(This broad view of history makes Fidel Castro's view of
south-south cooperation and trade look like a mainstream
view of the path to development. It is important to
remember that "the west" is only 200 years old and Europe
has yet to eclipse the economic wealth of China in 1800.
The reference ".. as US power approaches its military and
economic zenith, .." implies that Cuba's economic rebirth
is happening just as the US begins its decline. Interesting
times indeed. - SMcG.)
*****************************************************

West is not only direction to the world's path ahead

The Irish Times, Fri, Apr 01, 05
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2005/0401/1938773328OPMAZ.html



The West's belief in the universality of its model of development
betrays a short-sighted view of history, writes Mark Mazower.

Once upon a time there was the West, winner of history's race to
modernity, and there were the rest, trying to catch up.

Every society was thought to make the same journey, at greater or lesser
speed, from hidebound tradition to the bright promise of industrial
modernity and unrestricted economic growth. If it did not, something had
gone wrong: it might be excessive attachment to (non-Christian)
religions and creeds, or to pre-modern sources of loyalty such as the
family and the tribe.

Women were a litmus test: where their feet were bound or heads covered,
there was little hope for their communities without radical change
delivered by western-oriented saviours. Secularism, urbanisation and
market forces would propel them forward.

During the cold war, fleshing out this self-congratulatory model kept
academics busy. According to the historians, the West owed its ascent
not just to anything as recent or crudely violent as 19th-century
colonial expansion or the preceding industrial revolution but to other,
more venerable institutions and values.

For some, the West's ascent was thanks to a 17th-century "scientific
revolution" - the moment at which humanity supposedly asserted its claim
to knowledge over the censorious power of religious authorities; for
others, it was the rise of capitalist banking, perhaps even the
emergence of a church-state balance of powers centuries before.

All this reflected the realities of the time. Europe's dreams of world
domination, shattered in the bloodletting of war, had passed to the US:
extolling the West's virtues served to assert the depth of shared
transatlantic values, and simultaneously defined them against the cold
war barbarians to the east.

So it should not surprise us now, as US power approaches its military
and economic zenith and confronts the rapid emergence of India and
China, that the shifting global balance is altering our understanding of
the past once again.

According to some east Asia experts in the US, the West's ascent was
reasonably recent and fortuitous: in 1800, China's gross national
product was probably still higher than Europe's. For them the Pacific,
not the Atlantic, is key to understanding the long run of world
development. Their findings give western policymakers reason to pause
before seeking to spread their own values around the globe.

For if the West's rise is no more than two centuries old, its success
may owe more to contingency and less to values than its cheerleaders
believe. For states as for stock markets, what goes up may also come
down.

From the Enlightenment onwards, the ascendancy of the West was
contrasted with the moribund east. Its origins were traced back to
Greece and Rome rather than, say, Egypt and Mesopotamia. India was
ignored, at least until the British marched in. The Chinese were
credited, thanks to Marco Polo, with pasta and ice cream and
occasionally, paper.

Yet we now know that in terms of per capita income or density of trading
networks, there was little to choose between the most advanced parts of
Europe and sophisticated Asian economies before the late 18th century.
It was not lack of curiosity or weakness that explains why the Ottomans,
the Moghuls, the Russians and the Chinese did not join the European
mania for exploration and colonisation; they did not need to. Their
expansion took place mostly by land and they left costly maritime
ventures to the profligate but technologically inventive Europeans.

Conversely, it was not brilliant success but rather imminent
impoverishment that forced a resource-bare, crowded island off Europe's
north-west coast to move to a labour-intensive, coal-based economy.
Britain's embrace of new technologies was fostered by its rulers'
ruthless priorities.

Whereas the older empires placed a premium on social stability,
successive British governments focused on developing military
technologies, state-licensed trading companies and market-driven systems
of credit. The outcomes were often internally destabilising, but in
small countries this mattered less than in large ones. Britain's
European rivals could hardly afford not to follow.

Only in the 19th century did Europe, a conflict-torn region of small,
belligerent states, leap decisively ahead of the great Eurasian land
empires, spreading capitalism and colonialism across the globe, before
being overtaken in turn by its child-rival, the US.

Today, barely 200 years since the West's ascendancy, its end may be in
sight. Yet many western policymakers continue to see their own values as
universally desirable, the key not only to their past but to everyone
else's future. A precarious argument.

States that believe promotion of their interests depends on export of
their culture and values are doomed to fail. Better to realise that
religious politics is not necessarily a sign of medievalism, and that
privatised democracies are not a one-size cure for the world's ills.

Of course China's rise does not portend the downfall of the US or
Europe, but it does challenge the West's self-perception as the
civilisational hegemon in global affairs. In this context revitalising
the United Nations becomes more vital than ever, for ideas translate
precariously across the boundaries of language and belief, and life will
not be easier in the absence of the international forums that make
mutual comprehension possible.

The world before 1800 was one of multiple power-centres and value
systems: let us adjust to the fact that it is starting to look like that
again. - (Financial Times Service)

Mark Mazower is professor of history at Columbia University and author
of Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950
(Harper-Collins/Knopf)


© The Irish Times

***

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-me-passings31.2m
ar31,1,5940994.story>
PASSINGS
Daniel Benitez, 49; Cuban Figured in High Court Ruling
From Times Staff and Wire Reports

March 31, 2005

Daniel Benitez, 49, one of two Cubans who prompted the U.S.
Supreme Court to ban indefinite detention of illegal
immigrants who had served time in American prisons, died
Monday in Hialeah, Fla., of an apparent heart attack.

Benitez was among about 125,000 people Fidel Castro freed
from Cuban jails who arrived in Florida from the port of
Mariel during a six-month boatlift in 1980. The U.S.
paroled most of them and gave them legal immigrant status.

But Benitez, because of crimes he subsequently committed in
Florida, had his immigration parole revoked. He was
sentenced to state prison in 1993 after pleading guilty to
armed robbery. He was also ordered deported, but Cuba
refused to take him back.

After completing his prison term in 2001 - the same year
the U.S. Supreme Court banned indefinite detention for
legal immigrants who had served time for crimes - Benitez
still faced indefinite custody as a criminal illegal
immigrant.

He began legal proceedings with Sergio Suarez Martinez that
resulted in the Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling this Jan. 12
extending the earlier decision to several hundred illegal
immigrants with criminal records. Benitez was released from
custody in October pending the ruling.

Havana. March 30, 2005

Quadripartite summit, poverty, hunger, Ciudad Guyana

Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia and Spain defend
multilateralism

CARACAS, March 30 (PL) – Efforts towards multilateralism
and integration have received new backing from Venezuela,
Brazil, Colombia and Spain during a quadripartite summit
that also ratified the importance of the fight against
poverty.

The meeting held yesterday in the eastern city of Ciudad
Guyana, more than 500 km from the Venezuelan capital, was
attended by Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia
and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

The summit recognized the need for combating poverty in
order to propitiate integration, something hard to discern
“with millions of people without the most basic elements
for a life of dignity,” as the meetings final declaration
states.

That document considers poverty to be “one of the major
causes of destabilization, by denying elemental human
rights such as health, food, education and housing.”

According to the four leaders, there is an urgent need to
coordinate efforts between their governments and those of
other countries and international agencies in order to
contribute to the eradication of hunger.

In that respect, they welcomed proposals by Rodríguez
Zapatero to exchange debt for education, the one regarding
the struggle against hunger and poverty put forward by Lula
da Silva and the idea of an International Humanitarian Fund
presented by Chávez at the Monterrey Summit.

In the context of integration, the Ciudad Guyana meeting
reinforced the commitment of participants to strengthening
“a multilateral order based on the sovereign equality of
all countries and on respect for the norms and principles
of international law.”

They agreed on the need for a multilateral system of trade
that is more just and equitable.

Likewise, they affirmed their dedication to combating
terrorism in all of its shapes and manifestations, stating
that it has no justification, whatever its origin or
motivation may be.

("ASIDE from the fort, the only structure that breaks the
horizon is a lighthouse on 48-acre Loggerhead Key, the
largest of the Tortugas, which rises above wind-ravaged
palms reminiscent of ornaments in a plastic turtle aquarium.
Visible for miles, the light is a beacon for Cuban refugees,
who make for it in their makeshift craft. Each year, hundreds
of immigrants reach the Tortugas, the southernmost outpost
of the continental United States.")
=========================================================

April 1, 2005
JOURNEYS
The Tortugas, Last Stop U.S.A.
By JOE ROMAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES

You must provide for your own existence." That's how the
park service greets campers at Dry Tortugas National Park,
an outpost of Florida 70 miles from Key West in the Gulf of
Mexico. And for those who go to pitch their tents, it is
probably part of the attraction.

The Tortugas, eight remote islands shaded by the occasional
palm tree and surrounded by coral reefs, attract about
70,000 people a year, but the usual visitor takes a day
trip - typically a package including high-speed ferry
service from Key West, snorkel gear and a tour of Fort
Jefferson, the derelict brick hexagon that dominates Garden
Key, the 16-acre main island. At the end of the day, only a
few visitors remain for an overnight stay at the park.

Game for the more challenging experience, I watched from
the coarse, coral sand beach a few weeks ago as the ferry I
had ridden to the key shuddered at the dock and pulled
away, leaving me and several fellow castaways behind.

The park service allows primitive camping on Garden Key for
$3 a night. The campers provide for their existence by
bringing along food, charcoal for fires and drinking water
(the Tortugas truly are dry). They pitch their tents on the
sandy strip between the moat and the old coaling dock on
the south side of the key. A few park rangers live on the
island full time, in apartments inside the fort, but for
the most part, campers are on their own. Once the ferries
and seaplanes are gone, the Tortugas feel like what they
are, a few slabs of sand tossed up by the sea.

Historically, hidden shoals made the surrounding waters a
graveyard for ships, including a fleet of galleons in 1622,
carrying New World gold and silver, and the lack of fresh
water kept out any settlers. The remoteness made the
islands a logical place for pirate hideouts - buried
treasure is said to have been found on East Key in the 19th
century - and later, for the American version of Devil's
Island. Now the isolation attracts campers looking for a
few days beyond the horizon and the grid.

ASIDE from the fort, the only structure that breaks the
horizon is a lighthouse on 48-acre Loggerhead Key, the
largest of the Tortugas, which rises above wind-ravaged
palms reminiscent of ornaments in a plastic turtle
aquarium. Visible for miles, the light is a beacon for
Cuban refugees, who make for it in their makeshift craft.
Each year, hundreds of immigrants reach the Tortugas, the
southernmost outpost of the continental United States.

Even before the Castro regime, Cubans were attracted to the
Tortugas, which were rich in turtles, seabird eggs and
fish. So were sport fishermen. It was in the Tortugas that
Ernest Hemingway first met Gregorio Fuentes, the
inspiration for the fisherman in "The Old Man and the Sea,"
when both had been out fishing and were marooned there in a
storm. (Mr. Fuentes himself told the story decades later,
well after his years as the captain of Hemingway's
Cuba-based fishing boat.) I hadn't come to fish, but I was
interested in the marine life around the islands, now
shielded in part of a great experiment to protect the sea
around Florida. Since my last trip to the Keys on a
research cruise in the 1990's, 151 square nautical miles of
ocean around the islands have been designated as the
Tortugas Ecological Reserve, a "no-take" zone: no nets, no
traps, no trawls, no hooks or lines.

On my first morning on Garden Key, I slipped into the
clear, chilly water while the fort was still spilling long
shadows over the sea. A stoplight parrotfish grazed on the
bricks, feeding on algae, and several transparent pipefish
hugged the moat walls. It was good to see several
long-spined sea urchins, which had been devastated by
disease in recent years, reducing populations by more than
95 percent around Florida. These well-armored echinoderms
help maintain reefs by consuming fast-growing algae that
can overgrow corals. According to one study, the loss of
herbivores like these, through disease or overfishing, can
be more devastating to a reef than a hurricane can.

There is evidence that the no-take experiment is working:
snappers and black grouper are more common than they were
six years ago, before its creation, and life on the sea
floor is thriving after years of being clawed by commercial
trawlers.

I swam to the nearby reef, an invertebrate hot spot of
corals, sea stars, plume worms, urchins and sea whips. A
huge jewfish peered out between the brain coral, and over
my shoulder a three-foot barracuda followed me with a
quizzical scowl.

In the abandoned coal docks along the harbor, a tight
school of 60 or so bluestriped grunts swayed in the
current, like palm fronds in the breeze. I came face to
face with a doe-eyed porcupinefish. Rather than defend
itself by inflating into a beachball with spines, it took
the easy way out and retreated behind a pylon. I looked up.
Two terns and a pelican peered down at me, as if to ask,
"And who do you think you are?"

When the Spanish explorer Ponce de León came upon these
islands in 1513, he named them for the numerous turtles, or
tortugas, nesting there. Because turtles could be kept
alive onboard for months, the Tortugas became an important
stopover for fresh meat and eggs. "The turtle nests were
just ravaged," Mike Ryan, a park ranger, said. "By the
1880's and 1890's, there were fewer than a dozen nests
annually in the Dry Tortugas." Since the park service took
over, things have become much better: last year the service
counted more than 100 loggerhead and 59 green-turtle nests
and three leatherback turtles - the eight-foot giants of
the turtle world - nested on the islands for the first time
since studies began. In 1846, the Army began building Fort
Jefferson to guard the shipping lane between the Atlantic
and the Gulf of Mexico; during the Civil War, the fort
helped obstruct Confederate shipping and served as a Union
supply depot. Later the fort became an isolated island
prison, like France's Devil's Island, though never so
notorious. Dr. Samuel Mudd, sent there for setting John
Wilkes Booth's leg after the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln, helped out in a yellow fever epidemic and was
pardoned and released by President Andrew Johnson.

After the development of artillery that could fire shells
through thick brick walls, the Army abandoned the fort,
which probably didn't break any soldiers' hearts. Cisterns
built to catch rainwater had inevitably filled up with
seawater; small pox, typhoid and heat stroke had taken many
lives; and scorpions had crawled into tents. According to
Calvin Shedd, a Union soldier, the only cure for a sting
was enough whiskey to render the victim "dead drunk."

I never saw a scorpion on the island, though I did find a
magenta hermit crab jonesing for a meal in my sandwich bag.

Like all visitors, I toured Fort Jefferson, mostly vacant
and starting to crumble. Within the massive brick walls are
a visitor center, a diesel-powered generator and a few park
service apartments. Each year, marine researchers use the
fort as a base to study the mating habits of nurse sharks
in the shallow waters off Bush Key.

Since its closing in 1874, the fort has been settling into
the coralline sands. Bricks slough into the moat, exposing
invertebrate ossuaries of staghorn and brain corals, conchs
and clams: when the fort was built, the offshore reefs were
mined for fill and mortar.

Looking out from the fort, the blood-red cannon portals set
a striking frame for the sea. In spots, the ocean appears
swimming-pool blue; in others it takes on the deeper hues
of turtle grass, red algae, late afternoon, night. The
palette is determined by water depth, reefs and wrecks,
cloud cover, even the passing silhouettes of seabirds.

I SPENT much of one afternoon reading and watching
magnificent frigate birds soar overhead. They cruised in
from offshore and turned their seven-foot wingspans into
the wind, rising with the updraft over the fort. On
occasion, a male showed off its bright red throat patch, an
indication that mating season wasn't too far off. One of
these scissor-tailed seabirds had excellent aim, letting
loose on my open book, "The Birds of Heaven" (page 5). It
was an exclamation point to a fine afternoon.

For birds, spring in the Tortugas is a mob scene. Migrating
species stop by, and tens of thousands of sooty terns and
brown noddies flock to Bush and Long Keys, their only
significant nesting grounds in North America. They're a
raucous, restless bunch, seeming to cover every bay cedar
tree, every grain of sand.

When the ferries arrived again on my second day, bringing
scores of new visitors to Garden Key, I felt crowded
myself, though I knew they would stay for only about four
hours. By now I had also found I could feel squeezed even
in the tiny, thinly populated campground.

The whole point to sleeping out is to get away, after all,
not to watch my neighbors cook a meal that is inevitably
better than mine. During my stay, I shared the grounds with
a family of four from somewhere far away (big on the
sausages); Mr. Outside Magazine, who traveled with his
kayak, fishing rod, snorkel gear, big bag of beef jerky and
Marlboro Lights; and a couple who seemed to eat nothing at
all, spending most of their time on the empty beach, the
woman's navel in permanent transit across a blue-sun
tattoo.

But campground closeness is a minor quibble. Once the ferry
rounds the reefs, Garden Key reclaims its desert-island
status. Ghost crabs dig out of their burrows, throwing up
fresh mounds of sand on the beach. The shade of a
buttonwood tree provides a welcome escape from the sun. And
a rampart overlooking the fort is a fine place for watching
the terns and frigate birds swoop in from offshore. You
might want to wear a hat.

If You Go

TWO high-speed ferries make daily excursions from Key West
to the Dry Tortugas. Sunny Days Catamarans charges $110
round-trip for day-trippers; campers are charged $150
(800-236-7937; www.sunnydayskeywest.com). Yankee Freedom II
charges $129 round-trip for day visitors and $159 for
campers (800-634-0939; www.yankeefreedom.com). Both boats
depart at 8 a.m.; reservations are recommended. Don't
forget to bring plenty of water and a camping stove or
charcoal .

Day-trippers can also travel to Fort Jefferson on a
45-minute flight with Sea Planes of Key West for $189 a
person (800-950-2359; seaplanesofkeywest.com).

The park charges a $5 entrance fee, which is collected by
the ferries. For campers, there is a $3 charge a night;
only cash and personal checks are accepted at the
campground. It's first come first served, but, according to
the ranger Mike Ryan, no one has ever been turned away. The
park's Web site is www.nps.gov/drto.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit

News Summary from Radio Havana Cuba - March 31, 2005

* Fidel Castro Announces Pension Hikes in Third Speech on Economy
* Humanity Needs Values to Survive: Fidel
* Brazilian Government Asked to Vote Against Anti-Cuban Resolution
* Cuban Five Case in the Swiss Parliament
* Ecuadoran Indigenous Group Demands Support for Cuba
* Corporate Media Buries Cuban Reality
* Cuban Historian Visiting Guatemala to Strengthen Cultural Ties

* Bush Administration Under Undue Influence of Religious Right: ex-Senator
* UN Report Finds More Iraqi Children Hungry under US Occupation
* US Presidential Commission Clears Bush of Wrongdoing Over WMDs
* US Soldier Convicted in Iraq "Mercy" Killing
* Palestinian Women Bear Brunt of Occupation Punishment: Rights Report
* Paralyzed Man with Brain Implants Able to Control Objects by Thought

* Editorial - In Search of a Dream


Fidel Castro Announces Pension Hikes in Third Speech on Economy

Havana, April 1 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro announced pension
hikes in a special televised and radio appearance held at Havana's
Convention Center on Thursday. The Cuban leader said that despite the
country's efforts in the area of social security and welfare over the
past few years, the Cuban government has decided to increase the
income of people benefiting from social security according to five
categories.

As of April, the pensions of people who receive from 55 to 105 Cuban
pesos will be raised to 150; pensioners who earn from 106 to 160 will
now receive 190 Cuban pesos; those who benefit from social security
now receiving from 161 to 210 will now get 230; pensions from 211 to
250 pesos will be increased to 265; while pensioners who get from 251
to 290 Cuban pesos will now earn 300.

Social security covers one million 465 thousand Cubans and the cost of
this new raise will be almost 1.12 billion pesos.

At the special TV and radio appearance in Havana's Convention Center,
the Cuban President said that the country's leadership is involved in
the evaluation of new possibilities of investing in items of public
benefit, including top quality energy saving refrigerators, as part of
new projects aimed at benefiting Cuban families and the island's
economy.

He assured that those plans are prioritizing and will prioritize low
income and least favoured families, which have already been benefited
with electric rice cookers and other modern household appliances.

Fidel Castro also referred to the severe drought affecting the
island's eastern provinces. He noted that 62.5 million pesos are being
invested to face the drought, including 20 million dollars in fuel. He
said that authorities have decided to use the country's disaster
reserves to confront the scourge. The Cuban leader announced that
hydraulic works, including 50 aqueducts and others, worth more than
162 million pesos, are currently being built in the five provinces.

The Cuban President also announced that Cuba will increase the
purchase of food stuffs from Canada to be added to the diet of the
island's population, following a meeting with Canada's Agriculture
Minister and other high-ranking officials from that country.

