Bolivian president-elect visits Cuba

Dec. 31, 2005, 1:29AM
Bolivian president-elect visits Cuba

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press



HAVANA - Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales and Fidel Castro gathered late Friday with scores of young Bolivians studying here as the Indian nationalist began reaching out to other government leaders even before he takes office.

The same students, many of whom attend Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine on full scholarships from the communist government, were on hand early Friday to joyfully greet their future president when he received full honors upon his arrival.

Bolivia's socialist president-elect got a greeting reserved for heads of state when he arrived in communist Cuba on Friday: a red carpet, a military band and a smiling Fidel Castro.

Stepping off the plane sent to pick him up in Bolivia, Morales said his trip to the Caribbean island was "a gesture of friendship to the Cuban people."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3557175.html
(Free registration required)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castro welcomes Bolivia's new socialist leader
Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:36 PM ET

By Marc Frank
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro and Latin America's latest leftist leader, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, announced on Friday plans to increase cooperation between the two countries after a day of talks in Havana.

A beaming Castro greeted Morales at the Havana airport with a warm embrace Friday morning. The two men have known each other for years.

"It appears the map is changing, but one has to be reflective," Castro told reporters at the airport.

The two leaders signed a joint communique late Friday in which Cuba pledged to train 5000 Bolivian doctors and provide eye treatment to 50,000 Bolivians each year.

The agreement, which also included promises to develop cooperation in many other areas such as education and energy, was signed in the presence of 250 Bolivian medical students already enrolled in Cuba.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-31T023551Z_01_KNE109332_RTRUKOC_0_US-SJ-CUBA-BOLIVIA.xml&archived=False

And start murdering those uppity elected peasants
just like the good 'ol days of slaughtering 100's of thousands
in the Philippines of 1898.

Protecting (corporate) u.s. imperial interests.

El Salvador, etc,etc,etc.

Paging the NY Times, Paging the NY Times.

Better bet that FAUX will give us the lastest of these two evil empires, eh?

Che wins Bolivia.

Fuck you, Felix Rodriguez.

about these guys...they sound awfully threatening...

1) Morales wants to convert the coca trade and feed a miserably poor country with receipts from it's natural gas
2) Chevaz wants to distribute much needed oil and gas to the poor of the Americas
3) Castro practically closes the entire Cuban tourist industry, foregoing millions in need foreign revenue, to make poor people see again.

Yeah, they are a threat and a threat to a helluva lot more people in the west than fascist Cuban exiles and foreign corporations.

These guys are really an embarassment to so-called 'social democrats' of the west who seem to think 'position', 'process', 'partisanship' and lifestyle choice are good substitutes for informed political principles and moral constitency.

Hell, these three guys have tossed out more progressive and popular ideas in the last ten years than the entire Western Left Establishment has in the last 50 years.

"3) Castro practically closes the entire Cuban tourist industry, foregoing millions in need foreign revenue, to make poor people see again."


Please explain. Just when did this happen?

Just ask the Canadians, English, and German population that flock to Cuba during the winter months. it is our government that closed the door to Cuban trade and travel...

Or whatever it was called. Where they helped poor people see again, and let them stay in the hotels.

Odd, this story got no coverage in the MSM, why is that? (Hey, it's just a rhetorical question)

<snip>

For Castro, Operation Miracle is socialism in action. For the rest of us, it is about South-South co-operation th poor hlping th poor. It is an alternative, in the spirit of Venezuela's Bolivarian Alternative of Latin America (ALBA), to the self-serving free trade favoured by the Christian west, because it emphasises sustainable human development and job creation. The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the WTO are not miracles. They are more like turning wine into water.

Jesus did the best he could. He fed the 5,000. But in 10 years, 4.5 million people will benefit under Operation Miracle. It is a miracle of human effort. In a single day, Cuban doctors once performed 1,648 eye operations, which must be a world record for any country. It is a miracle of sacrifice. Cuba has closed many hotels to tourists despite the need for foreign exchange because of Bush's embargo against remittances. Those hotels house the thousands of poor people waiting for operations. It is a miracle of human economy. Cuba has more doctors per population than the U.S. or the U.K.

Operation Miracle is also a miracle of government-to-government co-operation. Cuban doctors operate for free and Venezuela pays for the flights, accommodation, and food for the patients. At the same time, 17, 000 Cuban doctors help out in Venezuela's free National Health Service. Cuban doctors also work in 69 countries and if we in Jamaica can provide room space, more of them will be able to do more operations here.


<more>

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/18/111529/86

.. where the DU Cubaphobes come outta the woodwork (with the usual 'Castro this & Castro that' mewling & braying).

Here,

-Castro's 'miracle' cures the poor of blindness-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1993431

and what may heat up to become an interesting little war that Rummy and Bush* could easily sell to the American people .

Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continue to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Again, just a rhetorical question.


Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy

by Conn Hallinan


November 24, 2005


It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .

Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

<snip>

The base is crawling with U.S. civilians—many of them retired military—working for Military Professional Resources Inc., Virginia Electronics, DynCorp, Lockheed Martin (the world's largest arms maker), Northrop Grumman, TRW, and dozens of others.

