VACLAV HAVEL AND OTHERS SEND LETTER TO RAUL CASTRO
September 26, 2006 - Members of the International
Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC) have released a letter to
Raul Castro, the Temporary President of the Cuban Republic.
Entitled Transition, not Succession, the letter expresses
concern about recent changes within the highest power structures
in Havana and insists on the right of the Cuban people to
exercise their self determination through genuinely free
elections.The letter was signed by former presidents Armando
Calderon Sól (El Salvador), Václav Havel (Czech
Republic), Milan Kučan (Slovenia), Luis Alberto
Lacalle (Uruguay), Rexhep Meidani (Albania), Luis
Alberto Monge Alvarez (Costa Rica); former prime minister
Philip Dimitrov (Bulgaria) and former head of state
Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuania); Members of European
Parliament José Ribeiro e Castro (Portugal), Toomas
Hendrik Ilves (Estonia), Cecilia Malmström (Sweden),
former minister of foreign affairs Markus Meckel
(Germany); former member of parliament Ferenc Köszeg
(Hungary); former dissident Adam Michnik (Poland);
philosopher André Glucksmann (France) and Member of
Parliament Arnold Vaatz (Germany). The International
Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC) is a gathering of
prominent politicians and intellectuals founded by the former
Czech President Václav Havel. The ICDC was created in reaction
to the crackdown against the democratic opposition in Cuba in
March 2003 and its aim is to promote democratic change in Cuba
and seek support for the Cuban opposition. Members of the ICDC
include Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state of the
United States of America; Patricio Aylwin, former president of
Chile; José María Aznar, former prime minister of Spain; Elena
Bonner, former Soviet dissident; Arpad Gönz, former president of
Hungary; Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic;
Adam Michnik, former dissident and editor-in-chief of the daily
Gazeta Wyborcza; and others. The secretariat of ICDC is based in
People in Need. For more information see
www.icdcprague.org.
|
LABOR CONGRESS IN SESSION
Havana – With the
participation of more than 1,400 delegates, the Cuban unions controlled
by the government initiated a congress pretending to solve the
distressing problems facing the labor movement in that country, where
more than half-a-million workers have lost their jobs and the average
monthly salary hardly reaches 350 Cuban pesos (around $15 dollars), the
lowest in the whole continent. When the different commissions were in
session, the usual issues were brought up once again: lack of attention
to employees, low wages, few material resources –especially in the areas
of production- and apathy among the laborers to fulfill the productive
demands. With a labor population close to three million workers, this
congress of the so called Central Cuban Workers Union does not have any
answer to the low productivity, the unemployment, the dismantling of
hundreds of factories and the more and more reduced sugar cane crops.
HOUSING NOT BUILT
Havana – The Cuban population was recently informed that
the construction of some 100 thousand houses promised by Castro’s
government won’t be possible, according to Vice President Carlos Lage.
In the island, more than half-a-million of houses are in a
semi-destroyed condition, other 300 thousand are about to collapse and
hardly 10 per cent of the housing can be considered in good shape. The
government had promised the construction of some 100 thousand living
quarters per year, to turn them to more than two hundred thousand
families living in shelters and replace those structures in danger of
collapsing. But Lage expressed that hardly seventy thousand houses will
be built, of which 50 per cent will be for officers and ¨outstanding¨
government workers. He didn’t make any comments on the urgent
reconstruction needed for thousands of buildings in the capital,
presently in danger of caving-in.
DENGUE EPIDEMIC CONTINUES
Havana – Even the dengue epidemic ravaging Cuba for more
than two months has caused some one hundred victims, according to
independent sources, for the first time, the official press has made
reference to any measures taken to control the epidemic which covers the
whole Cuban territory. Granma newspaper, official organ of the
Communist Party, pointed out that the neighborhoods afflicted are
fumigated every day, especially in the capital, where more than twenty
thousand people have been infected. Other provinces, as Ciego de Avila
and Santiago de Cuba, also report a high contamination index.