At the same time, the Cuban leader highlighted that economic relations
and the exchange between Cuba and Russia are being boosted, after the
recent Mixed Intergovernmental Commission meeting between the two
countries.


Humanity Needs Values to Survive: Fidel

Havana, March 31 (RHC)-- Cuban president Fidel Castro, has asserted
that humanity must possess values to survive and he warned that the
human race has never been as threatened as it is today.

Addressing participants during the closing ceremony of the Latin
American International Conference in the 21st Century: Universality
and Originality, President Castro said that humanity deserves to
survive.

He added after having being submitted to so much barbarism and
ignorance, the world needs to spread education as a means to instil
human values.

In a clear reference to the George W. Bush administration, the Cuban
leader stressed that the world is troubled by the most powerful
country on the earth, led by ignorant people.

"Consciousness is the only weapon that can save humankind," said Fidel
Castro.

The Cuban leader also praised a recent meeting in Venezuela of
theVenezuelan, Colombian and Brazilian presidents with the head of the
Spanish government, in which Washington's foreign policies were
criticized.


Brazilian Government Asked to Vote Against Anti-Cuban Resolution

Havana, March 31 (RHC)-- Twelve hundred signatures have already been
collected in Brazil from people requesting the government to vote
against the anti-Cuban resolution presented by the US at the UN
Commission on Human Rights (HRC).

This was announced during a march and a function carried out in Sao
Paulo.

According to AIN News Angey, the cessation of all kinds of US
aggression against Cuba and the end of the blockade imposed on the
island for more than forty years, was also demanded, reported Granma
daily.

Later, a function called by Mayor Beto Custodio, president of the
local HRC was held at the Municipal Chambers. This was addressed by
leaders of political, union, solidarity and other organizations, as
well as the Cuban consul general, Carlos Trejo.

The participants also agreed to send a commission from San Paulo
organizations in solidarity with Cuba, to Brasilia to meet with the
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and a representative of President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva, to express their views about the anti-Cuban
maneuvers in Washington.


Cuban Five Case in the Swiss Parliament

Geneva, March 31 (RHC)-Despite a wall of silence around the case of
five Cubans imprisoned in the United States for fighting terrorism,
members of the Swiss Parliament have taken an interest in the case.

Prensa Latina News Agency reports that federal Swiss deputies Marianne
Huguenin and Marie Roth Bernasconi, met in Geneva with Olga Salanueva
and Adriana Perez, wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez. They
explained that the meeting was aimed at breaking the silence at the UN
Human Rights Commission regarding the unfair and harsh sentences
imposed on the Five men in a politically-charged trial held in Miami.
Marianne Huguenin said that the two lawmakers are now able to inform
other Swiss parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations about
the case of the Cuban Five.

The second step, noted Huguenin, is to present the case to the
Parliament's Swiss-Cuba Friendship Association.

Meanwhile, deputy Marie Roth Bernasconi, will inform the local media
of the suffering of the Cuban Five and their relatives and how the US
government has denied visas to Olga Salanueva to visit her husband and
to her daughter Ivette, to visit the child's her father.

After the meeting with the two deputies and the Swiss Information news
agency, Olga and Adriana travelled on to Ticino, the Italian-speaking
region of the Swiss Confederation, where the two women will meet with
Cuban solidarity groups.


Ecuadoran Indigenous Group Demands Support for Cuba

Havana, March 31 (RHC)-Leaders of Ecuador's Organization of Quichua
Nationalities (ECUARUNARI) have urged their government to reject US
maneuvers against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva,
Switzerland.

According to AIN News Agency, in a letter addressed to president Lucio
Gutierrez, the indigenous organization advises the executive not to
yield to Washington's pressure tactics designed to undermine Cuba's
image.

The indigenous organization further notes that the US ploy seeks to
justify its four decade economic blockade against the island, says
Cuba's Granma newspaper.

In addition to the indigenous movement, other Ecuadoran organizations
including the national and youth solidarity with Cuba groups, have
sent similar letters to the Gutierrez government, in what is seen as a
demonstration of growing support for the island.


Corporate Media Buries Cuban Reality

Camaguey, March 30 (RHC)-- A top Cuban election official charges that
anti-Cuba international press campaigns are meant to distort the
democratic nature of the island's electoral system.

The president of Cuba's National Election Commission, Roberto Diaz
Sotolongo, told the press in the eastern city of Camaguay, that many
people abroad are unaware that Cuba holds elections.

According to AIN News Agency the official explained that general
elections are held on the island every five years, while municipal
elections take place every two and a half years.

"To counter anti-Cuba campaigns, we are striving to let the world know
about our democratic system, where the people have the right to
nominate and elect those who will represent them in government," said
Diaz.

The electoral official noted that the president of the Cuban
Parliament Ricardo Alarcon, said on Tuesday that Cuba is trying to
break the wall of silence maintained by the corporate media on the
island's reality. His comments came online during a forum organized by
the foreign affairs ministry.

Nationwide municipal elections are scheduled for Sunday, April 17. A
runoff vote will be held on April 24 in districts in which no
candidate receives a majority of valid votes.


Cuban Historian Visiting Guatemala to Strengthen Cultural Ties

Havana, March 31 (RHC)-Havana City historian Eusebio Leal is visiting
Guatemala to strengthen academic and cultural bonds with that country
and share the island's experiences in architectural restoration.

Leal travelled to the Central American country at the request of the
Culture and Sports Ministry and the Mayor of Guatemala City Alvaro -
an urban venue of important architectural and historic appeal.

The Havana historian is expected to participate in a session of the
Consultative Council of Guatemala's Old Colonial District beginning
March 31.

The Cuban expert - a Doctor of Philosophy specializing in architecture
- has for years lead the restoration of Havana's 500 year-old historic
quarter.

That district was declared a "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO in 1982.


Bush Administration Under Undue Influence of Religious Right: ex-Senator

Washington, March 31 (RHC)--A former Republican US senator and
ambassador to the United Nations has accused the Bush administration
of allowing the religious right wing untoward influence over national
policy.

US President George W Bush is a hostage to religious right, said John
Danforth in an opinion piece published by The New York Times on
Wednesday, and the Republicans have "transformed our party into the
political arm of conservative Christians."

The criticism is seen as very important because it comes from one of
the most respected members of the US Republican Party who also happens
to be an ordained minister. Danforth's name is common currency in the
US Congress where he was senator of Missouri for 3 consecutive terms.

It is known that promises made by the Bush team to various religious
organizations won the president his election to a second term. His
stand against abortion, stem-cell research and gay marriage has gained
him many supporters among extremist elements of US Christianity.
The current uproar over the case of a woman in a coma who has been
kept artificially alive for years and whose husband wants to allow her
to die, has also gained Bush religious support. Against the wishes of
an overwhelming majority of people in his country, the US president
recently used legislative means to try to prevent the removal of a
feed tube from the woman.

Danforth said this severely blurs the line between church and state
and was a departure from Republican principles. As to the opposition
against stem-cell research, the former senator wrote that he had
always been pro-life but "the only explanation for legislators
comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension
of religious doctrine into statutory law."


UN Report Finds More Iraqi Children Hungry under US Occupation

New York, March 31 (RHC)--A United Nations report issued today
indicates that children are undernourished and even starving in Iraq.
The report was prepared for the annual meeting of the United Nations
Human Rights Commission currently meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

The report says that malnutrition in children under five years old has
doubled since the U.S.-led invasion and that a quarter of them are
actually on the verge of starvation. The war, continues the report, is
directly responsible.

Going so far as to call the daily deaths by hunger a silent massacre,
a UN specialist who helped prepare the report demanded that action be
taken to prevent further deaths.

Jean Ziegler said that in 2003 prior to the removal of Saddam Hussein
4% of Iraqi children under five were undernourished. That figure has
doubled under the US occupation, he added. Ziegler, speaking directly
to the UN commission, called the deaths by hunger in Iraq and
elsewhere in the world a "silent massacre" that is a "form of murder".
The US delegation in Geneva declined to comment.


US Presidential Commission Clears Bush of Wrongdoing Over WMDs

Washington, March 31 (RHC)--A US presidential commission investigating
the claim that weapons of mass destruction existed prior to the
invasion of Iraq - a claim that history has shown had no substance -
has determined that the CIA was largely responsible for the
disinformation on the subject.

The commission, not surprisingly, say critics, effectively clears the
President of any wrongdoing when weapons of mass destruction were used
as the major justification for the attack on Iraq. The findings come
14 months after investigations began and issues of faulty intelligence
gathering and analysis were questioned by Congress after the scandal
emerged.

The methods, details and location of the investigation remain secret
which worry legislators seeking full transparency over the affair.

In ominous forebodings, the 400 page report also says that many of the
errors committed by US intelligence services in Iraq are currently
being repeated in North Korea and Iran. It also determined that in
spite of pressure by the Bush administration for CIA analysts to come
up with a clear connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, no
agents altered their views to accommodate the White House.

Critics charge that there is no focus on the exaggeration of WMDs by
administration officials including the President who emerges from the
entire affair without being censured. Indeed, a senate inquiry into
the cynical manipulation of WMD intelligence has now been dropped.

Former CIA operative, Ray McGovern, told The Guardian newspaper that
the report was diverting the blame. "I see it as part of the
continuing attempt to blame the CIA and other intelligence agencies
and divert attention away from the White House and the Pentagon."

Added another former CIA official, Melvin Goodman: "It looks like
they're going to escape again."


US Soldier Convicted in Iraq "Mercy" Killing

Wiesbaden, Germany, March 31 (RHC)-A US soldier has been convicted in
a court-martial for the so-called "mercy" killing of an Iraqi
prisoner.

Captain Rogelio Maynulet was found guilty by a military court in
Germany of assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter -
which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison - rather than murder
which was sought by the prosecution. Maynulet had admitted killing a
severely wounded, unarmed Iraqi to, as he said, "put him out of his
misery". He called the killing an "honourable" one.

Maynulet's tank company had fired on a car believed to be carrying the
driver of the wanted resistance leader Muqtada al-Sadr who has led
effective uprisings against the US occupation in his country. The man
was wounded and Maynulet subsequently shot him twice at close range.
The event was captured on the video of an overhead drone surveillance
aircraft.

In spite of the fact that the US soldier's defense attorney insisted
on the fact that the killing was done under the rules of engagement
prescribed by the Geneva Conventions of war, the court found
otherwise.


Palestinian Women Bear Brunt of Occupation Punishment: Rights Report

London, March 31 (RHC)-A report published today by Amnesty
International says that Palestinian women have borne the brunt of the
Israeli occupation and the resulting violent conflict.

Named "Conflict, Occupation and Patriarchy: Women Carry the Burden",
the report also points the finger at traditional Palestinian society
that tends to treat women as unequals. It calls on both Israeli and
Palestinian authorities to take concrete steps to put an end to the
suffering of Palestinian women.

Israeli is by far the most responsible in the bad treatment of women -
its discriminatory laws and restrictions of movement have led to
poverty, health crisis, unemployment and extreme violence. Palestinian
women spend hours at Israeli checkpoints and are often subjected to
humiliating treatment by border guards. They have been forced to give
birth at such checkpoints because they have been delayed from getting
to hospital. In fact, says the Amnesty International report, the fear
of losing their baby at a checkpoint delay is a major source of
anxiety for Palestinian women throughout the Occupied Territories.

Under international law, Israel, as an occupying power, has the
obligation to provide medical care to the Palestinian population. It
does nothing of the sort, indicates the report, but rather impedes the
passage of those seeking medical attention.

The report also says that the deliberate delays at checkpoints have
prevented Palestinian women from getting to work on time or even at
all, isolates them from their families and thus an important support
network, and prevents them attending schools.

Most of the Palestinians that are destitute in the West Bank and Gaza
are women and children. Many have had the double tragedy of having
their children or husbands die and their homes subsequently bulldozed.
Amnesty says that more than 4,000 homes and vast areas of agricultural
land have been destroyed by the Israeli army since end of 2000.

The resulting stress on families that are over extended or simply
unable to cope falls squarely on the backs of women who not only have
to keep body and soul together but also the house and family. The
frustrations of their spouses very often take the form of domestic
violence with the Palestinian legal system often unable to enforce the
law due to Israeli restrictions

Amnesty International calls on Israel to put an end to preventing
women - especially those pregnant - from reaching health facilities in
a timely manner. It also calls for the end of the policy of destroying
homes and property.


Paralyzed Man with Brain Implants Able to Control Objects by Thought

Massachusetts, March 31 (RHC) A 25 year-old paralyzed man from
Massachusetts has become the first person to receive brain implants
that will enable him to move objects with his mind.

Matthew Nagle, who is completely immobile from the neck down after he
was stabbed four years ago, has no chance of ever gaining use of his
limbs and needs a respirator to breathe. His brain was fitted with
electrodes that tap into his brain waves sending a message to a
computer. By imagining that he was moving a mouse he was able to move
a cursor across the screen.

The team of scientists involved in the project are led by Professor
John Donoghue, a Brown University, Rhode Island, expert in
neurotechnology. He explained that Nagle would be able to learn how to
use the telephone, switch on and off lights and control other objects
and devices. He has already been able to open and close a prosthetic
hand and play a computer game.

Ultimately Professor Donoghue seeks to find a way to connect the
electrodes up to the muscles of the person's body allowing their own
limbs to operate.


Editorial

In Search of a Dream

Cuba is perhaps the only Latin American country that has resisted the
North's siren song of a neoliberal market economy over the past 20
years. It is an illusion that has led many countries to economic and
social ruin as well as sparking political explosions.

Cuba ignored the temptation and stayed on course, even amid a
devastating crisis prompted by the sudden fail of the Berlin Wall and
the disappearance of the Soviet Union. From one day to the next Cuba
lost 85% of its markets, a situation that was worsened by Washington's
opportunistic intensification of the economic blockade it has imposed
against the island for four decades.

Because of Cuba's determination and strength at that time, today the
island is beginning to leave behind some of its hard times. However,
because of a malevolent partnership between extreme rightwing sectors
of the Cuban-American community in Miami and the United States
government, there are still cloudy days ahead.

Among the undeniable fruits of this improved panorama is an
unemployment rate of 1.9%; the lowest in Latin America, where
currently there are nearly 20 million jobless in urban areas alone. At
the same time, paradoxically, 25 million children are forced to work
just to survive.

And it is not just the unemployed who have to worry in Latin America.
Jobs are everyday more precarious. According to the Americas director
of the World Work Organization, Daniel Martinez, six of every eight
new jobs are in the informal sector; badly paid and without social
protections.

Nor can we forget the labor discrimination practiced against women,
which is reflected in their meager participation in the work market,
an inequality that is much more accentuated in rural areas, where high
fertility rates, family size and lack of access to land, dramatically
limit capacity for development.

The most unique aspect of Cuba's employment policy is the socialist
principal that everyone is useful and has something to contribute to
society. That is the idea that guides the country in its efforts to
totally eliminate unemployment, an evil that is far from the
humanistic conceptions of a society supported and defended by the
majority of Cubans.

Though there is still a long way to go, Cuba women have advanced
significantly towards the goal of true equality in the workplace. They
now represent 45% of the work force in civil government jobs and are
more than 65% of the island's professionals and technicians.

And so, in employment, as in many other areas, Cuba is the other side
of the coin.

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

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Cuba Lifts Ban on Canadian Live Cattle
USAgNet - 04/01/2005

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Andy Mitchell
announced, after meeting with Cuba's Minister of
Agriculture, Alfredo Morales, that Cuba has approved Canada
as a source of live cattle, according to a Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada release.

Cuba, as well as several other countries, banned the
importation of beef and live cattle from Canada after
Canada confirmed a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
in May 2003.

The move follows Cuba's December 14, 2004 decision to
re-open its border to a wide range of beef and beef
products from Canadian cattle of any age, as well as pet
food that does not contain ruminant meat or bone meal.
Canadian exporters will now have access to Cuba for
shipments of live cattle, goats, and sheep, meat from these
animals, as well as bovine semen and embryos.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has worked closely with
Cuban authorities for a number of months to re-open this
market to live cattle and beef from Canada.

--------------------
                  CUBA DAILY REPORT
                  Friday, April 1, 2005
            (Exclusive Service of Prensa Latina)
                   -For Subscribers Only-
                 --------------------
- Boosted Benefits for Cuban Pensioners
- Fidel Castro: Human Race Need Values to Survive
- Contenders Biographies to Be Read at CDR Meetings
- Bush´s Anti-Cuban Measures Termed Criminal
- Cuban Five Case Pervades the Swiss Parliament
- FSLN Supports Cuba and Condemns US Maneuvers in Geneva
- Havana Historian Will Visit Guatemala
- Bolivian MAS Leader Visits Cuba
- Eye-Catching Foreign Films on Cuba Cinematheque´s 45th Anniversary
- Cuban Caricaturists Excel at Humorous Biennial
       ---------------------------------------------------

Boosted Benefits for Cuban Pensioners

Havana.- Cuban President Fidel Castro announced a considerable raise in
pensions as part of a new program to improve people´s standard of living.
In a special address Thursday night, the island´s head of State underlined
the measure will come into force as of May 1 for those who have only been
receiving retirement pensions of 105 pesos, which will be hoisted to 150
pesos. In another part of his speech, Fidel Castro referred to the island´s
effort to alleviate the severe drought, especially in the eastern Cuban
provinces, most affected by the dearth of rain. The president recently
announced the revaluing of the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) -so far
equivalent to the US dollar- to be boosted in value by 8 percent starting
April 9.

Fidel Castro: Human Race Need Values to Survive

Havana.- Cuba's President Fidel Castro has asserted that the human race
must have values to survive and warned that it has never been as endangered
as it is now. When addressing the Wednesday closing ceremony of the Latin
American International Conference in the 21st Century: Universality and
Originality, Fidel Castro said that mankind is a wonder that deserves to
survive. After having received lethal doses of barbarism and ignorance, the
world needs to spread education as a means to instill human values, noted
the Cuban president. Education is a universal ethical activity in this
world, which is currently involved in the selfishness of globalization, he
added.

Contenders Biographies to Be Read at CDR Meetings

Havana.- The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR, Spanish
acronym) will start Friday until April 15 a series of meetings in order to
read biographies of candidates for delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of
the Peoples´ Power local government. According to a Juan Mendoza, spokesman
of the National Electoral Commission, this new experience does not move
away from the democratic nature of the island´s electoral system. It was
previously used in general elections for deputies to the National
Assemblies and delegates to provincial governments. The election process
will conclude on April 17, when nearly 8 million people, regardless of
race, sex or creed, will elect their delegates in municipal governments.

Bush´s Anti-Cuban Measures Termed Criminal

Geneva.- Cuban-American groups denounced at the UN Commission on Human
Rights (UNCHR) Thursday several measures imposed by US President George W.
Bush aimed at greater restriction of contacts with relatives on the island,
which were termed as criminal. Delvis Fernandez Levy, president of the
Cuban-American Alliance Education Foundation, analyzed today the economic,
social and cultural rights and mentioned the case of a military physician
who worked in Iraq. The US government denied him a visa to visit his son in
Havana. The White House, said Fernandez Levy, implemented such measures on
June 30, 2004, thus violating the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and
other conventions adopted by the United Nations.

Cuban Five Case Pervades the Swiss Parliament

Geneva.- The wall of silence that has been built up around the case of five
Cubans imprisoned in the United States for fighting terrorism persists in
the media, but the truth now makes its way into the Swiss Parliament.
Federal deputies Marianne Huguenin and Marie Roth Bernasconi met with Olga
Salanueva and Adriana Perez, wives of Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez,
respectively, in order to break the silence of the UN Commission on Human
Rights regarding the unfair and harsh sentences imposed to these men in a
politically-biased trial held in Miami. After the meeting with the two
deputies and the Swissinfo news agency, Olga and Adriana traveled to
Tichino, an Italian-speaking zone of the Swiss Confederation, where both
women will meet with groups of solidarity with their case.

FSLN Supports Cuba and Condemns US Maneuvers in Geneva

Managua.- The Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) expressed
solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and condemned the systematic US
campaigns against the island. According to Daniel Ortega, general secretary
of the FSLN, the dirty war Washington is trying to wage against the Cuban
people is genocide, and each year less countries join the United States in
its anti-Cuban maneuvers at the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). The
Sandinista leader rejected that flagrant injustice and hoped the Nicaraguan
government would abstain from supporting the US farce at the UNCHR, where
it traditionally tries to slam the island for alleged rights violations.

