| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"NY_Transfer_News" |
| Date: |
17 Aug 2004 07:14:53 PM |
| Object: |
News Summary from RHC - August 17, 2004 |
News Summary from RHC - August 17, 2004
* Cuba Calls Chávez Victory an Historical Lesson
* Cuba Still Recovering from Damages Inflicted by Hurricane Charley
* Argentinean Solidarity with Cuba Grows
* Update on Severe Drought in Cuba's Eastern Provinces
* Delegation Attempts to Mediate in Najaf as Pitched Battles Rage
* Chávez's Overwhelming Victory Leaves Rightwing Opposition in Disarray
* Secretive Haitian Court Acquits Former Death Squad Leader
* Israel Approves Another 1,000 Settler Homes in West Bank
* Afghan Trial of Alleged US Vigilantes Halted as FBI Returns Evidence
* Evidence of Vote-Rigging in Afghanistan's Upcoming Presidential Election
* Editorial - There are none more blind than those who will not see
Cuba Calls Chávez Victory an Historical Lesson
Havana, August 17 (RHC)-- Cuba has called the victory of Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez "an historical lesson of true democracy and
national sovereignty."
A government statement published in this morning's edition of the
daily Granma points out that Chávez has won electoral contests eight
times in the past five years -- a fact that demonstrates the
unquestionable legitimacy of the Venezuelan government. The statement
notes that this popular support stands in sharp contrast to other
Latin American governments that have lost support and moral authority,
having become accomplices of the United States and the neo-liberal
policies of the International Monetary Fund and other international
lending agencies.
Cuba says that the results of the referendum constitute a victory for
the Venezuelan people, many of whom of been traditionally deprived of
their rights. And Havana strongly criticized the opposition to Chávez
and the Boliviarian Revolution for falsely accusing the National
Electoral Council of fraud and refusing to accept the clear mandate of
the people.
The Cuban government statement points out that the same violent,
subversive and fascist groups that call for civil disobedience failed
to overthrow Chávez in a military coup two years ago, which was turned
back by the Venezuelan people.
Cuba Still Recovering from Damages Inflicted by Hurricane Charley
Havana, August 17 (RHC)-- Crews are still working around-the-clock to
repair damages inflicted by Hurricane Charley, which hit western areas
of the island last Friday. On Monday, the Aguas de La Habana company
called on residents to save water, given the severe damage to the
water supply and electrical systems.
The greatest losses were reported in Havana, the capital -- especially
the municipalities of La Lisa and Playa -- although problems with
water supply in other neighborhoods of the city still remain. The most
affected areas are being supplied with water delivered in tanker
trucks.
With wind gusts of more the 200 kilometers an hour, Hurricane Charley
caused serious damage in western Cuba, with more than 40,500 houses
either partially or completely destroyed and four storm-related
deaths.
Charley also caused considerable damage to agricultural crops,
including 95 percent of the banana harvest in Havana Province.
Hurricane-force winds also knocked down high-voltage lines just
outside of the capital, cutting electrical service to some areas of
Havana and nearly all of Pinar del Río, the island's western-most
province.
During a tour of affected areas, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage told
reporters that a complete report on damage to food production,
services and housing has not yet been submitted. Lage called on local
authorities to step up recovery efforts, noting that people in some
areas are still without electricity after four days.
Brigades of electricians and other experts from Cuba's central and
eastern provinces have been volunteering in the capital and in the
province of Pinar del Río -- in an effort to restore all services to
area residents as quickly as possible.
Argentinean Solidarity with Cuba Grows
Santa Fe, August 17 (RHC)-- More than 300 representatives from over
100 Argentinean solidarity organizations have issued a call for the
defense of Cuba. The Final Declaration of the National Solidarity with
Cuba Conference, held in Santa Fe over the weekend, says that if the
United States dares touch Cuba, "the world will rise up against them."
Delegates to the Cuba solidarity conference, held at Santa Fe's
National University -- some 300 miles northeast of Buenos Aires --
strongly condemned Washington's economic blockade against the island.
They also denounced the European Union and Latin American governments
that have become accomplices of the United States -- working against
Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva and other
international forums.
The two-day meeting was attended by representatives of the majority of
Argentina's political parties, youth and human rights organizations,
as well as legislators and trade unionists. Cuba was represented by
the island's ambassador to Argentina, Alejandro González, and Ricardo
Rodríguez, vice president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with
the Peoples (ICAP).
During the closing ceremony, Alejandro González thanked the local
movement of solidarity for its staunch defense of Cuba's sovereignty,
while praising its strength and growth. Cuba's ambassador in Buenos
Aires said that Washington will never be able to pay the political
cost that a military aggression against Cuba would imply. And he said
that the United States "has never forgiven us for our sin of wishing
to be free and we have had to pay a high price for that freedom."
