Dear Friends of the Cuban Five
Send a birthday greeting to: Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino !
You can write to them directly at the prison,(address below) and also transmit a greeting toour email address below.We will then mail Ramón and Gerardo your greetingwhich you send us.
Gerardo Hernández was born June 4, 1965.His address is:Gerardo Hernández, #58739-004U.S.P. VictorvilleP.O. Box 5500Adelanto, CA 92301
Ramón Labañino was born June 9, 1963.He is registered in prison as Luis Medina, so youhave to address the envelope as:Luis Medina, #58734-004U.S.P. BeaumontP.O. Box 26030Beaumont TX 77720Then inside the cards and letters, you can write to him as Ramón.
Free the Five website
Contact Usemail: info@freethefive.org,
phone: 415-821-6545
web: http://www.freethefive.org,
Painting Exhibition by Antonio Guerrero in Sancti Spíritus
By Manuel Echevarría Gómez
A watercolor exhibition by Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters held in US prisons, was opened in the island’s central province of Sancti Spiritus as part of the environmental festival organized here. The exhibition, entitled Alas de libertad (Wings of freedom), shows 21 species of endemic birds as well as 22 Cuban macaws, which are threatened by extintion. In a letter sent to the National Museum of Natural History, the Cuban heroe explains about his first motivations for painting and the support received from a Californian friend who sent him books on the matter as well as pictures found on the Internet.“Every day, all these birds became real in my prison cell and flew to Cuba. Each picture was a new challenge and I imagined myself walking in our free homeland, along the countryside”, Guerrero added. “This is not a work done by a plastic art artist” –Tony stated. “These drawings constituite, above all, a tangible evidence of the beautiful and combative solidarity with our just battle and represent the resolution and optimism of the Five. We are sure of our return to our beloved homeland and we do believe that a better world is possible", he concluded.
The EFE report states:"The communist-ruled island connected itself officially to the Internet in1996"-
WRONG
The Cuban government did not "connect itself".Until that time the United States GOVERNMENT did NOT ALLOW Cuba to be connected to the Internet. The Internet backbone then (NSFnet) was, and continues to be today, controlled by United States based institutions. Cuba was able to use the Internet backbone after June 1994.It is amazing how little reporters actually know about how the Internet infratsructure operates or WHO sets the rules.
Nelson Valdes
Buscan fórmulas para mejorar la agricultura
Informa el Ministerio de la Agricultura a la Comisión Agroalimentaria de la Asamblea Nacional problemas y perspectivas del sector
Por: Dora Pérez Sáez - jrebelde
La agricultura cubana busca fórmulas para aumentar la oferta sostenible de alimentos con la mayor eficiencia posible, expresó este martes Alcides López, viceministro del Ministerio de la Agricultura, en la presentación de este organismo a los miembros de la Comisión Agroalimentaria de la Asamblea Nacional.El dirigente reconoció que los problemas que atraviesa hoy el sector no tienen por causa solamente el período especial, sino también a problemas estructurales y de fondo que requieren con urgencia la adopción de nuevas medidas.«Estamos hablando de organizar la producción. Para ello tenemos que lograr que exista una verdadera contratación de la producción. Hoy, solo el 89 por ciento de nuestras cooperativas están asesoradas jurídicamente, y el objetivo es que todas tengan su abogado».El funcionario expresó que se le ha dado prioridad a la constitución de las Delegaciones Municipales de la Agricultura, las cuales podrán tomar decisiones y asumir responsabilidades en el propio territorio, donde está la base productiva.Anunció que algunas empresas cambiarán su objeto social y se convertirán en entidades que prestan servicios a la base productiva, como sus representantes.En relación con el tema de la fuerza de trabajo, el funcionario reveló que se da prioridad a la continuidad familiar en la formación del personal para la agricultura.«Pero eso no basta, acotó. Hacen falta palancas económicas que motiven al campesino a producir de una forma variada y a bajo costo.«Estamos hablando de “sembrar” hombres y mujeres en el campo. Y para lograr eso debemos poner en práctica medidas destinadas a que esa persona se quede en el campo, tenga un reconociendo social y se sienta orgulloso de ser campesino».La ministra en funciones, María del Carmen Pérez, expresó que las normas que se tomen requerirán de una implementación gradual, un establecimiento de prioridades, y el desarrollo de iniciativas locales.