Havana Historian Will Visit Guatemala

Guatemala.- Havana historian Eusebio Leal Spengler will arrive in Guatemala
on Thursday, responding an invitation by the Guatemalan Municipality mayor
Alvaro Arzu and Culture and Sports Minister Manuel Salazar Tezahuic. The
aim of his visit is to strengthen academic and cultural ties with
Guatemalan authorities and exchange experiences on restoration and
preservation. During his stay here, Leal will meet with Culture and Sports
Minister Manuel Salazar Tezahuic, give a lecture to university students and
directors as well as visit sites of tourist, architectural, religious,
monumental interest in the colonial city of Antigua Guatemala, among others.

Bolivian MAS Leader Visits Cuba

Havana.- Bolivia´s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) leader Evo Morales,
currently visiting Cuba, said Bolivian people are ready to recover their
rights in the struggle against transnational companies. Bolivia is the
battleground of an intense debate on a new hydrocarbon law approved by the
Chamber of Deputies. The revision of the law this week at the Senate
stirred up protests by MAS and pressure from private companies. Morales
told Prensa Latina that the people will decide with their vote the transfer
of Boca de Pozo -an oil reserve estimated at more than $100 billion- to the
Bolivian State.

Eye-Catching Foreign Films on Cuba Cinematheque´s 45th Anniversary

Havana.- To the 30th anniversary of US defeat in Viet Nam and to
outstanding directors as Chinese Zang Yimou and British Alex Cox is
dedicated April´s program of Cuban Cinematheque. Sources of that
institution, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, told Prensa
Latina about the documentary series on US war on Viet Nam (1965-1975) with
titles such as The Blackmail Escalade and Hanoi, Tuesday 13, of the
deceased Cuban filmmaker Santiago Alvarez. The more recent and spectacular
Yimou films, author of Ju Dou (1990) and the Red Lantern (1991) -both
nominated to the Oscars- center the attention of  movie fans in the Cuban
capital.

Cuban Caricaturists Excel at Humorous Biennial

Havana.- The 14th Plastic Biennial in San Antonio de los Banos features the
maturity and originality of the work of Cuban artists Aristides Hernandez
(Ares) and Alberto Jerez Benitez (Jerez). Ares (psychiatrist) has been
linked to graphics for over 20 years. He has won 50 prizes, mostly at
international events, and a nomination from the US magazine Witty World
2004 as one of the world's best. Jerez, former illustrator of Tribuna de La
Habana paper, currently works for the tabloid Dedete.


Copyright(c) Prensa Latina, It is prohibited to copy or distribute this
material in any form without prior permission from PL Broadcasting Board
(difusion@...)

iff


--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .

Here are two detailed discussions of the Schiavo
case in the Cuban media. Hypocrisy on the part of
Bush & Co. is the central theme they write about.

We hope to have these translation to English for
readers of CubaNews and other interested lists.


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
==================================================


JUVENTUD REBELDE
25 de marzo 2005

Hipócritas

Lázaro L. Fariñas*

Algo funciona bien mal en una sociedad cuando la mentira,
el engaño y la politiquería utilizan las riendas del poder
para inmiscuirse en problemas estrictamente familiares. El
Congreso de los Estados Unidos, dominado completamente en
ambas cámaras por el Partido Republicano, se reunió en
sesión extraordinaria el domingo pasado para analizar una
ley que se inmiscuye en un drama familiar que se ha venido
dilucidando en las cortes de familia del estado de la
Florida.

Se trata del caso de una mujer que, debido a un accidente
que tuvo hace quince años, se encuentra acostada en una
cama con una lesión cerebral que la mantiene en un estado
vegetativo, alimentada artificialmente y, según los
médicos, sin la más mínima posibilidad de recuperación.
Terry Schiavo, el nombre de la mujer, fue desconectada de
la máquina de alimentación que la mantiene viva el fin de
semana pasado, de acuerdo con una orden del juez que lleva
su caso. Según los expertos, sin el tubo que la alimenta,
la Sra. Schiavo podrá durar alrededor de 14 días viva. Poco
a poco, afirman, irá muriendo sin tan siquiera sentir el
hambre y la sed.

Debido a una disputa entre el esposo de Schiavo y sus
padres, el caso lleva más de siete años en las cortes
estatales. El esposo quiere que su señora sea desconectada
de la máquina que la mantiene viva artificialmente,
mientras la familia quiere que se mantenga conectada. Al no
dar los médicos ningún tipo de esperanza para su
recuperación, las cortes, una y otra vez, han fallado a
favor del esposo. Sin embargo, por interferencias políticas
del gobernador del Estado, las órdenes judiciales no han
podido llevarse a cabo.

El caso se ha llevado hasta la Corte Suprema de la Florida,
y no ha sido hasta hace unos días que, definitivamente, se
llevó a cabo la orden judicial. Pero inmediatamente que en
Tampa la mujer fue desconectada, el Congreso en Washington,
por orden del presidente George W. Bush, se reunió para
pasar una ley especial que sacó el caso de las cortes
estatales y lo puso en las federales, con la esperanza de
que en estas se consiguiera un fallo favorable a los padres
de la Sra. Schiavo. El Congreso se pasó la noche entera del
pasado domingo reunido para aprobar la ley, y a primera
hora de la madrugada, el Presidente, que apresuradamente
dejó su famoso rancho de Texas para regresar a Washington,
la convirtió en ley firmándola.

¿Por qué han formado los republicanos esta tremenda
algarabía para detener la orden judicial de la corte
floridana? ¿Por qué un presidente que se ha cansado de
ratificar centenares de sentencias de muerte cuando era
gobernador de Texas, ahora hasta pierde el sueño y sus
sagradas vacaciones para tratar de salvarle la vida a una
persona que médicamente es un vegetal? ¿Por qué una
administración que ha llevado a la muerte a miles y miles
de personas en Iraq ha mentido otra vez al decir que están
“preocupados” por la vida de esta mujer?

Allí en la Cámara de Representantes, una congresista
demócrata desmintió una y otra vez todos los argumentos que
estaban exponiendo los republicanos para justificar la
aprobación de esa insólita ley. Allí expuso el tortuoso
camino legal que este caso ha recorrido durante los últimos
siete años y allí no le hicieron caso alguno, porque esos
congresistas sabían la verdad sobre lo que había ocurrido y
sobre el verdadero estado de salud de la pobre mujer que
yace en una cama en la Florida.

La aprobación de la ley era una jugada política, con vista
a las elecciones parlamentarias del año que viene. Todo lo
estaban haciendo para complacer a la ultraderecha
fundamentalista que los ayudó en las elecciones
presidenciales del año pasado y para que los apoyen el año
que viene.

El lamentable caso de Terry Schiavo y el drama familiar que
se ha creado nunca debieron haber sido usados como armas
politiqueras por un partido que miente y vuelve a mentir, y
menos aún por un presidente que no ha tenido ningún
escrúpulo en firmar una ley en el 2005 que va directamente
en contra de otra ley que firmó, como gobernador de Texas,
en 1999. Dicha ley, que está vigente, le da a los médicos
la potestad de desconectar a cualquier paciente, que ellos
consideren no tiene ningún tipo de posibilidad de
recuperación, de la máquina que los mantiene vivos, aun por
encima de la voluntad de los familiares. Hipócrita, es la
única palabra con que se puede catalogar al congreso
republicano y al presidente actual de los EE.UU.

*Periodista cubano radicado en Miami
http://www.jrebelde.cu/2005/enero-marzo/mar-25/opinion.html

===========================================================

EL HABANERO
¿Caso cerrado?
Por Raúl San Miguel

[23.03.2005]-Hora 10:40 am de Cuba

El caso de la esposa de Michael Schiavo es terrible. Más
aún porque el señor Schiavo ha reconocido públicamente que
el presidente de los Estados Unidos manipula, con fines
políticos, la decisión de conservar la sonda alimenticia
que mantiene con vida artificial (estado vegetativo) a la
señora Schiavo: mujer declarada con muerte cerebrar desde
hace 15 años.

Señora Schiavo: mujer declarada con muerte cerebrar desde
hace 15 añosMichael Schiavo, manifestó su indignación
contra la intervención de los legisladores y del presidente
norteamericano que llevaron el asunto hasta el Congreso, de
forma excepcional, el pasado domingo para discutir el
delicado tema hasta convertirlo en un programa nacional por
obra y gracia de quienes se benefician de la imagen, de
buenos políticos al servicio del mismo pueblo que reclama
la retirada de miles de jóvenes embaucados en Iraq.

Por supuesto el mandatario de la Casa Blanca desató un
sinfín de cuestionamientos cuando expresó que "Este es un
caso complejo, en circunstancias complejas y lo apropiado
es errar a favor de la vida". ¡Increíble! El señor de la
Casa Blanca no tuvo ningún rubor al justificar su posición
de "salvador" en medio de las protestas de miles de
personas y familiares de soldados y reservistas víctimas de
la guerra imperialista desatada contra Afganistán e Iraq.
Ni siquiera ha prestado atención a la solicitud de justicia
reclamada por Viet Nam en relación con las secuelas del
Agente Naranja que aún provoca muertes en la nación
Indochina.

"Errar a favor de la vida" es un soberano disparate. Por
supuesto, tamaña afirmación solo tiene lógica cuando
proviene de un gobierno que ha lanzado miles de toneladas
de explosivos para "establecer la democracia" en "cualquier
lugar oscuro del mundo" donde se encuentre (sus intereses)
petróleo y se ponga en peligro "la seguridad territorial"
de los Estados Unidos.

No obstante, el señor Bush debía comparecer, en algún
momento y por algún motivo, frente a las cámaras. Así lo
establecen sus asesores y especialistas publicitarios.
Sobre todo porque hay mucho movimiento internacional en
contra de la política exterior estadounidense. Son más los
que repudian (dentro y fuera de casa) y menos los que se
pliegan a los designios de Washington. Malo, malo. Un
asunto verdaderamente complejo, complicado, oscuro e
irreversible de continuar perdiendo la credibilidad que se
fabricó frente a un oponente (recuérdese la carrera por la
Casa Blanca) en la que recordó a los personajes de Tom y
Jerry en un final inesperado.

Sobredimensionar el asunto de los Schiavo, con una reunión
extraordinaria del Congreso y el regreso urgente del señor
Bush, deja un sabor amargo ante desproporcionada urgencia.
Incluso obliga a reflexionar sobre el total desprecio a la
vida de los cientos de personas que han sido desmembradas
por las bombas y cohetes norteamericanos. Personas que ni
siquiera conocen el idioma de quienes les matan y mucho
menos encuentran un jurado que pueda impartir justicia ante
tamaño genocidio.

A pesar de los criterios emitidos por la secretaría de
defensa es un hecho, casi indiscutible, que (por ejemplo)
los cohetes Crucero lanzados contra Iraq, impactan en el
lugar a donde fueron previamente dirigidos: objetivos
colaterales.

Al Pentágono le resulta difícil restablecer su estrategia
de ocupación Imperial mientras exista la resistencia que
elimina a sus efectivos día tras día. Eso lo sabe
perfectamente el presidente, pero no puede analizar el
asunto porque no se trata de "un caso complejo, en
circunstancias complejas".

Sin embargo, el señor Bush entró en el Show. El Presidente
anunció el fin anticipado de un breve descanso en su rancho
de Texas, para firmar una ley que sus seguidores dijeron
permitiría que un juez federal ordene la reinserción de la
sonda de alimentación. Pero, según una encuesta realizada
por el canal ABC, el 70% de los estadounidenses sostiene
que la acción del Congreso fue inapropiada y el 67% pensó
que los legisladores intentaban mantenerla viva más por
motivos políticos que por una real preocupación por la
mujer o los principios que estaban en juego.

La señora Terri Schiavo sufrió una lesión cerebral
irreparable en 1990, cuando su corazón dejó de latir por
unos instantes debido al parecer a un desequilibrio de
potasio provocado por un desorden alimenticio. Puede
respirar por sus propios medios, pero necesita de la sonda
alimenticia para mantenerse viva.

Médicos designados por los tribunales sostienen que
permanece en un estado vegetativo continuo y no existen
esperanzas de que se recupere.

La decisión presidencial ocurre en uno de los momentos más
críticos del mandato de Bush en relación con la asistencia
médica y las posibilidades de los ciudadanos
estadounidenses para acceder a estos servicios.


<http://www.elhabanero.cubaweb.cu/2005/marzo/nro1233_05mar/inter_05mar927.ht
ml>





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This is the second time recently -- Paul Krugman's
column did something similar -- in which the Cuba-
hating New York Times finds it convenient to make
its own points on other topics to throw in things
like this:

"Infant mortality, for example, is lower in Cuba
than in the United States, according to the 2005
C.I.A. World Factbook. It is hard to believe that
a government focused on maximizing life years
[he's referring to the government of the USA]
could not do better."


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
www.walterlippmann.com
===============================================

THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 31, 2005
ECONOMIC SCENE
Public Health Measures Always Involve Trade-Offs
By ALAN B. KRUEGER

IN extraordinary circumstances like this," President Bush
said of the Terri Schiavo predicament, "it is wisest to
always err on the side of life."

Uwe E. Reinhardt, a Princeton University health economist,
said that from his perspective President Bush was not quite
right: the president should have said "err on the side of
life years."

There are two reasons for this distinction. First, no
action can save a life indefinitely; life can only be
extended. Saving the life of an infant leads to more
expected life years than saving the life of a centenarian.

Second, health economists are typically concerned with
finding policies that maximize the total number of life
years, or, equivalently, the average life expectancy of the
population, leaving aside quality-of-life issues for now.
A focus on life years recognizes that there are inevitable
trade-offs involved in health and safety policies.

One can believe that life is sacred and still recognize
that trade-offs exist. If government policy always erred on
the side of life, the speed limit would be reduced to 5
miles per hour to eliminate all fatal accidents. Of course,
voters would not stand for a 5 m.p.h. speed limit, so at
least implicitly policy makers recognize that there is a
trade-off between risk and the time required to transport
goods and people on the highways.

This principle was clearly stated by the Office of
Management and Budget in the 2003 budget: "Since the nation
does not possess enough resources to eliminate all risks,
an important performance goal for government is to deploy
risk-management resources in a way that achieves the
greatest public health improvement for the resources
available."

Yet research indicates that the government generally does a
poor job in choosing policies that maximize life years.
Many programs are intended to reduce the risk of premature
death. If the government used its limited budget to
maximize the number of life years, the cost of saving an
additional life year would be the same across different
programs.

In actuality, the cost per year of life saved varies widely
across regulations and programs. Some cost-effective
initiatives that would reduce risks are passed over, while
others that are more costly and less effective are put in
place.

For example, a program of prenatal care for pregnant women
is estimated to cost $2,800 per year of life saved, while
the cost per year of life saved from regulating airborne
benzene is around $5 million.

A 1995 study by public health specialists of 587 possible
lifesaving interventions found that a quarter of them cost
less than $6,900 per year of life saved and a quarter cost
more than $372,000 per year of life saved (updated to 2005
dollars) - a ratio of more than 50 to 1. In general, safety
standards and preventive medical treatments were more
cost-effective than environmental regulations.

Why does the cost per life year saved differ so much across
policies?

There are two main explanations. First, the government may
get things wrong. There is no mechanism to make the
government pursue the most cost-effective strategies
because agency budgets are monitored by different
Congressional committees and because the costs of complying
with regulations are not counted in the federal budget. As
a result, regulations may appear to be less expensive than
programs that are more cost-effective but require direct
government spending.

Lobbying by vested interests may also lead policy makers to
stray from the most efficient risk reduction programs.

Second, the public may value some programs more than others
for reasons other than the programs' ability to save lives,
and policy makers may be carrying out the voters' wishes.
For example, people may prefer that the government reduce
lung cancer by regulating pollution instead of by providing
antismoking education, even if the number of life years
saved and costs are identical. Such preferences may arise
because people let their emotions get in the way of reason.
Or the public may view reducing risks differently if the
exposure to the risk is voluntary (smoking) as opposed to
involuntary (pollution).

To learn how the public evaluates programs intended to
reduce premature deaths, Uma Subramanian of the World Bank
and Maureen Cropper of the University of Maryland presented
1,013 people with hypothetical choices between pairs of
lifesaving programs, like controlling radon in homes versus
banning pesticides on fruit. Participants were told to
suppose that each program had the same cost and would save
the same number of lives each year. After participants
selected a program that they thought was best for society,
they were asked whether they would switch if the other
program saved more lives, with the specific number of extra
lives saved randomly assigned in each case.

The researchers found that both the number of lives saved
and the characteristics of the programs mattered. When the
costs and number of lives saved were the same, a majority
of respondents favored cutting pollution over cutting
smoking, screening for colon cancer, requiring dual air
bags in cars or providing pneumonia vaccinations.
Seventy-two percent of the participants favored banning
pesticides over controlling radon in homes.

At a given cost and number of lives saved, the participants
were more likely to support programs that were geared
toward risks that could not easily be controlled, that were
more serious, that affected them personally and that were
more immediate. Other research by psychologists finds that
people prefer to reduce risks that are dreaded and
unfamiliar.

Still, participants put tremendous weight on the number of
lives saved by a particular program. Of the six pairs of
programs considered, a majority never favored a less
effective program if the number of lives saved was 2.15
times that in the more effective program.

Bearing in mind that costs were assumed to be equal in the
hypothetical comparisons, this range is much smaller than
the range in cost per lives saved in actual government
programs, suggesting that the public would like policy
makers to put more weight on finding the most
cost-effective ways to extend lives. Of course, actual
decisions are more complicated than hypothetical ones
because of issues like quality of life. But a focus on
maximizing life years makes the trade-offs clear.

Instead of focusing on one tragic case that most Americans
considered a private matter, Congress and the president
would have better served the public interest if they had
sought to align public policy with voters' interests in
maximizing the number of life years saved. Infant
mortality, for example, is lower in Cuba than in the United
States, according to the 2005 C.I.A. World Factbook. It is
hard to believe that a government focused on maximizing
life years could not do better.

Alan B. Krueger is the Bendheim professor of economics and
public affairs at Princeton University. E-mail:
akrueger@....

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .

This is the second time recently -- Paul Krugman's
column did something similar -- in which the Cuba-
hating New York Times finds it convenient to make
its own points on other topics to throw in things
like this:

"Infant mortality, for example, is lower in Cuba
than in the United States, according to the 2005
C.I.A. World Factbook. It is hard to believe that
a government focused on maximizing life years
[he's referring to the government of the USA]
could not do better."


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
www.walterlippmann.com
===============================================

THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 31, 2005
ECONOMIC SCENE
Public Health Measures Always Involve Trade-Offs
By ALAN B. KRUEGER

IN extraordinary circumstances like this," President Bush
said of the Terri Schiavo predicament, "it is wisest to
always err on the side of life."

Uwe E. Reinhardt, a Princeton University health economist,
said that from his perspective President Bush was not quite
right: the president should have said "err on the side of
life years."

There are two reasons for this distinction. First, no
action can save a life indefinitely; life can only be
extended. Saving the life of an infant leads to more
expected life years than saving the life of a centenarian.

Second, health economists are typically concerned with
finding policies that maximize the total number of life
years, or, equivalently, the average life expectancy of the
population, leaving aside quality-of-life issues for now.
A focus on life years recognizes that there are inevitable
trade-offs involved in health and safety policies.

One can believe that life is sacred and still recognize
that trade-offs exist. If government policy always erred on
the side of life, the speed limit would be reduced to 5
miles per hour to eliminate all fatal accidents. Of course,
voters would not stand for a 5 m.p.h. speed limit, so at
least implicitly policy makers recognize that there is a
trade-off between risk and the time required to transport
goods and people on the highways.

This principle was clearly stated by the Office of
Management and Budget in the 2003 budget: "Since the nation
does not possess enough resources to eliminate all risks,
an important performance goal for government is to deploy
risk-management resources in a way that achieves the
greatest public health improvement for the resources
available."

Yet research indicates that the government generally does a
poor job in choosing policies that maximize life years.
Many programs are intended to reduce the risk of premature
death. If the government used its limited budget to
maximize the number of life years, the cost of saving an
additional life year would be the same across different
programs.

In actuality, the cost per year of life saved varies widely
across regulations and programs. Some cost-effective
initiatives that would reduce risks are passed over, while
others that are more costly and less effective are put in
place.

For example, a program of prenatal care for pregnant women
is estimated to cost $2,800 per year of life saved, while
the cost per year of life saved from regulating airborne
benzene is around $5 million.

