HavanaReporterYEAR VIINº 24DEC 26, 2017HAVANA, CUBAISSN 2224-5707Price: 1.00 CUC1.00 USD1.20 CAN

Y O U R S O U R C E O F N E W S & M O R EA Bimonthly Newspaper of the Prensa Lat ina News Agency

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Cuba’s Enchanted Isle of Youth New Cuban Swine Fever Vaccine Altuve and Rojas, The Year´s Best Athletes

Tourism Health & Science Sports

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The Cuban Revolution Lives on, 59 Years Strong

* H A P P Y 2 0 1 8 *

President: Luis Enrique González.Information Vice President: Hector Miranda.Editorial Vice President: Lianet AriasChief Editor: Luis MelianTranslation: Dayamí Interian/ Sean J. Clancy/Yanely Interián

HavanaReporterTHE

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2 TOURISM

HAVANA.- Previously known as Isla del Tesoro and Isla de Pinos —Treasure and Pines Island respectively in English— and now named Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), this picturesque and fascinating Caribbean island is the ideal spot for ecotourism enthusiasts.

Isla de la Juventud is Cuba’s second largest island, covering an area of 3,056 square kilometers, and is one of more than 600 keys and islets of the south-western region’s Canarreos Archipelago, in the Gulf of Batabanó.

It lies some 50km south of the Cuban mainland and 162 km from Havana.

Historical documents indicate that the island´s original inhabitants called it Siguanea, Camarcó and Guanaja. until on June 13 1494 Christopher Columbus landed there during his second voyage to the New World and re-baptized it La Evangelista (The Evangelist).

Over the years it has been known variously as the Isla de las cotorras (Parrot Island) Colonia Reina Amalia (Queen Amalia Colony), Isla de los Piratas (Pirate Island) and perhaps most interestingly of all, Isla del Tesoro (Treasure Island).

During the 19th century the island was colonized by the Spanish and its capital, Nueva Gerona, was founded on December 17, 1830.

The island was also known as Isla de los Deportados (Deportees Island) and until 1978 as Isla de Pinos

It was then that thousands of young people from around the world descended there to study and it was granted its present Isla de la Juventud name.

During that same year, Cuba hosted the 11th World Federation of Democratic Youth’s (WFDY) World Youth Festival.

Those who studied there participated voluntarily in the cultivation of citrus fruits, an integral part of island life.

The island was the focus of a dispute between the United States and Cuba at the beginning of the last century until the U.S. conceded Cuba’s sovereignty in 1907 and the Hay-Quesada Treaty was ratified in 1925.

There are several sites of historical significance on the island, including the Abra farm where Cuba’s National Hero, José Martí, lived and a museum that was originally the Presidio Modelo prison, where participants in the 1953 Fidel Castro led assault on the Moncada Barracks were detained until 1955.

More than 79,000 people live on the island today and agriculture and the cultivation of citrus fruits in particular, marble quarrying, fishing and utilitarian and artisan ceramic making are the principal economic activities.

Isla de la Juventud is a unique and beautiful place and home to a variety of tourist attractions that are principally related to sea cruises, diving and fishing.

The Hotel Colony’s International Dive Center and the Cayo Largo del Sur tourist resort are jewels in the island´s crown.

Other places ideal for relaxation and recreation include the Playa Bibijagua beach with its famous black sands, the heavenly Cayo Largo del Sur tourist complex, Finca El Abra and the Punta del Este caves and their paintings.

On the southern side of the island there is an important bio-reserve wetland, known as Ciénaga de Lanier (Lanier Swamp).

Isla de la Juventud’s famously friendly and hospitable inhabitants and its stunning panoramic land and seascapes, make it the perfect place for that Caribbean holiday of your dreams.

Cuba’s Enchanted Isle of YouthText & photos by RobertoCAMPOS

Isle of YouthHavana

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HAVANA.- Few, if any, social or pro-independence processes could equal the persistence demonstrated by Cuba’s, in the face of constant hostility by the neighboring US government.

With its 60th anniversary of approaching, the Fidel Castro led revolution has been subjected to almost permanent aggressions from the United States, which predate even the declaration of its socialist character .

Such aggressions have spanned malicious and deceitful verbal attacks, defamatory campaigns and direct armed aggressions, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion by Pentagon backed mercenaries in April 1961 that was defeated in less than 72 hours.

In their endeavors to prevent a Rebel Army victory, the United States government had intensively supported the tyrannical dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, prior to January 1959.

The subsequent popular support for the implementation of revolutionary measures, such as the lowering of rents and the price of medications, the confiscation of monopolies such as the electricity and telephone companies and the first Agrarian Reform Act of 1959 which proscribed excessively large land holdings, drew the wrath of the White House down on Cuba’s new government.

Attempts to politically and diplomatically isolate the island accompanied the sponsorship of subversive acts of terrorism and sabotage, the hijacking of planes and ships, the infiltration of hostile agents, pirate raids and support for counterrevolutionary terrorist gangs in mountainous regions until they were finally defeated in 1965.

US backed aggressions have also included biological attacks on civilians, animals and crops that caused irreversible losses of life and economic damages amounting to millions of dollars.

Some specific examples are documented in a law suit entered on behalf of Cuban People against the Government of the United States for human and economic damages in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

An epidemic caused by the introduction of the etiological carrier of the type II dengue virus by US based anti-Castro groups, caused the deaths of 158 people, of which 101 were children, in 1981.

In 1978, the highly aggressive sugarcane rust plague severely damaged plantations nationwide and affected the prevalent and high yielding industrial Barbados-4362 variety in particular.

In 1971, 79 and 80, hundreds of pigs infected with African Swine Fever had to be slaughtered and Blue Mould destroyed over 85% of the nation’s economically vital tobacco plantations.

