President Raul Castro of the Republic of Cuba greets Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during his visit to the Caribbean island-nation. Museveni is accompanied by his wife shown in background.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
CUBAN President Raúl Castro Ruz and the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, held official talks yesterday, Monday, in the Palace of the Revolution.
Once the official welcome ceremony had concluded, the meeting between the two presidents took place in the ambiance of friendship that exists between the two countries, and which is based on respect and cooperation.
They expressed their satisfaction at the positive state of bilateral relations and agreed to increase them in different fields. They also discussed international issues and the particular tasks in which the Cuban and Ugandan people are immersed in the current complex global context. Museveni extended an invitation to Raúl to visit Uganda, which the Cuban president accepted.
A working meeting on matters of bilateral interests took place between the two delegations in parallel to the conversation between the presidents, in which Esteban Lazo Hernández, vice president of the Council of State, also participated.
Raúl receives President of Seychelles
IN the afternoon of Sunday, November 29 at the Palace of the Revolution, President Raúl Castro Ruz received His Excellency Mr. James Alix Michel, president of the Republic of Seychelles, who is on an official visit to Cuba.
Following the protocol reception ceremony, the two leaders held official talks which took place in the cordial ambience that is characteristic of the relationship between the two nations.
In a discussion on bilateral links, they expressed their satisfaction at advances made and confirmed the aim of continuing to consolidate them.
They also exchanged opinions on the principal challenges and current tasks of the two peoples, particularly with respect to climate change and its negative consequences – which is of particular concern to island nations – as well as other issues of an international nature.
Raúl expressed his gratitude for the position of solidarity on the part of Seychelles and Michel returned the gesture on behalf of his people for Cuba’s cooperation in education, healthcare and other important areas.
Also present were José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, Cuban minister of public health; Marcelino Medina González, acting foreign minister of Cuba; Marie-Pierre Lloyd, Seychellois minister for health and social development; Jean Paul Adam, Seychellois secretary of state and head of the President’s office; as well as other Cuban and Seychellois officials.
The intellectual emptiness of Human Rights Watch
Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver
HUMAN Rights Watch (HRW) is again going too far against the Cuban Revolution in a vain attempt to sully the island’s impeccable work for the dignity and authentic human rights of more than 11 million Cubans.
This past Wednesday, November 18, in a tiresome reiteration of its anti-Cuba message, HRW accused the island of not improving its "conduct" in the context of human rights, and even afforded itself the luxury of noting — lying even more — that it has worsened in some cases.
The worst case of blindness is not wanting to see, and this is an evident attempt to rescue a diminished and discredited internal counterrevolution, elevated and funded by the anti-Cuban lobby in the U.S. government – in particular the Miami mafia – which is steadily becoming more irrelevant and dependent on U.S. taxpayer funds.
Thus, resorting to science fiction, and with its perennial front of a non-governmental organization, HWR drew up a long "report" in which it again attempts to depict the Cuban government as a systematic repressor and creator of an environment full of terror, as if our streets were occupied by military forces and our citizens, without any rights whatsoever, were being brutally lashed.
It does not even have any imagination. It is the same script that we’ve seen many times now over the last five decades, with the unwholesome purpose of justifying the failed and genocidal economic, commercial and financial U.S. blockade of our country, a policy that the UN General Assembly condemned for the 18th consecutive time this past October with 187 votes.
The HRW, with the servile José Miguel Vivanco at its head, the righter of wrongs against anything that whiffs of independence from the United States (it acts in the same way against Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba) and the spokespeople of the Miami mafia, are desperate and frustrated in face of a Cuba that is increasingly more solid, despite the blockade and hurricanes, with growing international prestige, which has propitiated the advance of a tendency within U.S. society of calling for a change in policy toward Havana. This is exemplified by the initiative with bipartisan backing introduced by Richard Lugar (Indiana) to eliminate all restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens.
The HRW’s subordination to yanki policy is such that it couldn’t care less about the fact that this past February 5, Cuba successfully presented its report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, where it received overwhelming recognition for its human and social project and its efforts in this sphere.