A 1995 study by public health specialists of 587 possible
lifesaving interventions found that a quarter of them cost
less than $6,900 per year of life saved and a quarter cost
more than $372,000 per year of life saved (updated to 2005
dollars) - a ratio of more than 50 to 1. In general, safety
standards and preventive medical treatments were more
cost-effective than environmental regulations.

Why does the cost per life year saved differ so much across
policies?

There are two main explanations. First, the government may
get things wrong. There is no mechanism to make the
government pursue the most cost-effective strategies
because agency budgets are monitored by different
Congressional committees and because the costs of complying
with regulations are not counted in the federal budget. As
a result, regulations may appear to be less expensive than
programs that are more cost-effective but require direct
government spending.

Lobbying by vested interests may also lead policy makers to
stray from the most efficient risk reduction programs.

Second, the public may value some programs more than others
for reasons other than the programs' ability to save lives,
and policy makers may be carrying out the voters' wishes.
For example, people may prefer that the government reduce
lung cancer by regulating pollution instead of by providing
antismoking education, even if the number of life years
saved and costs are identical. Such preferences may arise
because people let their emotions get in the way of reason.
Or the public may view reducing risks differently if the
exposure to the risk is voluntary (smoking) as opposed to
involuntary (pollution).

To learn how the public evaluates programs intended to
reduce premature deaths, Uma Subramanian of the World Bank
and Maureen Cropper of the University of Maryland presented
1,013 people with hypothetical choices between pairs of
lifesaving programs, like controlling radon in homes versus
banning pesticides on fruit. Participants were told to
suppose that each program had the same cost and would save
the same number of lives each year. After participants
selected a program that they thought was best for society,
they were asked whether they would switch if the other
program saved more lives, with the specific number of extra
lives saved randomly assigned in each case.

The researchers found that both the number of lives saved
and the characteristics of the programs mattered. When the
costs and number of lives saved were the same, a majority
of respondents favored cutting pollution over cutting
smoking, screening for colon cancer, requiring dual air
bags in cars or providing pneumonia vaccinations.
Seventy-two percent of the participants favored banning
pesticides over controlling radon in homes.

At a given cost and number of lives saved, the participants
were more likely to support programs that were geared
toward risks that could not easily be controlled, that were
more serious, that affected them personally and that were
more immediate. Other research by psychologists finds that
people prefer to reduce risks that are dreaded and
unfamiliar.

Still, participants put tremendous weight on the number of
lives saved by a particular program. Of the six pairs of
programs considered, a majority never favored a less
effective program if the number of lives saved was 2.15
times that in the more effective program.

Bearing in mind that costs were assumed to be equal in the
hypothetical comparisons, this range is much smaller than
the range in cost per lives saved in actual government
programs, suggesting that the public would like policy
makers to put more weight on finding the most
cost-effective ways to extend lives. Of course, actual
decisions are more complicated than hypothetical ones
because of issues like quality of life. But a focus on
maximizing life years makes the trade-offs clear.

Instead of focusing on one tragic case that most Americans
considered a private matter, Congress and the president
would have better served the public interest if they had
sought to align public policy with voters' interests in
maximizing the number of life years saved. Infant
mortality, for example, is lower in Cuba than in the United
States, according to the 2005 C.I.A. World Factbook. It is
hard to believe that a government focused on maximizing
life years could not do better.

Alan B. Krueger is the Bendheim professor of economics and
public affairs at Princeton University. E-mail:
akrueger@....

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


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http://mail2web.com/ .

US Ex-Diplomats Oppose Bolton Appointment

John BoltonWashington, Mar 30 (Prensa Latina) Fifty-nine
former diplomats told the US Senate John R. Bolton, Bush´s
appointment as ambassador to the United Nations, is the
wrong man for the job.

Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee to whom the letter of protest was
addressed said he scheduled hearings on Bolton's nomination
for April 7.

"We urge you to reject that nomination," the former
diplomats said in a letter dated Tuesday.

The ex-diplomats have served in both Democratic and
Republican administrations, some for long terms and others
briefly. They include Arthur A. Hartman, ambassador to
France and the Soviet Union under Presidents Carter and
Reagan and assistant secretary of state for European
affairs under President Nixon, reported the Associated
Press.

Their criticism dwelled primarily on Bolton's stand on
issues as the State Department's senior arms control
official. They said he had an "exceptional record" of
opposing U.S. efforts to improve national security through
arms control.

Even Bolton´s opinion on the role of the UN, recently
expressed is that the international organization “is
valuable only when it directly serves the United States."
That view, they said, would not help him negotiate with
other diplomats at the United Nations.

Bolton, on his part, promised to work closely with members
of Congress to advance President Bush's policies and said
his record demonstrates "clear support for effective
multilateral diplomacy." Approval of the nomination
requires a majority vote from the Senate committee, which
has 10 Republicans and 8 Democrats.

ef/

WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Bolton Endorsement
March 31, 2005; Page A10

John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations got a boost this week when 59 ex-diplomats sent a
letter to the Senate opposing his appointment. Along with
North Korea's reference to Mr. Bolton as "human scum" and
John Kerry's passionate disapproval, what more could the
Senate want by way of recommendation?

We've scanned the list of this striped-pants set, and it
looks to be precisely the crowd that has long placed
diplomatic niceties above action and holds that the only
legitimate foreign policy decisions are those taken under
the "multilateral" auspices of the U.N. This is also the
mindset that produced the unstable pre-September 11 status
quo of U.S. support for dictators in the Middle East.

Their letter takes special exception with Mr. Bolton's
current brief at the State Department, complaining that he
hasn't done enough for arms control. If by this they mean
that Mr. Bolton wasn't paying enough attention to
arms-control treaties because he was too busy designing the
Proliferation Security Initiative -- a multilateral
initiative that helped nail nuclear proliferator A.Q. Khan
-- the Senate should take this as further proof of his
credentials.

Mr. Bolton's "diplomacy" may not be the type practiced by
these 59 former ambassadors and officials, but it does have
one thing going for it: It works.



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From: Karen Lee Wald [mailto:klw@...]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 7:05 AM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;@...
Subject: None mention Sun Hudson as Schiavo dies

It is shameful that all these articles quote Bush and
others about the "sanctity of life" without even mentioning
the death of 6 month old Sun Hudson, a fully-conscious
black baby NOT in a vegetative state, but in need of a
respirator to breathe properly, earlier this moNth.

Sun Hudson was removed from the respirator by the hospital
under the law signed by then-governor George W. Bush and
promoted by other Texas republicans like Tom DeLay "Futile
Care Law" that said WHEN A FAMILY CAN'T PAY FOR THE MEDICAL
CARE a hospital may remove that care if they deem it "futile".

Every article that quotes Bush and other conservative
saying they want to "build a culture of life, where all
Americans are welcomed and valued and protected" should
ask, "and what about Sun Hudson's life? Poor black babies
don't fit into your 'culture of life', do they?"

The Vatican statement calling Ms. Schiavo's death a
"violation of the sacred nature of life" that had "shocked
consciences," is also hypocrisy if they did not also
condemn the taking of baby Sun's life under the Bush Futile
Care Law.

Terry Schiavo could breathe on her own, but was vegetative.
Could not move, talk or think. Baby Sun could not breathe
without help, but he could eat, drink, move, smile and
think to the level of a 6 month old. Why is Mrs. Schiavo's
life more valuable than Sun Hudson's?

It's just like the hypocrisy of those who professed so much
"love" for Elian that they wanted to keep him in the US and
shower him with toys and money, but when he was back here
in Cuba among millions of other Cuban children, they were
in favor of all the blockade measures designed to make his
life miserable along with the others.

And were the Miami Cubans who paraded with signs saying
"Cuba Next" during the Iraq invasion think about the fact
that one of their bombs might land on Elian?? Mel Martinez,
who sponsored the bill for Congress to take the right to
hear the dispute about Schiavo from the state courts to the
federal courts (where they lost anyway) was the one who
paid and arranged for Elian to be taken to Disney World,
with a full phalanx of reporters following.....


April 1, 2005
Schiavo Dies, Ending Bitter Case Over Feeding Tube
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
THE NEW YORK TIMES

PINELLAS PARK, Fla., March 31 - The long, sorrowful
struggle over Terri Schiavo's life ended Thursday morning
when she died in her hospice bed almost two weeks after the
removal of her feeding tube, her parents and siblings
absent, the husband they reviled at her side.

The enmity that defined the case over seven years persisted
even in the final minutes before Ms. Schiavo's death, as
her brother, Bobby Schindler, sought to stay at her bedside
but her husband, Michael, told him to leave.

Her death, just after 9 a.m., brought a swell of emotion
from the encampment outside the hospice, the state capital,
the White House and even the Vatican.

In brief statements, Bobby Schindler and his sister,
Suzanne Vitadamo, hinted at their anger toward Mr. Schiavo
but mostly thanked supporters who had rallied around them
for years.

"After these recent years of neglect at the hands of those
who were supposed to protect and care for her," Ms.
Vitadamo said of her sister, who was 41, "she is finally at
peace with God for eternity."

Mr. Schiavo stayed out of sight, but his lawyer, George
Felos, said he had cradled his wife as her breathing ceased
and her limbs grew cold, while his older brother, his
lawyers and some of the hospice workers who tended to Ms.
Schiavo for years looked on.

"Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for
Terri a peaceful death with dignity," Mr. Felos said in an
afternoon news conference. "This death was not for the
siblings, and not for the spouse and not for the parents.
This was for Terri."

In recent weeks, the polarizing fight over Ms. Schiavo
produced a wrenching national debate about the rights of
incapacitated people and when their lives should end if
they left no specific instructions.

It drew religious conservatives and abortion opponents who
took up the Schindlers' cause, saying no life should end
prematurely. And just as the case of Karen Ann Quinlan
prompted a debate nearly 30 years ago over the "right to
die," the Schiavo case seemed to focus as much on the
"right to live." [Page A18.]

In Washington, where the case prompted an extraordinary
effort by Congress to intervene, President Bush expressed
sympathy "to Terri Schiavo's families" and called on the
nation to "build a culture of life, where all Americans are
welcomed and valued and protected."

The Vatican issued a statement calling Ms. Schiavo's death
a "violation of the sacred nature of life" that had
"shocked consciences."

Pope John Paul II, whose own health is failing, said last
year that providing food and water, even by artificial
means, was "moral and obligatory."

Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who had tried to intervene in the
matter as recently as last week, said after learning of Ms.
Schiavo's death that "this issue transcends politics and
policies." He also called her case "the toughest issue" in
his tenure.

"Her experience will heighten awareness of the importance
of families dealing with end-of-life issues, and that is an
incredible legacy," the governor said.

Within hours of her death, Ms. Schiavo's body was
transported to the Pinellas County medical examiner's
office, where an autopsy is to be performed to determine
her cause of death. A spokesman from that office said that
the autopsy would be completed within 24 hours and the body
released to Mr. Schiavo, but that a report on its
conclusions might not be finished for several weeks.

Earlier this week, Mr. Felos said Mr. Schiavo wanted the
autopsy so he could lay to rest longstanding rumors that he
had abused his wife, perhaps even on the night of her
collapse.

Mr. Felos also said that his client believed it would be
"important to have the public know the full and massive
extent of the damage to Ms. Schiavo's brain" to counteract
accusations that she was cognizant, communicative and
involuntarily starved to death.

Dr. Barbara Crain, director of the autopsy service at Johns
Hopkins University's school of medicine, said in an
interview that an autopsy alone would probably not
determine a patient's mental condition with absolute
certainty. But by examining sections of nerve cells and
connective tissue, Dr. Crain said, pathologists could
confirm a vegetative state.

Autopsies of people who die in a persistent vegetative
state show extensive cell death throughout the cerebral
cortex, the seat of consciousness, and this damage is
almost always obvious in a post-mortem review, Dr. Crain
said.

Mr. Schiavo, 41, plans to cremate his wife and bury her
remains in his family plot outside Philadelphia, where both
he and his wife grew up. Mr. Felos did not discuss specific
burial plans, but friends of the Schindlers said they were
planning a separate funeral service for Ms. Schiavo in
Florida.

Mr. Felos described Ms. Schiavo's final night and morning,
from her increasingly labored breathing to the soft music
playing in her room to the vigil her husband kept beside
her. Around 7 a.m., Mr. Felos said, Mr. Schiavo left the
room so his wife's siblings could visit her with a priest,
the Rev. Frank Pavone, who runs a national group called
Priests for Life.

Mr. Felos said that when hospice workers asked the siblings
to leave around 8:45 a.m. so they could assess Ms.
Schiavo's condition, Bobby Schindler said he wanted to stay
and got into a dispute with a police officer stationed
outside the room.

Mr. Schiavo made a "split-second decision" about Mr.
Schindler, Mr. Felos said, adding that he "was not going to
permit an explosive situation" in his wife's last moments.

When Ms. Schiavo died, her brother and sister were across
the street in a thrift shop that served as the family's
base in recent weeks. Her parents, Robert and Mary
Schindler, arrived about a half-hour later and went in to
see her one last time, looking dazed.

The protesters who had come from around the country to wave
signs, play trumpets and sing hymns in recent weeks - there
was even a pair of jugglers on Wednesday - did not turn
angry so much as quiet upon hearing the news, praying and
brushing away tears. Outside Woodside Hospice House after
the death was announced, Father Pavone said of Mr. Schiavo,
"His heartless cruelty continues until this very last
moment."

Asked if the Schindlers and Mr. Schiavo might reconcile now
that the source of their dispute was gone, Mr. Felos did
not offer much hope.

"The level of acrimony hurled at Mr. Schiavo by the
Schindlers - I mean, he's been called a murderer, a wife
abuser," he said. "That is not conduct and behavior that
lead to reconciliation."

But the Schindlers, some of whose supporters have leveled
death threats against Mr. Schiavo, called for peace after
his wife's death.

"Our family abhors any violence or any threats of
violence," Ms. Vitadamo said. "We would ask that all of
those who support our family be completely kind in their
words and deeds toward others."

Ms. Schiavo's husband and parents, once close, have battled
over her fate since 1998, when Mr. Schiavo asked a state
court's permission to remove life support. Ms. Schiavo
suffered extensive brain damage when her heart stopped
beating one night in 1990, due to a potassium deficiency
that may have been caused by bulimia.

She could breathe on her own and had periods of
wakefulness, but Judge George W. Greer of Pinellas-Pasco
Circuit Court accepted the testimony of doctors who said
she was in a "persistent vegetative state" and incapable of
thought or emotion.

More important, Judge Greer found credible Mr. Schiavo's
testimony that his wife, who left no written directive, had
said on several occasions that she would not want
life-prolonging measures to be used for her. The Schindlers
maintained that their daughter was responsive and capable
of recovery, and tried to win guardianship of her.

The rift between the Schindlers and Mr. Schiavo, which
started over a $1 million malpractice settlement he won on
his wife's behalf in 1993, deepened after he had two
children with Jodi Centonze, his live-in girlfriend since
the mid-1990's. Supporters of the Schindlers called him an
adulterer who should not retain guardianship of Ms.
Schiavo.

Judge Greer's rulings in favor of Mr. Schiavo eventually
drew the attention of conservative political leaders in
Florida and in Washington. The case stirred to action
Governor Bush and the State Legislature, which got Ms.
Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted six days after its
removal in 2003 with a law that was later ruled to be
unconstitutional.

It also stirred Congress and President Bush, who enacted a
measure days after Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube was removed
for the final time on March 18 letting the Schindlers take
their case against Mr. Schiavo to the federal courts for a
new review.

Its backers hoped the newest law would lead a federal court
to order Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, at least
giving her parents more time to press their case.

But a federal judge in Tampa rejected the Schindlers'
argument that their daughter's due process rights had been
violated, and the United States Court of Appeals for the
11th Circuit upheld his decision.

In an opinion this week, Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. of the
appellate court admonished President Bush and Congress for
acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our founding
fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people."

Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo was born Dec. 3, 1963, and
grew up in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. She was overweight
through childhood but lost more than 50 pounds in her
senior year of high school.

She met Michael Schiavo in her second semester at Bucks
County Community College. They married in 1984 and soon
moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., where he worked as a
restaurant manager and she as an insurance company clerk.

The Schindlers followed, and Ms. Schiavo maintained her
close relationship with her family. She also grew thinner,
weighing no more than 120 pounds on Feb. 26, 1990, the day
her ordinary life changed irrevocably.

According to Mr. Schiavo, he heard a thud around 4 a.m. and
rose from bed to find his wife collapsed on the floor. By
the time paramedics arrived and resuscitated her, oxygen
depletion had caused the brain damage that would confine
her to beds and chairs, and diapers, tubes and contracted
limbs, for the rest of her life.

After she died, a stuffed tabby cat tucked in the crook of
her arm, hospice workers bathed her body, then at least 30
gathered around as it lay on the medical examiner's gurney.
They said prayers, according to Mr. Felos, and then they
said goodbye.

Benedict Carey contributed reporting from New York for this
article, Christine Jordan Sexton from Tallahassee, Fla.,
and William Yardley from Pinellas Park.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

("Of the six nations identified by the State Department
as terrorist sponsors, five of them - North Korea,
Sudan, Syria, Libya and Cuba - are described by
Homeland Security as a "diminishing concern."
Iran, the final country on the list, alone is described
as a potential threat over the next five years.")
=======================================================

March 31, 2005
Homeland Report Says Threat From Terror-List Nations Is Declining
By ERIC LIPTON
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON, March 30 - A Department of Homeland Security
internal report that assesses terrorist organizations,
their anticipated targets and preferred weapons concludes
that the threat to the United States presented by North
Korea and several other countries long described as "state
sponsors of terrorism" is declining.

"In the post-9/11 environment, countries do not appear to
be facilitating or supporting terrorist groups intent on
striking the U.S. homeland," says the draft report, which
is intended to help the Homeland Security agency define its
spending priorities through 2011.

Of the six nations identified by the State Department as
terrorist sponsors, five of them - North Korea, Sudan,
Syria, Libya and Cuba - are described by Homeland Security
as a "diminishing concern." Iran, the final country on the
list, alone is described as a potential threat over the
next five years.

"Only Iran appears to have the possible future motivation
to use terrorist groups, in addition to its own state
agents, to plot against the U.S. homeland," the report
says, adding that "ideologically driven nonstate actors"
are the biggest threat.

Terrorism experts said Wednesday that while the assessment
seemed accurate, it was an unusual statement for the Bush
administration, which has often called North Korea and
several other nations serious threats.

"The administration has been very reluctant to accept that
state sponsorship is a waning phenomenon," said Daniel
Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies and a co-author of "The Age of Sacred
Terror."

This is the first time the two-year-old department has
prepared what will now be an annual Integrated Planning
Guidance Report, a document that is listed as "sensitive"
but not classified, meaning it was not intended to be
released publicly.

The goal, said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman, is
to better focus the department's $40 billion in annual
spending toward the most serious threats.

Al Qaeda, not unexpectedly, tops a list of adversaries in
the report, although the authors question if the group can
still pull off attacks similar in scale to those of Sept.
11, 2001.

Other predicted possible sponsors of attacks include Jamaat
ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani-based group that has been linked to
Muslims of America; Jamaat al Tabligh, an Islamic
missionary organization that has a presence in the United
States; and the American Dar Al Islam Movement.
Representatives for the organizations could not be reached
Wednesday for comment or did not respond to telephone or
e-mail messages.

The report, which was first disclosed last week on the
Congressional Quarterly Web site, identifies animal rights
activists and radical environmentalists as possible backers
of plots. But it does not mention any domestic extremist
groups, like World Church of the Creator, Aryan Nations or
anti-abortion activists, which have previously been
identified by federal officials as domestic terrorist
threats.

In assessing the most likely targets, the report says that
"visual symbols" - like the White House, the Capitol, the
Pentagon and the C.I.A. headquarters - as well as "American
popular culture icons" - including the Golden Gate Bridge,
George Washington Bridge and the Statue of Liberty - top
the list.

The report says increasing security may simply force a
change in the weapons terrorists would try to use, for
example mortars or rockets to attack from a distance. Truck
bombs and small boats packed with explosives are identified
as other extremely likely weapons of choice.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


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April 1, 2005
Chavez Doesn't Want to Be U.S. Enemy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:47 a.m. ET


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
said he doesn't want to be an enemy of the United States,
even as his arms deals, his heated criticism of U.S.-style
capitalism and his calls for a new world order appear
increasingly at odds with Washington.

Speaking to supporters at the presidential palace, Chavez
said Thursday he is open to a relationship of mutual
respect.