Assassination attempts also formed an integral part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s plan to deprive the Cuban revolution of its leadership.

Cuba’s State Security bodies have documented 637 plans or attempts to kill Fidel Castro alone.

The economic, commercial and financial blockade provides the clearest example of the White House and

Congress policies implemented by the United States on Cuba.

This instrument has been enforced and strengthened since February 1962, through a number of acts, regulations and executive decisions by 12 successive administrations.

The Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) Acts reinforced the Blockade’s unilateral and extraterritorial nature in attempts to undermine Cuba’s domestic stability and prevent trade through threats to sanction third countries.

A secret memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Lester D. Mallory dated April 6, 1960, unashamedly stated “…The majority of Cubans support Castro (…) the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship (…) by denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger and desperation to overthrow the government.”

Since 1992, Cuba has presented a draft resolution at the United Nations that summarizes the effects of this genocidal act on different sectors of the economic and social life of the country and calls for its immediate lifting.

In November 2017, 191 nations endorsed Cuba’s demand, leaving the United States and Israel alone and isolated in their opposition.

There was an explicit acknowledgment of the failure of this more than half a century old aggressive policy in the formal re-establishment of diplomatic relations on July 2015 .

The potential and actual benefits of mutually respectful bilateral dialogue between both governments is corroborated by the signing of 23 memorandums of understanding and agreements on health, environment and law enforceability.

Former US president Barack Obama (2009-2017) never renounced the ambition of bringing Cuba’s revolutionary project to an end “through other means.”

Cuban experts were acutely aware of the limited and selective measures adopted by his administration in an attempt to empower a private sector and convert it into a spearhead to scupper the successful updating of the Cuba’s socialist economic and social model that commenced back in 2010.

Measures recently introduced by the administration of president Donald Trump that clumsily attempted to affect the nation’s tourist industry, illustrate Washington’s ill- advised regression to an era of confrontations and threats, policies that have never been successful and are anchored in the past.

The stoic existence of the Cuban revolution for nigh on 60 years, since its triumph in January 1959, positively proves this point.

Years of Proud Revolutionary Resistance59

By LuisBRIZUELA.BRÍNGUEZ

CUBA

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ST. JOHN’S.- The relationships Cuba enjoys with neighbors to whom it is bound by both a common history and the Caribbean sea, continue to be reinforced and modified in the context of solidarity and cooperation models that effectively respond to the regional challenges of today.

A two-day visit by Cuba’s president, Raúl Castro, to Antigua and Barbuda, for the Sixth Cuba-CARICOM Summit and a State Visit, was a timely ratification of the strength and the potential of these regional ties.

The strong sense of unity, recognition and gratitude communicated in speeches to the Summit in Saint Mary on December 8, also permeated official talks between the Cuban Head of State and Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and other regional dignitaries.

The meeting between both leaders in the capital city, closed with a joint “Declaration of Solidarity and Cooperation” that highlighted a centuries old shared history, eloquently expressed throughout 23 years of bilateral diplomatic relations.

Both heads of State “celebrated the reinforcement of their friendship and bonds and reaffirmed their people’s unwavering commitment to their sovereignty and independence, underlined by a robust determination tosafeguard them.”

They also denounced any “measures that infringe on the right of their states and people to fully participate in global financial and commercial systems.”

Gaston Browne and Raul Castro strongly emphasized the importance of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) “as a mechanism for political coordination and the promotion of regional unity and integration.”

They highlighted the efforts underway to eradicate poverty, hunger and inequality within and between their States and prioritized the strengthening of CELAC “as a forum for debate and an international political actor that represents the region.”

Browne said that welcoming Raúl Castro afforded him the opportunity “to express admiration, respect and gratitude to the Cuban people and its government, which more than any other had established the right of Caribbean nations to exist and progress according to their will, and not with the will of the powerful.”

On greeting the visitor at the Antiguan Parliament for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Assembly, the younger leader praised the Cuban Revolution’s constant solidarity with Africa and the Caribbean in particular.

Browne said that he had “not yet been born when this man (Raúl) and the legendary Fidel Castro liberated Cuba from the oppressive alliance between thieving foreign companies and its corrupt government, and was only eight years old when Fidel’s troops volunteered to help Angola defend itself against the invading Apartheid army of South Africa, intent on destroying it.”

As he had previously at the CARICOM Summit, Raul cautioned that “the challenges of today are new and urgent, the outcome of which will influence the survival of humankind” and that “it is time to close ranks.”

Describing international efforts to stop and revert the damage caused to the planet as insufficient, Raul stated that “confronting climate change related issues is a priority that the human race cannot postpone and that our region’s people in particular have suffered their most devastating effects.”

He urged the initiation of “ambitious and immediate measures to halt the continuous harm caused to our Mother Earth” and warned that “if we don’t act

immediately,” the objectives of the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change will be a “dead letter” and that the 2016 Paris Agreement to revert global warming no more than “an illusion.”

He expressed the view that “we cannot permit our nations to be annihilated and our citizens turned into the victims of persistent and irrational production and consumption patterns of a developed world historically responsible for the degradation of our environment.”

Raul described as “essential” the promotion of an international environment favorable to the development of the Global South and small developing islands in particular and the strengthening of national and collective capacities to confront natural phenomena and mitigate disasters as “imperative.”

The Cuban president also reiterated the importance of increasing international cooperation and the transfer of resources, technology and know-how to Caribbean countries, to ensure the enhancement of national strategies.

He reaffirmed Cuba’s “unequivocal willingness to share the benefits of our modest progress in climate change adaptation and disaster risk management with our fellow Caribbean nations and assume it as a unifying responsibility.”

He added that “the Caribbean can always count on a Cuba that will preserve the principles of respect and solidarity as essential values.”

Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, described Raúl Castro as “the revolutionary commander who has not only carried on the work of the invictus and incomparable Fidel, but has instilled in us a sense of the immense possibilities that lie ahead.”

The Vincentian leader said that “Revolutionary Cuba, Raúl and Fidel have taught us to avoid the desecration of future that can be ours by accepting that a better way is possible.”

Stressing that “Cuba is and has always been part of Caribbean civilization,” Gonsalves expressed his appreciation for “everything done By Cuba with and for us,” and highlighted that “the Caribbean belongs to us.”

These basic concepts define Cuba and the rest of the area, including CARICOM and OECS.

He boldly added that “CARICOM and OECS will most certainly not allow some presidential hopeful from southern Florida or the geopolitical interests of an irrational wing of modern imperialism to interfere with or prohibit us from strengthening and increasing our relations with Cuba.”

CARICOM-Cuba Summit Puts The ‘Solid’ in Solidarity

By UlisesCANALES

CUBA

HEALTH & SCIENCE

HAVANA.- The Cuban Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center (CIGB) recently launched its E2CD154 vaccine, for the prevention of classical swine fever.

The product has export potential to a number of countries worldwide.

Marisela Suárez, a CIGB specialist, told The Havana Reporter that swine fever is a disease endemic to Cuba and that it principally affects pork production.

It is one of the world’s most prevalent pig diseases and is caused by the ARN Pestivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family, of which there are various virulent strains.

It affects both domestic and wild brown pigs of all ages throughout the world.

Although pork is less prized than beef and poultry internationally —for its high fat content slow digestibility— it is a staple meat of Cuban cuisine for both special celebrations and everyday meals.

Suárez explained that the CIGB had been working on the development of a multi-beneficial subunit protein vaccine for several years because they are safer than the live attenuated vaccines presently in use.

She added that the center had demonstrated through years of study and work that E2CD154 facilitates differentiation between vaccinated and infected animals and had been able to achieve efficacy rates similar to those of the live attenuated vaccines.

New Cuban Swine Fever VaccineBy NicholasVALDES

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HAVANA.- Cuba’s Culture Ministry has announced that the iconic John F. Kennedy Center in Washington is to host a festival of Cuban art between the 8th and 20th of May, 2018.

Entitled ‘Artes de Cuba’, the event will bring Cuban artists living both at home and abroad together to showcase part of the nation’s artistic patrimony to the U.S. public.

The event program includes a tour of the creative universe to explore traditional and contemporary arts, dance and theater performances, a film festival, visual arts and design exhibitions, fashion shows and culinary demonstrations.

Performances by Cuban-based musicians Omara Portuondo, pianists Rolando Luna and Aldo López Gavilán, and the Van Van orchestra will compliment those by Dafnis Prieto, Afro-Cuban Experience and Yaite Ramos Rodríguez ‘La Dame’ and others resident abroad.

A festival highlight promises to be the prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso directed performance by the Cuban National Ballet at the Opera House and the presence of the Danza Malpaso and Irene Rodríguez dance companies at the Terrace Theater are already creating a stir.

The visual artists Manuel Mendive, Roberto Favelo and Roberto Diago will exhibit their work during the festival as will José Parla and Emilio Pérez, both of whom now live and work away from home.

The Artes de Cuba event will also incorporate an important retrospective to mark the 40th anniversary of Havana’s Latin American New Film Festival, which will include screenings of the Cuban films Memorias del Subdesarrollo, Retrato de Teresa, Lucía, Fresa y Chocolate, Suite Habana and Conducta.

The festival program has been jointly created by the Kennedy Center, Cuba’s Music and Film institutes and the National Dramatic and Visual Arts councils. (PL)

Matanzas Hosts Mambo King’s 100th Birthday Celebrations

Washington’s Kennedy Center to Host Cuban Arts Festival

MATANZAS.- The musical influence of the ‘Mambo King’ Dámaso Pérez Prado and the 100th anniversary of his birth were celebrated during an International Colloquium between December 8 and 10, in the western Cuban province of Matanzas, some 100 kilometers east of Havana.

A highlight of the event was the unveiling by Cuban and Latin American artists and friends of three commemorative plaques on the façade of the house where he was born at No.166 Rio Street, between San Carlos and Compostella, in the city of Matanzas.

One of the plaques was placed on behalf of the people of Cuba, another on behalf of Mexican and Colombian friends and the third —signed by the composer and singer Armando Manzanero— in the name of the Association of Mexican Authors and Composers.

Sergio Santana Archbold, the Colombian researcher and producer, introduced the ‘Pérez Prado ¡Qué rico

mambo!’ book, published by the San Bassilon company of Medellin in 2017, during the event.

He told The Havana Reporter that his “birth on San Andrés Island into a rythmic Caribbean and domestic environment awakened a love for music.”

But he said that “it was not until at 14 years of age in 1974, that I first heard the Mambo del mercado La Merced; a sound that would set me on a particular musical course”.

His high regard for the great Beny Moré also brought him closer to Cuba and its music and in 2007 he became enchanted by a biography of Pérez Prado, born on December 11, 1917.

Santana stressed that he then “wrote an article about Perez Prado and mambo at his home in Antioquia and made the decision to write a definitive reference book that would ultimately take ten long years to research.”

There is still some disagreement in expert musical circles about who the true founder of the Mambo genre was.

Some believe Orestes López, a member of the famous ‘Arcaño y sus Maravillas’ band holds claim to the title, others, that it rightfully belongs to ‘the extraordinary blind Arsenio Rodríguez’ while a third group firmly believe Pérez Prado to be the legitimate king and heir.

But nobody has ever doubted that Dámaso Pérez Prado is the man who made the ‘Rhythm of the ‘40s’ famous all over the world.