Of course, that time in Geneva it became evident that, in the context of an exercise with universal participation and of an objective nature, the United States could not overcome the will of others through pressure, nor with the craven collaboration of organizations like the HRW. Cuba’s truth could not be silenced.
A group of 60 delegations, of the 104 that were registered, spoke during an interactive dialogue on that occasion, and 51 of them acknowledged the efforts and results of our country in terms of promoting and protecting human rights.
Cuba’s achievements in the area of economic, social and cultural rights merited their overwhelming backing. The universal coverage, gratuity and excellence of Cuba’s health and education systems elicited reiterated praise.
The HRW knows, despite its manifest dependence on yanki imperialist policy, that Cuba has a dignified and very extensive record in terms of cooperation with all human rights mechanisms. Our nation as a state is party to 41 of the most important treaties in this sphere and has historically cooperated with human rights mechanisms that are applied universally and without discrimination.
As a way of defending his vassalage, the Chilean José Miguel Vivanco, "director of the Americas division" of HRW, is resorting to the well-worn presentation of being the victim under attack, because the Latin American governments that comprise the ALBA do not like to be criticized.
Vivanco wants to resort to this shady subject because he knows that he has a lot of dirty laundry, as has been exposed by our colleague Jean Guy Allard, in reference to his dubious relations with the fauna of Washington’s Capitol Hill linked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the most recalcitrant Venezuelan "petit yankis," and the Cuban-American mafia, and of course, his close ties with Reporters Sans Frontières and other "international" organizations, whose ties with the CIA are established.
These are not attacks, but truths that sting. That is how those servile individuals are.
Cuba condemns attitude of the rich countries at the Rome Summit
ROME, November 16. — Cuba has condemned the attitude of the rich countries who were absent from the Heads of State or Government meeting at the FAO Food Security Summit taking place in this capital.
In a statement to PL, Ulises Rosales del Toro, head of the Cuban delegation in Rome and vice president of the Council of Ministers, highlighted the fact that those present must accept that food should not be used as an instrument of political pressure.
This is a battle that our country has waged for many years and which, on this occasion, has reached the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Summit, he commented.
The importance of cooperation and solidarity was also reconfirmed, as was the need to abstain from adopting unilateral measures that do not comply with international law and endanger food security, he added.
Likewise a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and minister of agriculture, Rosales del Toro criticized the absence of the world’s most powerful nations who do not appear to have the courage to face representatives of the developing countries.
Now they cannot justify themselves, he stated, referring to unfulfilled promises of aid in order to eradicate world hunger.
With respect to the validity of the FAO Summit, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno stated that the issue is not to cancel the meeting but to highlight the attitude of the rich countries, which are not only responsible for the current situation but also for the global financial crisis. (PL)
Cuba’s increased defense capacity
Fidel Rendón Matienzo
WHILE the Bastión 2009 strategic exercise improved the military readiness of the country’s leadership and command bodies, National Defense Day, given its mass nature, raised Cuba’s defensive capacity even more.
On Sunday, four million Cuban men and women in conjunction with the armed forces took firing ranges, parks, factories, universities, mountains, and shelters "by storm" to preserve the peace and sovereignty of their Revolution by training train for any kind of imperialist aggression.
In Territorial Troop Militias, Production and Defense Brigades, and Special Formations, early in the morning men and woman participated in planned actions in their areas of defense, many of which were related to protecting the population and the economy.
Food production, the cultivation of sugar cane and other crops was not neglected, nor was work relating to hygiene and sanitation as part of the fight against vectors, where necessary. Recovery tasks continued in the provinces affected by last year’s Hurricanes Ike and Paloma.
National Defense Day included the active participation of chiefs, officers and soldiers in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, civilian workers and the Ministry of the Interior in the realization of illustrative firearms training classes throughout the country.
In a meeting to review Bastión 2009 on Saturday, President Raúl Castro congratulated all the participants in this strategic exercise and affirmed that all the planned objectives had been fulfilled.
Raúl stated that a preliminary assessment indicated that there were substantial advances in the results in comparison to 2004.
But he insisted that "everything we do can be improved, an essential attitude in the face of a highly complex phenomenon like war which, moreover, evolves constantly and rapidly."
Translated by Granma International
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