[NYTr] Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - August 23, 2007 Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:50:15 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Progreso Weekly - Aug 23, 2007 http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=1 Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - August 23, 2007 A Radio Progreso Alternativa Havana Bureau service * New law holds officials accountable for corruption * US violates migration agreements and more * The Cuban Five should be liberated, says Chilean judge * Dean spared Cuba, though measures had been taken * Cuban aid sent to Peru * Demand for a single currency Translated for Progreso Weekly by GermC!n Piniella * New law holds officials accountable for corruption On September 1, 2007, new measures will be in force to prevent corruption and increase discipline at the workplace. The last edition of the countrybs government journal announced that a new law will make officials accountable for corruption and indiscipline, even if said officials are not directly responsible. It also mentioned sanctions in relation to unjustified absence and unpunctuality at production and service centers. According to Decree 251 on August 2, signed by acting President RaC:l Castro, bdisciplinary measures are imposed in a direct manner and effective immediately.b * US violates migration agreements and more A declaration issued by the Cuban Foreign Ministry on August 21 denounces U.S. violations of the migratory agreements signed in 1994 and 1995. The issue is the granting of political asylum by the government of Hungary to 29 illegal emigrants who, after being captured by the US Coast Guard, were taken to GuantC!namo Naval Base, a U.S. occupied territory in Eastern Cuba. The declaration quotes reports by Reuters news agency that b17 (of 44 persons captured in international waters) held a 3-week hunger strike protesting conditions of their arrest and demanding to be taken to the United States (b&) Hungary guaranteed asylum to 29 of them, while the United States will pay house rent, winter clothes and language courses during one year. (...) Other five will receive U.S. visas and some are waiting permission from another country (...)b The Cuban declaration mentions that the signed agreements between both governments force the U.S. to return bCuban emigrants intercepted on the high seas by the United States attempting to enter the United States b& Likewise emigrants who try to enter GuantC!namo Naval Base illegally will also be returned to Cubab. But Havana mentions a thorn on the side of Cuba linked to U.S. intervention in the war of independence that Cubans had waged for 30 years against Spanish colonial power. bWhen they decided to send them to their illegal GuantC!namo Naval Base, they violate even the illegitimate Agreement for Coal and Naval Stations imposed on Cuba in 1903, in which [the U.S.] committed textually bto do all that is necessary to put such places in condition of being exclusively used as coal or naval stations and for no other purposeb.b The base has served not only as haven for Cubans captured on the high seas by U.S. patrol boats, but has been turned into a prison for hundreds of alleged terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda. * The Cuban Five should be liberated, says Chilean judge Respected and well-known Chilean judge Juan GuzmC!n told Cuban TV that the Cuban Five, who are serving harsh prison terms in the U.S., should be set free. bIt was clear that Miami was not an adequate venue for the trial, because jurors felt pressured, and even frightened,b GuzmC!n said in a telephone interview with the Cuban TV program Round Table. GuzmC!n, who won fame for being the first to indict former dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile, attended a hearing on the Fivebs case at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Together with GuzmC!n many important international and local jurists were present. He said that the defense for Gerardo HernC!ndez, RenC) GonzC!lez, Fernando GonzC!lez, Antonio Herrero and RamC3n LavaC1ino stressed the U.S. governmentbs improper conduct at the trial: bThere was no fairness nor objectiveness on the part of jury members,b who were biased due to pressures by the prosecution, he added. In relation to the three-judge panel, GuzmC!n said that bif they want to sleep with a clean conscience, they should exonerate them, free the Five.b * Dean spared Cuba, though measures had been taken Hurricane Dean passed south of Cuba without too many repercussions -- although it caused some harm, particularly in the southern region of the eastern part of the island, some 70 kilometers north of Jamaica, where the powerful storm raged. At the province of Santiago de Cuba, some 850 kilometers east of Havana, there were damages in tourist facilities and a coastal highway was cut at several points due to powerful waves. There was also damage to housing and locations high up in the Sierra Maestra Mountains which were cut off due to intense rains. In the eastern province of Granma a stretch of highway was under water as much as 100 meters from the coast. Cubabs Civil Defense System, highly regarded by international organizations, was set in motion with the first reports of Deanbs course and evacuated some 300,000 people to safe and well conditioned facilities. It also protected warehouses and vulnerable work centers, and protected the harvesting of food products that otherwise would have been lost. * Cuban aid sent to Peru Sources at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations confirmed to Radio Progreso Alternativa that Cubabs government has set up two field hospitals at the region struck by the earthquake that cost the life of more than 500 people. The hospitals are equipped with intensive care units, surgery rooms and X-Rays. Aid to countries struck by natural disasters is a regular practice by the Cuban government. * Demand for a single currency Dissident sources report that a small and little known opponent group is collecting signatures in favor of eliminating the circulation of two different currencies in the Island. The signed petition will be submitted to the National Assembly of Popular Power, the Cuban legislative branch of government. Two different currencies circulate in Cuba, the Cuban peso and the convertible peso (CUC), the latter equivalent to $1.08 USD. Many products and services are only available in CUCs, but they can be bought at the official rate of 25 Cuban pesos each. Cubans receive an average salary of 320 Cuban pesos. * ================================================================= .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org . List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ . Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================