In a lecture delivered to the Colloquium, the Cuban researcher Radamés Giró described Pérez Prado as one of the greatest Cuban musicians of all times.

He lauded Prado’s talent as composer and told how by virtue of being born in Matanzas, he was greatly inspired by the danzón and rumba beats predominant in the locality.

The well attended colloquium included discussion panels, documentary and film screenings featuring Pérez Prado’s music and a performance of the Ulises Rodríguez Febles’s play ‘Yo soy el Rey del Mambo’ (I’m the King of Mambo), by the Conjuro Teatro theater company of Mexico.

By WilfredoALAYON

CULTURE

SPOTLIGHT ON 7

HAVANA.- The recent 39th International Festival of New Latin American Film in Havana reestablished the importance of providing Latin American countries a cultural platform to narrate and portray the finer details of their own histories and identities.

Between December 8 and 17, an international panel of judges reviewed and selected the best of 19 fiction, 18 short and medium-length, 18 first, 23 documentary and 16 animated films -- and a further 20 unpublished scripts and 24 posters.

Most of the movie’s themes touched on issues caused by the violence, corruption, patriarchal social structures, dictatorships and poverty that have such an impact on continental societies.

But they also reflected the extraordinary degrees of diversity within Latin America, the native languages of some communities, happiness, optimism, culinary customs and cultures, the importance of dreams and interpersonal relationships.

James Ivory, the U.S. filmmaker who brought a total of nine films to Havana —two scripted by the 2017 Nobel Literature Prize winner, Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro— was honored at this, the 39th Festival.

The renowned 89-year old director spoke about his long and successful career with industry experts and film buffs at Havana’s Hotel Nacional de Cuba.

Havana’s largest film festival satisfied the desire of its director Ivan Giroud to address issues affecting Latin American societies such as migration and historic memory.

He expressed his satisfaction that 34 percent of the films considered were directed by women and selected on the basis of quality.

In fact, 25 of the 34 coveted prizes awarded went to women and film critics

in attendance also highlighted the lead roles played by women in the movies selected for screening during the Festival.

Argentinean director Anahí Berneri’s ‘Alanis’, took the Coral Award for Best Fiction Film and the Best Actress Coral was shared by its leading lady Sofía Gala and the Chilean actress Daniela Vega, for her role in the film “Una mujer fantástica” (A Fantastic Woman).

The Sebastián Lelio directed “Una mujer fantástica” won the jury’s Special Best Fiction Award and the Dominican actor Jean Jean walked away with the Festival’s Best Actor accolade, for his impressive performance in “Carpinteros” (Carpenters).

The Coral for Best Filmmaker went to Argentina’s Lucrecia Martel for “Zama,” the Festivals most lauded entry which took among others, the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award and the Coral for Best Sound (Guido Berenblum) and Artistic Direction (Renata Pinheiro).

The Cuban film “Sergio & Serguei” by Ernesto Daranas was selected for The People’s Choice Award and the Coral for a Best First Work went to “La novia del desierto” by Valeria Pivaro and María Cecilia Atán of Argentina.

“Matar a Jesús”, a film by Colombian Laura Mora, won both the Special Award for Best First Work and the Glauber Rocha Award, sponsored jointly by the Casa de las Américas the and Prensa Latina News Agency.

During the opening ceremony, Carlos Diegues, a leading light of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement, was presented with the Coral of Honor Award. He co-produced “La película de mi vida” (The Film of My Life) by Selton Mello, which was chosen to open the festival.

According to Giroud, this latest edition of the festival marked the

beginning of a new era of high-quality works and despite some very visible and other invisible mishaps, the event had accomplished its goals.

He revealed that the 40th Latin American Film Festival will pay tribute to the iconic Cuban director Tomás “Titón” Gutiérrez Alea (1928-1996). Havana’s cinemas screened a 10 day veritable feast of films from Latin America and countries such as Germany, Spain, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and France.

Those that depicted the negative consequences of social prejudices passed down for decades or centuries, the effects of emigration, the traumas left by dictatorships and repression, were tastefully balanced by others displaying our continent’s diversity and its best elements. Some movies that made it to the screen despite limited technical and other resources, masterfully communicated human qualities and great artistic sensitivity.

Such works shine like rays of hope on financially challenged and under resourced movie-makers in countries and parts of the continent and inspire them to compensate with creativity and skill in the arena of the ‘seventh art’ to combat oblivion and ignorance.

Havana’s Film Festival:a Cultural Flagship in the

Region

By MarthaSANCHEZ

RonPERLMAN

JamesYVORY

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTUPCOMING

EVENTS

(THR is not responsible for any changes made by sponsoring organizations)thr@prensa-latina.cu

Jazz Plaza 2018,

Jan 17-21

Exhibit of Paintings by Cuban Artists at

José Martí Memorial thru. Jan 23

Galería Orígenes (Gran Teatro de La

Habana)Collective exhibit of Mozambican works of art ( thru. Jan 22)

National Fine Arts Museum Palimpsesto Exhibit: Works by Cuba´s 2016 National Visual Arts

Laureate José Manuel Fors (thru. Feb)

Havana’s International Book Fair(Feb 1-11)

CULTURE

HAVANA.- The year 2018 will be very significant for the tourism industries of those Caribbean countries devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 and commitments worth some $2.3 billion in aid and loans made at the UN really must materialize.

The funds were promised during a recent high level meeting convened by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the UN Development Program to support the reconstruction of islands pounded by the storms.

Almost 400 senior government, multilateral organization, civil society and private sector representatives at the meeting responded to calls to assist Caribbean nations address the consequences of climate change.

Aid promised amounted to less than half of an estimated $5 billion required by Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, the British Virgin Island, Turks and Caicos, Bahamas and Saint Kitts and Nevis in particular.