Update on Severe Drought in Cuba's Eastern Provinces
Holguin, August 17 (RHC)-- The intense drought gripping the eastern
Cuban province of Holguin has caused substantial loses to its cattle
breeding and milk and sugar production.
Raúl Topes, Deputy Director of the Finance and Prices Ministry in
Holguin, told Prensa Latina News Agency that the country has already
invested over 15.2 billion Cuban pesos to improve the situation in the
region. Topes said this aid could increase if the shortage of rain
continues.
A report by the Agriculture Ministry reveals the loss of 45 million
pounds of products and shows a seriously deteriorating situation for
cattle. At least 1428 heads of cattle and 850 breeding cows died in
the last 12 months, prompting milk production to drop by 418,000
liters.
The report says the drought has affected 10 of 14 districts in
Holguin. There have also been 29 forest fires reported, damaging at
least 645 hectares. Raúl Topes recalled the fact that the Cuban
government expects to finish the construction of a 34-mile pipeline
from the Cauto River to Holguin by the end of August -- guaranteeing
the water supply to the people in the urban perimeter.
Delegation Attempts to Mediate in Najaf as Pitched Battles Rage
Najaf, Iraq, August 17 (RHC) - Iraqi political and religious leaders
trying to mediate in a radical Shiite uprising flew into Najaf
Tuesday, where US troops and rebel militia fought pitched battles near
the country's holiest Islamic sites. The eight-member delegation
landed in Najaf on US military helicopters, hoping to persuade radical
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his al-Mahdi Army militia to call
off a rebellion that has hit eight southern and central cities and
rattled oil markets.
Iraqis meeting at a national conference to pick an interim assembly
agreed to send the team after weekend peace talks with the government
collapsed and the cleric vowed to fight to the death from inside a
sacred shrine. As the delegation waited at the camp to be driven in
civilian cars to the sacred Imam Ali shrine, US troops fired some 20
artillery rounds at militia positions in the city. It wasn't clear
whether al-Sadr, who is demanding a US withdrawal from Najaf and
amnesty for his fighters, was willing to meet the delegation.
Thousands of protesters have joined al-Sadr in the Imam Ali Mosque,
promising to act as human shields in the city of 600,000 people some
100 miles south of Baghdad. The rebellion has undermined interim Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi's authority, with observers asserting that he is
walking a tightrope as passions in the majority Shiite country are at
boiling point over US troops fighting near Najaf's Imam Ali Mosque and
a vast ancient cemetery.
Clashes also erupted overnight between the militia and US forces in a
poor Shiite suburb in Baghdad called Sadr City. The Health Ministry
said 14 people had been killed and 122 wounded there in the past 24
hours. Witnesses said two teenage girls were among the dead, killed in
US shelling of the slum district where the radical cleric draws much
of his support. Broadening their uprising from the urban battlefield,
the al-Mahdi Army set an oil well on fire in southern Iraq Monday. The
unrest also forced Iraq to keep a main southern oil pipeline shut
Tuesday, reducing export flows by almost half.
Chávez's Overwhelming Victory Leaves Rightwing Opposition in Disarray
Caracas, August 17 (RHC) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's
overwhelming victory in a recall referendum has left the rightwing
opposition in disarray, with some calling for protests and others for
calm and a recount. Chávez won more than 58 percent of the historic
vote Sunday, which many observers say has allowed him to not only
survive the effort to oust him but has also converted one of the
biggest challenges of his presidency into an even broader mandate to
carry on his revolution for the poor in his second term which ends in
January 2007.
And to the consternation of stunned foes who fought for years to oust
him, Chávez's triumph gave him momentum ahead of September regional
elections and 2005 congressional elections. His allies already control
the National Assembly and most state governments. Chávez's foes
alleged widespread vote fraud in what was one of the largest voter
turnouts in Venezuela's history, even though former US President Jimmy
Carter and the Organization of American States endorsed the results,
saying they had found no element of fraud.
Some opposition leaders announced plans to appeal to international
organizations as a means of exposing alleged fraud, while others are
urging sympathizers to stage street protests. But many observers were
saying that the endorsement of international observers will make it
difficult for the mostly white, middle-class opposition that controls
most of the media and business to take their grievances much further.
And the United States has thus far declined to join international
monitors in backing the Chávez victory, saying fraud allegations
should be investigated. While "noting" and praising the work of
observers from former US president Jimmy Carter's Carter Centre and
the Organization of American States, the US State Department said
Washington was not yet ready to endorse their finding that Chávez had
prevailed in Sunday's vote.
