AIN

Successful Visit by Chinese President Featured on Cuban TV

By Roberto Perez Betancourt

Havana, Nov 24 (AIN) The highly successful 2-day visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Havana was the topic of the Tuesday evening edition of The Round Table program.

Extensive footage with the highlights of President Hu’s stay on the Caribbean island included the colorful ceremony where Cuban President Fidel Castro decorated the distinguished visitor with the “Jose Marti Order,” the highest distinction awarded by the Cuban state.

In making the award, Fidel stated that the People’s Republic of China has become the most promising hope and the best example for the Third World nations, and affirmed that it is already the chief engine of the global economy.

He further noted that the friendship between Cuba and China is an example of transparency and peaceful cooperation between two nations that sustain the ideal of socialism.

In expressing his gratitude for such recognition, President Hu emphasized that through joint efforts it is possible to further develop the mutual ties of friendship and cooperation between Beijing and Havana.

The Round Table also highlighted the ceremony on Monday evening, when the two leaders presided over the signing of sixteen agreements including joint business ventures in agriculture, telecommunications, biotechnology, tourism and the light industry.

The analysts affirmed that the extensive agreements reached during the official visit of the Chinese leader show clear support of Cuba as it strives for economic and social development despite the brutal 45-year US blockade on the island.

During his visit to Havana, President Hu spoke at the First China-Cuba Trade and Investment Forum where some 200 business people from the two countries met to discuss ways to continue expanding commerce between their nations.

Excerpts from Hu’s speech to the Forum were broadcast on The Round Table as well as well as the speech made by Raul Castro. On Tuesday President Hu visited the University of Computer Sciences, where he learned of the Cuban achievements in that field and talked to students.

The Peoples Republic of China is the third leading trade partner of Cuba, after Venezuela and Spain, and according to experts wide reaching horizons have been opened to increase business between the two nations.

Hu Jintao visited Havana on the last leg of an important Latin America tour that included Brazil, Argentina and Chile, were several trade and economic agreements that included multi- billion dollar investments were signed.

The Round Table provided ample information on the media coverage of President Hu’s trip to Latin America and excerpts from Chinese television’s Spanish language news programs were shown.

The Chinese leader arrived in Havana on Monday and departed on Tuesday evening.

In his first state visit to Cuba he was bid farewell at Jose Marti International airport by First Vice President Raul Castro, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and other top Cuban officials.

Cuba was the first nation of the Americas to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, on September 28, 1960, and the history of both nations coincides in the struggle against colonialism and the construction of socialism.

In recent years President Fidel Castro traveled on two occasions to China, a nation that in fifty-five years has achieved an impressive development that benefits its more than 1.3 billion people.

Fond Farewell Bid to Chinese President Following Visit to Cuba

By Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver

Havana, Nov 24 (AIN) China’s president was sent off Tuesday evening by Cuban First Vice President Raul Castro after concluding a successful two-day state visit to the Caribbean nation.

At the international airport, the two leaders greeted the official delegations attending the high-level encounter which demonstrated the excellent relations between the two countries.

Among the host of high level officials making up the Cuban delegation were Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque; Cuban Communist Party Political Bureau member Jose Ramon Machado Ventura; and Carlos Lage, vice-president of the state council;.

China’s embassy-officials in Havana, representatives of the Chinese-Cuban community and the local Wushu association also saw the Chinese president off.

On the last day of his visit, the Chinese leader was awarded the Order of Jose Marti by Cuban President Fidel Castro and was recognized as a “Person of the Future” by the Computer Science University at a meeting with professors and students of the institution.

The program scheduled for President Hu included a visit to the Jose Marti Monument, where he placed a floral wreath, and a tour of the City Museum in Havana.

While on the island, the Chinese delegation took part in the Cuba-China Investment and Commerce Forum, where representatives from 200 enterprises of the two countries participated.

Low Prevalence of AIDS in Cuba Highlighted by United Nations

Havana, Nov 24 (AIN) A report issued by the office for the Joint United Nations Program on Aids, in Havana, indicates that Cuba is an exception in the incidence of AIDS in the Caribbean.

The document attributes this success to the policy of admission of patients to specialized centers, assumed by the country since the 1980’s, and the universal access to anti-retroviral therapy, reports Granma daily.

A statistical analysis made by the Cuban Public Health Ministry shows that the population sector most affected is that between the ages of 35 to 44 years, following those between 20 to 24, while there is stability in the age group between 14 to 19 years.

This year the World AIDS Day, to be held on December 1, will focus attention on women, to emphasize the vulnerability of women in the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.

Argentinean Solidarity Activists Demand Release of the Cuban Five

Havana, Nov 24 (AIN) Groups from Argentina and the United States characterized President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorist campaign as “hypocritical” in relation to the case of five Cuban political prisoners incarcerated in the United States for fighting terrorism.

Meeting in a hotel in Buenos Aires, the solidarity activists referred to the five Cubans—Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez—as the only political prisoners in the United States who have the support of over 11 million Cubans and thousands of people around the world, according to Wednesday’s edition of the Granma newspaper.

The anti-terrorist fighters, internationally known as the “Cuban Five,” were arrested in 1998 for gathering information on terrorist activities planned against the island by right-wing Cuban-American organizations within the United States.

In an emotional action aimed at the release of the five, solidarity activists Alicia Jrapko and Bill Hackwell—both members of the National Free the Five Committee in the United States—talked about President Bush’s double standards.

Jrapko and Hackwell said if it were not for the vital work of these five anti-terrorist fighters and others like them over the past 45 years, the Cuban Revolution would have not resisted or survived the hostile policies its powerful northern neighbor.

They added that Gerardo, Ramon, Fernando, Antonio and Rene do not consider themselves heroes; on the contrary, the five say that there are many Cubans like themselves willing to give their lives for a just cause.