Other territories hit by one or both of the hurricanes were Saint Martin, Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

In Barbuda alone, 76 percent of the island’s tourism infrastructure was lost and reconstruction will cost a total of $220 million.

Dominica saw decades of development disappear and the $1.3 billion in damages to homes and infrastructure caused by Hurricane Maria exceeds 200 percent of its GDP.

The UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak warned the meeting’s participants that climate change

is now an everyday reality rather than a theoretical issue for Caribbean countries.

Commitments made at the UN were as follows: Holland ($702 million), the European Union (352), the World Bank (140) Canada (30), Mexico (27), Italy (12) and the United States (4.3).

World Tourism Organization statistics reveal that during the first semester of 2017 and prior to the disaster, the Caribbean welcomed 16.6 million tourists, a 5.2 percent and 800,000 tourist rise over the same period of 2016.

The recent CARICOM-Cuba Summit in Antigua and Barbuda ratified the importance of promoting sustainable tourism and agreed to strengthen cooperation on issues such as multi-destination tourism to the region’s islands.

During the forum, Cuba’s President Raúl Castro led delegation signed a document with CARICOM to foster such mutually beneficial regional cooperation.

The Summit also agreed to reinforce the combat against the negative effects of climate change and participants ratified commitments to hold average global temperature increases at less than two degree Celsius, a goal set by the Paris meeting on climate change.

The meeting stressed in this regard the need to respect the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, a call repeatedly issued by Caribbean countries in support of their endeavors to adapt to the consequences of climate change and to promote sustainable tourism as their principal source of income.

SANTIAGO DE CHILE.- Although Chile’s presidential election balloting was not as hard-fought as expected, Sebastián Piñera’s return to La Moneda Palace is being celebrated with great delight by the right wing party.

The win was unequivocal and included a quasi-honeymoon period between the winner and the defeated, independent senator and center-left wing representative Alejandro Guillier, in addition to a phone call by the current president, Michelle Bachelet.

According to the Electoral Service (SERVEL), Piñera won by 54.58 percent of the votes, while Guillier reached 45.42 percent – the biggest defeat of the center-left wing party since the return of democracy in 1990.

“In spite of our differences, we share a common love for Chile. I hold Guillier in great esteem; we worked together in the past and I trust we can do it again. I hope that unity makes a real difference in our country,” stated Piñera.

In the two separate speeches he gave –first, when he welcomed Guillier in his campaign command, and then in front of a huge crowd gathered outside a downtown hotel of the capital – the conservative tycoon promised a nation without inequalities.

“We want a more prosperous country, with quality education and healthcare; we want to fight crime and drug trafficking; we want fair pensions, the right to live in peace and democracy, along with our people, both children and adults,” he added.

Piñera also committed himself to the development of culture and sports and the protection of nature and the environment, and highlighted that he wants to turn Chile into a developed country in the short term.

Guillier himself embraced his opponent tightly and said that in the future, he will be part of a responsible and constructive Republican opposition.

Piñera had a working breakfast with Bachelet at his residence to look at the details of the transition, until the holding of the swearing-in ceremony, to take place on March 11, 2018.

For the time being, statements and exchanges from both sides have been conducted in a respectful and diplomatic environment, and calls for cooperation have been made. But it’s well-known that this scene won’t last long.

The three months left for Bachelet to stay at La Moneda will be very difficult, as the elected president will be watching her closely.

Piñera is a successful multimillionaire who already ran the country from 2010 to 2014. He’s a highly educated man who has a PhD in Economics at Harvard University, and according to Forbes, he has a fortune amounting to 2,7 billion dollars.

Caribbean Tourism Confronting Challenges

Chile’s Rightwing Celebrates

Piñera’s Return to La Moneda

By VictorCARRIBA

By FaustoTRIANA

LATIN AMERICAN & THE CARIBBEAN 9

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HAVANA.- A particularly dark chapter in Cuba’s history surrounds the execution of eight medical students in November 1871.

The horrific state murder outraged the nation then and the appalling manner in which the incident was addressed still evokes a strong sense of indignation today.

Cuba’s contemporary film industry has developed a strong and audacious tradition of presenting significant historical events on the big screen.

Since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, Cuban filmmakers have creatively portrayed the country’s history and the Revolutions nascent film industry’s first feature was the Tomás Gutiérrez Alea classic, “Historias de la Revolución” (Tales from the Revolution).

The Alejandro Gil directed “Inocencia” (Innocence), currently being shot on location in Havana, is the latest offering in the now traditional treatment of such topics and depicts the events surrounding the wrongful execution of the eight young students.

HISTORICAL FACTSOn November 23, 1871, a group of 45 first-year

Havana Medical School students were maliciously and knowingly charged by colonial Spanish authorities with a crime that they did not commit.

They were accused by the guard at the Espada Cemetery of having profaned the grave of Spanish journalist and director of the anti-Cuban independence newspaper ‘La Voz de Cuba’, Gonzalo de Castañón.

The then colonial governor of Havana, Dionisio López Roberts, supported charges being brought.

An initial court-martial absolved some of the students and imposed relatively minor sanctions on others.

This decision however was rejected by the Volunteer Corps and General Romualdo Crespo was forced to convene a retrial in front of a jury comprising six Regular Army captains and six members of the Volunteer Corps.

This arbitrary, biased and manipulated process sentenced Alonso Álvarez de la Campa, Anacleto Bermúdez, Eladio González, Ángel Laborde, José de Marcos Medina, Juan Pascual Rodríguez Pérez, Carlos de la Torre Madrigal and Carlos Verdugo Martínez to death, all of whom were between just 16 and 21 years of age.

They were executed on November 27 in an open area facing the Morro Fort, known as La Punta Fortress.