Fox pide diálogo con régimen cubano, pero supeditado a avances democráticos
Bruselas, 13 may (EFE).- El ex presidente mexicano Vicente Fox abogó hoy por que la comunidad internacional mantenga una actitud dispuesta a dialogar con las autoridades cubanas, pero condicionada a que éstas den pasos "verificables" hacia la democracia.En un encuentro sobre la situación política en Cuba organizado en Bruselas por la fundación Konrad Adenauer, Fox sostuvo que la transición política en la isla sólo pueden marcarla los propios cubanos, pero que el resto del mundo debe "apoyarla".El actual copresidente de la Internacional Demócrata de Centro (IDC), citó a México, Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea como los actores más importantes con vistas a "acompañar" una posible evolución hacia la democracia en Cuba.Dio por sentado que en la isla hay "el mismo espíritu libertario, democrático, que se respira en América Latina", así como líderes potenciales y formaciones opositoras para iniciar un proceso hacia la democracia y la "economía de mercado con responsabilidad".En esta coyuntura, abogó por ofrecer "una oportunidad a la razón, el diálogo, la negociación" con las autoridades cubanas, pero supeditando todo ello a que haya "avances verificables" desde el punto de vista de las libertades y los derechos fundamentales.Puso como ejemplo el embargo económico estadounidense a la isla, del que dijo que "no ha sido una política adecuada", pero cuya retirada ahora "sólo tendría sentido" si La Habana responde con decisiones aperturistas.En su opinión, una buena herramienta para ello es la "cláusula democrática" que la Unión Europea impone a los países con los que suscribe acuerdos de asociación, y que, según dijo, tuvo un papel "determinante en el proceso de transición en México".Fox consideró que la situación de Cuba constituye una excepción en América Latina, donde "la libertad, la democracia y la economía de mercado ejercida con responsabilidad, funcionan bien".No obstante, alertó de la "regresión democrática que se está viviendo en algunos de sus países".La intervención de Fox se produjo en el encuentro "Quo Vadis, Cuba - Escenarios de la transición tras la era Castro", que reúne durante dos días en Bruselas a dirigentes de la oposición cubana y políticos conservadores europeos, y donde prevé intervenir mañana el coordinador de EEUU para la Transición en Cuba, Caleb McCarry.En el acto de hoy, el eurodiputado español del Partido Popular José Manuel García-Margallo, avanzó que su grupo prevé promover una resolución en el Parlamento Europeo que exija supeditar la relación con Cuba a los avances democráticos, antes de que los gobiernos de la UE revisen el próximo junio su posición común sobre la isla.García-Margallo auguró que el Gobierno español del socialista José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero tratará en la revisión de "dulcificar" la posición común europea.Por su parte, el portavoz del PP en el Parlamento Europeo, Jaime Mayor Oreja, subrayó que los ciudadanos cubanos serán los "verdaderos protagonistas" de una posible transición en la isla.EFE
Murdering Reporters Doesn’t Kill the Truth
KATIA SIBERIA GARCIA
The truth can be costly. And even so, there are those aware of the danger that take the risks and succeed or die. Latin America hasn’t been exempt to these deaths and has a history of committed and courageous journalism. THE PANELISTS WARNED ABOUT THE USE OF FALSE NEWS ITEMS CAPABLE OF STARTING BILATERAL CONFLICTS.The colloquium "Respecting the Life of Journalists," held Monday at the International Journalism Institute in Havana, dealt precisely with that topic. The date marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Ecuadorian journalist Carlos Bastidas, the last reporter killed in Cuba.The panelists discussed the murders of 15 journalists on the American continent and expressed their indignation over the impunity of those crimes.One of the keynote speakers was Peter Phillips a sociologist from the University of Sonoma who heads "Project Censured," a series of articles about events ignored by the mainstream media. Phillips noted that 1,700 US newspapers and 5,000 radio stations ignore the cases of torture in Iraq, the reality of 9/11 or the military plans in Latin America. He said only a very small minority mention these issues and then forget about them. The panelists dealt with the manipulated freedom of expression and coincided on the US media’s dependence on the military industrial complex.Universi Zambrano, Ecuador’s ambassador to Cuba, expressed his gratitude for the tribute to Bastidas and recalled his example in the search for the truth.Present for the colloquium were Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, president of the Cuban parliament; Tubal Paez, president of the Cuban Journalists Association (UPEC); Ecuadorian leaders; journalists from Cuba and Ecuador, and relatives of Carlos Bastidas who warned how the circulating of false news is capable of unleashing a bilateral crisis.
