot Act, which gives the Attorney General the authority to detain a terrorist until his ultimate removal from the United States. The Patriot Act obviates the need to consult with the courts in order to detain someone the federal government considers a terrorist. The Attorney General need only certify the person as a terrorist. (See Section 1226 (A) of Title 8 of the United States Code). By deciding not to certify Posada as a terrorist and allow him to roam free, the United States is in clear violation of its own Patriot Act. And by ignoring the extradition treaty with Venezuela and several international conventions on terrorism, Washington grossly violated the US Constitution, specifically Article VI which establishes that such international treaties “shall be the supreme law of the land.”

Bush decided that Posada's mendacity to a bureaucrat was a more serious offense than 73 counts of first-degree murder. And instead of abiding by the US constitutional and treaty obligations, Bush preferred to try and convince other governments to help him shelter and protect Posada. No other government, however, was prepared to do that.

The Bush administration flatly ignored certain international conventions that are among the main pillars in the fight against international terrorism: the Montreal Convention for the Suppression of Illicit Acts Against Civil Aviation and the Protection of Passengers and the International Convention against Terrorist Acts Committed with the Use of Bombs.

Both Conventions introduced a very specific provision to make it impossible for any suspect of such crimes to escape prosecution. They established one alternative to extradition and only one. If any State does not comply with an extradition request, it shall be obligated to immediately prosecute and put on trial the alleged criminal for the same crime as if it had been committed in its own territory. That has to be done, according to both Conventions, “without any exception whatsoever.”

In September 2001, a few days after 9/11, the Bush Administration urged the UN Security Council to adopt mandatory and concrete measures that every country must take, under the threat of force in case of non compliance. Security Council Resolution 1373, introduced by the US delegation and approved unanimously, made it an enforceable obligation for all member states to cooperate in prosecuting fugitive suspects, denying them shelter, condemning political excuses not to extradite and demanding the full application of all international agreements against terrorism, including the two Conventions cited above.

To ensure implementation of Resolution 1373, a special permanent UN Security Council committee was established. It meets regularly in its New York headquarters. At every meeting, the United States is denounced for being in clear violation of Resolution 1373 with its hypocritical double standard on terrorism, as reflected in its protection of Luis Posada Carriles and the incarceration of the Cuban Five.

The next round of the charade known as the Posada “trial” is scheduled for March 1, 2010. Posada is to be “tried” on perjury charges. By then it will be five years of US adamant efforts in protecting a terrorist and not allowing him to be tried for his real crimes. By then, five anti-terrorist heroes will be in the middle of their 12th year of unjust, cruel punishment.

By not respecting its international treaty obligations, Washington is undermining the main legal instruments which were conceived to sustain the struggle against terrorism, which is supposed to be of a highest priority for the United States. The damage to US credibility may not be clearly perceived by many Americans because the big corporate media do not allow them to ascertain it. They are not permitted to know how the hypocrisy and arrogance permeating US policy is universally rejected. To imagine the possibility of the US playing any leadership role in the world, not to mention the idea of being respected, is to indulge in irrational, unfounded daydreaming.

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is president of the Cuban National Assembly.

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five

A Very Important Liar

By RICARDO ALARCÓN de QUESADA

Luis Posada Carriles is a real VIP enjoying unique courtesies and privileges not offered to other dignitaries and celebrities. But he is also a self-confessed and duly certified international terrorist.

• Posada began his long carrier with the early actions against the Cuban Revolution, including the Bay of Pigs fiasco and several years as the CIA man in Venezuelan political police where he became a leader of some conspicuous torturers;

• Posada was sought by Interpol, since he escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 – Hugo Chávez was still an unknown young man – while on trial for masterminding the first destruction ever of a civilian airplane in midair and the murder in cold blood of 73 human beings;

• Posada emerged immediately in Central America as a key figure in the Iran-Contra scam, being mentioned several times during the US Senate investigation and in Oliver North’s notebook;

• Posada published his autobiography – a Miami bestseller - and has appeared many times in the local and US media;

• Posada twice landed on the front page of The New York Times, in consecutive issues, describing his responsibility in the bombing campaign in Cuba in the 1990s;

• Posada was found guilty by a Panamanian tribunal of crimes associated with a plot to bomb the University in order to kill Fidel Castro and hundreds of students and professors; being illegally pardon by the President of Panama, on the eve of her last day in office and after receiving special emissaries sent in a hurry by George W. Bush;

• Posada again went into “hiding” somewhere in Central America, but maintained constant communication with his pals in the Cuban American National Foundation and other terrorist groups and collected money from frequent well publicized fundraisings.

Yes, it's been a long career of infamy, always on behalf of US goals and interests as proudly proclaimed by his Miami lawyer.