The killings provoked a nationwide wave of indignation and led to a deterioration of relations between Spanish and Cuban-born islanders.

‘Inocencia’ tells the story of the search by Fermín Valdés Domínguez, who served six months in prison, to find the eight student’s mortal remains, 16 years after the executions.

The retrospective plot covers almost everything related to the incident, including the innocence of the students, as definitively established years later.

The film follows two parallel narratives, one about the cruel executions and the other about Valdés Domínguez’s search. The latter is played by the young Yasmani Guerrero.

The cast also features some of Cuba’s finest screen actors, like Héctor Noas, Edwin Fernández, Rini Cruz, Carlos Solar, Ray Cruz, Fernando Echavarría, Omar Alí and Caleb Casas.

Gil has said that although “Inocencia” is based on fact, it uses fictional elements to attain a certain creative expressiveness.

It will also undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to preserving the memory of an important event from Cuba’s troubled colonial past.

HAVANA.- Certain aspects of Havana’s rich colonial architectural heritage stand out during dedicated tours of the capital, and decorative doorknockers and adornments certainly feature predominantly among them.

They are of interest to art historians, the Office of Havana’s City Historian, Eusebio Leal, and a multitude of visitors that stroll through Old Havana.

Door knockers, adornments and decorative ironworks are singled out for attention on cultural tours of Havana’s old quarter and help bring participants´ minds back to bygone days of yore.

A tour of the plazas, alleys, streets and corners of the capital’s historic district can reveal cultural treasures inherent in the nation’s rich architectural history, something that appeals to many European tourists in particular.

The city’s first doorknockers date back to the Middle Ages and although some were shaped like little hammers that hung on front doors, the oldest and most typical were iron rings, hinged on to bronze lion heads.

Buildings like those around the famous Plaza Vieja —one of five in Old Havana— feature a charming array of contrasting colors, chiaroscuros and heavy, large wooden doors, adorned by exquisite doorknockers, many masterly crafted by artisan Renaissance ironsmiths.

The most common of these resemble two contrasting s-shaped figures.

Hernán, Hernando and Hernández, three prolific ironsmiths who were part of a force formed by Hernán Cortéz to participate in the conquest of Mexico, later left their distinctive marks on Havana and other Latin American cities.

During the 18th century, balcony ironworks, conventional grilles, building bases, doorknockers, keyholes, padlocks and robust studs became important and beautiful stylistic components that today still inspire local and visiting photographers alike.

The City Historian’s Office has a museum dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of such gold, silver and iron-made Havana treasures.

During a most worthwhile visit to the Havana City Museum, very attractive antique doorknockers, spurs, studs and the intricate ironwork on a chest bought in Europe by Dionisio Velazco Castillo in 1926, can be studied and appreciated.

Cuban Movie To Portray A Dark Day in History

Old Havana’s Decorative Doors

By YanisbelPEÑA

Texts & Photos by RobertoCAMPOS

CULTURE

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HAVANA.- In recognition of its history, elegance and extraordinarily well preserved documents, Cuba’s premier Hotel Nacional was listed on the UNESCO World Register of National Memorials in 1992.

The Nacional celebrates the 87th anniversary of its opening on December 30 and its historical significance and the archives that preserve the names of its globally renowned guests, are just two of its many attractions.

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba has more strings to its bow than any of its five star rivals, including an entire Executive Floor that is lauded and much appreciated by members of the world’s business community who frequent the institution.

It is also a designated National Monument, offering beautiful views over much of Havana and a sixth floor dedicated exclusively to the provision of VIP services.

The Gran Caribe hotel group run Nacional enjoys iconic status within Cuba’s extensive and growing luxury hotel network.

It was designed by the New York based McKim, Mead and White firm of architects and the Purdy Henderson Company supervised its construction.

Johnny Weismuller, Ava Gadner, Buster Keaton, Errol Flyn and Frank Sinatra are among many illustrious names on the hotel’s register.

Most of the 457 rooms —including its 16 suites and one presidential suite— offer splendid sea views and it is also one of Cuba’s most important meeting venues.

OTHER FAMOUS GUESTSThe Hotel Nacional de Cuba has its very own Hall of

Fame where photographs of many of the personalities that have strolled the corridors, spent a night or visited its bars and restaurants hang.

The honorable list of guests —to name but a few—includes Sir Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Alejandro Fleming, Rómulo Gallegos, Carol II of Romania and the King and Queen of Belgium.

Stars such as Rita Harwood, John Wayne, Gary Cooper and Walt Disney have also passed through the hotel’s front doors and more recently, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Johnny Deep, Danny Glover, Stephen Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone, Gabriel García Márquez, Eduardo Galeano, Kofi Annan and the Prince of Monaco have enjoyed its world famous hopitality, comfort and first class service.

It would be impossible to list them all, but other guests of interest that spring to this writer’s mind include Jean-Paul Belmondo, Kate Moss, Klaus Maria Brandauwer, Michael Keaton and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hundreds of other worldly figures from all walks of life treasure precious memories of a stay in, a visit to or an interview conducted in the beautiful grounds or elegant interior of Cuba’s iconic Hotel Nacional.

Iconic Hotel Nacional’s 87th BirthdayBy TinoMANUEL

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MEXICO CITY.- If José Antonio Meade becomes Mexico’s next president, he will be the first independent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate to hold office.

Before officially commencing his election campaign, he took the necessary step of resigning his position as head of the Treasury and Public Credit Secretariat (SHCP), one of three senior posts he has held during the current president Enrique Peña Nieto’s mandate.

The president formally accepted his resignation during a ceremony at the Los Pinos presidential residency, where new

SHCP and Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) department heads were sworn in as part of July 2018 federal election related cabinet reshuffle.

It is then that a new president of the Republic and the members of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will be chosen by the electorate.