Secretive Haitian Court Acquits Former Death Squad Leader
Port-au-Prince, August 17 (RHC) - A secretive court in Haiti has
acquitted a notorious death squad leader in a middle-of-the-night
trial, angering human rights groups who blamed the country's US-backed
interim government. Louis-Jodel Chamblain was acquitted just after
dawn in the murder of Antoine Izmery, a former justice minister and
financier of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Three witnesses
were called during the one-day trial, and only one of them was for the
prosecution, said Viles Alizar with the National Coalition for Haitian
Rights.
Although acquitted of murder in the Izmery case, Chamblain was
remanded to jail to face another trial in the killings of several
people in a pro-Aristide stronghold of northern Gonaives in 1994. He
was a co-leader of the rightwing paramilitary Haitian Front for
Advancement and Progress, a group that was blamed for the killings of
some 3,000 people from 1991 to 1994 during the regime that followed
Aristide's first ouster in 1991. In 1995, he was convicted in absentia
and given two life sentences for his alleged role in the 1993
assassination of Izmery and the 1994 slaughter of scores of Aristide
supporters in Gonaives.
Haitian law provides that people judged in their absence have a right
to a new trial if they return. After Chamblain's surrender, interim
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said it was possible Chamblain could
be pardoned "for his great services to the nation" in helping to oust
Aristide in a rebellion last February in which the death squad leader
played a major role. Human rights groups have criticized Haiti's
interim government for forming alliances with people like Chamblain
while it arrests Aristide officials and supporters.
Israel Approves Another 1,000 Settler Homes in West Bank
Jerusalem, August 17 (RHC) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
approved building tenders for another 1,000 Israeli settlement homes
in the occupied West Bank which had been frozen earlier to avoid
upsetting the United States. Analysts believe that Sharon is trying to
quell a mutiny in the ranks of his rightwing Likud Party over his plan
to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip. The prime minister, facing a
snap Likud Party convention on Wednesday at which his foes hoped to
vote down his proposed alliance with the Labor Party, gave a green
light to the Housing Ministry to publish tenders for new housing in
seven settlements.
Sharon is striving to restore his parliamentary majority lost in June
when ultra-nationalist partners in his center-right coalition defected
or were sacked for bucking his plan to withdraw 8,000 settlers from
Gaza next year. Sources close to the prime minister are reportedly
insisting that the tender package did not flout understandings with
Washington that new Jewish housing in the West Bank would be built
within existing settlement limits. They noted that President Bush
assured Sharon in April that if he carried out his "disengagement"
from Gaza, Israel could count on retaining parts of the West Bank with
some large settlements under any future peace deal with Palestinians.
Sharon in the past three weeks also approved tenders for 800 more
homes in the largest West Bank settlement, Maale Adumim. But Israeli
officials said there will be consultations with Washington before
construction there got under way. Washington, which has angered the
Arab world due its unconditional support of Sharon, has only mildly
criticized Israel for new settlement expansion and its failure to
dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts due to be torn down as part
of the US-brokered roadmap peace plan. Since the roadmap blueprint was
endorsed last year, only a handful of the nearly 100 outposts have
been removed.
The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the
occupied territories as illegal, regardless of when they were built.
Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat denounced the latest
batch of tenders as further proof that Israel aimed to undermine and
bury the roadmap, which promises Palestinians a viable state in the
West Bank and Gaza.
Afghan Trial of Alleged US Vigilantes Halted as FBI Returns Evidence
Kabul, August 17 (RHC) - The trial of three Americans accused of
jailing, kidnapping and torturing prisoners in Afghanistan was
dramatically halted Monday after the FBI returned what was described
as a substantial amount of evidence to Afghan authorities which the
accused said had been withheld by US authorities. The judge adjourned
the trial for seven days to allow the Americans and their four Afghan
co-accused time to study the evidence, which prosecutors said had been
held by the FBI for more than 20 days.
The defendants, arrested in July for allegedly running a private
prison and counter-terrorism operations in Kabul, had earlier accused
the Federal Bureau of Investigation of withholding evidence proving
their links to US authorities. Michael Skibbie, a lawyer for one of
the accused, told reporters that "returning a substantial amount of
evidence after a trial has begun constitutes an insult to the Afghan
justice system." Skibbie said he didn't know if the evidence was
changed or parts of it were lost while it was with the FBI.
The defendants have insisted that the US military in Afghanistan,
which originally denied having any contact with or knowledge of the
group, knew what they were doing. Later, the US military admitted that
they took a terror suspect arrested by the accused into custody, later
releasing him after US forces found he was not a wanted militant.
Military commanders said they had been duped into helping the group.