ALBA Environmental Meeting Opens in Nicaragua
MANAGUA — Members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) began a technical meeting on their environmental problems in Nicaragua on Monday. Roberto Araquistain, vice minister of the Environment of Nicaragua (MARENA), told Prensa Latina that the delegations attending the meeting will focus on three types of projects: forestry and water, urban and rural clean up, and the integral management of watersheds.Attending the meeting are delegations from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and as guests, from Panama and the Dominican Republic.Araquistain said there are already projects that will be backed with financing from the ALBA.In the case of Nicaragua, he said the government is determined to obtain funds to carry out clean-up projects in the Lake of Nicaragua, reported PL.The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, known by its Spanish acronym ALBA, is a regional integration effort that currently has Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Dominica as member nations. The ALBA stresses fraternity among sister nations, solidarity, mutually beneficial trade and social development.
U.S Project Censored Exchanges With Cuban Journalists during Havana Conference
HAVANA (acn) The director of U.S Project Censored, Peter Philips, is in Cuba attending a three-day conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the murder in Havana of Ecuadorian Journalist Carlos Bastidas and Freedom of the Press Day, an event called by UNESCO. During the Havana Conference, which was attended on Monday by Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, Philips addressed participants about the work of the media in the United States. He explained how corporate media silences lots of stories which are in the main interest of the US people. He said, unpublished details on 9-11, and the case of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters held in US prisons, among other stories, are very clear examples. Founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, Project Censored is a media research program with the Sonoma State University, working in cooperation with numerous independent media groups in the US.Through a partnership of faculty, students, and the community, Project Censored conducts research on important national news stories that are underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media. Each year, Project Censored publishes a ranking of the top 25 most censored nationally important news stories in the yearbook, Censored: Media Democracy in Action, which is released in September, according to the project’s website.The three-day Conference on Free Press Rights that began Monday in Havana comes to a close on Wednesday. It is dedicated to Ecuadorian reporter Carlos Bastidas Arguello, who was the last journalist murdered in Cuba, May 13, 1958, at the hands of a henchman of the former Fulgencio Batista dictatorship. Bastidas was 23 when he traveled to Cuba as a special correspondent to cover events related to the guerrilla fight led by Fidel Castro and rebel troops on the Sierra Maestra Mountain Range. The Conference is being attended by the President of the Cuban Union of Journalists Tubal Paez and other executives, plus a large number of reporters and journalists from Cuba and Ecuador. According to Project Censored website, www.projectcensored.org, the top 25 censored stories for 2008, out of more than 700 include: No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”, Bush Moves Toward Martial Law, AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa’s Resources, among others on the list.
The Americana Project - Cuba (video)
(Very emotional. Very true to life. Real Cubans in their real home.)- http://www.pangeaday.org/filmDetail.php?id=2,
A young man returns home to his family in Cuba for the first time in 13years - and experiences a greater divide than just distance.Topaz Adizes has traveled to over 40 countries. He is fluent in English andHebrew. He has lived and worked abroad in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, andEngland. After studying philosophy at UC Berkeley and Oxford, he traveledthroughout Australia, India, Israel, and Scandanavia filming andinterviewing people along the way. He settled in New York City in October2001. He has directed television in Mexico City and penned four featurescripts.
Mysteries of the Cuban Adjustment Act http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/84694,
USAID replaces corrupt Franco with ex-CANF capo
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Granma International staff writer—• IN order to "solve" the systematic fraud uncovered in its accounts by a General Accountability Office (GAO) investigation a few months back, the USAID has replaced the corrupt official Adolfo Franco with none other than José Cárdenas, a former director of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), the organization that was most aided by the squandering of federal funds in fraudulent operations. - http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/mayo/mar13/franco.html,
Brent Scowcroft: US-Cuba Embargo Makes No Sense - http://thehavananote.com/2008/05/brent_scowcroft_uscuba_embargo.html,
During a taping session for a new book I am involved with titled America and the World featuring the Washington Post's David Ignatius interviewing former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, I asked Brent Scowcroft whether he thought the US embargo of Cuba made any sense.His answer was blunt. He said in foreign policy terms, "no" and implied that US-Cuba policy was a domestic issue, somewhat disdainfully in my view.Watch the tape above, but this is what Brent Scowcroft said:My answer on Cuba is Cuba is not a foreign policy question. Cuba is a domestic issue.In foreign policy, the embargo makes no sense.It doesn't do anything.It's quite clear we can not starve Cuba to death.We learned that when the Soviet stopped subsidizing Cuba and they didn't collapse.It's a domestic issue.