Other positions to be filled include nine provincial governments and city councils and members of municipal councils.

There was nothing left to chance at the aforementioned ceremony or in Peña Nieto’s praise for Meade, who the incumbent hopes will be his successor.

The president highlighted that Meade had been his Foreign Affairs Minister,

Secretary for Social Development and head of SHPC and he unequivocally endorsed his presidential election aspirations.

Meade is set to become the first independent presidential candidate (he’s not a PRI member) since the party which has held power in the country for decades introduced some changes to the relevant statutes.

Although Peña Nieto will have considerable influence over the choice of the official candidate, the PRI of today is a changed party and other candidates will put up a spirited fight for the designation.

It is however hard to envisage a division within the president’s own party on the issue of his successor to the Presidency and this is not Peña Nieto or Enrique Ochoa’s —the PRI National Executive Committee’s chairman— primary concern, given their party’s monopoly on office in Mexico’s modern history.

That arises under the name of Manuel López Obrador, chairman of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and who presently leads the opinion polls.

Obrador has stated that he represents sectors frustrated and angry about the corruption and other malaises affecting Mexico’s social and political environment.

The fact that he has twice run for office and claimed that he was a victim of vote

fraud —something accepted by some and denied by others— will weaken his chances of success next July.

But in favor of López Obrador is the fact that he chairs the country’s newest and fastest growing national political body.

He cannot however count on support from the Frente Ciudadano por México( The Citizens’ Front for Mexico), which was already registered with the National Electoral Institute.

He will be backed by the National Action Party (PAN), a right-wing alliance that ruled for two consecutive six-year terms, by the obscure and nominally center-left Democratic Revolution Party and by Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), which can swing either way during election campaigns.

The impending election panorama promises to be complex and the PRI will need to fully exploit its well oiled electoral machine and the support of the United States —a factor never to be underestimated— if it is to retain its hold on power.

MORENA was tested under fire during elections last year when they lost the State of Mexico, an indication that they may still lack the strength and other elements to take the vote.

They will have to fare better in the test they face in 2018 if López Obrador’s third attempt to take the Presidency is to be his lucky one.

BRASILIA.- The picture postcard and patrimonial city of Río de Janeiro is also renowned for being 2017’s most violent city in a country that over a four-year period registered more violent deaths than the war in Syria.

Some 2,723 homicides were reported in the city of Río de Janeiro in the first semester of 2017 alone, 10.2% more than during the same period in 2016, while the number of theft related deaths rose by 21.2 percentage points.

Statistics however indicate that the rise of 45.3% —from 400 to 581— in deaths attributed to ‘acts of resistance’ to police intervention, is the sharpest of all.

An average of nine people die at the hands of the Brazilian police force every day, a rate of 1.6 such deaths per 100,000 inhabitants – higher even than in countries such as Honduras (1.2) and South Africa (1.1).

The number of police officers killed both on and off-duty is also high in Brazil and in Río in particular, where more than 110 police were shot dead in 2017.

Despite this alarming panorama, last October the nation’s unelected president Michel Temer granted state forces what some regard as a license to kill by sanctioning a draft bill overturning the indictment of Brazilian police officers for causing civilians’ deaths.

The enactment of Temer’s changes to the Military Penal Code ignored an official National Human Rights Council (CNDH) request to fully veto the proposal as an infringement of Democracy and its potential to facilitate extrajudicial executions by police officers.

The CNDH also argued that because of its nature and structure, Military Justice is not impartial in processing serious crimes against civilians by police officers .

The South American United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights also expressed ‘profound concern’ about the measure.

FURTHER UN CONCERNSThe United Nations body in Brazil , UN Women,

also recently made known its concerns about “the alarming and unacceptable figures on violence against Brazilian women and girls and those of African descent in particular.”

The entity issued a statement about the death in Río of a black 13-year old adolescent who was shot by a stray bullet while taking part in her school activities.

The text quoted the 2015 Violence Map statistics, which attribute a 191 percent rise in the victimization of black women over a decade to Brazil

In that same period, the number of African-descendants who died violently also rose by 54 percent – from 1,864 to 2,875.

A recent survey in Río de Janeiro by the Dialog Institute revealed that the scourge of violence does not only affect Brazil’s biggest cities.

Between 2005 and 2015, the nation’s smaller cities with populations of between 20 and 100 thousand and especially those in the country’s northeast and northern regions, recorded rises of 107.4 percent in homicide rates.

The Institute’s Deputy Chairman, Sergio Marcondes, explained that the increased deaths occurred in the town’s outskirts, near federal roads and close to the border with Paraguay in particular, indicating that they are possibly drugs or arms dealing related.

Mexico’s July 2018 Presidential Elections

Brazil Tormented by Widespread Violence

By OrlandoORAMAS

By MoisésPÉREZ

JoseAntonioMEADELópezOBRADOR

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HAVANA.- The recent 7th International “Cuba Fotovoltaica 2017” Workshop here addressed increasing solar energy generation in Cuba, related scientific, technological and innovative advances and how they might be applied and developed domestically.

The President of the University of Havana’s (UH) Photovoltaic Energy Consultancy Group, Daniel Stolik, told the Prensa Latina News Agency that the Cuban Ministry for Energy and Mining, the national Electricity Company and the University of Havana are working closely together to increase photovoltaic energy output.

Photovoltaic energy uses the sun’s rays to generate electricity, is eco-friendly and —like wind and biomass— is an important renewable energy resource.

Stolik said that because rapid developments have ensured a steady increase in photovoltaic energy production in Cuba, the yearly workshops keep stakeholders up to date on national and international advances.

This year’s workshop focused on finance and the incorporation of solar energy into the national grid.