``We don't want to be an enemy of anyone. We don't want to
be enemies with the United States,'' Chavez said.

Shrugging off U.S. criticism, Chavez is pressing ahead with
deals to buy Russian helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov
rifles. He also signed a deal this week to buy Spanish-made
transport planes and patrol boats. Chavez said there was no
cause for concern, claiming he is simply buying needed
defense equipment.

``What I want most is peace,'' he said, ``for them to leave
me in peace, for them to leave us in peace to be able to do
what we want to do.''

Chavez, has pledged to deepen his ``revolution'' for the
poor and has called on other nations to shed their
dependence on Washington. He says it is part of building a
``new geopolitical map'' in which smaller nations unite to
be heard.

A close friend to Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has declared
himself a socialist and a critic of capitalism.

``What's worth more? Money or people?'' Chavez asked.

The United States remains Venezuela's top oil buyer, but
U.S. officials have expressed concern about the health of
its democracy, saying Chavez holds increasing power over
all branches of government.

``They say I'm concentrating power,'' Chavez said with a
laugh, adding people should consider ``the power they have
concentrated there (in Washington) and the way they have
used it all these years.''

Despite U.S. denials, Chavez has accused the United States
of backing a short-lived coup against him in 2002. He has
called the war in Iraq unjust and applauded Spain's
decision to pull out troops last year.

In the United States, Chavez has found ``an external enemy
that helps maintain the confrontation'' for his own
political purposes, said Salomon Centeno, an opposition
congressman.

Other observers have suggested the U.S. government is
concerned about Venezuela due to its oil but that its
criticisms of Chavez find little echo in Latin America.


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(Those who are not deeply rooted in the culture of
the United States of America may not fully realize
the significance of a message sent on this date.)
=================================================

iPod Inspires Free Elections in Cuba
Apr, 01 2005

Havana Cuba April 1st 2005: In a surprise move, Fidal
Castro after reading an article at The Mac Observer,
declaired that there will be free elections in Cuba. “Steve
Jobs has long been my favorite American capitalist.”
Showing his new iPod photo Castro went on to say, “He has
always understood how stressful choice is for the masses.
It is better that those of us chosen to lead make some of
the choices. But when I read he was going to let me choose
to buy music from many stores instead of one, I felt happy.
It was then I realized maybe choice is a good thing. For
years I had thought the beautiful beaches and great weather
were enough to make Cuba a great nation. Now maybe like
Apple, I will let my loyal followers choose.”

Castro has set the date for elections to coincide with
Apple’s release of an iPod that does not limit online music
purchases to iTunes.

http://www.audiogogo.com/content/view/71/57/


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(Chavez is 100% correct to explain the platform of his
government and its policy in these terms. This isn't
the first and probably won't be the last time that he
makes these entirely appropriate points. Viva Chavez!)
=======================================================

April 1, 2005
Chavez Doesn't Want to Be U.S. Enemy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:47 a.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
said he doesn't want to be an enemy of the United States,
even as his arms deals, his heated criticism of U.S.-style
capitalism and his calls for a new world order appear
increasingly at odds with Washington.

Speaking to supporters at the presidential palace, Chavez
said Thursday he is open to a relationship of mutual
respect.

``We don't want to be an enemy of anyone. We don't want to
be enemies with the United States,'' Chavez said.

Shrugging off U.S. criticism, Chavez is pressing ahead with
deals to buy Russian helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov
rifles. He also signed a deal this week to buy Spanish-made
transport planes and patrol boats. Chavez said there was no
cause for concern, claiming he is simply buying needed
defense equipment.

``What I want most is peace,'' he said, ``for them to leave
me in peace, for them to leave us in peace to be able to do
what we want to do.''

Chavez, has pledged to deepen his ``revolution'' for the
poor and has called on other nations to shed their
dependence on Washington. He says it is part of building a
``new geopolitical map'' in which smaller nations unite to
be heard.

A close friend to Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has declared
himself a socialist and a critic of capitalism.

``What's worth more? Money or people?'' Chavez asked.

The United States remains Venezuela's top oil buyer, but
U.S. officials have expressed concern about the health of
its democracy, saying Chavez holds increasing power over
all branches of government.

``They say I'm concentrating power,'' Chavez said with a
laugh, adding people should consider ``the power they have
concentrated there (in Washington) and the way they have
used it all these years.''

Despite U.S. denials, Chavez has accused the United States
of backing a short-lived coup against him in 2002. He has
called the war in Iraq unjust and applauded Spain's
decision to pull out troops last year.

In the United States, Chavez has found ``an external enemy
that helps maintain the confrontation'' for his own
political purposes, said Salomon Centeno, an opposition
congressman.

Other observers have suggested the U.S. government is
concerned about Venezuela due to its oil but that its
criticisms of Chavez find little echo in Latin America.



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Cuban Physicians Fight Disease in Zimbabwe

Harare, Apr 1 (Prensa Latina) AIDS is one of the main
diseases seven Cuban physicians are facing in the
provincial hospital of Chinhoy, 120 kilometers from Harare.

The seven doctors working in that hospital for over two
years detect AIDS symptoms in 80 percent of their cases.

The physicians said that although the hospital does not
have a preventive medicine program, it offers educative
talks. The illness was recently declared national emergency
by the country´s health authorities.

Malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, pneumonia, meningitis,
burns, fractures, as well as bites from wild animals are
other health problems the Cuban physicians see daily in the
hospital.

According to statistics, 24.6 percent of the Zimbabwean
population carries HIV, favoring the high incidence of AIDS
patients, mainly in young people.

ir/iff/vm/mv/mf


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Five US Troops Detained for Drug Trafficking

Bogota, Apr 1 (Prensa Latina) The detention of five US Army
soldiers for trying to smuggle cocaine out of Colombia
aboard a military aircraft was largely covered by national
media outlets Friday.

Media said the troops were arrested on Tuesday but their
names and place of detention remained unknown.

Lieutenant Colonel Eduardo Villavicencio, spokesman for the
US South Command, informed the military were held in the
North American territory, therefore, it is assumed they
were arrested there.

Villavicencio said they were charged with attempt to
transporting 16 cocaine kilograms aboard a US military
plane.

According to a Colombian Defense Ministry communique, the
arrests stemmed from joint operations with US authorities.

The Washington Department of Defense and several federal
agencies, along with the Colombian administration, are
investigating the charges in both countries, says the note.

It has been the second major scandal to hit the White House
military in Colombia since 1999, when Laurie Hiett, the
wife of the former commander of US anti-drug operations in
Colombia, James Hiett, was detained for sending cocaine in
diplomatic parcels to New York, and later sentenced to five
years.

ir/ecq/ale


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Pope Is Not in Coma, but He's in Serious Conditions, the
Vatican

Rome, Apr 1 (Prensa Latina) In denying Pope John II was in
coma, the Vatican has confirmed, though, his health has
deteriorated after suffering heart failure during treatment
for a urinary tract infection.

After indicating the Pope was in grave condition, though
lucid, his spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters
on Friday that the 84-year-old Pontiff was "informed of the
gravity of his situation" and decided to remain in his
apartment overlooking St. Peter´s Square.

Navarro-Valls added that the pope, who was being treated at
the Vatican, was given cardio-respiratory assistance after
his heart failed Thursday afternoon.

"This morning the condition of the Holy Father is very
serious," a Vatican statement underlines.

The statement confirmed previous reports that the Pope had
received the sacrament for the sick and dying on Thursday
evening. But it said the pope had participated in a 6 a.m.
Mass Friday and was "conscious, lucid, and serene."

John Paul II´s health declined sharply after he developed a
high fever Thursday brought on by the infection. He wished
to remain at the Vatican and not be taken to a hospital,
Navarro-Valls said.

The pontiff was found to have a high fever due to a urinary
tract infection and was given antibiotics, Navarro-Valls
said. He was described as stable but his condition later
declined, the spokesman said.

Thousands of pilgrims gathered on St. Peter´s Square Friday
to stand vigil for John Paul, many tearfully gazing up at
his third-floor window, and the faithful around the world
joined in prayer.

Hospitalized twice last month following two breathing
crises and with a tube placed in his throat to help him
breathe, John Paul has become a picture of suffering, media
outlets have reported.

mh


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For the first time
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 13:16:05 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana=2E March 30, 2005

For the first time

BY RAISA PAGES
Granma International staff writer

HER curly blonde hair tumbled over her pionera (young
pioneer) blue neck scarf=2E A few days earlier, she had
arrived home from school to breathlessly announce that she
had been chosen to guard the ballot box=2E

In her gleaming shoes, Fany took up a posture conferring a
solemn appearance on her 10 years=2E Her green eyes sparkled
whenever a friend or relative went to deposit their vote=2E
Fany=92s blonde hair, contrasting with her green eyes,
reminded me of the girl dressed up as a sunflower at the
play performed at Fany=92s elementary school, where
biographies and photos of constituency candidates were
posted during the electoral period=2E

Now, I see the same curled blonde hair, but this time Fany
is no longer guarding ballot boxes as a pionera=2E In the
course of time, the schoolgirl became an Informatics
student at the Osvaldo Herrera Polytechnic in the Cuban
capital=2E

I was going to buy bread when I met her reading the
candidates=92 biographies, posted in the neighborhood market,
another place where people can find information on the four
Popular Power delegates standing in this constituency=2E

Gerardo, a child with lively eyes and long black arms, who
accompanied her in guarding the ballot box, approached
sweating from sports practice=2E Greetings between the two
peers prompted him to look at the candidates=92 postings too,
with memories of the childhood they shared at the same
school=2E

=AD=93And what does the best computer specialist in Cuba have
to say?=94 the young man asked=2E

=93Studying, studying and more studying=2E Do you have an
invite to Madel=EDn=92s party?=94

=AD=AD=93I can't go; I have to train very hard this weekend,=94 he
replied=2E

=93See them?=94 she asked, pointing at the biographies=2E

=AD=AD=93Yes, but we=92re no longer in pioneros uniforms; now we=92ll
be dropping our own slips in the ballot box,=94 Gerardo
rejoined=2E

=93You should have seen them at home when they came with the
lists to verify my name=2E My father was so surprised you=92d
think he=92d been told I was getting married=2E =91Fany can vote
already?=92 He still thinks I=92m a little girl=2E

=93That=92s because they don=92t want to accept they are getting
old!=94 Gerardo observed, looking at the photographs=2E

=93You know how my grandfather=92s obsessed with me=2E He=92s
always asking me where I=92m going and what time I=92ll be
back=2E Just to tease him, the other day I asked him, =91Will
you come with me for my first time?=92=94

=AD=93What first time, kid?=94 her perplexed grandfather asked,
recalling his days as a Casanova=2E

=93To vote, grandpa, to vote!=94

=93Hey, you can vote already?!=94he said with a naughty smile=2E

=93Grandpa!!=94

http://www=2Egranma=2Ecu/ingles/2005/marzo/mier30/14elecciones=2Ehtml

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Radio Havana Cuba Apr 1

http://www.radiohc.cu/homeing.htm


Cuban President Fidel Castro announces pension hikes in line with the
country's plans to raise the people's living standards.

   Havana, April 1 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro announced pension
hikes in a special televised and radio appearance held at Havana's
Convention Center on Thursday. The Cuban leader said that despite the
country's efforts in the area of social security and welfare over the
past few years, the Cuban government has decided to increase the income
of people benefiting from social security according to five categories.

   As of April, the pensions of people who receive from 55 to 105 Cuban
pesos will be raised to 150; pensioners who earn from 106 to 160 will
now receive 190 Cuban pesos; those who benefit from social security now
receiving from 161 to 210 will now get 230; pensions from 211 to 250
pesos will be increased to 265; while pensioners who get from 251 to
290 Cuban pesos will now earn 300.

   Social security covers one million 465 thousand Cubans and the cost of
this new raise will be almost 1.12 billion pesos.

   At the special TV and radio appearance in Havana's Convention Center,
the Cuban President said that the country's leadership is involved in
the evaluation of new possibilities of investing in items of public
benefit, including top quality energy saving refrigerators, as part of
new projects aimed at benefiting Cuban families and the island's
economy.

   He assured that those plans are prioritizing and will prioritize low
income and least favoured families, which have already been benefited
with electric rice cookers and other modern household appliances.

   Fidel Castro also referred to the severe drought affecting the
island's eastern provinces. He noted that 62.5 million pesos are being
invested to face the drought, including 20 million dollars in fuel. He
said that authorities have decided to use the country's disaster
reserves to confront the scourge. The Cuban leader announced that
hydraulic works, including 50 aqueducts and others, worth more than 162
million pesos, are currently being built in the five provinces.

   The Cuban President also announced that Cuba will increase the
purchase of food stuffs from Canada to be added to the diet of the
island's population, following a meeting with Canada's Agriculture
Minister and other high-ranking officials from that country.

   At the same time, the Cuban leader highlighted that economic relations
and the exchange between Cuba and Russia are being boosted, after the
recent Mixed Intergovernmental Commission meeting between the two
countries.





Corruption and Revolution are Incompatible in Cuba

Havana, April 1 (RHC)-- President Fidel Castro has called on the Cuban
people to insure that the plague of corruption that has crippled the
continent, never takes hold on the island.

In a nationally broadcast address on Thursday evening the Cuban leader
also spoke of actions being taken by the government to increase
electrical power and announced an across-the-board increase in social
security benefits for pensioners and people with disabilities.

   "I am really excited," said Fidel Castro, as he referred to the
economic upturn that has made possible increased social benefits for
the population.

Noting that corruption will not be tolerated, the Cuban president
insisted that the population and its community organizations keep a
watchful eye on the delivery of energy efficient household appliances,
spare parts and new food products to guarantee their correct
distribution.

According to AIN New Agency, more than three million Cuban households
are slated to benefit from some or all of the new measures. Virtually
all citizens receiving retiree, survivor or disability pensions, will
receive considerable increases averaging around 50 percent on the lower
end, effective starting April 20.

The Cuban president announced that household appliances and essential
furniture will soon be provided to the most vulnerable sectors of the
population, including the bedridden and mothers of children with severe
disabilities.

He went on to highlight the importance of the upward revaluation of the
Cuban currency against the US dollar, something he called unprecedented
in the Americas.

Referring to a concern that the weaker dollar could reduce family
remittances, President Fidel Castro said it is the Bush administration
that is punishing Cuban-Americans with its restrictions on the amount
of money they can send relatives on the island.

He noted that the sovereign Cuban decision will affect the so-called
"dissidents" who receive money from Washington to undermine the
Revolution, but not those people who live by working and enjoy the
guarantee of a decent existence from the State.

"The money belongs to the people, the monetary system belongs to the
people," he added, pointing out that a further strengthening of the
local currency could be in the works.

   The Cuban leader said the fall of the dollar does not mean higher
prices at the different state-owned chains of retail outlets.

   With the recent economic investment agreements with Venezuelan,
Chinese and Canadian companies, Cuba is on the verge of reactivating
industries to resolve the needs of the population.

   Fidel Castro spoke of the need to replace costly imports with products
made or assembled on the island. He also emphasized the goal to
increase food production, mainly vegetables, and raise nutritional
awareness among the population for a healthier lifestyle.

   The President announced that Cuba will increase the production of
nutritional pasta by modernizing the factories in Santiago de Cuba and
Havana and opening three new ones.

On the issue of increasing the national electricity generation
capacity, the president stressed that the relevant agencies in Cuba are
working hard to give the problem a definitive solution.

   We are also developing a system that will help us deal with power
shortages from hurricane damage, noted Fidel Castro.

   The Cuban president said the country is working hard to produce
sufficient electrical transformers as well as in the repair of
secondary transmission lines.

   President Castro said that in anticipation of the higher power
consumption during the summer, an additional 15 million dollars have
been allocated for repairs and maintenance at generating plants,
although, he stressed the need to address what he termed the "black
hole", of the high electricity consumption in the country.

We are looking into everything, nothing is being left to improvisation,
he said, adding that in the rural mountainous communities that not
connected to the national power grid individual solutions will have to
be found, with emphasis on solar panels.

The well-being of this country needs to be considered, and the
population needs to be protected, Fidel Castro stressed.




   Biographies of Candidates in Municipal Elections to be Read at CDR
Meetings

   Havana, April 1 (RHC)-Cuba's Committees for the Defense of the
Revolution, CDR, will begin a series of meetings on Friday in order to
read aloud biographies of candidates standing for delegates to the
Municipal Assemblies of the Peoples´ Power local government.

According to, National Electoral Commission spokesman, Juan Mendoza,
this new measures in no way takes away the democratic nature of the
island's electoral system. The readings were previously used in general
elections for deputies to the National Assemblies and delegates to
provincial governments. The special meetings will conclude on April 15.

The election process culminates on April 17, when nearly eight million
people, regardless of race, sex or creed, will cast their ballots for
delegates in municipal governments. Runoffs will be held where no
candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.




Argentinean Organizations Call for Pro-Cuba Vote in Geneva

Buenos Aires, April 1 (RHC)-- Members of Argentinean Cuba Solidarity
groups have called on the government of Buenos Aires to reject the US
anti-Cuba motion at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

According to Prensa Latina News Agency, activists met with the director
for human rights Federico Villegas Beltran, and with Cecilia Villagra,
head of the office for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Cuba solidarity activist supplied information on Cuba´s human right
achievements and compared them with gross violations against war
prisoners that the US perpetrates in its illegal naval base in
Guantanamo
They also denounced Washington's refusal to grant entrance visas to
relatives of the Cuban Five jailed in the United States for fighting
terrorism against their country.

Villega Beltran confirmed Argentina's official opposition to
Washington's blockade against the island and termed as "unrealistic"
the argument used by the US government that "Cuba is a threat to US
national security". The Argentinean UN human rights official also
acknowledged that the island´s advances are undeniable and stressed
that Argentina's relations with Cuba are excellent.




Cubans Welcomed to Indian Communist Party Congress

Havana, April 1 (RHC)-- The historic and fraternal ties that unite
Cuban and Indian Communists were underscored Thursday in the Asia
nation by Cuban Communist Party Central Committee member, Alfonso Noya
Martinez.

   The Cuban official spoke during the 19th Congress of India's Communist
Party underway in the city of Chandigarh, capital of the northern
Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

   According to AIN News Agency, Noya Martinez - whose words were widely
applauded in the plenary - heads the Cuban delegation.

   Meanwhile, the Cuban embassy in New Delhi, reports that Indian
Communist Party General Secretary A.B Bardhan, expressed his gratitude
for Cuba's participation in the Congress and stressed that the Cuban
Revolution is an example for those struggling for a better world.

   The Indian politician added that the leading role of the Cuban
Communist Party should be profoundly analyzed for its valuable
experience in constructing a more humane society.






International Criminal Court to Investigate Darfur Genocide in Spite of
US Opposition

New York, April 1 (RHC)--In spite of US efforts to prevent the
International Criminal Court – which it does not recognize - from
investigating genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, pressure from the
United Nations has forced Washington to withdraw its objections.

A war crimes inquiry will now be set up by the court after a UN
resolution on the issue. It will be the International Criminal Court’s
first case since it was formed. The Court handles cases where the
authorities of the country in question refuses or is unable to
prosecute, as in the case of the Sudanese government.

   The genocide in Darfur has been taking place for over a year and a
half and the world has been more or less complacent about it, say many
human rights organizations bitter about the delays that have brought
two million people to the brink of starvation and over 300,000 dead.
The British parliament said this week that the international
community’s lack of response to the disaster befalling the people of
Darfur was “scandalously ineffective”.

   The civil war between government-supported Arab militia and local
non-Arab farmers has driven an enormous number of people from the
region

   The issue of Washington’s unwillingness to support the International
Criminal Court’s investigation into Darfur is not so much indicative of
any support to the Sudanese government, but concern that if the Court
gets off the ground it will serve as a forum for other nations to bring
cases of war crimes against its own military – something it is intent
on preventing. The Bush administration has set about pressuring other
countries into signing bilateral agreements stipulating that they will
not seek redress against US troops before the Court.




US Credibility Will Take Years to Recover Says Report on WMD

Washington, April 1 (RHC)--The presidential commission that yesterday
exonerated the US President of wrongdoing in the weapons of mass
destruction reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq, also stated that US
intelligence on Iraq was chaotic and incompetent and that the damage
done to US credibility would take years to undo.