NO WORKERS FOR THE SUGAR CANE CROP
Camagüey – The lack of sugar cane cutters is endangering
the next sugar crop in Cuba, as declared through local radio by Roberto
Bermúdez, Communist Party officer and representative of the sugar cane
industry in this province. Bermúdez indicated that thousands of regular
workers were needed in order to complete the manual cut brigades that
can guarantee the beginning of the harvest, at the end of November. The
lack of clothing, adequate food and better salaries conspire against
recruiting the necessary labor force to work in the sugar cane fields.
BASIC FOOD MISSING
Santiago de Cuba – The lack of basic nutrition fare in
the last quarterly is practically keeping the local population in a
state of neurosis, as expressed by independent journalist Juan Uribe.
Uribe indicated to Carta de Cuba that in the months of June, July
and August, the specific milk and meat quotas assigned for the sick, as
well as the greases and sugar, have been very irregularly delivered. ¨In
the month of June, the children in Santiago did not receive any fresh
milk, and the ailing people are three months behind the chicken meat
fare they have been prescribed¨, said the independent journalist.
MORE STRICT LABOR REGULATIONS
Havana – New labor regulations, with more strict
disciplinary measures, will be enforced in Cuba, since the month of
January. Their objective is not only trying to revitalize discipline,
but to raise controls on the still subsisting private jobs, such as in
public transportation, housing construction and lease, and the sale of
fish and agricultural products to the population.
De nuestros lectores
20 de diciembre de 2006
13 de diciembre de 2006
6 de diciembre de 2006
RSF Protesta en París
29 de noviembre de 2006
22 de noviembre de 2006
15 de noviembre de 2006
8 de noviembre de 2006
1 de noviembre de 2006
25 de octubre de 2006
18 de octubre de 2006
11 de octubre de 2006
4 de octubre de 2006
27 de septiembre de 2006
20 de septiembre de 2006
13 de septiembre de 2006
6 de septiembre de 2006
30 de agosto de 2006
23 de agosto de 2006
16 de agosto de 2006
9 de agosto de 2006
2 de agosto de 2006
26 de julio de 2006
19 de julio de 2006
Carlos Franqui presenta libro
12 de julio de 2006
5 de julio de 2006
28 de junio de 2006
21 de junio de 2006
14 de junio de 2006
10 de junio
7 de junio de 2006
31 de mayo de 2006
24 de mayo de 2006
17 de mayo de 2006
10 de mayo de 2006
3 de mayo de 2006
26 de abril de 2006
19 de abril de 2006
12 de abril de 2006
5 de abril de 2006
29 de marzo de 2006
22 de marzo de 2006
Beisbol Cubano
15 de marzo de 2006
8 de marzo de 2006
1 de marzo de 2006
22 de febrero de 2006
15 de febrero de 2006
Agredidos periodistas en Puerto Rico
8 de febrero de 2006
1 de febrero de 2006
25 de enero de 2006
18 de enero de 2006
11 de enero de 2006
4 de enero de 2006
Escrito en Cuba
Más apoyo a Cuba desde Europa
Desde la prisión
Víctimas represión
La Zafra 2003-2004
Velorio de Carmen Regla
El Benjamín
¿Qué harán en Cuba?
"Palabras con Luz"
Análisis de un año
Recordando a "los 3 negritos"
Patología Aberrante
Cambiar la forma de reprimir
"Decencia" Policial
Debuta la ley 88
El estoicismo de un preso
La amnistía, opción inmediata
De mal en peor
"Mercenarios" en bancarrota
Podrían repetirse casos?
A diez años de la muerte de Eliseo Diego
El trueque
Febrero, mes de crimenes y heroes
Tributo a Martí
Peticion circula
Algo para recordar
Cubanos nada mas
Cronica postuma
Riesgo y miseria de invertir en Cuba
Diccionario de la "revolución"