He pointed out that contractual sales opportunities exist for foreign capital investment, through which an investor would cover the operational costs and the country would pay a per kilowatt rate in hard currency for between 20 and 30 years.

He clarified this is both cleaner and more cost effective for Cuba than the continued use of fossil fuel-produced electricity.

Cuba Targets Increased Solar Energy generation

By TeyunéDIAZ

The expert explained that solar energy production was very expensive initially, but has become eight times less so over the past ten years and concluded his remarks by saying that more than 700 megawatts of this energy will be available within 13 or 14 years and that production targets set for 2030 may well be surpassed. .

Talking also to Prensa Latina, the UH Vice Rector, Vilma Hidalgo, told how the workshops provide an important platform to strengthen links between research and production, an example of which was the inauguration in January of a laboratory jointly developed by the Ministry for Energy and Mining, the Electricity Company and the University of Havana.

She said that the laboratory will facilitate research into photovoltaic and other renewable energies and provide a range of services, indispensable for the insertion of solar energy into the national grid.

On the same topic. the director of the UH Institute of Science and Material Technology, Nancy Martínez, explained that in addition to research, the center will also have a staff training role and will have a photovoltaic energy ‘solar classroom’ to serve both regional and national training needs.

The 160 workshop participants included representatives from Cuba and delegates from the US, Mexico, Denmark and Germany that have renewable energy related cooperation ties to the island and support various human capital training projects.

ECONOMY

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HAVANA.- In this, the 21st century, poverty still has a predominantly female face in Latin America and the Caribbean, where United Nations statistics confirm it affects 118 women for every 100 men.

An Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) study reveals that 29 percent of women affected are without income and economically dependent and that almost half are unemployed.

Gender inequality was the principal topic addressed by the 56th Meeting of Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean held recently in Havana.

It is encouraging on the legislative front that at least 16 countries have the crime of femicide on the books or in criminal code reforms as is the fact that 10 countries now have comprehensive laws to protect women from violence.

The ECLAC report indicates that even though a total of 23 nations in the region are in the process of implementing gender equality programs in their national development and budgetary plans, there is a need to go even further.

According to Alicia Bárcena, the Commission´s Executive Secretary, sustainable development cannot exist in the absence of enhanced support systems for women and gender equality.

She recognized that significant progress had indeed been made since the first conference on the role of women in the region’s economic and

social development in Havana in 1977, but stressed that despite such advances, the region still suffers seriously from gender inequality, a lack of social protection policies for women, and unacceptably high levels of teenage pregnancy, poverty and illiteracy.

The official explained that “countries in the region have educated women forced to stay at home because the requisite care systems and opportunities to fully exercise their right to work are lacking.”

Laura Thompson, the deputy director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), outlined that there has been a five-fold increase in the number of immigrant Latino women over the past 30 years.

Women from the region accounted for 56 percent of those who migrated to the European Union between 1998 and 2012 and 46 percent of all immigrant women in the US.

For some, leaving their homelands represents an opportunity to study and participate in economic and public life, but many others, forced into irregular migration, become the victims of abuse, rape, extortion, people trafficking.

According to ECLAC, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the 2030 Sustainable Development Framework identifies critical elements of gender inequality and proposes concrete policies to be followed, and is an important instrument in this regard.

“We know that the road is long and the goals cannot be attained overnight, but every decade of joint work makes our mission more realistic and tangible,” Bárcena commented.

The meeting in Havana decided that ECLAC’s next Regional Women’s Conference will be held in Santiago de Chile in 2019 and will focus on economic autonomy.

Gender Inequality Stunts Regional DevelopmentBy MariaJuliaMAYORAL

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HAVANA.- Venezuelans José Altuve and Yulimar Rojas and the Brazilian National Soccer Team have been selected as 2017’s top athletes in the Prensa Latina (PL) annual poll, that since 1964 has recognized Latin American and Caribbean’s best sporting personalities.

Altuve was granted Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) and led his Huston Astros team to the coveted World Series title this year.

Nicknamed “Astro Boy,” Altuve received a total of 43 votes to come out ahead of the Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi and winner of both the 2011 and the 2014 polls with 31 and his compatriot tennis player Juan Martín del Potro, who received 7, like Cuban Alfredo Despaigne (baseball) and Brazilian Neymar (football).

Rojas, triple jump gold medalist at London’s World Athletics Championships, was awarded an impressive 63 votes by the 117 media personnel that took part in the survey, to finish ahead of Colombian triple jump star Caterine Ibargüen with 15, who was previously first to pass the post in the 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016 polls, and the Brazilian judoka Mayra Aguiar, who received 12 .

The Brazilian soccer team was unsurprisingly selected again, for a record ninth time since the Prensa Latina Poll commenced.

Overall winners of the South American Russia 2018 World Cup Qualifiers, the team popularly known as “Canarinha,” won 43 votes this year to add their title to those won in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2016.

Second was the Brazilian volleyball female squad (31), followed by the Peruvian and Panamanian National Soccer Teams which were awarded 25 and 13 respectively.

The Tokyo 1964 Olympics 100-meter silver medalist, Cuban Enrique Figuerola was the first winner of the very popular PL poll.

In 1980, the year’s Best Team category was added and in 1988 men and women were independently selected for the first time.

Costa Rica’s famous swimmer Silvia Poll was first to come out on top on the female category.

Last year Colombia’s triple jumper Caterine Ibargüen and the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt were selected while the Brazilian Soccer Team that won the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, took the team award.

Bolt has been the Prensa Latina poll’s most successful participant, winning in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, giving him just one more award than the beloved Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor, who to the delight of his home fans, won in 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993 and 1994.

Altuve and Rojas, The Year´s Best AthletesBy YasielCANCIO

L AT I N A M E R I C A & T H E C A R I B B E A N

SPORTS

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