The defendants said the US government severed its links with them
after reports asserting that they had tortured Afghans.
Evidence of Vote-Rigging in Afghanistan's Upcoming Presidential Election
Kabul, August 17 (RHC) - Evidence of vote-rigging has emerged in
Afghanistan's upcoming presidential election, a controversy that
analysts say could be a serious liability for US President George Bush
- who has staked his claims on a successful democratic Afghanistan
serving as an example of how America can bring democracy and free and
fair elections to the developing world. After voter registration
centers closed across Afghanistan over the weekend, election officials
acknowledged that the number of voting cards issued far exceeded the
estimated number of eligible voters.
With seven weeks to go before the October 9 presidential poll,
Canada's Toronto Star news daily reported Tuesday that the practice of
multiple registrations is rife. Although it will take at least a week
to report the final tally of registered voters, United Nations
officials overseeing the elections admit that more than 10 million
voting cards have been issued - surpassing the estimated 9.8 million
eligible voters. The Star asserted that in a country where the average
income is $2 a day, some Afghans who heard that political parties and
presidential candidates would pay up to $150 for voting cards gladly
lined up at registration centers several times to get multiple voting
cards.
In separate interviews, two Afghans told the Star it was easy to
obtain more than one card. One man who registered six times, using his
real name and photograph, said UN election workers asked him only once
if he had previously registered. A woman said her nephew had been
approached at school numerous times to sell his laminated voting card
and that she knows a woman who obtained 40 cards while cloaked in a
burqa. The blatant violation of election rules has prompted two
presidential candidates - Latif Pedram, leader of the Congress Mili
Afghanistan Party and independent candidate, Ahmad Shah Amadzai - to
call for an investigation.
Overall, the registration process has been rife with many problems: 12
election workers were killed; Afghans confused their voter ID cards
for food rations and prescriptions; men forbade wives, sisters and
daughters from getting voting cards; and many uneducated people simply
don't understand what their first election is about. Originally
scheduled for last June, the election has twice been postponed - first
due to low registration turnout and later because of security
concerns. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office admitted that there
could be thousands of people who have multiple cards, but insisted
that no one involved in Karzai's election campaign has bought voting
cards.
Editorial
There are none more blind than those who will not see
It is not disbelief nor caution that inspires the United States'
government to withhold its recognition of the triumph of the
Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela in last Sunday's referendum where
President Hugo Chávez was ratified in his mandate. It is rather their
deep disappointment over the failure of yet another attempt to halt a
process that both irritates them and thwarts their neo colonial plans
for Latin America.
Not even the approval given to the voting process by the Carter Centre
and the Organisation of American States, two bodies that can hardly be
called pro-Chávez, has made an impression on US President George W.
Bush for whom reality ceases to exist outside the hazy frontiers of
his global master plan.
Of course, we must never forget that Bush himself came to power
through a somewhat liberal use of democratic principles and so we
should perhaps not expect him to behave like a decent and honest
politician who uses his position and power for the good of the people.
What is more, as the spoilt son of a billionaire oil clan we should
expect that Bush' sympathies lie more with his playmates in Canaima or
Isla Margarita that with the million children in Venezuela's "lost
cities" who are now receiving free education, or with the poor farmers
who have benefited from the two million hectares of land that have
been redistributed by Chávez' government.
It seems that Bush and his allies would prefer Venezuela's oil wealth
to continue lining the pockets of the "Shell generation" who made
their millions by squeezing funds from Venezuelan Oil that are now
being used to build eleven thousand local clinics in the poorest
neighbourhoods of Venezuela's cities.
It must be a difficult pill for the White House to swallow that
President Chávez has now received the overwhelming support of his
people for the eighth time in five years, in stark contrast to several
Latin American governments that flounder in crises of legitimacy, lack
of popular support and moral authority despite receiving the full
backing of the US and rigidly applying the International Monetary
Fund's most brutal structural adjustment policies.
Let us not forget that it was the resilience of Chávez' government
that blocked US attempts to impose their FTAA project wholesale in
Latin America and thereby swallow the entire continent down in one
gulp.
In the midst of the jubilation over Sunday's victory there must also
be time for reflection on the new risks that face Venezuela and the
continent as a whole. The opposition has seen every legal avenue
closed to it and may well now resort to illegality to implant its
counter revolution in Venezuela.
With their military coup beaten back, their oil coup thwarted and
electoral defeat upon them, those people that reduced 70 per cent of
one of the richest countries in the region to poverty must not be
allowed another opportunity to loot. Let the United States open their
eyes to a new reality, but also let those of us who celebrate the
victory of the Venezuelan people on Sunday remain optimistically on
our guard.
compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu
http://tania.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20040816/005047.html
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