It was U.S. intelligence agents working out of Manta who fingered Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader Ricardo Palmera last year, and several leaders of the U.S.-supported coup against Haitian President Bertram Aristide spent several months there before launching the 2004 coup that exiled Aristide to South Africa.

“Privatizing” war is not only the logical extension of the Bush administration's mania for contracting everything out to the private sector; it also shields the White House's activities from the U.S. Congress. “My complaint about the use of private contractors,” says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), “is their ability to fly under the radar to avoid accountability.”

<more>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

that the embargo doesn't harm Cubans. I just stumbled across some interesting points which might be helpful when the situation arises again:

The State Department claims that "The US embargo on Cuba affects only US companies and their subsidiaries. Other nations and companies are free to trade with Cuba."5 This is untrue. First, the restrictions on sea and air traffic noted earlier significantly hinder the movement of medical supplies even from non-US companies. Second, if a product from a non-US company contains more than 10% of a US component, it is subject to the same embargo restrictions as US products. Third, the Helms­Burton Act and the potential loss of US aid serve as strong disincentives to foreign investors.

Non-US companies have a limited range of critical pharmaceutical products to sell, since roughly 50% of the most important drugs on the world market are controlled by US manufacturers or their subsidiaries.1,2 The tightening of the embargo, together with recent acquisitions of foreign drug manufacturers by US companies10 has severely limited access to essential medical supplies in Cuba; these include cardiac pacemakers, numerous drugs and diagnostic agents.1,2 There are numerous well-documented cases in which Cuba has been forced to seek new suppliers of critical medical products on short notice because a US company merged with or acquired a foreign medical company.1,2
(snip)

The American public deserve the facts from their government, not blatant propaganda based on cooked statistics. Honest government and informed decision-making require the truthful presentation of relevant data. To do less not only further isolates the US in its Cuban policy, but also undermines the very foundations of democracy. The US State Department is promulgating information about the US embargo that is demonstrably false. But there is more at stake here than the truth. By blocking access to the basic necessities of life in the midst of a severe economic depression, the US government is contributing directly to a significant increase in suffering and premature death within a civilian population just 90 miles south of its border.
(snip/...)

http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/cdn_medical_association/cmaj/vol-157/issue-3/0281.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for posting the D.U. link.

for foreign exchange because of Bush's embargo against remittances".

But isn't that sacrilege against the great God, Mammon? Lese-majeste, even?

George Bush and his Republican fundamentalists are more fascinated by the miracle of power, particularly military power and its ability to blast limb and life from people. Operation Miracle, on the other hand, is about the power of miracle, specifically the miracle of the human spirit, in doing good to others. Cuba and Venezuela have made this more than theology. They have made it reality.
(snip/...)

Very pointed, and accurate remark. So glad to see it!

and provide eye treatment to 50,000 Bolivians each year."

I assume that Bolivia trading natural gas.

This economic exchange is taking place without dollars.
hmm...

"The two leaders signed a joint communique late Friday in which Cuba pledged to train 5000 Bolivian doctors and provide eye treatment to 50,000 Bolivians each year."

Two countries choosing justice and equity over exploitation and US appeasement. I can't get enough of it.

...fussing and fritting about Castro's Cuba, a new Latin America is coming about. And I have this sneaking suspicion that US plans for a "post-Castro" Cuba will never come to pass. I don't think anyone in Latin America is going to be looking forward to a return to Bautista-style governments of servitude to robber barons, well, except the robber barons, and who cares what they think.

That is when Cubans voted for a parliamentary system of democracy and have had democratic representation since.


http://www.poptel.org.uk/cuba-solidarity/democracy.htm

This system in Cuba is based upon universal adult suffrage for all those aged 16 and over. Nobody is excluded from voting, except convicted criminals or those who have left the country. Voter turnouts have usually been in the region of 95% of those eligible .

There are direct elections to municipal, provincial and national assemblies, the latter represent Cuba's parliament.

Electoral candidates are not chosen by small committees of political parties. No political party, including the Communist Party, is permitted to nominate or campaign for any given candidates.

You can read a short version of the Cuban system here,
http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQDemocracy.html

http://members.allstream.net/~dchris/CubaFAQ018.html


Or a long and detailed version here,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0968508405/qid=1053879619/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8821757-1670550?v=glance&s=books

Cuba, Bolivia to strengthen co-op despite US worries

www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-01 11:13:14

HAVANA, Dec. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales said on Saturday their countries will strengthen bilateral cooperation despite U.S. worries about more nations allying with Cuba.

The two leaders announced a 30-month plan to erase illiteracy in Bolivia.

Havana also agreed to provide free eye operations to up to 50,000 Bolivians with vision problems and 5,000 full scholarships for Bolivian youths to study medicine in Cuba.

During his visit to Cuba for no more than 24 hours, Morales stressed his desire to boost the ties with Castro and other leaders in the region.
(snip/...)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/01/content_3996539.htm