Libertad de prensa y Medios
Comentario a tiempoSituación del periodismo en México (I)
http://www.argenpress.info/nota.asp?num=054973&Parte=1,
Texas trade trip to Cuba headed by agriculture commissioner
Staples poised to lead first high-level visit from Texas since embargo of 1962 http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/05/14/0514cuba.html,
Cuba Manages Without Advertising
http://www.periodico26.cu/english/features/cuba-advertising051108.html,
Holguin Hosts International Congress on Natural and Traditional Medicine
-ahora.co.cu
Professionals from over a dozen countries will participate in the Sixth International Congress on Natural and Traditional medicine and the First Symposium of Pain Treatment with non-pharmacological techniques, takes place from July 9 to 12 at the “Mariana Grajales” Medical Institute of Holguin.Outstanding doctors from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Salvador, Spain, Japan, China and Cuba, have confirmed their participation in the event. The program of activities for the meeting includes conferences on various subjects and techniques of natural and bio-energetic medicine as well as the presentation by Dr. Augustine Mulet (Cuba) with his thesis “Sophrology and stress” and Drs. Omar Arriaza Klog (Argentina) and Q. Sisson Hill (USA), who will present the topic “The energy and the magic of chiropractice”. ”Sleep as an alternative to integrative medicine” by the Ecuadorian Mario Pazmiño; “The Role of the Physiotherapist working with Acupuncture in Public Health” by the Brazilian Paulo Cromoco and the work “Synergetic: A Synthesis of Medicine” by Luis Marquez, from Mexico will also be for debate at the event. The development of post-graduate courses and post-congress workshops are also anticipated from July 14 to 18.
El sistema represivo imperial contra nuestras naciones
La adaptación al siglo XXI de la vieja Doctrina de la Seguridad Nacional http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=67387,
Cubadisco 2008 mirará la música africana
Dieciocho ministros de Cultura de países africanos han confirmado su participación en la fiesta del disco cubano
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cultura/2008-05-14/cubadisco-2008-mirara-la-musica-africana/,
Producen nuevos medicamentos en Santiago de Cuba
La Empresa Laboratorio Farmacéutico de Oriente ahorrará más de medio millón de dólares anualmente al país, por sustitución de importacionesEduardo Palomares Calderón - TrabajadoresMás de medio millón de dólares ahorrará anualmente al país, por sustitución de importaciones, la producción de Alprazolam y Sulfato de Zinc, en la Empresa Laboratorio Farmacéutico de Oriente, radicada en Santiago de Cuba, a partir de lo concebido por un equipo multidisciplinario del Centro de Investigaciones y Desarrollo de Medicamentos (CIDEM), de Ciudad de La Habana.La ingeniera Julia Cleger Fortuna, directora de la unidad de tabletas del establecimiento santiaguero, señaló que ya fue completado el primer lote de Alprazolam (0.5mg), ascendente a 50 mil frascos contentivos de 30 pastillas cada uno, que tras el correspondiente control de calidad en laboratorio estará disponible en hospitales y la red farmacéutica.Este medicamento, precisó Antonio Iraizoz Barrios, investigador del CIDEM, está comprendido, junto al Diazepán y el Nitrazepán en la familia de los ansiolíticos, y según los especialistas su actual demanda de 2 millones de tabletas en la Isla debe elevarse ante la probada eficacia en el tratamiento de afecciones del sistema nervioso central.La propia institución científica capitalina está responsabilizada con el desarrollo de Sulfato de Zinc (10 mg), para el tratamiento de la Ataxia (enfermedad de alta incidencia en la provincia de Holguín), que en breve introducirá a escala industrial la entidad santiaguera.Julia Cleger agregó que ahora ascienden a 19 tipos diferentes las tabletas producidas para el cuadro básico de medicamentos del país por el colectivo que dirige, el cual con la instalación de nuevas máquinas troqueladoras y envasadoras está en condiciones de superar las 900 millones al año.Con una amplia experiencia, la unidad produce toda la Aspirina de 125 mg, y la Fenitoína demandada en la nación, así como la Dipirona asignada a la red hospitalaria, mientras que para la región oriental asegura entre otros el Fenobarbital, el Diazepán y el ampliamente consumido complejo vitamínicoNutri-Forte, presentados tanto en frascos como en blísters.
Guerra contra la intolerancia Entrevista con el narrador, poeta y periodista, Félix Guerra Pulido. http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/guerra-contra-la-intolerancia,
More Offshore Oil Drilling
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=410C4463-6A4B-4D9A-BEA9-1C62E70238F4,
Why Myanmar should fear us
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3285.shtml,
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