The report was commissioned after the scandal involving the
non-existence of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein after
the US and UK had attacked Iraq on the basis of such weapons being
stockpiled by Baghdad. The commission determined that the CIA was
largely responsible for the disinformation on the subject and that the
US President was a victim of that disinformation.

One of the main problems associated with this flawed information was,
says the report, competition between US intelligence agencies. Such was
their desire to beat each other past the post, the most ridiculous
assumptions were made. One such incidence was the testimony given by a
supposed Iraqi chemical engineer defector codenamed Curveball, who
fabricated reports about mobile biological laboratories.

   The fact that more saner members of the intelligence services
determined that the informer had not even been in Iraq at the times he
said he had apparently had no effect on the US administration
determined to prosecute its war on Saddam Hussein. The Guardian
newspaper reports that this man’s claims became the subject of almost
100 Defence Intelligence Agency reports and was justification for the
now infamous address made by then US Secretary of State Colin Powell
before the UN Security Council on February 5 2003, when he provided the
White House justification for the invasion of Iraq.

The presidential commission warned of the CIA’s desire to come up with
what the US President sought – an excuse to attack Iraq – and that as a
result it grabbed onto anything that would provide the justification.
In spite of clear evidence to the contrary, say critics, the commission
found “no evidence of political pressure to influence the intelligence
community's pre-war assessments of Iraq's weapons programmes”, thus
exonerating George W Bush and his cabinet from any guilt in the weapons
of mass destruction farce.



“Honor” Killing by US Soldier Punished With Dismissal, Not Prison

Wiesbaden, April 1 (RHC)—A US soldier court-martialled for the
point-blank shooting death of an unarmed and severely wounded Iraqi was
dismissed from the army today with no other action taken against him.

A US military tribunal in Wiesbaden, Germany, yesterday convicted
Captain Rogelio' Maynulet, for assault with intent to commit voluntary
manslaughter, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence. Maynulet had
testified that he had wanted to put the man out of his misery and that
the killing was an “honourable” one under the rules of engagement
stipulated by the Geneva Conventions.

Maynulet's tank company had fired on a car believed to be carrying the
driver of the wanted resistance leader Muqtada al-Sadr who has led
effective uprisings against the US occupation in Iraq. The man was
wounded and Maynulet subsequently shot him twice at close range. The
event was captured on the video of an overhead drone surveillance
aircraft.

The US soldier had originally been charged with murder.



Sharon Says Evacuated Gaza Settlements Will Not Be Demolished After All

Jerusalem, April 1 (RHC)—In a surprise move that was contrary to
earlier intentions, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today said that
the settlements vacated by Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip under his
unilateral “disengagement” plan, would not be demolished after all.

The deadline for the withdrawal is July of this year, but many settlers
have vowed violent resistance to their forcible removal. The 21 Gaza
settlements that hold 8,500 settlers will remain intact conditional
upon what Sharon says was their “orderly handover” to the Palestinian
Authority.

   The change of mind is attributed to a number of factors, not least
better relations with the new Palestinian leadership. However, given
Sharon’s long hostility toward Palestinian self-determination, there
are those who are suspicious. They say that the settlements are being
retained for possible settler use once again if and when Israel seeks
to completely annex Gaza during some future conflict.

The fact that the Gaza Strip withdrawal is unilateral and made without
any negotiation with the Palestine Authority is also viewed with
suspicion by many Palestinians who see it as a move to effectively
annex the West Bank – especially when the dividing wall being built is
considered. However, more recently, Sharon has begun to include
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the process.


KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 182
00811 Helsinki - Finland
http://www.kominf.pp.fi

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Cuba en Colores: Photographs by Umi Vaughan

From:  	   Umi Vaughan
Location:  Cha Cha Cha Restaurant
1801 Haight St.,
San Francisco,CA

When:   Sunday, April 17, 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Hello friends!!! You are invited to see
Cuba en Colores, a new exhibit of my color
photographs which celebrates the vividness
and distinctiveness of Cuba.

From indigo sunsets and golden sanctuaries,
to crystal sweat on chocolate skin at Carnival,
there are many moods and hues to experience...
So please join me at the reception for
this ongoing exhibit!

(Fascinating discussion of the Bolivarian process as it
is unfolding in a single aluminim plant in Venezuela at
this time. Thanks very much to Mike Lebowitz who sent
this as I'd have missed it had he not done so.=20

("We want Cuban doctors working in these clinics, caring for
human life as an end unto itself, and not just working for
the money. We also want like-minded Venezuelan doctors.
With the Barrio Adentro II program we will have the
necessary technical equipment.")
====================================================

Co-Management Advances in Alcasa

Aluminum Workers in Venezuela Choose=20
Their Managers and Increase Production=20
Monday, Mar 28, 2005
By: Marta Harnecker

Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the
South-Eastern state of Bol=EDvar, has long been an important
employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's
mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the
mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and
corruption. According to Trino Silva, Secretary General of
the union,

Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for that past 16
years. Though the aluminum they produce is in high demand
and despite considerable production increases over the past
few years, the company has been unable to turn a profit.
Silva blames a corrupt factory management that used Alcasa
as its piggy-bank throughout the 1990s, all the while
holding the threat of privatization over workers' heads. It
was no idle threat. A few miles down the road, one of Latin
America's largest steel plants SIDOR, and long the pride of
the state Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana (CVG), was
privatized in 1997. From a workforce approaching 20,000
full-time direct employees (with several thousand more
contract and temporary workers) in the late 1980s, SIDOR
now employs only 4,000 direct employees and approximately
6,000 contract workers.

Yet in recent years the political landscape in Bol=EDvar has
changed significantly. Radical unionism, near-dormant
throughout the 1990s, has been resurrected in a region with
a tradition of radical syndicalism. And for the first year
of Trino Silva's term as Secretary-General of Alcasa's
union, he has made the fight against corruption a cause
celebre.

Last January, Silva caught a break: head of the newly
created Ministry of Basic Industry Victor Alvarez shares
his commitment to eradicating corruption and inefficiency
at Alcasa. To do so, Alvarez is relying on the workers
themselves. Alcasa is to be the region's guinea pig for the
national government's strategy of state-worker
co-management, a system of shared management between state
representatives and workers. On January 18, the government
expropriated bankrupt paper company Venepal, reinvesting
US$14 million to restart production at the factory under a
system of co-management. In a speech to the National
Assembly where Venezuelan President Hugo Ch=E1vez announced
the decision, he called for state control of all basic
industry, and for the conversion of state run enterprises
to co-management. In the industrial state of Bol=EDvar,
Alcasa is the trail blazer, and in only a few months they
are beginning to see results.

On March 22-23, I visited Alcasa and was moved by what I
saw. Silva was meeting with workers in the factory lobby
explaining the trajectory of the business and speaking to
them about Alcasa's responsibility to the community and to
unemployed workers. Later, workers elected Gustavo
M=E1rquez-an electrical maintenance technician-as the new
manager of Lamination (under the old system he would have
been appointed by the factory President). The next day,
there was an inauguration of a cell repaired in record time
by an enthusiastic group of workers. After exhibiting the
newly functioning cell, the workers were hosted as guests
of honor by the president of Alcasa, Carlos Lanz, in
recognition of their effort. After lunch, 59 students of
the recently founded Institute for Endogenous Development,
who strictly attended their third week of training 9-5
every day, were recognized for their eagerness to become
promoters of the participatory process that is being
encouraged by the new CVG leadership, presided over by
Minister Victor =C1lvarez. Last, an act during which the
managers, newly elected by the workers, assumed their
responsibilities.

The following is a brief interview with the union
General-Secretary, Trino Silva, and the new manager of
Lamination, Gustavo M=E1rquez.

Marta Harnecker: I see a ballot box; can you explain to me
what is happening?

Trino Silva: We are choosing the manager of Lamination and
two workers=92 representatives to share in that management.
We want the manager to arise from the heart of the workers.
The manager will not direct alone or with only the two
workers=92 representatives. He must meet with all the workers
and a managerial assembly will make macro-decisions such as
how to advance, how to make the budget, and how to be
productive. God gives us a body, a right leg, a left leg,
but the body cannot walk with only one leg, right? We need
each organ to function so that the body function, thus it
is with Alcasa. In each management sector, the workers will
name a manager. After that we will discuss the kind of
company we want.

Marta Harnecker: Why so much haste in electing the new
managers?

Trino Silva: We had to move quickly to rid ourselves of the
previous managers because they had abandoned the company.
There were acts of corruption that we denounced long ago;
they tried to sabotage the business. The managers that we
are now choosing are transitory. They will hold their
positions for three months only. In these three months we
will establish the rules of the game, we will define the
kind of management we want. We will discuss the salary of
managers.

1. The worker-chosen managers should continue earning the
same salary

In the past the managers here earned a bundle; we are going
to discuss whether a new manager will earn that. Access to
management should not be seen as a way to receive
privileges. As a union leader I feel that the managers
chosen by the workers should consider this a position of
service and therefore should continue earning the same as
they did before. An elected manager will hold the position
for four years. If in four years, the person has done a
good job, he or she may be re-elected. At the two-year mark
we think that we should have a referendum to see how well a
manager has done.

We believe that within two weeks the workers will have
chosen all the transitory managers. These managers will
have the right to be nominated for the upcoming, full-term
elections.

2. Alcasa does not belong only to the workers of Alcasa

Marta Harnecker: Do you believe that the workers alone can
manage the business?

Trino Silva: The workers should choose the president of
Alcasa. But the Board of Directors should not be composed
only of workers. We are thinking of a fourteen-person
board: seven primary and seven substitutes. Of those seven
primary members, four should be Alcasa workers, two should
be government representatives (so that they can oversee
what we are doing with the business), and another should be
a representative of the organized community.

Alcasa does not only belong to the alcasianos, nor to Trino
Silva and the Alcasa workers, but to all of the people.
Therefore the public has the right to representation on the
Board; first, for transparency and second, to insure that
Alcasa benefits everyone. The community should oversee the
relationship between Alcasa and the public. I think, for
example, that jobs should not be given to contractors that
carry off thousands of millions of bol=EDvares. Let=92s give
these jobs to organized cooperatives.

3. the organized public will participate in the budgeting
of the business

Trino Silva: The organized public will participate in the
control of the expenses of this business. For example, in
2003 Alcasa spent 18 billion bol=EDvares in payments to
private clinics for care to workers and their relatives;
last year 24 billion was spent. What do we say to that? If
so much money is being spent on health care and the union
owns land in Citralcasa Curagua, why not hand over that
land to the State to build a public clinic that will attend
to not only the Alcasa workers, but to the entire
community. We could also build one in Bol=EDvar and another
in Upata. This would create competition between the public
and private clinics. We want Cuban doctors working in these
clinics, caring for human life as an end unto itself, and
not just working for the money. We also want like-minded
Venezuelan doctors. With the Barrio Adentro II program we
will have the necessary technical equipment.

Similarly, we are giving 15 billion bol=EDvares to Friosa in
payment for food for the workers. We suggest that if we
were to give 15 billion, and Venalum and other businesses
chipped in, Alcasa could create an industrial kitchen in
Puerto Ordaz. We could spend some 3 billion creating
kitchen cooperatives. There are around 200 young cooks
working here. We organize them and we give them work.

The same could be done with transportation. Here there is a
transportation mafia. There are four businesses that charge
very high rates. The alcasianos, together with retired
pensioners who want to participate, should form a
transportation cooperative with part of our benefits. We
could buy a fleet and have cheaper and more comfortable
vehicles.

4. New worker-chosen Manager will not shut himself away in
an office

Marta Harnecker: Gustavo, what training do you have?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I am an electrical maintenance technician.
I am in the ninth semester of electrical engineering
courses.

Marta Harnecker: How long have you worked in the plant?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: Eight years.

Marta Harnecker: What is the main task that you have given
yourself?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: My objective is to promote the process of
joint management. My primary goal is to succeed in
implementing the production plan. But not to produce only
to produce, but also to reduce costs, and to form working
groups among the workers.

Marta Harnecker: What did you tell the workers that
convinced them to choose you?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I suggested moving to a horizontal
managerial structure. We are going to recognize that every
worker has an opinion and I will listen to him or her with
my ears. It is advantageous that we have all been
companions and that we all come from below. I will not shut
myself away in an office; I am a man of the area. If a
thermal motor needs to be fixed, I will be there to do it.
I am the same. We are not going to establish a difference
between manager and technician. We are all workers.

Marta Harnecker: How do you feel about managers receiving
the same salary as before?

Up to now I have lived with that salary and I will continue
doing so. My goal is not to earn more but to make this
plant produce.

Translated by Dawn Gable

Co-Management Advances in Alcasa

Aluminum Workers in Venezuela Choose Their Managers and
Increase Production Monday, Mar 28, 2005

By: Marta Harnecker

Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the
South-Eastern state of Bol=EDvar, has long been an important
employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's
mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the
mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and
corruption. According to Trino Silva, Secretary General of
the union,

Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for that past 16
years. Though the aluminum they produce is in high demand
and despite considerable production increases over the past
few years, the company has been unable to turn a profit.
Silva blames a corrupt factory management that used Alcasa
as its piggy-bank throughout the 1990s, all the while
holding the threat of privatization over workers' heads. It
was no idle threat. A few miles down the road, one of Latin
America's largest steel plants SIDOR, and long the pride of
the state Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana (CVG), was
privatized in 1997. From a workforce approaching 20,000
full-time direct employees (with several thousand more
contract and temporary workers) in the late 1980s, SIDOR
now employs only 4,000 direct employees and approximately
6,000 contract workers.

Yet in recent years the political landscape in Bol=EDvar has
changed significantly. Radical unionism, near-dormant
throughout the 1990s, has been resurrected in a region with
a tradition of radical syndicalism. And for the first year
of Trino Silva's term as Secretary-General of Alcasa's
union, he has made the fight against corruption a cause
celebre.

Last January, Silva caught a break: head of the newly
created Ministry of Basic Industry Victor Alvarez shares
his commitment to eradicating corruption and inefficiency
at Alcasa. To do so, Alvarez is relying on the workers
themselves. Alcasa is to be the region's guinea pig for the
national government's strategy of state-worker
co-management, a system of shared management between state
representatives and workers. On January 18, the government
expropriated bankrupt paper company Venepal, reinvesting
US$14 million to restart production at the factory under a
system of co-management. In a speech to the National
Assembly where Venezuelan President Hugo Ch=E1vez announced
the decision, he called for state control of all basic
industry, and for the conversion of state run enterprises
to co-management. In the industrial state of Bol=EDvar,
Alcasa is the trail blazer, and in only a few months they
are beginning to see results.

On March 22-23, I visited Alcasa and was moved by what I
saw. Silva was meeting with workers in the factory lobby
explaining the trajectory of the business and speaking to
them about Alcasa's responsibility to the community and to
unemployed workers. Later, workers elected Gustavo
M=E1rquez-an electrical maintenance technician-as the new
manager of Lamination (under the old system he would have
been appointed by the factory President). The next day,
there was an inauguration of a cell repaired in record time
by an enthusiastic group of workers. After exhibiting the
newly functioning cell, the workers were hosted as guests
of honor by the president of Alcasa, Carlos Lanz, in
recognition of their effort. After lunch, 59 students of
the recently founded Institute for Endogenous Development,
who strictly attended their third week of training 9-5
every day, were recognized for their eagerness to become
promoters of the participatory process that is being
encouraged by the new CVG leadership, presided over by
Minister Victor =C1lvarez. Last, an act during which the
managers, newly elected by the workers, assumed their
responsibilities.

The following is a brief interview with the union
General-Secretary, Trino Silva, and the new manager of
Lamination, Gustavo M=E1rquez.

Marta Harnecker: I see a ballot box; can you explain to me
what is happening?

Trino Silva: We are choosing the manager of Lamination and
two workers=92 representatives to share in that management.
We want the manager to arise from the heart of the workers.
The manager will not direct alone or with only the two
workers=92 representatives. He must meet with all the workers
and a managerial assembly will make macro-decisions such as
how to advance, how to make the budget, and how to be
productive. God gives us a body, a right leg, a left leg,
but the body cannot walk with only one leg, right? We need
each organ to function so that the body function, thus it
is with Alcasa. In each management sector, the workers will
name a manager. After that we will discuss the kind of
company we want.

Marta Harnecker: Why so much haste in electing the new
managers?

Trino Silva: We had to move quickly to rid ourselves of the
previous managers because they had abandoned the company.
There were acts of corruption that we denounced long ago;
they tried to sabotage the business. The managers that we
are now choosing are transitory. They will hold their
positions for three months only. In these three months we
will establish the rules of the game, we will define the
kind of management we want. We will discuss the salary of
managers.

1. The worker-chosen managers should continue earning the
same salary

In the past the managers here earned a bundle; we are going
to discuss whether a new manager will earn that. Access to
management should not be seen as a way to receive
privileges. As a union leader I feel that the managers
chosen by the workers should consider this a position of
service and therefore should continue earning the same as
they did before. An elected manager will hold the position
for four years. If in four years, the person has done a
good job, he or she may be re-elected. At the two-year mark
we think that we should have a referendum to see how well a
manager has done.

We believe that within two weeks the workers will have
chosen all the transitory managers. These managers will
have the right to be nominated for the upcoming, full-term
elections.

2. Alcasa does not belong only to the workers of Alcasa

Marta Harnecker: Do you believe that the workers alone can
manage the business?

Trino Silva: The workers should choose the president of
Alcasa. But the Board of Directors should not be composed
only of workers. We are thinking of a fourteen-person
board: seven primary and seven substitutes. Of those seven
primary members, four should be Alcasa workers, two should
be government representatives (so that they can oversee
what we are doing with the business), and another should be
a representative of the organized community.

Alcasa does not only belong to the alcasianos, nor to Trino
Silva and the Alcasa workers, but to all of the people.
Therefore the public has the right to representation on the
Board; first, for transparency and second, to insure that
Alcasa benefits everyone. The community should oversee the
relationship between Alcasa and the public. I think, for
example, that jobs should not be given to contractors that
carry off thousands of millions of bol=EDvares. Let=92s give
these jobs to organized cooperatives.

3. the organized public will participate in the budgeting
of the business

Trino Silva: The organized public will participate in the
control of the expenses of this business. For example, in
2003 Alcasa spent 18 billion bol=EDvares in payments to
private clinics for care to workers and their relatives;
last year 24 billion was spent. What do we say to that? If
so much money is being spent on health care and the union
owns land in Citralcasa Curagua, why not hand over that
land to the State to build a public clinic that will attend
to not only the Alcasa workers, but to the entire
community. We could also build one in Bol=EDvar and another
in Upata. This would create competition between the public
and private clinics. We want Cuban doctors working in these
clinics, caring for human life as an end unto itself, and
not just working for the money. We also want like-minded
Venezuelan doctors. With the Barrio Adentro II program we
will have the necessary technical equipment.

Similarly, we are giving 15 billion bol=EDvares to Friosa in
payment for food for the workers. We suggest that if we
were to give 15 billion, and Venalum and other businesses
chipped in, Alcasa could create an industrial kitchen in
Puerto Ordaz. We could spend some 3 billion creating
kitchen cooperatives. There are around 200 young cooks
working here. We organize them and we give them work.

The same could be done with transportation. Here there is a
transportation mafia. There are four businesses that charge
very high rates. The alcasianos, together with retired
pensioners who want to participate, should form a
transportation cooperative with part of our benefits. We
could buy a fleet and have cheaper and more comfortable
vehicles.

4. New worker-chosen Manager will not shut himself away in
an office

Marta Harnecker: Gustavo, what training do you have?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I am an electrical maintenance technician.
I am in the ninth semester of electrical engineering
courses.

Marta Harnecker: How long have you worked in the plant?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: Eight years.

Marta Harnecker: What is the main task that you have given
yourself?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: My objective is to promote the process of
joint management. My primary goal is to succeed in
implementing the production plan. But not to produce only
to produce, but also to reduce costs, and to form working
groups among the workers.

Marta Harnecker: What did you tell the workers that
convinced them to choose you?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I suggested moving to a horizontal
managerial structure. We are going to recognize that every
worker has an opinion and I will listen to him or her with
my ears. It is advantageous that we have all been
companions and that we all come from below. I will not shut
myself away in an office; I am a man of the area. If a
thermal motor needs to be fixed, I will be there to do it.
I am the same. We are not going to establish a difference
between manager and technician. We are all workers.

Marta Harnecker: How do you feel about managers receiving
the same salary as before?

Up to now I have lived with that salary and I will continue
doing so. My goal is not to earn more but to make this
plant produce.