If we are to believe his words all through that period Posada has visited the US several times, although unnoticed. One day he decided to settle there for good. After all, his family has been residing in Miami for decades.

And then he went back home.

Posada Carriles entered Florida in March 2005, clandestinely, without a US visa, like millions of Latinos try to do unsuccessfully time and again. But he was not arrested, much less deported. The story of how he did it in the Santrina boat with the help of his US based terrorist network was described in a Yucatan newspaper, “Por Esto”, in a story widely disseminated through the continent. Everybody knew it except the Bush Administration, which insisted for two months that they knew nothing about his whereabouts--until, that is, Posada convened a press conference in May to announce his willingness to continue waging from Miami his total warfare against the Cuban Revolution.

Having no other option, the Bush Administration detained Posada and took him to the immigration facility in El Paso, where they had prepared for him VIP quarters, completely separated from the general population, with special food and amenities of every sort, even the possibilities to meet friends and journalists. Posada’s only grumble: the US protocol failed to provide him Cuban guava pastries.

According to official papers submitted by the US Government to migratory Courts, Washington deployed strenuous diplomatic efforts trying to convince other countries to grant shelter and protection to Posada. American diplomats approached governments in Central and South America and even in Europe asking them to receive the notorious VIP. Without exception the answer always was: No thanks.

Ironically Washington has yet to answer the diplomatic note presented by Venezuela on June 15, 2005 for his detention and subsequent extradition to Caracas in accordance with the Extradition Treaty existing between both countries.

The Bush Administration, and so far his successor, choose to accuse him of being a liar and entered in a deliberately confused litigation with Mr. Posada for allegedly not being truthful with immigration officials about how he entered the country. As a result, an administrative Court sent Posada home to keep comfortable, arguing for his formal admission by authorities who have shown such unparalleled patience and understanding.

How many undocumented poor Latinos have had that opportunity? How many of them have, in the meantime, been freed and allowed to walk away unmolested and do whatever they want to?

Posada doesn’t complain anymore. He is a free man in Miami eating plenty of guava pastries.

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is president of the Cuban National Assembly.

ALBA AND COPENHAGUEN

The festivities associated to the 7^th ALBA Summit, held in the historic Bolivian region of Cochabamba, showed the rich culture of the Latin American peoples and the joy elicited in children, young people and adults in general by the singing, the dancing, the costumes and rich expressions of the human beings of all ethnic groups, colors and shades: aborigine, black, white and mixed people. We could see there thousands of years of human history and precious culture that explain the determination with which the leaders of various Caribbean, Central and South American peoples convened that summit.

The meeting was a great success. Bolivia was the venue. I recently wrote on the excellent prospects of that country, an heir to the Aymara-Quechua culture. A small group of peoples from that area are bent on proving that a better world is possible. The ALBA –created by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, inspired by Bolivar’s and Marti’s ideas, as an unprecedented example of revolutionary solidarity—has showed how much could be done in barely five years of peaceful cooperation. This started shortly after Hugo Chavez political and democratic victory. Imperialism underestimated him, and deliberately tried to oust him and remove him. The fact that for a good part of the 20^th century Venezuela had been the world’s largest oil-producer, practically owned by the Yankee transnationals, made the chosen path particularly rough to pursue.

The powerful adversary had neoliberalism and the FTAA; two instruments of domination always used after the Cuban Revolution to crush every resistance in the hemisphere.

It is irritating to think of the shameless and disrespectful way in which the US administration imposed the government of millionaire Pedro Carmona and tried to have elected President Hugo Chavez removed, at a time when the USSR had disappeared and the People’s Republic of China was a few years away from becoming the economic and commercial power it is today, after two decades of over 10% growth. The Venezuelan people, like that of Cuba, resisted the brutal thrust. The Sandinistas recovered, and the struggle for sovereignty, independence and socialism gained ground in Bolivia and Ecuador. Honduras, which had joined the ALBA, was the target of a brutal coup d’état inspired by the Yankee ambassador and propelled from the US military base in Palmerola.

Today, there are four Latin American countries that have completely eradicated illiteracy: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. The fifth country, Ecuador, is quickly advancing towards that goal. The comprehensive healthcare programs are underway in the five countries at an unprecedented pace in the Third World. The programs of economic development with social justice have become projects of these five states, which already enjoy great prestige in the world for their brave position in the face of the empire’s economic, military and media power. Three English speaking Caribbean countries of black ancestry, determined to fight for their development, have also joined the ALBA.

This alone would be a great political merit if in today’s world that were the only big problem of man’s history.

The economic and political system that in a short historical period has led to the existence of more than one billion hungry people, and many more hundreds of millions whose lives are hardly longer than half the average of those in the wealthy and privileged countries, was until now the main problem for mankind.

But, a new and extremely serious problem was strongly discussed at the ALBA Summit: climate change. A danger of such magnitude had never been known in human history.

As Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega waved the people goodbye in the streets of Cochabamba yesterday, Sunday, that same day, according to news spread by BBC World, Gordon Brown was chairing in London a session of the Major Economies Forum mostly made up by the highest developed capitalist countries, the main culprits for the carbon dioxide emissions, that is, the gas causing the greenhouse effect.

The significance of Brown’s remarks is that they have not been made by a representative of ALBA or one of the 150 emerging or underdeveloped countries on the planet but of Great Britain, the country where industrial development started and one of those which have released more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The British Prime Minister warned that if an agreement is not reached at the UN Summit in Copenhagen, the consequences will be ‘devastating.’

Some of the ‘catastrophic’ consequences would be floods, droughts and lethal heat waves claimed the environmental group Nature World Fund referring to Brown’s assertion. “The climate change will be out of control within the next five to ten years if the CO2 emissions are not drastically cut down. There will not be a plan B if Copenhagen fails.”

The same news source claims that: “BBC specialist James Landale has explained that not everything is happening as expected.”

Newsweek reported that “it seems more unlikely every day that the states will commit to something in Copenhagen.”

According to reports from the major American press outlet, the chairman of the session, Gordon Brown, said that “if no agreement is reached, there is no doubt that the damage of the uncontrolled emissions will not be repaired with a future agreement.” He then went on to mention such conflicts as “unchecked migration and 1.8 billion people afflicted by water shortage.”

Actually, as the Cuban delegation claimed in Bangkok, the United States led the highest industrialized countries most opposed to the necessary reduction of emissions.

At the Cochabamba meeting, a new ALBA Summit was convened. The timetable will be: December 6, elections in Bolivia; December 13, ALBA summit in Havana; December 16, participation in the UN Copenhagen Summit. The small group of ALBA nations will be there. The issue is no longer “Homeland or Death”; it is truly and without exaggeration a matter of “Life or Death” for the human race.

The capitalist system is not only oppressing and plundering our countries; the wealthiest industrial nations wish to impose to the rest of the world the bulk of the burden in the struggle on climate change. Who are they trying to fool with that? In Copenhagen, the ALBA and the Third World countries will be struggling for the survival of the species.

Fidel Castro Ruz, October 19, 2009

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five
Which Side Are You On?
By RICARDO ALARCÓN de QUESADA

FBI officials received a huge amount of concrete, detailed information about anti-Cuban terrorist groups, including their exact locations, with addresses and phone numbers, photographs and tape recordings describing sinister plans in their own voices and many other data. At no time did they protest or express concern regarding Cuba’s ability or methods used to obtain such precise evidence.

They just thanked us and asked for some time, arguing that they got more evidence, far much more, than what they could have expected.

When Gabriel García Márquez met President Clinton’s closest advisors at the White House on May 6, 1998, nobody asked how Cuba had unveiled those terrible plots. One of the American gentlemen just said, “We have common enemies.”

It was exactly the same on every other occasion when we met in Havana, Washington or elsewhere to discuss with American officials the information we had on terrorist attempts. They never complained in any manner, directly or indirectly--not even in a whisper.

US officials never objected to our investigative efforts for some very obvious reasons. The history of violence and terror against Cuba is quite long – has lasted so far half a century – and is very well documented in an extensive bibliography partially registered in the US Congressional Record and also available in declassified, or not yet so, official papers with which our American counterparts, we should assume, are well familiar.

With such a background Cuba has the right (even the inexcusable obligation) to protect itself and its people and to discover what may be in the making among those who try to cause material damage and human suffering. This is the universally recognized principle of self defense.

The Americans were very well aware of that. As they surely remembered, when we learned about an assassination attempt against President Reagan we promptly shared the information with them, the Great Communicator’s antipathy towards Cuba notwithstanding. Washington did not complain then, but expressed thankfulness.

They also knew that Cuba is just a small island in the Caribbean, with a population a little above 11 million people. Cuba does not have satellites getting data from outer space, neither has it any of the extremely sophisticated devices that are in common use by the American and other Big Powers intelligence services.

Cuba only has human intelligence. Something that is admitted now as indispensable in the United States, something that would have saved many American lives if it had been aptly used by the US before the terrible events that shook America in 2001.

And ours is not paid human intelligence. We have never spent money, as others do by many billions, to buy information or contract with expensive agents around the world. We depend on the generous heroic sacrifice of youngsters like Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René.

Long before the heinous attacks of 9/11, Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo said these simple truths to an American Court that regrettably was unwilling to listen:

“Cuba has the right to defend itself from the terrorist acts that are prepared in Florida with total impunity, despite the fact that they have been consistently denounced by the Cuban authorities. This is the same right that the United States has to try to neutralize the plans of terrorist Osama Bin Laden’s organization, which has caused so much damage to this country and threatens to continue doing so. I am certain that the sons and daughters of this country who are carrying out this mission are considered patriots, and their objective is not that of threatening the national security of any of the countries where these people are being sheltered.”

When Gerardo wrote those words many of the individuals, who would later use civilian aircrafts as lethal weapons against Americans, were finalizing their training right there in Miami. But the local FBI did nothing to frustrate their horrendous project. They didn’t have time for that. Their time was devoted exclusively to protecting their own terrorists by persecuting and punishing Gerardo and his comrades.

The FBI, at least in Miami, was not fighting terrorism. Neither was it preventing criminal attacks against Americans or Cuba. It was on the other side of the fence.

-Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is president of the Cuban National Assembly.


Reflexiones de Fidel
Un Premio Nobel para Evo
http://www.cubadebate.cu/reflexiones-fidel/2009/10/15/un-premio-nobel-para-evo/,

Cuban spy's U.S. jail term reduced to about 22 years
MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday reduced to nearly 22 years the prison term for a convicted Cuban spy whose original life sentence was deemed too harsh by an appeals court.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard resentenced Antonio Guerrero, 50, to 21 years and 10 months imprisonment for his part in a Cuban espionage ring that U.S. prosecutors said had sought to penetrate U.S. military facilities and had spied on the Cuban exile community in Florida.
Guerrero's lawyer, Leonard Weinglass, told reporters he expected his client, who has been in U.S. custody since 1998, could be out of jail in seven years, taking into account reductions for good behavior.
The fresh sentence, although reduced from the life term thrown out by an appeals court last year, was nevertheless slightly higher than the 20 years suggested by U.S. prosecutors in a resentencing deal reached previously with Guerrero.
"At today's hearing, Mr. Guerrero made no statement of contrition," Lenard said after noting he had been convicted of "very serious offenses".
Guerrero and four other convicted Cuban spies also arrested in 1998 formed the so-called "Wasp Network" sent to the United States to infiltrate exile groups opposed to Cuba's communist government, then led by Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro, now 83, handed over the Cuban presidency last year to his younger brother, Raul Castro, 78.
The case of the five has long been a bone of contention between the United States and communist-ruled Cuba, which demands their release, hails them as heroes and says they were trying to prevent "terrorist" attacks by exile extremists.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants to try to improve U.S.-Cuban ties after a half century of hostility.
The five Cubans were convicted in a Miami court in 2001 of 26 counts of spying and received sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison.
A U.S. appeals court last year threw out the sentences against three of the five, including Guerrero, as excessively harsh, arguing the three did not succeed in transmitting top secret information, despite their conspiracy to do so.
U.S. prosecutors said Guerrero infiltrated the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West, but he failed to actually obtain any classified information.
The resentencing of the other two of the three has been postponed.

Tribunal de EE.UU. sentencia a 22 años al antiterrorista Antonio Guerrero
Los Cinco luchadores cubanos se mantienen presos en EE.UU. por haber enfrentado hace 11 años las acciones de grupos violentos que actúan desde ese país en contra de Cuba. Desde entonces fueron privados de libertad y sometidos a duras condenas que van desde los 15 años de prisión hasta la doble cadena perpetua.
-TeleSUR _
Un tribunal de Miami, Estados Unidos (EE.UU.), sentenció este martes a 22 años de cárcel a Antonio Guerrero, uno de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos que se encuentra preso en la nación norteamericana desde 1998.
La jueza federal Joan Lenard de Miami impuso la pena de 262 meses (21 años y 10 meses) y 5 años de libertad condicional por su intento de "reunir y transmitir información militar clasificada".
Guerrero había sido condenado a cadena perpetua y a otras dos penas de cinco años de privación de libertad, y su audiencia de este martes precede a la de Fernando González y Ramón Labañino, aplazadas tras la orden emitida por la jueza encargada, Joan Lenard como respuesta a una solicitud de defensa.
El Onceno Circuito de Apelaciones de Atlanta, dictó un fallo que anulaba esas condenas por calificarlas incorrectas, razón por la cual, Guerrero, Labañino y González esperaban una resentencia luego del intenso proceso judicial.
Los tres cubanos junto a Gerardo Hernández y René González, recibieron condenas que van desde los 15 años hasta la doble cadena perpetua por haber notificado al país antillano sobre las acciones violentas que fueron ejecutadas por grupos terroristas instalados en Florida.
Este grupo de antiterroristas cubanos que son conocidos en el mundo como Los Cinco, han logrado el apoyo de numerosos grupos que se han manifestado a su favor, además de personalidades galardonadas con Premio Nobel, líderes políticos y distinguidos juristas del mundo.
La isla caribeña recordó a Naciones Unidas (ONU) la denuncia sobre la condena impuesta a los cinco combatientes que están presos desde hace 11 años.
Claudia Pérez, titular del cuerpo diplomático de Cuba, expresó la denuncia ante la Tercera Comisión de la Asamblea General de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) que discute el tema "Adelanto de la mujer, Aplicación de los resultados de la cuarta Conferencia Mundial sobre la Mujer".
Pérez habló sobre el sufrimiento de las madres, esposas e hijos de Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González y René González, quienes permanecen encarcelados en suelo norteamericano.
Calificó de inhumanas las acciones de las autoridades estadounidenses por haber negado la visa por décima ocasión a Adriana Pérez, esposa de Gerardo Hernández, para poder visitar a su cónyuge.

Cuban spy gets reduced sentence of about 22 years
-By CURT ANDERSON (AP) –
MIAMI — A convicted Cuban spy has received a reduced prison sentence of nearly 22 years after his original life term was tossed out by an appeals court.
A federal judge in Miami imposed the new sentence Tuesday on 50-year-old Antonio Guerrero. It is nearly two years longer than an agreement reached by prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Guerrero is a member of the so-called Cuban Five who were convicted in 2001 of spying in the U.S. They are considered heroes in Cuba.
An appeals court last year threw out the life sentence as unjustifiably harsh because no U.S. secrets were stolen. Under the new sentence, Guerrero has about 11 more years to serve.
The appeals court vacated sentences for two other Cuban spies. They will be resentenced at a later date.

Reducen a 22 años sentencia a espia cubano
-MiamiHerald.com
Un agente de inteligencia cubano convicto por infiltrar la Base Aérea y Naval de Boca Chica en Key West vio reducida su sentencia de cadena perpetua a 22 años.
Antonio Guerrero fue encontrado culpable de espionaje -si bien no fue capaz de obtener o pasar secretos a sus jefes en La Habana- en 2001, durante el juicio que se le siguió a cinco cubanos acusados de pasar secretos a la isla. Originalmente habia sido condenado a cadena perpetua pero llegó a un acuerdo con fiscales federales para reducir su sentencia a 20 años.
Sin embargo la jueza de distrito Joan Lenard rechazó la propuesta por ser demasiado suave y sentenció a Guerrero a 21 años y 10 meses. Lenard subrayó que si bien Guerrero no obtuvo secretos del gobierno estadounidense "toda la evidencia indica que él estaba buscando hacerlo".
La juez consideró que la sentencia era "razonable y justa y refleja la seriedad de la ofensa".
El año pasado Lenard fue criticada por la Corte de Apelaciones del 11avo Circuito, basada en Atlanta, por imponerle a Guerrero la sentencia de por vida, que la Corte consideró excesiva a la luz de que no hay evidencias suficientes de daños a la seguridad nacional.

El espía Antonio Guerrero, condenado a 22 años de cárcel
Había sido condenado en 2001 a prisión perpetua, pero una corte de apelaciones consideró excesivas las penas y ordenó que se dictara una nueva sentencia.
-Agencias | 13/10/2009
Un agente de inteligencia cubano acusado de espionaje en Estados Unidos fue condenado este martes a la pena de 22 años de cárcel por su intento de "reunir y transmitir información militar clasificada", en una sentencia que le fue impuesta por una jueza federal en Miami, reportó AFP.
La jueza federal Joan Lenard impuso una pena de 262 meses (21 años y 10 meses) y 5 años de libertad condicional al espía Antonio Guerrero, una condena algo superior a los 20 años que habían solicitado en forma conjunta la defensa y el gobierno en un acuerdo previo a la sentencia.
Guerrero fue condenado en 2001 a prisión perpetua por varios cargos de conspiración e intento de infiltrar organismos militares de Estados Unidos a fin de reunir y transferir información secreta, pero una corte de apelaciones consideró excesivas las penas fijadas y ordenó se dictara una nueva sentencia.
Guerrero forma parte de un grupo de cinco cubanos que integraba una red de 14 miembros conocida como "Red Avispa" y que fueron detenidos en 1998 en Estados Unidos y convictos por espionaje.
La Habana admitió que los espías eran agentes suyos, pero indicó que se dedicaban a vigilar en Estados Unidos a grupos que pudieran estar involucrados en posibles acciones terroristas contra el régimen cubano.
Los cinco espías son considerados por Cuba como "luchadores contra el terrorismo" y "héroes de la Patria", y el país ha desplegado una extensa campaña internacional para su liberación.

Sostienen encuentro solidario guineanos con familiares de los Cinco
La Habana, Cuba.- Un mensaje de aliento y esperanza a los familiares de los Cinco Héroes cubanos prisioneros injustamente en Estados Unidos, trasmitió en nombre del pueblo de Guinea Bissau la Excelentísima señora Salomea Neves Aimé Gómez durante un encuentro solidario efectuado en la sede del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba.
La primera dama de Guinea Bissau quien acompaña a su esposo el Primer Ministro Carlos Gómez durante la visita oficial a la Isla, informó a la madre y esposa de Fernando González, Magali LLort y Rosa Aurora Freijanes, así como a la esposa de Ramón Labañino, Elízabet Palmeiro, sobre las acciones que se impulsan en su país para apoyar la lucha por la liberación de los Cinco antiterroristas cubanos.
“Les deseo que tengan mucho coraje y sepan que pueden contar con nuestro pueblo porque seguiremos luchando para que esa causa sea resuelta. Espero que ese llamado toque directamente en el corazón del Presidente Obama. A pesar de que estamos lejos, estamos siempre con ellos pues los llevamos en el corazón. Pienso que mientras más se haga por su liberación, estamos seguros de que el dolor que hoy ustedes sientes se va a compensar con la alegría de verlos de vuelta en Cuba.”
La madre de Fernando, Magalys LLort agradeció las innumerables muestras de solidaridad del pueblo guineano como parte de la gran campaña que se impulsa a nivel internacional para dar a conocer la verdad sobre el injusto proceso judicial aplicado a Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández y Fernando González.
“Tenemos confianza en que este trabajo y el interés de ustedes por ayudar a la causa de nuestros hijos que es una causa justa es importante y va a ser muy positivo para que ellos regresen a casa con nosotros. No dejamos de agradecer al pueblo guineano por todo lo que han hecho y seguirán haciendo por eso.”
El encuentro de solidaridad de la delegación de Guinea Bissau con los familiares de los Cinco se efectuó mientras, en Miami, tenía lugar la audiencia de resentencia para Antonio Guerrero como previamente estaba establecida.


Adiós al dólar
El Alba creará un mecanismo de intercambio comercial que desplace al dólar como forma única de transacción en su próxima cumbre en Bolivia
En la cumbre de la Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas (Alba), que se celebrará el 16 y 17 de octubre en Bolivia, planean aprobar un sistema de intercambio comercial único que desplace el dólar como moneda de pago.
“El Sistema Único de Compensación Regional (Sucre) será un medio de pago internacional para todas las operaciones de comercio exterior entre los países miembros y entrará en vigor en 2010”, dijo el viceministro de Comercio Interno y Exportaciones, Huáscar Ajata.
El Alba está integrado por Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominica, San Vicente y las Granadinas, y Antigua y Barbuda. El acuerdo será aprobado en la cumbre del Alba el 16 y 17 de octubre.
“En algún momento los países del ALBA tendremos que tener una moneda común”, sostuvo Ajata. Esto busca fortalecer la moneda así como el euro en la Unión Europea, “esto significa ganar en soberanía económica y en política monetaria”.
Hasta la fecha, se ha confirmado la visita del presidente Hugo Chávez, Rafael Correo de Ecuador y Fernando Lugo de Paraguay. Así mismo, 200 empresas grandes, medianas y pequeñas, que realizaran una feria internacional. “Trabajarán 35 mesas de negocios para cerrar contratos de exportación y cada país podrá mostrar su potencial exportador y sus atractivos turísticos”.

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five

History Repeats Itself

By RICARDO ALARCÓN de QUESADA

Just a couple of days after the Clinton White House encounter with García Márquez, US diplomats in Havana approached Cuban authorities. We had a number of discussions specially focused on what the US had found about terrorist plots against civilian aircrafts and the warning that the FAA felt obliged to issue. In the course of those exchanges the US asked formally for a high level FBI delegation to come to Havana with a view toward receiving from their counterparts our intelligence concerning the ongoing terrorist campaign. In preparation for that visit an Assistant Secretary of State, John Hamilton, communicated that “this time they would like to emphasize the seriousness of the United States offer to investigate any evidence that [Cuba] might have.”

The meetings were held in Havana on June 16-17, 1998. The US team was given copious information, both documentary and testimonies. The material handed over included the investigations related to 31 terrorist acts, having taken place between 1990 and 1998, including detailed information on the financing of the most dangerous actions carried out by Luis Posada Carriles’s network. The information included lists and photographs of weapons, explosives and other material seized in each case. Additionally, 51 pages with evidence concerning how the money was routed to various groups for terrorist acts on the island. The FBI also received tapes recording 14 phone conversations in which Posada Carriles referred to violent attacks against Cuba. Specific data was provided on how to locate the notorious murderer, such as his home addresses, places he frequented, and his car number plates in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Panama.

The FBI took the files of 40 Cuban-born terrorists, most living in Miami, and the clues to find each individual. The US delegation brought back with them three 2-gramme samples of explosive substances from the bombs deactivated before they could have exploded in the Melia Cohiba Hotel on April 30, 1997 and in a tourist van on October 19, 1997, as well as the explosive device confiscated from two Guatemalans on March 4, 1998.

The FBI was also given 5 video and 8 audio cassettes and their transcripts with statements by the Central Americans who had been arrested for placing bombs in hotels. There they talked about their links to Cuban gangs and in particular to Posada Carriles.

The US side acknowledged the value of the information and made a commitment to reply as soon as possible.

We never got a word back. Nobody knows for sure what the FBI did with the evidence and the thorough information they received in Havana. They certainly did not use it to arrest any of the criminals or to open any investigations.

Wasn’t the State Department any more worried with the information it had gathered on its own concerning terrorist attacks against commercial airlines? What happened with their preoccupation with the lives and security of passengers, including American passengers?

Is that the way to “take immediate steps” on a problem “worthy of the full attention of his Government, of which they would urgently take care” as solemnly promised at the White House? Or “to emphasize the seriousness of the United States”?

It may be assumed that the FBI shared the information they got with their pals in Miami.

If facts have any meaning this must have been the case. On September 12, 1998, almost three months after the visit to Havana, we learnt through the media about the detention of Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René and that Mr. Pesquera, the FBI chief in Miami, was, on that Saturday morning, visiting with Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart – the Batista-Miami Congresspersons – to inform them of the incarceration of the five Cubans.

History repeated itself. In 1996 President Clinton gave instructions to stop Brothers to the Rescue air provocations, but when his orders reached Miami, the local mob conspired to do exactly the opposite. In 1998 the very same President appeared to be willing to put an end to terrorist attacks against Cuba – and also against Americans – but when his intentions were learnt in Miami, the FBI there blew them out.

Mr. Pesquera has recognized in a press interview that his main difficulty was in getting Washington’s authorization to apprehend the Five. It should have been very hard, indeed. Was not Washington supposed to be on the other side of the fence in the fight against terrorism?

But Mr. Pesquera and his cronies, won. They proved being able to ignore law and decency, and to ridicule again the US Commander in Chief. Remember Elian?

Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is president of the Cuban National Assembly.

Relatives of the Cuban Five Received at Belgian Foreign Ministry

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 12 (acn) A delegation of relatives of the five Cuban
antiterrorism fighters unjustly incarcerated in the United States was
received on Monday by Koenraad Rouvroy, Director for Latin America and
the Caribbean of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The delegation is made up by Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva, the
wives of Gerardo Hernandez and René Gonzalez, respectively, who were
accompanied by Cuba’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, Elio
Rodriguez.
During the meeting with the top Belgian official, Perez and Salanueva
highlighted the injustice committed against them and their husbands, with
the denial of entry visas to visit them in jail.
Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, imprisoned for 11 years now along
with Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, were
condemned to harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to two life
imprisonments.
The Five, as they’re internationally known due to the international
campaign in favor of their release, were monitoring the activities of
Florida-based anti-Cuban organizations, in order to warn the Cuban people
about their criminal actions.
Perez and Salanueva will fulfil a working program in Belgium and in
the Great Duchy of Luxembourg, and will participate in the plenary meting
of the European Parliament, in the French city of Strasbourg.

Esposas de antiterroristas cubanos denuncian caso de los Cinco en Bélgica

BRUSELAS, 12 de octubre.— Adriana Pérez y Olga Salanueva, esposas de dos de los Cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos injustamente en Estados Unidos desde hace 11 años, denunciaron ante las autoridades belgas el amañado caso judicial. Según PL, en un intercambio con el director de la Cancillería para América Latina y el Caribe, Koenraad Rouvroy, Pérez y Salanueva, quienes iniciaron su periplo este lunes en Bélgica, ofrecieron detalles de la causa e insistieron en el trato injusto que reciben sus esposos y familiares, quienes son privados del derecho de visitarles en cárceles norteamericanas.

La presencia de las esposas de Gerardo y René en Bélgica coincide con una campaña de solidaridad en Europa en apoyo a la causa de los Cinco y que reclama al gobierno norteamericano el respeto del derecho que les asiste a recibir visitas de sus familiares. Esta gira también incluye la presentación del caso ante el Pleno del Parlamento Europeo, en la ciudad francesa de Estrasburgo, donde ambas reafirmarán el reclamo de libertad para los Cinco. (PL)

Adriana y Olga piden en Bélgica inmediata liberación de los Cinco
Juventud Rebelde

Durante un intercambio con el director de la Cancillería para América Latina y el Caribe, Koenraad Rouvroy, la delegación cubana, que inició este lunes una visita a ese país, explicó el amañado proceso legal contra los luchadores antiterroristas cubanos. Hoy será la vista de resentencia de Antonio

BRUSELAS, octubre 12.— Dos de las esposas de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos en Estados Unidos hace 11 años, Adriana Pérez y Olga Salanueva, ofrecieron detalles este lunes ante las autoridades belgas, acerca de las injusticias a las que son sometidos quienes solo lucharon contra el terrorismo, reportó PL.

Durante un intercambio con el director de la Cancillería para América Latina y el Caribe, Koenraad Rouvroy, Adriana y Olga explicaron el amañado proceso legal contra los Cinco y subrayaron el trato injusto contra sus esposos y familiares, a quienes se les priva del derecho de visitarles en las cárceles norteamericanas donde permanecen desde hace más de una década.

La delegación cubana, que inició este lunes una visita a Bélgica, trasladó un mensaje a favor de la inmediata liberación de Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González y Ramón Labañino.

Los cinco cubanos luchadores contra el terrorismo ya han cumplido más de 11 años de injustas condenas —recuerda el texto— en un proceso viciado de irregularidades y por la parcialidad de jueces estadounidenses, como lo han denunciado legisladores europeos, apuntó el cable.

La presencia de las esposas de Gerardo y René en Bélgica, y con anterioridad en Gran Bretaña, coincide con una campaña de solidaridad en Europa en apoyo a los Cinco y de reclamo al Gobierno norteamericano para que respete sus derechos a recibir visitas de los familiares.

En Londres, primera escala de su viaje, Adriana y Olga participaron en una multitudinaria vigilia frente a la Embajada de Estados Unidos, cuyas autoridades les han negado una visa humanitaria para visitar a sus esposos.

Ambas presentarán el caso y reafirmarán el reclamo de libertad para los Cinco en el Pleno del Parlamento Europeo, en la ciudad francesa de Estrasburgo, según comunicó el embajador cubano ante el Reino de Bélgica, Elio Rodríguez.

Mientras, en Miami, tendrá lugar hoy la audiencia de resentencia para Antonio Guerrero, en la fecha que estaba previamente establecida. Sin embargo, las vistas de Fernando González y Ramón Labañino quedaron pospuestas, luego que la jueza de la Corte Federal de Miami, Joan Lenard, emitiera una orden, en respuesta a una solicitud de la Defensa.

http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2009/10/13/antonio-guerrero-demanda-en-martes-13/,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101101810.html,

Che's children bring US-Cuba dispute to SA

By Baldwin Ndaba ( thedailynews )

Cuban freedom fighter Ernesto "Che" Guevara's legacy lives on.

On Monday his children, Aleida Guevara March and Camilo Guevara March, landed at OR Tambo International Airport to lobby South Africans to put pressure on US President Barack Obama to release five Cubans languishing in American maximum security prisons.

Aleida and Camilo were very young when their father was killed in Bolivia on October 8, 1967.

Their visit to South Africa, as guests of a South African solidarity organisation, the Friends of Cuba Society (Focus-SA), coincides with the 42nd anniversary of Guevara's death and the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

This month also marks 15 years of bilateral relations between Cuba and South Africa.

Aleida and Camilo said South Africa had had a special place in their hearts since the ANC military wing's involvement in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1988.

Moore Road in Durban has been renamed after Guevara.

United International Pictures (UIP) in South Africa claimed that Aleida was also in the country to promote the documentaries Che 1 and Che 2, starring Benicio Del Toro, to be screened here in November and December, but Focus-SA has denied that this is the reason for her trip.

The secretary general of Focus-SA, Chris Matlhako, said UIP was trying to undermine the society's role in bringing Aleida to South Africa.



'She tried to educate us as ordinary citizens'

He said the documentaries were a distortion of the "genuine ideals" that Guevara stood for.

His children also answered questions about growing up without a father.

"Our mother taught us a lot about our father," said Aleida. "My father is a very well-known person in Cuba. A lot of people believe in him and love him.

"We had the privilege of knowing people who worked with him and got his influence. They shared his thoughts with us.

"Our mother loved him a lot. She tried to educate us as ordinary citizens."

Matlhako lambasted the US government for refusing the prisoners visitation rights, saying Obama's government was denying them their human rights.