Translated by Dawn Gable
Co-Management Advances in Alcasa

Aluminum Workers in Venezuela Choose Their Managers and
Increase Production Monday, Mar 28, 2005

By: Marta Harnecker

Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the
South-Eastern state of Bol=EDvar, has long been an important
employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's
mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the
mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and
corruption. According to Trino Silva, Secretary General of
the union,

Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for that past 16
years. Though the aluminum they produce is in high demand
and despite considerable production increases over the past
few years, the company has been unable to turn a profit.
Silva blames a corrupt factory management that used Alcasa
as its piggy-bank throughout the 1990s, all the while
holding the threat of privatization over workers' heads. It
was no idle threat. A few miles down the road, one of Latin
America's largest steel plants SIDOR, and long the pride of
the state Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana (CVG), was
privatized in 1997. From a workforce approaching 20,000
full-time direct employees (with several thousand more
contract and temporary workers) in the late 1980s, SIDOR
now employs only 4,000 direct employees and approximately
6,000 contract workers.

Yet in recent years the political landscape in Bol=EDvar has
changed significantly. Radical unionism, near-dormant
throughout the 1990s, has been resurrected in a region with
a tradition of radical syndicalism. And for the first year
of Trino Silva's term as Secretary-General of Alcasa's
union, he has made the fight against corruption a cause
celebre.

Last January, Silva caught a break: head of the newly
created Ministry of Basic Industry Victor Alvarez shares
his commitment to eradicating corruption and inefficiency
at Alcasa. To do so, Alvarez is relying on the workers
themselves. Alcasa is to be the region's guinea pig for the
national government's strategy of state-worker
co-management, a system of shared management between state
representatives and workers. On January 18, the government
expropriated bankrupt paper company Venepal, reinvesting
US$14 million to restart production at the factory under a
system of co-management. In a speech to the National
Assembly where Venezuelan President Hugo Ch=E1vez announced
the decision, he called for state control of all basic
industry, and for the conversion of state run enterprises
to co-management. In the industrial state of Bol=EDvar,
Alcasa is the trail blazer, and in only a few months they
are beginning to see results.

On March 22-23, I visited Alcasa and was moved by what I
saw. Silva was meeting with workers in the factory lobby
explaining the trajectory of the business and speaking to
them about Alcasa's responsibility to the community and to
unemployed workers. Later, workers elected Gustavo
M=E1rquez-an electrical maintenance technician-as the new
manager of Lamination (under the old system he would have
been appointed by the factory President). The next day,
there was an inauguration of a cell repaired in record time
by an enthusiastic group of workers. After exhibiting the
newly functioning cell, the workers were hosted as guests
of honor by the president of Alcasa, Carlos Lanz, in
recognition of their effort. After lunch, 59 students of
the recently founded Institute for Endogenous Development,
who strictly attended their third week of training 9-5
every day, were recognized for their eagerness to become
promoters of the participatory process that is being
encouraged by the new CVG leadership, presided over by
Minister Victor =C1lvarez. Last, an act during which the
managers, newly elected by the workers, assumed their
responsibilities.

The following is a brief interview with the union
General-Secretary, Trino Silva, and the new manager of
Lamination, Gustavo M=E1rquez.

Marta Harnecker: I see a ballot box; can you explain to me
what is happening?

Trino Silva: We are choosing the manager of Lamination and
two workers=92 representatives to share in that management.
We want the manager to arise from the heart of the workers.
The manager will not direct alone or with only the two
workers=92 representatives. He must meet with all the workers
and a managerial assembly will make macro-decisions such as
how to advance, how to make the budget, and how to be
productive. God gives us a body, a right leg, a left leg,
but the body cannot walk with only one leg, right? We need
each organ to function so that the body function, thus it
is with Alcasa. In each management sector, the workers will
name a manager. After that we will discuss the kind of
company we want.

Marta Harnecker: Why so much haste in electing the new
managers?

Trino Silva: We had to move quickly to rid ourselves of the
previous managers because they had abandoned the company.
There were acts of corruption that we denounced long ago;
they tried to sabotage the business. The managers that we
are now choosing are transitory. They will hold their
positions for three months only. In these three months we
will establish the rules of the game, we will define the
kind of management we want. We will discuss the salary of
managers.

1. The worker-chosen managers should continue earning the
same salary

In the past the managers here earned a bundle; we are going
to discuss whether a new manager will earn that. Access to
management should not be seen as a way to receive
privileges. As a union leader I feel that the managers
chosen by the workers should consider this a position of
service and therefore should continue earning the same as
they did before. An elected manager will hold the position
for four years. If in four years, the person has done a
good job, he or she may be re-elected. At the two-year mark
we think that we should have a referendum to see how well a
manager has done.

We believe that within two weeks the workers will have
chosen all the transitory managers. These managers will
have the right to be nominated for the upcoming, full-term
elections.

2. Alcasa does not belong only to the workers of Alcasa

Marta Harnecker: Do you believe that the workers alone can
manage the business?

Trino Silva: The workers should choose the president of
Alcasa. But the Board of Directors should not be composed
only of workers. We are thinking of a fourteen-person
board: seven primary and seven substitutes. Of those seven
primary members, four should be Alcasa workers, two should
be government representatives (so that they can oversee
what we are doing with the business), and another should be
a representative of the organized community.

Alcasa does not only belong to the alcasianos, nor to Trino
Silva and the Alcasa workers, but to all of the people.
Therefore the public has the right to representation on the
Board; first, for transparency and second, to insure that
Alcasa benefits everyone. The community should oversee the
relationship between Alcasa and the public. I think, for
example, that jobs should not be given to contractors that
carry off thousands of millions of bol=EDvares. Let=92s give
these jobs to organized cooperatives.

3. the organized public will participate in the budgeting
of the business

Trino Silva: The organized public will participate in the
control of the expenses of this business. For example, in
2003 Alcasa spent 18 billion bol=EDvares in payments to
private clinics for care to workers and their relatives;
last year 24 billion was spent. What do we say to that? If
so much money is being spent on health care and the union
owns land in Citralcasa Curagua, why not hand over that
land to the State to build a public clinic that will attend
to not only the Alcasa workers, but to the entire
community. We could also build one in Bol=EDvar and another
in Upata. This would create competition between the public
and private clinics. We want Cuban doctors working in these
clinics, caring for human life as an end unto itself, and
not just working for the money. We also want like-minded
Venezuelan doctors. With the Barrio Adentro II program we
will have the necessary technical equipment.

Similarly, we are giving 15 billion bol=EDvares to Friosa in
payment for food for the workers. We suggest that if we
were to give 15 billion, and Venalum and other businesses
chipped in, Alcasa could create an industrial kitchen in
Puerto Ordaz. We could spend some 3 billion creating
kitchen cooperatives. There are around 200 young cooks
working here. We organize them and we give them work.

The same could be done with transportation. Here there is a
transportation mafia. There are four businesses that charge
very high rates. The alcasianos, together with retired
pensioners who want to participate, should form a
transportation cooperative with part of our benefits. We
could buy a fleet and have cheaper and more comfortable
vehicles.

4. New worker-chosen Manager will not shut himself away in
an office

Marta Harnecker: Gustavo, what training do you have?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I am an electrical maintenance technician.
I am in the ninth semester of electrical engineering
courses.

Marta Harnecker: How long have you worked in the plant?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: Eight years.

Marta Harnecker: What is the main task that you have given
yourself?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: My objective is to promote the process of
joint management. My primary goal is to succeed in
implementing the production plan. But not to produce only
to produce, but also to reduce costs, and to form working
groups among the workers.

Marta Harnecker: What did you tell the workers that
convinced them to choose you?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I suggested moving to a horizontal
managerial structure. We are going to recognize that every
worker has an opinion and I will listen to him or her with
my ears. It is advantageous that we have all been
companions and that we all come from below. I will not shut
myself away in an office; I am a man of the area. If a
thermal motor needs to be fixed, I will be there to do it.
I am the same. We are not going to establish a difference
between manager and technician. We are all workers.

Marta Harnecker: How do you feel about managers receiving
the same salary as before?

Up to now I have lived with that salary and I will continue
doing so. My goal is not to earn more but to make this
plant produce.

Translated by Dawn Gable
Co-Management Advances in Alcasa

Aluminum Workers in Venezuela Choose Their Managers and
Increase Production Monday, Mar 28, 2005

By: Marta Harnecker

Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the
South-Eastern state of Bol=EDvar, has long been an important
employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's
mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the
mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and
corruption. According to Trino Silva, Secretary General of
the union,

Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for that past 16
years. Though the aluminum they produce is in high demand
and despite considerable production increases over the past
few years, the company has been unable to turn a profit.
Silva blames a corrupt factory management that used Alcasa
as its piggy-bank throughout the 1990s, all the while
holding the threat of privatization over workers' heads. It
was no idle threat. A few miles down the road, one of Latin
America's largest steel plants SIDOR, and long the pride of
the state Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana (CVG), was
privatized in 1997. From a workforce approaching 20,000
full-time direct employees (with several thousand more
contract and temporary workers) in the late 1980s, SIDOR
now employs only 4,000 direct employees and approximately
6,000 contract workers.

Yet in recent years the political landscape in Bol=EDvar has
changed significantly. Radical unionism, near-dormant
throughout the 1990s, has been resurrected in a region with
a tradition of radical syndicalism. And for the first year
of Trino Silva's term as Secretary-General of Alcasa's
union, he has made the fight against corruption a cause
celebre.

Last January, Silva caught a break: head of the newly
created Ministry of Basic Industry Victor Alvarez shares
his commitment to eradicating corruption and inefficiency
at Alcasa. To do so, Alvarez is relying on the workers
themselves. Alcasa is to be the region's guinea pig for the
national government's strategy of state-worker
co-management, a system of shared management between state
representatives and workers. On January 18, the government
expropriated bankrupt paper company Venepal, reinvesting
US$14 million to restart production at the factory under a
system of co-management. In a speech to the National
Assembly where Venezuelan President Hugo Ch=E1vez announced
the decision, he called for state control of all basic
industry, and for the conversion of state run enterprises
to co-management. In the industrial state of Bol=EDvar,
Alcasa is the trail blazer, and in only a few months they
are beginning to see results.

On March 22-23, I visited Alcasa and was moved by what I
saw. Silva was meeting with workers in the factory lobby
explaining the trajectory of the business and speaking to
them about Alcasa's responsibility to the community and to
unemployed workers. Later, workers elected Gustavo
M=E1rquez-an electrical maintenance technician-as the new
manager of Lamination (under the old system he would have
been appointed by the factory President). The next day,
there was an inauguration of a cell repaired in record time
by an enthusiastic group of workers. After exhibiting the
newly functioning cell, the workers were hosted as guests
of honor by the president of Alcasa, Carlos Lanz, in
recognition of their effort. After lunch, 59 students of
the recently founded Institute for Endogenous Development,
who strictly attended their third week of training 9-5
every day, were recognized for their eagerness to become
promoters of the participatory process that is being
encouraged by the new CVG leadership, presided over by
Minister Victor =C1lvarez. Last, an act during which the
managers, newly elected by the workers, assumed their
responsibilities.

The following is a brief interview with the union
General-Secretary, Trino Silva, and the new manager of
Lamination, Gustavo M=E1rquez.

Marta Harnecker: I see a ballot box; can you explain to me
what is happening?

Trino Silva: We are choosing the manager of Lamination and
two workers=92 representatives to share in that management.
We want the manager to arise from the heart of the workers.
The manager will not direct alone or with only the two
workers=92 representatives. He must meet with all the workers
and a managerial assembly will make macro-decisions such as
how to advance, how to make the budget, and how to be
productive. God gives us a body, a right leg, a left leg,
but the body cannot walk with only one leg, right? We need
each organ to function so that the body function, thus it
is with Alcasa. In each management sector, the workers will
name a manager. After that we will discuss the kind of
company we want.

Marta Harnecker: Why so much haste in electing the new
managers?

Trino Silva: We had to move quickly to rid ourselves of the
previous managers because they had abandoned the company.
There were acts of corruption that we denounced long ago;
they tried to sabotage the business. The managers that we
are now choosing are transitory. They will hold their
positions for three months only. In these three months we
will establish the rules of the game, we will define the
kind of management we want. We will discuss the salary of
managers.

1. The worker-chosen managers should continue earning the
same salary

In the past the managers here earned a bundle; we are going
to discuss whether a new manager will earn that. Access to
management should not be seen as a way to receive
privileges. As a union leader I feel that the managers
chosen by the workers should consider this a position of
service and therefore should continue earning the same as
they did before. An elected manager will hold the position
for four years. If in four years, the person has done a
good job, he or she may be re-elected. At the two-year mark
we think that we should have a referendum to see how well a
manager has done.

We believe that within two weeks the workers will have
chosen all the transitory managers. These managers will
have the right to be nominated for the upcoming, full-term
elections.

2. Alcasa does not belong only to the workers of Alcasa

Marta Harnecker: Do you believe that the workers alone can
manage the business?

Trino Silva: The workers should choose the president of
Alcasa. But the Board of Directors should not be composed
only of workers. We are thinking of a fourteen-person
board: seven primary and seven substitutes. Of those seven
primary members, four should be Alcasa workers, two should
be government representatives (so that they can oversee
what we are doing with the business), and another should be
a representative of the organized community.

Alcasa does not only belong to the alcasianos, nor to Trino
Silva and the Alcasa workers, but to all of the people.
Therefore the public has the right to representation on the
Board; first, for transparency and second, to insure that
Alcasa benefits everyone. The community should oversee the
relationship between Alcasa and the public. I think, for
example, that jobs should not be given to contractors that
carry off thousands of millions of bol=EDvares. Let=92s give
these jobs to organized cooperatives.

3. the organized public will participate in the budgeting
of the business

Trino Silva: The organized public will participate in the
control of the expenses of this business. For example, in
2003 Alcasa spent 18 billion bol=EDvares in payments to
private clinics for care to workers and their relatives;
last year 24 billion was spent. What do we say to that? If
so much money is being spent on health care and the union
owns land in Citralcasa Curagua, why not hand over that
land to the State to build a public clinic that will attend
to not only the Alcasa workers, but to the entire
community. We could also build one in Bol=EDvar and another
in Upata. This would create competition between the public
and private clinics. We want Cuban doctors working in these
clinics, caring for human life as an end unto itself, and
not just working for the money. We also want like-minded
Venezuelan doctors. With the Barrio Adentro II program we
will have the necessary technical equipment.

Similarly, we are giving 15 billion bol=EDvares to Friosa in
payment for food for the workers. We suggest that if we
were to give 15 billion, and Venalum and other businesses
chipped in, Alcasa could create an industrial kitchen in
Puerto Ordaz. We could spend some 3 billion creating
kitchen cooperatives. There are around 200 young cooks
working here. We organize them and we give them work.

The same could be done with transportation. Here there is a
transportation mafia. There are four businesses that charge
very high rates. The alcasianos, together with retired
pensioners who want to participate, should form a
transportation cooperative with part of our benefits. We
could buy a fleet and have cheaper and more comfortable
vehicles.

4. New worker-chosen Manager will not shut himself away in
an office

Marta Harnecker: Gustavo, what training do you have?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I am an electrical maintenance technician.
I am in the ninth semester of electrical engineering
courses.

Marta Harnecker: How long have you worked in the plant?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: Eight years.

Marta Harnecker: What is the main task that you have given
yourself?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: My objective is to promote the process of
joint management. My primary goal is to succeed in
implementing the production plan. But not to produce only
to produce, but also to reduce costs, and to form working
groups among the workers.

Marta Harnecker: What did you tell the workers that
convinced them to choose you?

Gustavo M=E1rquez: I suggested moving to a horizontal
managerial structure. We are going to recognize that every
worker has an opinion and I will listen to him or her with
my ears. It is advantageous that we have all been
companions and that we all come from below. I will not shut
myself away in an office; I am a man of the area. If a
thermal motor needs to be fixed, I will be there to do it.
I am the same. We are not going to establish a difference
between manager and technician. We are all workers.

Marta Harnecker: How do you feel about managers receiving
the same salary as before?

Up to now I have lived with that salary and I will continue
doing so. My goal is not to earn more but to make this
plant produce.

Translated by Dawn Gable
Co-Management Advances in Alcasa

(Excellent short summary of essential Cuba-related facts
about John Bolton. It's the kind of material which is very
frequently omitted, even by those who oppose Bolton on the
grounds that he's boorish or ineffective and so on and on.

(An entire half hour of Amy Goodman's Democracy NOW! program
was devoted to Bolton, but this material was conspicuous by
its absence.)
===========================================================

From: Jane Franklin [mailto:JBFranklins@...]
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 10:24 AM
To: Franklin
Subject: Franklin: Bolton the Destroyer


It looks like Bolton's hearing before the Senate Intelligence
Committee for confirmation as UN ambassador will come up April 7.
Here is some of the vast amount of ammunition that can be used to
try to stop his wrecking machine.  This is a report I gave on "Cuba
in Focus," hosted by Sally O'Brien on WBAI 99.5 on the FM dial,
Pacifica Radio, New York, on March 28.

Siempre,
Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve/homepages/jbfranklins

***

BOLTON THE DESTROYER


John Bolton has been nominated by President Bush as
ambassador to the United Nations despite the fact that
Bolton has repeatedly expressed contempt for the UN,
including, "There is no such thing as the United Nations.
There is an international community that occasionally can
be led by the only power in the world and that is the
United States when it suits our interest and when we can
get others to go along." Diplomats from around the world
are astounded at his nomination.

For Cuba, Bolton is an especially threatening choice
because he led the campaign to convince the world that
Cuba's health system is a cover for bioterrorism. The
continuation of a policy aimed at destroying Cuba's health
system depends upon keeping the people of the United States
in a state of ignorance. This is where experts in lies and
disinformation come in. In May 2002 just six days before
former President Jimmy Carter was to fly to Havana, John
Bolton announced, "The United States believes that Cuba has
at least a limited offensive biological warfare research
and development effort." Bolton's disinformation was
broadcast worldwide.

But Jimmy Carter did not cancel his visit, and during his
tour of the Center for Genetic Engineering and
Biotechnology in Havana with Fidel Castro, he made his own
announcement: that during briefings before his visit, he
asked the White House, the CIA and Bolton's own State
Department if there were any "possible terrorist activities
that were supported by Cuba" and the answer was "No."

But President Bush does not need evidence. Outright lies
have become a cornerstone of his administration, even
leading to the disastrous war in Iraq. Drunk with power,
Bush, at every opportunity, is placing right-wing fanatics
into powerful positions to create an empire for what they
call the New American Century, where what is good for them
is good for the world.

It follows that the one institution that represents the
world's various countries--the United Nations--must be
reformed. The many voices at the UN must become one voice.
John Bolton is just the man to orchestrate that campaign.
Take a look at his qualifications.

As a teenager he worked in the 1964 presidential campaign
of right-winger Barry Goldwater. After law school at Yale,
he became an Assistant Attorney General under Attorney
General Edwin Meese, opposing Congressional efforts to
investigate the Justice Department's role in the
Iran-Contra Affair. He linked up with right-wing Senator
Jesse Helms and worked on a campaign to oppose a voter
registration drive for Blacks and organized labor.

In the year 2000, Bolton was a member of the legal team
that flew to Florida after the Florida State Supreme Court
ordered a recount of the votes for president. That legal
team insured the Supreme Court selection of Bush as
president. After the Supreme Court ordered a halt to the
recount, Bolton entered a Tallahassee library where the
count was still going on and declared, "I'm with the
Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the vote."

This led straight to his being chosen as Deputy Secretary
of State for Disarmament Affairs and International
Security. In that job, Bolton has aimed at disarming other
nations while arming the United States for War Without End.
After all, Senator Helms did say that Bolton is "the kind
of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon."

Bolton led the U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty, opening the heavens for Star Wars. He
successfully opposed Senate ratification of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, opening the door for the
testing of a new generation of nuclear weapons. Last year
when Bush withdrew the U.S. signature from the
International Criminal Court agreement that President
Clinton had signed, Bolton signed the formal notification
to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and called that "the
happiest moment" in his government service.

So if Bolton is confirmed as UN Ambassador, what kind of
destructive thing will he enjoy doing to Cuba? Cuba has
always been elected to be a member of the UN Human Rights
Commission, and this year the Latin American and Caribbean
group elected Cuba to represent them on the Standing
Committee--that is, the decision-making committee--of the
Human Rights Commission, a striking rejection of U.S.
attempts to isolate Cuba. One of John Bolton's priorities
would certainly be to try to change the rules of the Human
Rights Commission, allowing maneuvers to exclude Cuba,
making it easier to use the Commission as a weapon against
Cuba.

(No - not a reference to communist Cuba, where by all accounts the
intelligence services are effective, but of the good 'ol USA.  We
already knew that their regulation of corporate sector is creaking
(Enron, 3-Com, etc, etc.), that their environmental controls are
creaking, their educational system is creaking, their voting system is
creaking, the health care system is creaking, their power distributions
system is creaking, their emergency response systems are creaking, their
diplomacy is creaking, their budgetary controls are creaking, their
human rights infrastructure is creaking, their courts system is
creaking, ... I could go on, but you get the picture.  Remind me, just
what is working in the USA these days?)


*********************************************************
A savage indictment of bickering and creaking bureaucracy
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

01 April 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=625305


In the end, the third cut was the unkindest for America's reeling
intelligence services. First came a Senate Committee report, damning the
CIA for its performance on Iraq. Then we read the elegantly written
conclusions of the 11 September Commission, detailing the failings that
allowed the worst terrorist attack in modern times to happen.

But even these pale beside the broadside delivered yesterday by the
bipartisan commission created by President George Bush to examine the
debacle of Iraq and its imagined weapons of mass destruction.

The question now is: will it make a difference? "We will correct what
needs to be fixed," President Bush promised yesterday, as he was
formally presented with the 700-page report (more than a third of which
is classified).

In truth, however, the failings so savagely listed by the blandly named
Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States
Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction have long been known, and no
previous attempt to correct them has yet succeeded.

The fact is that America's "intelligence community" is less a community
than a collection of 15 fragmented and often feuding fiefdoms.
Nominally, the boss of the CIA, the director of central intelligence, is
in charge of things. In reality, eight of the 15 agencies are controlled
by the Pentagon, as is 80 per cent of the estimated annual US
intelligence budget of $35bn - mainly through the electronic
eavesdropping and interception organisation, the National Security
Agency, America's far larger equivalent of Britain's GCHQ.

Add to that the formidable Donald Rumsfeld, the current Defence
Secretary and an unmatched bureaucratic turf warrior, and it is easy to
see the limits to the CIA's writ. Nor does this take account of the
historic rivalries of the CIA and the FBI which - at least until 11
September - so hampered the struggle against al-Qa'ida and international
terrorism.

Ah yes, say some intelligence specialists, but many of the failings
identified by the bipartisan commission are already being tackled. In
the aftermath of the Iraq debacle, everyone realises that US
intelligence must improve its human sources, so-called "Humint".
Everyone acknowledges too that the historic barriers between the various
fiefdoms must be broken down.

Everyone knows, as the commission declares, that there "must be true
cultural change within the [intelligence] community." And yet, the
report gloomily concludes, the many extremely talented and dedicated
individuals in the intelligence apparatus "seem to be working harder and
harder just to maintain a status quo that is increasingly irrelevant to
the new challenges presented by weapons of mass destruction."

In fairness, and despite his initial reluctance to sanction major public
investigations into either 11 September or Iraq's missing WMD, Mr Bush
has introduced major changes. Most notably, he has created a new
Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI), whose boss will
theoretically take the intelligence community by the scruff of its
collective neck. There will also be a new national counter-terrorism
centre, to co- ordinate the efforts of the CIA, the FBI and the
Department of Homeland Security, itself less than three years old.

But many doubt that even a man as able as John Negroponte, former US
ambassador to the United Nations and Iraq and now the first head of the
DNI, will make much difference - even with a deputy as respected as
Michael Hayden, a previous head of the NSA. The fear is that the DNI
will merely add another layer to a system already creaking under the
weight of bureaucracy. Mr Negroponte's brief, moreover, is ambiguous; as
the report dryly notes, "his authorities are far from absolute." Mr
Negroponte, for instance, will henceforth deliver the famous "PDB" or
President's Daily Briefing on intelligence that has been the job of the
CIA director.

But while he will be in charge of the annual intelligence budget, the
bill creating the DNI makes it clear that the prerogatives of individual
Cabinet Secretaries (for which read Donald Rumsfeld, who waged a
rearguard and predictably successful action against efforts to reduce
Pentagon independence) will remain intact. As recipes go for competing
command centres, this one can hardly be bettered. Across at the CIA, the
arch villain of the piece, the picture is no better. The agency has
rarely been more demoralised. Following the devastating 1994 case of the
Soviet/Russian mole Aldrich Ames, its failure to predict the Indian and
Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998, the 11 September terrorist attacks, and
now the egregious misjudgements of Saddam Hussein's WMD capabilities, it
has been "dead wrong" in almost every respect.

George Tenet, its previous boss, has departed, compensated for his
blunderings by the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
country's highest civilian honour. By all accounts his replacement,
Porter Goss, formerly head of the House Intelligence Committee, has
hardly improved the situation. Some 30 top CIA people have been sacked,
while Mr Goss's aides, most of them former top guns from Capitol Hill
with scant experience of the spooks' world, have taken over the levers
of power.

Mr Goss himself is a former covert operative for the agency. But he has
publicly professed himself "a little amazed by his workload ... too much
for this mortal". The CIA may have asked for this manhandling, but
clearly any benefits will take some time to become visible.

But the CIA is not the only culprit, nor the only agency driven by "pack
thinking" into the gigantic mistake over Iraq. The Defence Intelligence
Agency for instance, the Pentagon's main in-house intelligence arm, is
blamed for not being more sceptical of the human source code-named
"Curveball" who provided false information on Saddam's supposed
biological weapons activities.

That is an understatement. As is now well known, the Pentagon - via
another ad-hoc group called the Office for Special Plans, set up by its
No 3 official Douglas Feith - gathered only information that suited its
thesis that Saddam was a menace to all humanity. This "intelligence" was
then "stove- piped", as the jargon has it, to other true believers,
notably Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Yesterday's report urges more "devil's advocacy" in the analysis of
intelligence, with more importance being attached to dissenting views.
It deplores the previous practice of "layering" - not unknown in
Britain's treatment of intelligence - whereby successive assessments of
a threat dropped the caveats of previous assessments as they passed
through the intelligence apparatus on their way to the White House.

The politicians may not have exerted explicit pressure to have
conclusions slanted as they wished. But they did not need to. The CIA
and the rest intuited what was wanted, and duly delivered. The
commission makes it clear that even a DNI with genuine power to knock
heads will not suffice, despite the aid of new-fangled devices such as
"mission managers", "target development boards", and a "human
intelligence innovation center" to simultaneously focus and broaden the
modus operandi of the US intelligence community.

In the end, as the US in the past has so often failed to realise, spying
depends on people. The stinging, eminently justified, criticism
delivered yesterday will yield fruit not through fancy new paradigms and
organigrams - but only if Mr Negroponte imposes his will, if the
analysts give voice to the nagging doubts within, and if politicians
realise that intelligence is, at best, a very imperfect art. That is the
real culture change that American intelligence needs.


****

(Yet another reason to keep up with not only the Joneses
but also with developments among the Cuban exiles as they
are regularly reported like this in the MIAMI HERALD. Not
as interesting or significant as developments regarding
Luis Posada Carilles, but still part of the ongoing story.)
===========================================================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Fri, Apr. 01, 2005

CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Physician's assistant gets probation for insurance fraud
A physician's assistant received five years' probation
for filing fake auto insurance claims for clinic visits
the supposed patients themselves didn't know about.
BY SCOTT HIAASEN
shiaasen@...

A physician's assistant who once was imprisoned as a
political dissident in Cuba was sentenced to five years'
probation Thursday after he was convicted for his role in
an insurance-fraud scheme.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Diane Ward sentenced 57-year-old
Federico Labrador after a jury convicted him on six counts
of fraud and filing false auto-insurance claims. The jury
cleared Labrador of six other counts.

Prosecutors said Labrador -- a practicing doctor when he
lived in Cuba -- filed medical forms four years ago
claiming he examined two auto-accident victims at a Miami
clinic -- visits the patients themselves didn't know about.

In one case, Labrador filed a claim saying he examined a
patient at Zigma Medical Care on the same day the patient
was attending a family reunion in North Florida.

EXTRA CHARGES

Investigators also said Labrador approved further medical
treatment that allowed the clinic to bill each patient's
insurer up to $10,000 for therapy that was not
administered.

Assistant State Attorney William Howell asked the judge to
sentence Labrador to 10 years in prison, describing
Labrador as a key player in a ''well-oiled machine'' of
bogus insurance claims.

''This scam could not have been carried out without Mr.
Labrador,'' Howell said. ``To say that Mr. Labrador is a
small fish in a big pond is not accurate.''

But Ward, the judge, called prosecutors' request
''disingenuous.'' She noted that the owner of Zigma,
33-year-old Michel Huarte -- whom even Howell said may have
played a greater role in the scheme -- avoided jail by
entering a pretrial diversion program.

In addition, prosecutors had offered Labrador a plea
bargain including a probation sentence before his January
trial.

Ward also agreed to withhold adjudication -- sparing
Labrador a conviction on his record if he successfully
completes his probation.

Labrador insisted that he was innocent and said the medical
forms he filed were predated when he received them from
Huarte.

RECOUNTS HARD LIFE

In an emotional speech, he described for the judge how he
was separated from his parents after they left Cuba in the
1960s, then separated from his wife and children after they
fled to the United States in 1980.

Labrador's lawyers said he was sent to prison as a
political dissident before he was allowed to leave Cuba in
1988.

''I did not commit any crime,'' Labrador said through a
translator. ``I have not committed any type of fraud.''

Labrador's lawyers, Ramon de la Cabada and Silvia Gonzalez,
said they were ''ecstatic'' with the judge's ruling.

But prosecutors said they were disappointed with the
sentence, particularly with Ward's decision to withhold
adjudication. With a conviction on his record, Labrador's
license as a physician's assistant would have been
automatically revoked, said Lt. Violeta Serrano, a fraud
investigator with the state Department of Financial
Services.

''Insurance fraud depends on the action of medical
professionals in order to work,'' said Ed Griffith, a
spokesman for the Miami-Dade state attorney's office.

A codefendant in the case, physical therapist Jose Teruel,
is awaiting trial.

Once again, an amazing situation which can and should
be filed under "only in Miami" since terrorists of the
anti-Castro stripe are normally given a hero's welcome
among the rightist exile militant. Here we see that the
stage for just that is being prepared by the newspaper
which assaults Cuba eight days a week for its supposed
human rights violations. The idea that the government
of Cuba would execute someone as heinous as this is,
of course, absurd. David Abraham's comments are right
on the money regarding this situation.

Meanwhile, five Cuban men languish in the prisons of
the United States for their completely non-violent
actions of infiltrating and monitoring organizations
which carry out such terrorist activities from the
United States of America. Will wonders never cease?

Here is Max Lesnik's comment on Posada: "A Hot Potato"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/36338
=========================================================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Fri, Apr. 01, 2005

Asylum to be sought for Cuban militant
A close Miami associate of elusive Cuban exile militant
Luis Posada Carriles has begun hiring attorneys to
represent his friend if and when he's ready to emerge from hiding.
BY ELAINE DE VALLE AND ALFONSO CHARDY
Miami Herald

A Coral Gables immigration attorney hired to represent
Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles said Thursday he
plans to ask the Department of Homeland Security for asylum
and parole for his client so he can live in the United
States without fear of extradition.

Attorney Eduardo Soto said he expects a tough battle on
behalf of the controversial 77-year-old -- hailed by some
as an anti-Castro icon, but wanted by two countries as a
terrorism suspect. Posada, thought to be in hiding now in
South Florida, has been accused of blowing up a Cuban
airliner in 1976 when he lived in Venezuela and trying to
kill Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000 when he visited
Panama.

''I anticipate a huge struggle here, both on the
immigration front and in other matters,'' Soto said,
referring to the possibility that Venezuela may seek
Posada's extradition as a result of his 1985 escape from a
prison where he was held in connection with the airliner
bombing.

As Posada's legal team began taking shape Thursday, the
Castro government signaled that it plans to use Posada's
reported presence in Miami as the basis for stepped-up
criticism of the United States.

`DOUBLE STANDARD'

Granma, the Cuban Communist Party's daily, said in its
international edition Wednesday that Posada's presence
''confirms'' the Bush administration's ``double standard to
measure terrorism.''

Lázaro Barredo, a deputy in Cuba's National Assembly,
appeared Wednesday night on a Havana television news
program and branded the Posada situation as an ``attack on
decency.''

Meanwhile, U.S. government officials were publicly silent
about Posada, who is not wanted on any charges in the
United States. But a congressional aide, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, told The Herald: ``There is some
concern about how he got in. It raises questions about
homeland security issues.''

News of Posada's possible arrival in South Florida broke
Tuesday night when the Spanish-language television station
Channel 41 quoted three unidentified sources as saying he
was here and planning ``to present himself to North
American authorities.''

Soto said he is awaiting word on what Posada wants to do.
Soto said he wouldn't comment on whether he has spoken to
Posada but said he doesn't know where Posada is now.

''I will be further advised early next week what, if any,
intention Mr. Posada Carriles has with respect to the
United States,'' said Soto, adding that he agreed to take
the case pro bono.

ATTORNEYS ON TAP

Posada's close friend and financial backer, Miami developer
Santiago Alvarez, said he retained Soto and may also
approach other attorneys, including Kendall Coffey, a
former U.S. attorney in Miami.

''Kendall Coffey has always been willing to defend us and
has offered his services in the past, and he will be used
if we need his specialties, for example, in the case of an
extradition or criminal charges,'' Alvarez said.

Coffey declined to comment Thursday. ''I cannot speculate
on future possibilities,'' he said.

EXTRADITION A WORRY

Alvarez said the immediate concern was whether Venezuela
would formally ask for Posada's return if he comes forward
in Miami.

Venezuela and the United States have an extradition treaty.

Recently, Venezuela asked the United States to extradite
two former national guard lieutenants seeking asylum.

The pair face charges in connection with the 2003 bombings
of the Spanish Embassy and Colombian consulate in Caracas.

Posada, Cuban-born and a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is
wanted for escaping from prison there 20 years ago while
being investigated for the airliner bombing. He was
acquitted twice in the case but was being held pending a
prosecutors' appeal.

Soto said his initial goal would be to ensure that Posada
can stay in the United States. He said that once Posada is
ready to come forward, he would follow a two-track strategy
of filing for asylum and parole under the 1966 Cuban
Adjustment Act.

Soto said an asylum application would be the proper
strategy because ``it is in his best interests to establish
that he fears for his life should he be removed from the
United States.''

A foreign national seeking asylum essentially gets to stay
until the case is resolved -- though the asylum seeker can
be detained.

Jack Bulger, Miami district director for U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, which handles asylum petitions,
declined to discuss Posada's case specifically but said in
general that such cases would be referred to an immigration
judge if the person is denied asylum or parole.

`NONPOLITICAL CRIME'

Under immigration law, asylum may be denied to foreign
nationals thought to have committed a ''serious
nonpolitical crime'' before arriving in the United States.

For example, an immigration judge in February denied asylum
to the two former national guard officers on the basis of
Venezuela's extradition request.

But the judge also prohibited the U.S. government from
deporting them to Caracas because ``it is more likely than
not that they would be tortured.''

In the Posada case, the Cuban government has formally
sought his capture and extradition from several Latin
American countries. Havana has said Posada would face a
firing squad if caught and returned home.

WOUNDED IN 1990

Posada was seriously wounded in a 1990 assassination
attempt in Guatemala while working as a security advisor
for then-president Vinicio Cerezo. It was widely speculated
at the time that Cuban agents were responsible.

Soto said he thinks he can make a strong case for asylum
because Posada was not convicted in the airliner bombing.

But David Abraham, a University of Miami immigration law
professor, said the Posada case could pose a legal and
political dilemma for the Bush administration.

''The larger question is whether asylum should be granted
to someone whose actions would ordinarily fit the
definition of terrorism,'' Abraham said.

``But as we have seen in the past in South Florida,
terrorist activities can be recast as freedom fighting if
the political situation is supportive.''

Herald staff writers Nancy San Martin and Oscar Corral and
researcher Monika Z. Leal contributed to this story.

("Venezuela might ask for his extradition if he makes his
presence known. In 1985, Posada escaped from a Venezuelan
prison while awaiting trial on charges he bombed a Cubana
jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people aboard.")
========================================================

<http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pdposada01apr01,0,4798
09.story>
Terror suspect said to be hiding in U.S.
By Madeline Baró Diaz
Miami Bureau

April 1, 2005

Rumors are swirling that Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles,
accused of anti-Castro terrorism, is hiding out in Miami,
but friends and federal officials on Thursday said they
could not confirm the stories were true.

Earlier this week, news agency EFE, citing a report by
Spanish-language television station WJAN-Ch. 41, said
Posada had been in Miami for about a week working out the
details of turning himself in to immigration officials. If
true, it would be the latest chapter in the colorful life
of the one-time CIA operative who has been accused of
blowing up a Cuban airliner and plotting to kill Fidel
Castro, among other acts of violence.

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, said Thursday that immigration officials did
not have Posada in custody.

Santiago Alvarez, a developer with properties in Miami-Dade
and Broward counties who is a friend of Posada's, said he
is speaking to lawyers in case Posada surfaces and wants to
remain in the United States.

"He has had many hard years, but he has done it for a cause
-- the cause of a free Cuba," Alvarez said.

Posada, 76, who once lived in the United States but no
longer has any kind of legal immigration status, has been
in hiding since outgoing Panamanian President Mireya
Moscoso pardoned him in August.

In 2000, during the Ibero-American Summit, Panamanian
authorities arrested Posada and fellow exiles Guillermo
Novo, Pedro Remón and Gaspar Jiménez after Castro announced
that Posada was in the country and planning to kill him.
The men said they thought they were meeting a defecting
Cuban general in Panama but were tricked.

While Panama denied Cuba and Venezuela's requests for
extradition, Posada and Jiménez were eventually sentenced
to eight years for endangering public safety and falsifying
documents, and Novo and Remón received seven years for
endangering public safety.

The men spent almost four years in prison. After a
diplomatic dust-up with Cuba, however, Moscoso pardoned the
four men, who promptly hopped a plane out of the country.

Although he faces no criminal charges in the United States,
Venezuela might ask for his extradition if he makes his
presence known. In 1985, Posada escaped from a Venezuelan
prison while awaiting trial on charges he bombed a Cubana
jetliner in 1976, killing 73 people aboard.

Alvarez, who led fund-raising efforts for the defense of
Posada and the other men in Panama, said the United States
should decline any such request, as Panama did. Posada was
twice acquitted of the airline bombing and was awaiting
another trial when he escaped.

Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(A perfect letter to the editor: short, sweet and to
the point. And that's part of why it was published.)
====================================================

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail952apr01,0,289773
3.story

Editorial ignores `activist' crimes
Lazaro Herrera
Press Officer Cuban Interests Section Washington, D.C.

April 1, 2005

After reading an editorial like the one published March 16,
"Celebrate right to speak freely," I wonder why the
newspaper deliberately lies when trying to hide the true
nature of those persons named as "activists" or "civil
rights advocates"? Why not mention the facts, proved not
only by means of evidence against those persons presented
during the public trial held in the presence of their
relatives, but in Mr. Cason's own public statements
concerning the material support and active encouragement of
the internal subversion in Cuba?

We are talking about concrete facts, such as receiving
money from a foreign power that has publicly declared its
intention to take action in order to accelerate the end of
a government constitutionally established and
internationally recognized; to conspire under the direction
of representatives of that foreign power, in order to act
against the security of the given country and the security
of its fellow citizens; to put their reports about services
offered to this end under representatives of this power's
consideration.

To try to distort these crimes by qualifying them as
"defense of civil rights" in order to hide their real
purposes as foreign agents is a deceit to American public
opinion. As prestigious as it is, the Sun-Sentinel should
not confuse the right to speak freely with the supposed
right to lie politically motivated.

Why, however, has it been hidden that five young Cubans
were convicted as foreign agents by a Miami federal court,
in a manipulated trial, when they really were dedicated to
preventing actions organized by terrorist groups based in
that city? In the name of which freedom of information can
be justified the silence that has risen around this
process, which, by the way, happened long before these
"civil rights fighters" whom the Sun-Sentinel defends were
properly condemned?

Would the Sun-Sentinel join efforts so that one day all
Americans know the truth about these five anti-terrorists?
If so, such a serious contribution to the freedom of
information would be highly appreciated by American and
world opinion.

Copyright C 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel