INFORMATIVE ROUNDTABLE ON THE CRISIS IN ARGENTINA

[AII The News That Doesn't Fit]

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
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INFORMATIVE ROUNDTABLE ON THE CRISIS IN ARGENTINA AND THE
BOOT-LICKING POLICY OF THAT COUNTRY'S FOREIGN MINISTRY
HELD IN THE STUDIOS OF TELEVISIÓN CUBANA ON JANUARY 30, 2002,
YEAR OF THE HEROES IMPRISONED BY THE EMPIRE

Official Translation - February 1, 2001
Council of State transcript)

Randy Alonso.- Good evening TV viewers and radio listeners.

While the economic, political and social crisis in Argentina grows
ever deeper, the Argentine foreign minister traveled to Washington to
bow down to the demands of the U.S. administration, which included a
treacherous and shameful attack on Cuba.

The subject of today's round table is the crisis in Argentina and the
boot-licking policy of that country's foreign ministry. Accompanying
me on today's panel are Comrade Felipe Pérez Roque, the Cuban
minister of foreign relations; Juan Antonio Fernández, director of
multilateral affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Relations; Francisco
Soberón, minister-president of the Banco Central de Cuba; and
journalists Eduardo Dimas, international commentator for Televisión
Cubana news services, and Lázaro Barredo, from the newspaper
Trabajadores.

As usual, we are accompanied in the studio audience by comrades from
various agencies, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign
Relations, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment,
and the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Cuba.

This evening, we have some special guests in the studio audience: our
Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro; Comrade Carlos Lage Dávila, member
of the Political Bureau; a delegation from the United Left Party of
Spain, currently visiting our country, headed by Gaspar Llamazares
Trigo, the general coordinator of the party; Ms. Laura González
Alvarez, a United Left eurodeputy; Ginés Fernández González,
organizing secretary of the United Left; and Pedro Chávez Giraldo,
assistant to the general coordinator of the United Left.

(video footage of the situation in Argentina is shown)

Savings account holder.- We're against these adjustments, because
they're affecting all of us. That's why we're here. I can't even feed
my children.

Savings account holder.- We want them to give the money back. It's
ours. They needed money and so they stole it. Let's see if the rest
of the world can understand that.

Savings account holder.- This model is killing education and public
health, the two things for the people.

Randy Alonso.- And while hundreds of savings account holders gathered
outside the Ministry of the Economy this morning to demand the return
of their dollar deposits, facing a heavy police presence, Argentine
Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf wrapped up a visit to Washington
yesterday.

A wire report I have here, datelined Washington, says:

"After repeated attempts to demonstrate to the White House that
Argentina remains an unconditional ally of the United States, Foreign
Minister Carlos Ruckauf concluded his meetings in Washington this
Tuesday, according to reports from CNN."

I would like to invite our viewers and listeners to view the reports
broadcast last night and today by CNN in Spanish and Televisión
Española on the Argentine foreign minister's visit to Washington and
his meetings with U.S. leaders.

Reporter.- Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf showed signs of
the stress he seems to be under on Tuesday.

Carlos Ruckauf.- Yes, very briefly, because you know I have a
terrible headache.

Reporter.- And this is because of very tightly packed agenda; since
Monday he has had meetings at the White House, at the Department of
the Treasury with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and at the State
Department with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Carlos Ruckauf.- We have delivered a personal letter from President
Duhalde to President Bush ratifying our status as extra-NATO allies
and ratifying as well that we are moving towards a free economy in
Argentina.

Reporter.- The Argentines have come with a suitcase full of good
intentions, hoping the White House will judge that the suitcase
weighs enough.

For example, Ruckauf said that Argentina will continue to support the
proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, the FTAA.

Martín Redrado.- Argentina reaffirms its desire for integration and
reaffirms the FTAA timeline. We have some difficult issues before us,
like the issue of agriculture, which we are divided on at the moment,
but we are determined to comply with the established calendar.

Reporter.- But in order to be part of this, and implement the FTAA in
2005, Argentina insists that it needs to reactivate its economy, and
an essential part of this is the tourism industry.

Martín Redrado.- Today we have asked Secretary of State Powell for a
review of the tourist alert issued in the month of December, because
this is a matter that can be completely overcome.

Reporter.- Tourism alone, however, will not provide Argentina will
all of the funds needed to resolve the crisis.

That is why the stance of George Bush's government, for now, is to
listen, analyze and act; but only when it is convinced that
Argentina's plans carry sufficient weight.

Reporter.- Argentina wants financial aid to help it out of the
crisis, as soon as possible. Under the circumstances, U.S. support is
essential, and this is what the Argentine foreign minister made clear
to both U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill.

Carlos Ruckauf gave them a personal letter from Argentine President
Eduardo Duhalde to President George Bush.

Carlos Ruckauf.- We have delivered a personal letter from President
Duhalde to President Bush ratifying our status as extra-NATO allies
and ratifying as well that we are moving towards a free economy in
Argentina, for the good of our peoples.

Reporter.- In the letter, Duhalde also asks Bush for understanding
regarding the crisis afflicting the country and for the U.S.
government to urgently consider formulas for immediate assistance for
Argentina. The aid required by the country will be discussed again
today in Buenos Aires.

This Wednesday a representative of the International Monetary Fund
will arrive in Argentina to study the concrete details of Duhalde's
plan to overcome the crisis.

Yesterday the Argentine leader analyzed the delicate situation in his
country with Uruguayan President Jorge Battle, while protests
continue outside banks in reaction to the restrictions adopted.

Savings account holder.- Why are they giving me pesos when they're
selling dollars at the next wicket over? Why? I just don't
understand.

Reporter.- Protests outside banks and also on the highways. Dozens of
unemployed workers cut off numerous routes into the capital yesterday
to demand food and work.

Randy Alonso.- And the Argentine foreign minister's visit to
Washington ended with a terrible headache. On the one hand, there is
the situation in his country, on the other, the mission he went to
Washington to carry out and the statements he made, after the visit
that wrapped up yesterday and that was not limited to the issues
addressed in these two reports from CNN in Spanish and Televisión
Española.

The reason for today's round table lies in other statements made by
the Argentine foreign ministry yesterday as a result of the foreign
minister's visit to Washington.

Eduardo Dimas has been following this story through the wire
services, and he is going to share a few of the details with us.

Eduardo Dimas.- I want to begin with one small detail: the headache
might not necessarily be a result of his worrying over the situation
in Argentina, but rather from keeping his head down too long. We
should not rule out the possible relation between his headache and
the amount of kowtowing he had to do. I think it would be worth
analyzing, and perhaps he would thank us for it.

Ruckauf went to Washington with a number of objectives. The primary
objective was the economic objective, and this i_cluded preparing the
way for the Ministry of Finance, which will be presenting the
economic plan he announced this coming Saturday. And within all of
is, there is the subject of Cuba.

During his meeting with Colin Powell - and there was a lot of
coverage of this - the Argentine foreign minister stated, for
example, to quote AFP and be as brief as possible:

"The United States and Argentina share similar positions on the
solution of the crisis and on human rights in Cuba..

"ANSA.- United States-Argentina, agreement on human rights in Cuba.

"Notimex.- Argentina will adopt the United States' position" - I
believe this is the most precise headline - "on human rights in
Cuba." And it is not Argentina, the Argentine people, it is the
Argentine foreign ministry; I think it is important to make that
clarification.

"Reuters.- Argentina says it will collaborate with the United States
on human rights in Cuba." The foreign ministry says it will
collaborate, of course.

What was discussed? Well, there is every indication that this year,
yet another draft resolution condemning Cuba will be presented, as it
has been presented over the past few years by the Czech Republic. And
there is also every indication that Argentina, which backed the draft
resolution last year, could very well be the one to present it this
year. This is not certain, because they say that no agreement was
reached about how it was going to be done. But what is certain is
that the Argentine foreign ministry has completely sold out to the
United States' position. According to the foreign ministry spokesman,
Martín Redrado, "no concrete action has been decided on, this is
something that the respective officials will look at later."

He added:

"What was established at the meeting was a shared vision, which is
the defense of the human rights of the Cuban people, the condemnation
of the only dictatorship remaining in Latin America today, and of
course, working for the Cuban people to be free."

This is repeated in all the wire reports I have here on the table.

Now, I would like to recall the words of President Duhalde, when he
joined with the church to call for a national dialogue, and I quote:

"Our point of departure is a present of extreme exclusion. We must
bring an end to indigence, which is the lowest level (of poverty),"
the president declared, before admitting that in his country, and I
quote, "the human rights to life, health, food, clothing and
education have been violated."

What human rights is Mr. Ruckauf talking about?

Basically, Randy, as I was saying at the beginning, I think the
situation is emerging, and I do not think it should come as a
surprise, given the extreme position adopted by this gentleman with
regard to Cuba. We have a precedent, of course, in that the last
foreign minister did the same thing, as did the others before him. We
need only recall the carnal relations with the United States referred
to by a former foreign minister, who has now passed away.

Randy Alonso.- I can add a few details to that, Dimas, from a DPA
wire story I have here.

It says that apart from the crisis in Argentina, the only subject
addressed after the meeting with Powell was Cuba. It reports: "They
spoke clearly about human rights policies, the defense of the human
rights of the Cuban people, the common position of the Argentine
government and the U.S. government, a common position that we are
going to support in the United Nations," according to Martín Redrado,
the secretary of international economic relations of the Argentine
foreign ministry, who was the spokesman for these statements. Well,
as you saw, the foreign minister had a headache.

Redrado added: "They spoke about working together, about a shared
vision of the human rights of the people of Cuba, of the defense of
the human rights of the Cuban people, of the condemnation of the only
dictatorship remaining in Latin America today, and of working for the
Cuban people to be free."

The wire story continues further on: "A Washington correspondent from
a Brazilian newspaper summed up his impressions in one sentence:
"That was the price.'

"Journalists were left with many doubts, but the foreign minister
refused to answer questions, claiming that he had a headache, while
Redrado was informed that he had to leave because they had very
little time to get to the airport, where the delegation departed for
Rome to continue its tour.

"A correspondent from an international agency, whose questions were
left unanswered, asked the Argentine journalists present if they had
any idea why the subject of Cuba had come up during an extremely
short meeting of barely half an hour with Powell, when Argentina is
submerged in financial, economic, political and social chaos.

"The Argentine journalists smiled, and only one answered, with
another question: "Isn't it obvious?"'

There is clearly no need for us to say anything about the matter,
given what the Argentine press itself has said.

There have been numerous commentaries in the Argentine press today,
and I think it would be a good idea, Lázaro, if you could comment on
these articles published in Argentina itself, and tell us a bit about
Carlos Ruckauf, this new Argentine foreign minister who went to
Washington to demonstrate his position and to do a bit of kowtowing,
as Dimas noted.

Lázaro Barredo.- Given the fact that our foreign minister is here, I
do not want to compromise the Ministry of Foreign Relations in what I
am going to say. But really, the general consensus on the street
today, what many people are saying, is that there seems to be some
kind of competition going on in the Argentine foreign ministry when
it comes to the anti-Cuban issue. First there was the late Guido Di
Tella, who spoke of the extra-NATO alliance and "carnal relations"
with the United States, committing Argentina's support for the United
States with regard to the issue of human rights in Cuba, and it
seemed that no one could go any further.

Then Foreign Minister Giavarini came along and outdid Guido Di Tella
with his talk of "intense relations," and now here we have Ruckauf
talking about "polygamy." It is not clear exactly what he means by
this. What is clear is that he has sold out, he has opened his legs
up wide to the United States, and the result of this attitude are the
statements made by Redrado and reported by the Argentine press today.

I can understand why the man had a headache, Dimas, because really,
he had to beat his brains out trying to figure out how to present
Argentina's problem to U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
According to Página 12, Ruckauf spent hours planning and rehearsing
the speech he was going to give, and the only way he could think of
to put forward the serious problems they are facing was to begin with
a joke, to break the ice. He said, "I have come on behalf of the
plumbers of Argentina to present this request," because O'Neill, in
the days of De la Rúa, had said that he couldn't give away any more
money, because he had to defend the interests of the plumbers and
carpenters of the United States. The guy was beating his brains out,
that's why he ended up with a headache.

"Economic Deputy Foreign Minister Martín Redrado enthusiastically
declared yesterday that during Carlos Ruckauf's meeting with
Secretary of State Colin Powell, they spoke clearly about the human
rights of the people of Cuba. This turn of phrase, usually, is a
euphemism to indicate how Argentina will vote.

"There is no need to interpret Redrado," - says Página 12 - "he was
transparent. He said that both governments agreed on the position we
are going to adopt together at the United Nations. He went even
further," says Página 12. "If his statements were recorded correctly,
he said that Argentina had committed itself to working for the Cuban
people to be free. In other words, it is not that Argentina, together
with other countries, will simply urge Cuba to liberalize its
political system, but rather, it will place itself on the front line
of battle. Not even Menem, in his carnal relations, stated things so
crudely. If Redrado's line is now followed, Argentina will establish
_ degree of difference from the rest of Latin America that is not
advisable for the country, right at a time when the key to foreign
policy should be accumulating sources of support instead of losing
them. The counter-argument could be that Argentina needs the support
of the International Monetary Fund, for which it first needs a
friendly nod from the U.S. Treasury.

"If that is the case, it would be useless to mimic the most hard-line
sector of the Cuban-American community in the United States.
Argentina, unfortunately, although it is a fact, has a much more
powerful weapon than overacting with regard to Cuba. If this country
enters into a phase of unmanageable instability, the whole Southern
Cone will follow. Washington fears instability in a region of the
world that was not formerly unstable.

"That is Argentina's prime argument."

This was how Página 12 reflected Redrado's statements and the
reference to Ruckauf today.

Who is Ruckauf? Well, when it comes to human rights, it is really
striking to see the immorality and double standards with which some
politicians attempt to pass judgement on other nations, and this is
certainly a case in point.

Ruckauf was a vice president of the Argentine government, and so he
shares in the responsibility for what is happening in that country.
He was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, and now they say
that he accepted the post of foreign minister to flee from the
situation he created in the province, which has become a province in
crisis, with high levels of poverty and marginalization. That's what
he did for this province as governor.

To give just one example - because there are a huge number of things
I could be highlighting here - Ruckauf is the one primarily
responsible for the increase in accusations of police brutality
during his time as governor.

To give you some idea, in the years 1999 and 2000, some 60 children
and adolescents under the age of 17 were shot down by the state
security police, and it was this man himself who came to the defense
of state security officials. He shamelessly declared to the press, "I
am not going to make negative judgements about my officials," and
justified such a barbaric practice as these extrajudicial executions
that cut short the lives of 60 children and adolescents.

But if you want a real measure of the shamelessness of this gentleman
who talks so much about human rights, you will find it in the case
highlighted by the Argentine press regarding a teacher who spent 100
days outside the provincial Congress on a hunger strike. He began the
hunger strike when Governor Carlos Ruckauf refused to have him
reinstated to his position of head teacher, and also refused to open
up an investigation into a series of accusations made by this
teacher, involving provincial government officials.

The Argentine press refers to the former governor's actions as
insolent and regrettable, and it would appear that they have no
limits. At the end of last year, this teacher on a hunger strike
received, addressed personally to him, and delivered by an official,
a letter from Carlos Ruckauf, now the brand new Argentine foreign
minister, to mark the occasion of the Christmas and New Year's
festivities, in other words, a letter sent to him personally by the
governor to wish him a Merry Christmas. How much more shameless can
you get?

This gives a kind of a portrait of the individual we are dealing with
here, this sick joke played on a teacher who had spent 100 days on a
hunger strike, precisely because this man was refusing to have him
reinstated to his job as head teacher.

Randy Alonso.- And we could add to that, Lázaro, that Ruckauf's
governorship was considered the most corrupt in the history of Buenos
Aires, and then, of course, there is the situation today in
Argentina.

Thank you for your comments.

The statements made yesterday in Washington by Foreign Minister
Carlos Ruckauf and his spokesman, the Argentine deputy foreign
minister, can be understood within the logic of the policy that has
been used for more than a decade by the United States in its
political manipulation of the human rights issue against our country.
There are important precedents in this matter. I would like Juan
Antonio Fernández, the director of multilateral affairs at our
Ministry of Foreign Relations, to provide us with an overview of the
precedents in this political manipulation of the human rights issue
used by the United States against Cuba.

Juan A. Fernández.- Certainly, Randy.

I think it would be worthwhile, first of all, to refer back to what
we have seen and heard and the comments made by the other panelists.

It was said that the Argentine foreign minister, Carlos Ruckauf,
arrived in Washington with a suitcase full of requests - that is very
true - and when he got there he found another suitcase full of
conditions. One of these conditions was a rather high priority,
namely the conditioning of aid on a vote against Cuba in the
Commission on Human Rights; in other words, a public pledge by
Argentina to vote against Cuba in the next session of the Commission,
which is about to begin in the months of March and April.

Why is this a priority? Why is there such insistence on it? It is
easy to understand: The issue of human rights and the anti-Cuban
maneuvers in Geneva have become and are, in fact, the final
justification left for the increasingly small minority sector in the
United States that seeks to legitimize its genocidal policy of the
blockade against the Cuban people in this way. That is the reason for
the priority placed on this issue.

This practice did not begin yesterday; it has a long history of
precedents. It should be recalled that way back in the late 1980s,
the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, General Vernon
Walters, talked about the existence of tens of thousands of political
prisoners in Cuba, of tens of thousands of victims of torture. In
other words, an entire scaffolding of lies was built, with a great
deal of money, and the use of the media, to create this image, to
demonize or satanize Cuba and its Revolution, and the revolutionary
project we have been building here throughout all these years. Those
were the claims made in the late 1980s.

They tried, first of all, to get their resolution passed in the
General Assembly, but they couldn't do it. It was a different world
then, with a different correlation of powers.

Then they moved on to Geneva, to the Commission on Human Rights. Why?
Because it was a smaller body, with a more limited membership, where
it was easier to manipulate, to exert pressure, to twist arms. So
they began their attacks there. This was in the years 1987, 1988,
1989; they still didn't manage to get their resolution passed back
then. The correlation of powers was different there as well.

But while they were working on this in Geneva, they were attempting
to create right here, or hoped to create right here, a fifth column
of salaried workers in their service. In other words,
counterrevolutionaries dressed up as a poster children for the
defenders of human rights, to contribute to their schemes from within
the country itself. Neither ploy worked, and they couldn't get their
resolution passed in 1988 or 1999.

It was not until 1990 - and there is a simple explanation for this
- that they finally managed to get their resolution adopted. In 1990,
the world had changed; the world we once knew underwent a change in
the correlation of powers, with the collapse of the socialist bloc.
The countries of Latin America were in a weaker, more vulnerable
position. It should be said that even in 1988 and 1989, these
countries - some of them in Latin America - stood firm under a
certain amount of pressure and even went so far as to vote against
these attempts to demonize and isolate Cuba within the Commission.

Now then, they finally managed to get the resolution adopted in 1990
thanks to the new correlation of powers. This was the year of the
turncoats we know so well, in central and eastern Europe.

We should also remember - because it is always good to look back at
history - the conduct of the Argentine governme_t in 1990, when it
received an order from the government of the United States and
changed its instructions to the Argentine delegation at the last
minute. Thus, after voting against the resolution in 1989, Argentina
voted in favor the following year, after a phone call was made from
Washington instructing Argentina how to vote.

I want to stop here for a moment, because there is something that has
characterized this whole resolution process and the circus staged
every year against Cuba in Geneva, and it is what I would call
telephone democracy. They phone you to tell you how you have to vote.
But it seems that this is not enough anymore. Someone here was
talking about kowtowing. Well, it has gone so far that now they have
to go all the way to Washington to sing out their vote. What kind of
foreign ministries are these, when they don't even announce things in
their own capitals! They go there to announce what they're going to
do.

In the first years of the 1990s, after finally getting this
resolution adopted, the United States continued to present it the
same way as always, in other words, seeking to condemn Cuba,
recreating this whole fantasy they had invented, which in the end did
not succeed, because the whole exercise began to lose support and
credibility. On the one hand, there was the resistance of Cuba and
the Cuban people during these difficult years, determined to stand
firm and defend what we had achieved to the bitter end. There was no
way they could convince the Commission, and every year the resolution
was adopted with a smaller number of votes. There was also an
increase in resistance on the part of the countries of the Third
World in the face of these blatant maneuvers.

It was a worn-out exercise that got further worn out as the decade of
the 1990s progressed.

It is worth pointing out, Randy - and I think it is useful to
reiterate it - that the issue being argued is no longer that of human
rights in Cuba. Nobody believes in this fairy tale anymore, quite
simply. What we are fighting for in Geneva is our right to organize
ourselves in the way we choose, to decide upon our own system, a
political and social system like the one we have. That is what is
questioned there, and this is something we will never accept.

This exercise continued to lose credibility, as I was saying, right
up until 1997. In 1998 the resolution was clearly defeated. This
paper tiger, as it were, could not hold up any longer, and the
exercise came to an end. It came back in 1999 with a new approach,
when Washington recruited the Czech Republic to do its dirty work in
the Commission on Human Rights. And so for the last three years, it
has been the Czech Republic - our people are well informed about all
this, because it has been discussed at length at these round tables -
that has presented the resolution.

Last year, the resolution passed by only two votes, and that is the
way it has been over these last three years: one vote, two votes. And
they only manage to achieve these Pyrrhic victories by exerting the
most blatant pressures on the members of the Commission on Human
Rights.

We should remember that last year, the Czech Republic's humiliation
had grown so great that it stuck in a little paragraph with a veiled
and very timid criticism of the blockade, as if one thing could make
up for the other, but not even that could be tolerated. One telephone
call from Washington to President Havel was enough to make the
paragraph disappear, and once again it was more of the same, the same
as always.

That was the situation up until last year, when the resolution
passed, I repeat, by only two votes, 22 votes to 20.

Now, what has happened since then? What is the current situation?
What point do we find ourselves at now? Well, in the first place, we
must take into account the exclusion of the United States from the
Commission on Human Rights, after 50 years, something unheard of in
the history of the United Nations. They lost their seat there, simply
because people were fed up with their behavior, their arrogance,
their insolence in this Commission. It should be remembered that the
United States voted alone against a resolution on the right to food,
and it voted alone so as not to condemn Israel for the massive and
flagrant violations of human rights in the occupied Arab territories
and Palestine, because of a unilateral policy repudiated by the
entire international community. And combined with all this there were
obviously the blatant pressures to get the anti-Cuban resolution
adopted.

The United States has been excluded from the Commission. This year,
for the first time in 50 years, it is not a member. Moreover, the
Czech Republic has been fully discredited, and no one could be
convinced to believe that it has the slightest interest in human
rights or anything of the kind; it is simply a matter of being hired
to provide a service for a contractor.

The Czech Republic has been giving off signs of fatigue, of being
tired, of perhaps not being willing to continue with this exercise.
Therefore, they have had to get to work looking for someone else to
hire to do the job, namely the job of presenting the resolution
against Cuba.

In recent days, a number of envoys - every year it is the same, the
story keeps repeating itself - a Czech deputy foreign minister has
been making little trips around here, in this region, looking for
someone to recruit - the Minister will expand on this later - but it
is more of the same, looking to recruit someone to do the dirty work
against Cuba.

That is the current situation.

Last year, you may recall, four Latin American countries voted
against Cuba. This year the composition of the Commission is more or
less the same. Who are the Latin American members? Chile, Mexico,
Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentina,
Brazil and Ecuador. That is the situation we are facing at this
moment in time, and as I explained, there has been an intensification
in the efforts carried out in this part of the world. Why? We will
see later.

Randy Alonso.- You have told us a great deal about how this exercise
has become increasingly discredited, this exercise led by the United
States in the Commission on Human Rights. And while the policy of the
United States in this Commission has been discredited, what has
become even more discredited is the policy of those it has used as
hired help to present these resolutions. That is why there are new
U.S. maneuvers underway, aimed at our region, and I would like to ask
our foreign minister, Felipe Pérez Roque, to inform our people and
the international public of the steps being taken by the United
States to seek a condemnation of our country in the upcoming session
of the Commission on Human Rights.

Felipe Pérez.- Well, Randy, as Juan Antonio was explaining, we are
facing a new, decisive moment in the manipulation of the human rights
issue against Cuba. We are in a situation in which a proponent of the
resolution is being sought. The United States is not a member of the
Commission, and so it could not present the resolution this year. The
Czech Republic has been giving off signs that this exercise is
becoming uncomfortable and wearing. It has had a cost for them in
terms of their relations with other countries, even with the
countries of the European Union. They had serious disagreements with
some of those countries last year over the drafting of the
resolution, since they have no independence when it comes to deciding
what goes into it, what paragraph is taken out or inserted; this is
something decided in the U.S. State Department.

This is the point we are at. Now, what is happening, and what have we
come here to clearly denounce before our people and the international
public? A new maneuver is underway against Cuba, a conspiracy that
they are trying to keep secret, hidden away from the public view of
the countries of Latin America and the international community.

Major steps are being undertaken by the United States with foreign
ministries in Latin America: meetings at the highest levels; endless
trips; delegations and emissaries traveling from one plac_ to
another; Latin American countries taking messages to other countries;
consultations by the State Department with any European country that
has a strong influence over Latin America, to help them organize a
plan through which the resolution is presented by a number of Latin
American countries; efforts undertaken by the Czechs, who are
desperately seeking a successor, out of the fear that, if no one is
found, they will be forced to present the resolution against Cuba
once again this year.

Czechs traveling around Latin America, secret gatherings, meetings in
corridors, draft resolutions being developed: we know about
everything, absolutely everything. No one should underestimate our
ability to find out about the maneuvers aimed against Cuba. No one
should underestimate the friends that Cuba has all over the world,
the prestige that the Revolution has earned, and the contempt that
these maneuvers inspire in so many people of honor around the world.
And we are aware of all these things; we know much more than what
those who conspire against us could even imagine.

Aside from the Argentine foreign ministry, whose cooperation they
planned to wrench from them in the midst of the desperate crisis they
have led this country into, there are two other Latin American
foreign ministries that have been subject to active efforts on the
part of U.S. diplomacy, and in which they have placed their greatest
hopes. There are others with which the State Department has no hopes
of success whatsoever. Of the two mentioned above, one is supporting
the resolution with real enthusiasm.

Cuba feels it is important for these facts to be known, and for the
public to be informed of the efforts being undertaken, although their
promoters want them to be kept in silence, and not revealed until
their plans are concrete.

But what we have seen is the visible part of a plot in which even
more people are participating. There are Latin American foreign
ministries for which this is being imposed as the first item on the
agenda for meetings with the State Department. We also know of
foreign ministries who have been told what the requirements are for
even being granted a meeting in Washington, and this is the first of
all. We are going to fight resolutely against this maneuver, and we
have all of the right, the energy and the moral authority to do it.
Today we have limited ourselves to making this denunciation in
general terms, but we are prepared to offer the international public
all of the details of this treacherous conspiracy, at any time, if it
becomes necessary.

It is this plan and these efforts that have led, prematurely - it
really is a rather inopportune time for Argentina - to these
statements and these strange relations, this reference to the subject
of Cuba yesterday and to human rights in Cuba, during a half-hour
meeting with Colin Powell that was supposedly held to address the
issues most pertinent to the Argentine public today, concerning a
solution to the crisis.

It should be noted that the idea of a group of Latin American
countries presenting the resolution against Cuba in Geneva has always
been the dream of different U.S. administrations. None of them ever
achieved it, but they continued to dream, because it would give the
maneuver more credibility, make it more believable. Last year they
made an all-out effort to achieve it, and this year we have observed
that the pressures have been much heavier right from the beginning
and have started much sooner.

I should add a reflection on what happened yesterday in Washington
and on the statements made by Mr. Martín Redrado, the secretary for
economic affairs in the Argentine foreign ministry, who accompanied
Foreign Minister Ruckauf and acted as spokesman for the Argentine
delegation. As you have seen, he is not an official who deals with
human rights matters or political matters; what he deals with are
economic matters, but he acted as spokesman, and we have heard his
statements here.

Listening to these statements, and seeing the images we have seen
here, I have felt embarrassed; I have felt embarrassed for Argentina,
for its people, for whom we feel such fondness, such respect; to whom
we have offered so much solidarity, and from whom we have received a
great deal of solidarity as well. It has really pained me to see such
a lamentable scene as we saw here, to read declarations like the ones
we have read.

To be completely honest with you, I really didn't think such a talent
for the ridiculous was possible. I didn't think such an absence of
the common sense necessary to maintain a certain decency, to hold
onto some kind of public composure was possible. I had honestly never
seen such an incredible level of cowardice, because we must be
dealing with a true lack of courage, a complete absence of self
respect to be able to carry out such a pathetic role as that we
witnessed yesterday.

I thought I had seen everything in these last three years in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but yesterday I saw something completely
new, a new and outstanding example of cowardice, of lack of political
values and a sense of national dignity. I would have thought it
impossible that the representative of a country with such a history,
with Argentina's traditions, could play such a despicable role there,
provoking such irony and criticism in the press.

I would say that yesterday, in terms of shame, a new world record was
broken. What we heard the representative of the Argentine Foreign
Ministry say yesterday marks the turning of a new page in the history
of subordination of Latin America to the plans of our northern
neighbor. To say that the Argentine Foreign Ministry will work for
the freedom of the Cuban people, when what they must concentrate on
is working for the freedom of their own people; the liberation of
their money that is imprisoned in the infamous "Corralito"; to hear
them say that they intend to adopt a common position with the United
States to cooperate in the defense of Cuban human rights would be
laughable if the current situation was not so dramatic in Argentina,
a country where the people's most elemental rights are being
flagrantly and widely abused.

I must remind you here of the statements President Duhalde himself
made on January 4, two days after assuming the presidency, in which
he declared:

"We must guarantee basic human rights in Argentina" - this is the
verbatim text of his speech - "a country that talks so much of human
rights must guarantee those that are basic: the right to health and
food. We must consider the human rights of those who do not even have
access to basic items, while at the same time, obviously,
guaranteeing social peace, because anything less than this will lead
us into a veritable blood bath."

These are the words expressed by President Duhalde as he assumed the
challenging and complex responsibility he now faces. These statements
acknowledge the fact that these rights are not guaranteed in
Argentina today. In a country where we have witnessed police
brutality, where we have witnessed more than 30 people killed in the
streets, where we have witnessed people dying of hunger and disease;
all this in a country with the wealth of Argentina gives a true idea
of the lack of moral authority to stand in judgement of Cuba.

The declarations of the Argentine Foreign Ministry and the position
it adopted yesterday have truly filled us with disbelief. In our
opinion, Argentina is the last country in the world qualified to
focus on the human rights of anyone other than its very own citizens,
living in a situation of pure agony and hopelessness, as has not been
seen in this hemisphere in the last 50 years.

To talk of human rights in Cuba, a poor Third World country trapped
behind a blockade, where social indicators are nonetheless far higher
than in Argentina, at a time when Argentine teachers, this very
morning in fact, are marching to demand the payment of their last
four months' salary, and Cuba is working flat out to reduce the
number of students per classroom to 20, it truly is absurd. For a
country such as Cuba, which at this very moment is carrying out
soc_al programs to guarantee universal access to culture, to perfect
to an unprecedented degree its mechanisms of social assistance, to be
judged by a country where the people are looting supermarkets in
order to feed their children, really goes far beyond what we would
have thought possible in the various maneuvers against Cuba.

I doubt, however, that the position expressed by the Argentine
Foreign Ministry spokesman is monolithic or universally shared by
other sectors and other political figures within the country. We must
not forget that Senator Eduardo Menem for example, a figure from the
Justice Party that is currently in government in Argentina, proposed
to the Senate that the Argentine ambassador in Havana be reinstated
at the earliest possible opportunity. The ambassador was withdrawn
last year due to a diplomatic crisis produced when Cuba again
denounced Argentina's participation in a maneuver just like the one
we are discussing today in exactly the same month of last year.
Menem's proposal was unanimously accepted just a few days ago.

The government head of Buenos Aires province, who represents another
political party, FREPASO, has also publicly declared a position of
respect for Cuba. Senator Alfonsín, a former president of Argentina,
has also publicly expressed a position of respect for Cuba and
opposition to Argentina's participation in this kind of maneuver; it
was under his government that Argentina voted against the
condemnation of Cuba in Geneva. We even know of figures within the
current Argentine government who hold positions of respect for Cuba
that have nothing to do with what we have witnessed here.

We might mention Ms. Hilda González de Duhalde, for example, the
current minister of social development; she visited Cuba, and we were
able to meet her in person and observe her interest in our social
programs and in developing similar projects in Buenos Aires. She was
clearly very interested in learning about what was happening in our
country. We might also mention the minister of education, Ms.
Graciela Giannettasio, who visited Cuba and became familiar with our
educational projects. And there are many other ministers and members
of the Cabinet and of social and political sectors who are demanding
a different position on Argentina's part. What we are seeing today is
a first sign.

Cuba has always maintained solidarity with the Argentine people. The
Cuban government publicly denounced the pressure placed on the
current Argentine government in the first days of its mandate and
called for international solidarity and understanding. Our country
has maintained this solidarity, has even acted before the
Ibero-American community to ask for solidarity with the Argentine
people and its authorities, in the search for a solution. Then
suddenly, yesterday, we discovered that in a half-hour meeting with
Secretary of State Powell, in which the theme was to be - according
to earlier declarations - how to "pave the way" to improvements to be
later "grounded" by the Argentine Ministry of the Economy, it comes
out that the other major issue addressed was the violations of human
rights in Cuba and the need to save the Cuban people. To me this
seems, at the very least, a bad joke.

Randy Alonso. - The impression I also get, Mr. Foreign Minister, is
that while we have been saying up until now that the U.S. exercise
against Cuba in the Commission on Human Rights has become
increasingly discredited, then to think that now the bearers of the
U.S. message in the United Nations, and particularly in the
Commission on Human Rights, might be certain countries in this region
which, to mention just one of many elements, has the greatest
disparity in the distribution of wealth in the world, and which,
moreover, has such a long history of human rights violations
throughout the four decades our Revolution has been in existence;
well, if this exercise has been increasingly discredited up until
now, it must surely be completely rejected if certain Latin American
countries offer to do the dirty work of the United States in that
commission.

Felipe Pérez. - What I can say about what you have told me is that
the Spanish daily El País reported today that Buenos Aires, the
region for which the current foreign minister, Mr. Ruckauf, was
governor until just a few days ago, has declared itself unable to pay
its debts owing to the social situation that reigns in that area.

You were speculating on the origin of the headache that prevented the
minister from publicly appearing before the press. Perhaps it was
inner guilt after that meeting on Cuba. What I can say is that, when
one knows the social situation today in Buenos Aires, an extremely
wealthy region within Argentina, it is hard to believe that one of
those responsible for the gravity of the situation there until a few
days ago is now a lead protagonist in the adventure to save the Cuban
people. A people, what is more, that possesses all the strength,
morality and resources necessary to save itself without recourse to
foreign saviors. A country engaged in efforts to promote its rights
and, particularly, its sovereignty and independence, which has earned
it admiration from around the world.

Randy Alonso. - Thank you, Mr. Foreign Minister.

Lázaro Barredo. - The problem, Randy, is that this political world is
completely turned on its head; it is "democratic" to crush the
people, to kill people, to crush teachers' strikes as is happening in
some countries that claim to be the Switzerlands of the Americas or
of Central America, or that talk constantly of their political
activity. What we really see is the blatant manner in which the
police are acting extrajudicially to stifle any possible complaints
against a rampant social crisis that adds more and more every day to
the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of the Latin American poor.
This is what truly attracts our attention...

Randy Alonso. - In the case of Argentina, we have already seen in a
previous round table that over 2000 people join the poor of that
country every single day.

Lázaro Barredo.- No, 8260 is the new figure I uncovered; and there
are almost 15 million people below the poverty line, that's more than
a third of the population of Argentina.

Argentina is the best example. Everything the police did, causing 35
deaths, hundreds of arrests and countless injuries is now declared
"democratic." "Democratic" are the events in the country where since
1983, according to the Argentine Coordinating Committee Against
Police and Institutional Brutality, 10 people have died every month
in the hands of the security forces in extrajudicial processes.

Various media are now denouncing the existence there of carefully
hidden death squads, as there are in other Latin American countries,
some of whom are involved in this campaign against Cuba. These squads
are carrying "social cleansing" operations, methodically executing
young people in real or engineered conflicts with the ruling
political system. There are also countries that speak of human rights
while prisoners languish in cells without trial. In Argentina there
are 15,000 such prisoners who have not been tried within the
appropriate time. Is this humanism?

We must therefore ask ourselves, with what moral right can they speak
of human rights when, according to the statistics, hunger, poverty,
unemployment and illiteracy increase every day, when every day
children have less chance to finish their primary education, when
every day people have less right to life? Exactly which human rights
are we talking about? What is the right to vote if I cannot decide?
How can illiterate people decide how to vote if they don't know who
they're voting for, if they can't even read the biographies of the
candidates nominateed by the different parties? Is this democracy?
Are these human rights?

This is the pitiful situation that afflicts our continent today, with
no obvious solution, and this is why the system is facing such a
severe crisis.

Randy Alonso.- Dimas, you had something else to add.

Eduardo Dimas.- I do remember a statistic that has always shocked me,
about education in Argentina_ a country that was once one of the most
cultured in Latin America.

In Argentina, 54% of children do not finish primary school, and of
those who do, 80% do not finish secondary school. The future is being
buried. The future is being mortgaged, a future so desperately in
need of scientific knowledge and development. Is this what they want
to apply here? Do they want 54% of our children not to finish school,
for example?

Randy Alonso.- This is closely related to the type of human rights
defense that the Argentine foreign ministry has exercised in the
Commission on Human Rights.

I'm not sure, Juan Antonio, if we have any data on this matter that
would also be good to explain in this round table?

Juan A. Fernández.- We do, and the facts, the reports issued by
international agencies and human rights organizations, including NGOs
and the United Nations itself, are truly shocking with regard to
Argentina's human rights record.

Lázaro was speaking about the severe poverty in the country, the
denial of the most basic human rights, the right to life, to food. He
referred to some statistics he had found, but we can't mention them
all here, we've said enough.

While there is talk of the "new rich" of this neoliberal world in
some areas, in Argentina the key theme is the "new poor," and every
day there are more of them: their own official statistics report 14
million. There are 4.5 million impoverished people in Buenos Aires,
where the honorable foreign minister is from - he was the Governor of
Buenos Aires Province. These are human rights in Argentina.

If we examine the study undertaken by the United Nations we will find
truly bloodcurdling details. For example, the Commission on Human
Rights working group on forced disappearances has dealt with only
3455 cases from the 1970s up to the present day, of the more than
30,000 that were reported during the bloody years of the military
dictatorships. As consequence of impunity, which is the buzz word of
the day in the country, more than 3377 cases have been left
unresolved. The Commission is categorical in what it states. The
government refuses to cooperate, and has stalled trials that would
reveal the truth about what happened there.

Those responsible for the most heinous violations of human rights
this continent has ever known are currently in public office. On the
theme of the disappearances, this was a phenomenon unknown in the
vocabulary of human rights until it was invented by the dictatorships
of the Southern Cone, of Argentina, who seized people and made them
disappear off the face of the earth. Torture and extrajudicial
executions were known, but the disappearance of humans was an
institution invented in this hemisphere, in the Southern Cone. The
responsible parties continue to enjoy impunity. We have seen the
mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo demanding justice for
their children and grandchildren.

Now, Randy, if you were to look at the record of the Argentine vote
in the Commission on Human Rights, it is the clearest example of the
double standard and shamelessness of that foreign ministry, of those
bureaucrats who dare to make their unfortunate comments in their
other capital.

I have some information here that I think would be useful to share.
Here is the Commission on Human Rights resolution on the effects of
structural adjustment policies and external debt on the full exercise
of human rights, especially economic, social and cultural rights.
Amongst other things, this resolution states that: "aware of the
serious problem of the debt burden, this continues to be one of the
most important factors adversely affecting economic and social
development and the standard of living of the inhabitants of many
countries, bringing severe social consequences." Basically, it
describes all the consequences of adjustment policies and foreign
debt. Well, Argentina abstained from voting on this resolution, which
was passed by a majority in the Commission; 31 votes in favor and an
Argentine abstention.

We will examine later the economic situation of this country and its
debt problems.

Perhaps even the Argentine people, those people we see in the
streets, are unaware of these things, that their foreign ministry,
their bureaucrats, go to Geneva to abstain from voting, afraid to
fight with the international financial organizations.

This is truly interesting.

Turning to the Palestinian case - a further abstention; one of the
most severe violations committed in that part of the world and they
don't care. The same in the other resolutions, the right to a
democratic and equitable international order, an ongoing demand of
the Third World, of developing countries - and Argentina abstains.
How interesting!

If this was not enough, we could examine their voting record on a
series of resolutions against other countries also presented before
the Commission on Human Rights, and here Argentina does not vote in
favor, it abstains, but the abstentions must be read in a different
way. We are not talking of principled diplomacy, we are talking of
dollar diplomacy; Argentina abstains along with those it sells meat
to, or those it can still sell meat to, or its trade partners. There
is no philosophy here, there are no principles, there are no ethics
in the acts of the foreign ministry and its international relations,
it simply abstains.

Oh, but they are worried about Cuba! Just as the Minister was saying,
it would be laughable if the situation was not so serious.

I think I have illustrated a few key points here, but I'm sure some
of the other panelists could add more.

Randy Alonso: Felipe, did you want to say anything?

Felipe Pérez: Just a few words, Randy. I'd like to add that the only
country in Latin America whose alleged violation of human rights has
been presented in Geneva is Cuba; no other Latin American nation has
been submitted to such an analysis in order to condemn human rights
violations.

Now, here we have the declarations of Mr. Santiago Cantón, from
Argentina, the executive director of the Inter-American Human Rights
Committee of the OAS, the OAS official in charge of human rights
issues in the region.

Mr. Cantón was in Buenos Aires amidst the demonstrations and police
repression we saw on the television. He was asked - and this was
published in the Argentine newspaper Clarín - what are the main
challenges facing Latin America in 2002, and he replied: "First of
all, torture exists in Latin America, there are forced
disappearances, murders and police brutality" - this is what he sees
in Latin America
- "to which we may add the problem of social, economic and cultural
rights, all intrinsic parts of human rights." This is what he said.

Now, the U.S. State Department report - as you know, the U.S. State
Department issues an annual report on human rights, concerning
approximately 170 countries, excluding the U.S. - published on
February 23, 2001, states that there were around 20 to 30
extrajudicial executions in Argentina the previous year. It also
points out that during the last four years, 59 people have died under
suspicious circumstances in police stations in Argentina. However,
there has never been a resolution against Argentina in Geneva, there
has never been a resolution to punish it for the abuses we have seen
in recent days or to ask for an end impunity and the clarification
demanded by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Has anybody considered the condemnation of human rights violations in
a continent where around 20 journalists are assassinated every year
because they have denounced corruption and other human rights
violations?

Can anybody say that a single one of the torture victims whose case
are documented by the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva is Cuban?
Not one of them, it has never happened, simply because there are no
torture victims in Cuba.

Has anybody presented a case of an assassination in Cuba in which the
body has not been found. No, because there are no extrajudicial
assassinations in Cuba.

Has anybody presented a case of a Cuban mother claiming that her son
had been snatched in the middle of the night and taken away in an
unmark_d van, never to be seen again? There isn't a single case in
Cuba, there isn't one, it simply doesn't occur.

Can anyone produce evidence of death squads killing children on the
streets in "cleansing" operations? There isn't a single case.

As for Argentina, it is said that 70 children have been killed in a
single year in Buenos Aires, and the police remain unpunished; the
governor at the time, now the minister of foreign affairs, defended
the acts of the police. The Argentine case has not been presented in
Geneva.

Latin America is a region where half of the population lives under
the poverty line, where infant mortality rates in many countries
exceed Cuba's by 12, 15 and 20 times. And yet Cuba is the nation
judged in Geneva and worried about in Washington, a country that has
reduced its infant mortality to 6 per 1000. If the infant mortality
rates in Latin America had dropped to Cuba's figures, how many
millions of children would now be alive in Latin America?

There is a whole pattern of double standards, of the manipulation of
this issue against Cuba, and this is precisely what we oppose and
denounce.

Randy Alonso.- Thank you very much, Mr. Foreign Minister.

While the Argentine foreign minister yesterday expressed his
"concern" about human rights in Cuba, the unemployed, labor unions
and state workers -- according to a DPA wire story - headed up
numerous demonstrations and roadblocks in the provinces of Santa Fe,
Chaco, Misiones, Río Negro, Santiago del Estero, Salta, Jujuy, La
Rioja, San Juan and Gran Buenos Aires.

Almost all the demands focused on the need for work, unemployment
benefits, adequate salaries and food, as the local news agencies
informed.

The situation in Argentina during recent days has been reflected in
the world's media, and these are images broadcast by Televisión
Española on January 21, 22 and 25.

Journalist.- The Argentine President, Eduardo Duhalde, has failed to
keep his first promise. He must change all deposits into pesos, which
implies a loss in the value of the money in the banks.

The conversion of deposits into pesos is at the demand of the
financial sector; the government, however, is also being pressured by
the International Monetary Fund, demanding currency fluctuation and
budget control. The IMF has promised aid in exchange for a
sustainable plan. It also demands an austere budget for the coming
year. Buenos Aires must draw up an economic plan to be presented to
the IMF at the end of the current month.

Meanwhile, the economic situation is practically forcing Argentines
to abandon their country.

Miriam Villegas.- You start to sell what it cost you so much to have,
but, more than selling, you practically have to give it away, and
then you ask yourself, how am I going to get that money back.

Journalist.- To the financial crisis, we must also add the price
increases. In the first half of January inflation has risen by almost
2%. This represents the worst situation in recent years for many
people.

Ricardo Villegas.- My father started small but grew, I grew a little
but lost much more than I had gained.

Journalist.- Argentina has experienced a tense calm in recent hours
and the number of protests has diminished, although various
demonstrations are still scheduled throughout the country.

The third week of Eduardo Duhalde's leadership of the Argentine
government began with violent disturbances around the country and
continuing discontent among the population, despite the early
economic measures undertaken by the executive.

The worst incidents occurred in Resistencia in the north of Argentina
where groups of unemployed people confronted the police who used
rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

In Córdoba, the police had to separate drivers from a taxi company
who where fighting over tariff differences.

Protests against the banks were repeated in the capital, where
hundreds of people demanded the complete opening of the "Corralito',
which denies Argentines any more than $1000 a month in cash. They
also oppose their bank debts being converted into pesos.

Similarly, the main trade unions are preparing a joint march on
Sunday to the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine government has decided to be flexible in some
exceptional cases with the "Corralito'. This measure will benefit
only those over 75 and the sick.

Yesterday, thousands of people took to the streets once more banging
on pots and pans to demand the resignations of the members of the
Supreme Court of Justice. These are accused of tolerating the
corruption of the political class and the financial powers.

Other protesters gathered before the offices of the major banks, and
were even able to gain access to these. This family even decided to
spend their holidays in one of these offices.

Member of the public.- This bank doesn't let me go away anywhere on
holiday, so I've come here for my holiday.

Journalist.- Argentines denounce the non-payment of officials'
salaries, the paralyzation of social services and the banking
restrictions by banging their pots and pans in the streets.

Member of the Public.- Since 1983, the banks, the politicians and the
governments have all ripped us off.

Member of the Public.- How is it possible that there is so much
wealth in the country and we are still hungry?

Journalist.- After the relatively spontaneous protests, networks of
resistance are being created with the aim of offering an alternative
to the traditional parties and unions. The Internet has been the
preferred media for coordination and it was from there that this
afternoon's protest was organized.

Randy Alonso.- Well, what should the Argentine Foreign Ministry
concentrate on? From the images we have seen here and from the social
and economic crisis, I'd like to ask Francisco Soberón, president of
the Banco Central de Cuba, to explain the desperate situation that
the Argentine people are facing today.

Francisco Soberón.- Well, what we must first point out is that this
breakdown of the neo-liberal model in Argentina is not simply that;
not simply the visible and undeniable breakdown of this model that
has been so staunchly defended by the rich countries and the
International Monetary Fund; it may also be classed as the heist of
the century, the greatest theft of all.

Felipe was speaking about gold medals. Well, if there were an
Olympics for theft, it's very likely that what is happening at the
moment in Argentina would take the gold medal. Of course, we must not
rule out the fierce competition posed the Enron case in the United
States, but I'm sure we would witness a very closely fought battle.

Thinking more carefully on this theme, I said to myself: we are not
just talking about a major theft, we are almost dealing with a magic
trick. I had seen magicians make doves and rabbits disappear, but I
had never seen anybody capable of making 85 billion dollars
disappear, by any means. Without a doubt, this could also compete for
the most amazing magic trick of all time.

We also saw an Argentine, with every right in the world, saying "How
can we be in this situation in a such a wealthy country?" I would
like to offer some statistics on just how wealthy Argentina is. Now,
what country has been crushed the International Monetary Fund and the
market fundamentalists? A country that covers 2,766,000 square
kilometers, the eighth largest country in the world, 25 times larger
than our country, with 37 million inhabitants, approximately 3.3
times more than the population of Cuba. Therefore, the riches owing
to each citizen are extraordinary.

Argentina produces 66 million tons of cereals and oil grains, such as
soy with its very high protein content. Let's do our math; the people
that say "I am hungry" produce enough of those cereals and soy to
give every Argentine 10.7 pounds every day, I repeat, more than 10
pounds every day. There are 48 million head of cattle, 1.3 for every
inhabitant.

There are 5000 kilometers of coastline rich in many different species
of fish, where 850,000 tons are caught; river resources of every
type, with great savings in transportation due to the navigable
rivers; oil, 75 mil_ion tons produced annually. What is more, there
are approximately 1.4 billion tons of oil equivalent reserves. What
does this represent? Well, 186 years of Cuban consumption, so we are
able to appreciate the kind of reserves we are talking about; there
is also the great advantage, because of the rivers that we have
already mentioned, that 40% of the energy needs are produced
hydroelectrically, so they don't even need to use their hydrocarbon
resources.

Now, what has been done with all these riches by these -- let's call
them the alchemists, since it is practically an act of alchemy -- of
the International Monetary Fund, with its subordinates in the
previous Argentine governments?

I think that nothing could capture this situation with such eloquence
as some short paragraphs from the inaugural speech of President
Duhalde on his ascension to power.

Let me cite directly from President Duhalde's speech:

"As a consequence of the economic depression, our per capita income
fell by 12%. Unemployment also rose, breaking all records in our
country" --although the statistics are incomplete; the official rate
is 18%, but rumors report more than 30% unemployment, without
including underemployment, the informal sector, etc. -- "and the
poverty rate reached 40%, which implies" - Duhalde states - "no less
than 15 million of our brothers and sisters living below the poverty
line," and might add, in such a wealthy country.

"During the 2001 fiscal year, the reserves of the Central Bank of the
Republic of Argentina fell by 18 billion dollars and 24% of the
deposits in the financial system fled the country, as a result of,
among other things, the crisis of confidence."

"This is not the time" ¾ Duhalde added ¾ "to cast blame, this is the
time to tell the truth. Argentina is bankrupt. Argentina is ruined.
This model, in its death throws, has destroyed everything. The very
essence of this perverse model put an end to convertibility, dragged
two million Argentines down into dire poverty, destroyed the
Argentine middle class, bankrupted our industries, pulverised the
work of Argentines. Today production and trade are, as you know, at a
standstill; the payment chain is broken and there is no money
circulating that is able to get the economy going." End of quote.

And as I was reading this I also thought that,apart from all the
natural resources we have spoken of, Argentina also has a greater
resource than all of that: its intelligent, hard- working, capable
population, which we Cubans here love so much and which has offered
us so much solidarity, and we have shown it solidarity as well.

Now, it would be somewhat lengthy to explain how they managed to ruin
Argentina, in other words, it is not possible to explain a question
of that magnitude in just a few minutes. But just to give you some
idea, we shall mention five points and they are all connected with
the doctrine imposed by the International Monetary Fund. And as for
all the political kowtowing we saw here, well, it appears to be
practiced in economic terms as well; it seems that the training for
both is done in the same way.

1. Of course, the total liberalization of capital flows. No matter
how weak or how strong the banking system is, or whether there is a
good system of control, no matter if the country has reserves or not:
"No sir, you have to free up your capital flows, all the hoards of
money of which we have spoken on other occasions, hundreds and
thousands of millions, may enter and leave at will, if they want to
flow in today, then in they flow, and if they want to flow out
tomorrow, then out they flow. If this ruins your country, that is
your problem. You want help? Then free up completely the flow of
capital." "As you wish, all capital flows are freed up."

2. Indiscriminate privatization, a banquet. I even had taken notes
and I said: an orgy of privatization, because this goes beyond what
is rational. And is it not, of course, that we are saying that
foreign investment has to be demonized, no. What we are saying is
that you can't just sell a country off. One can complement a
country's development, we have done that, sovereignly, with a set
level of access for foreign investment. We decide on each case, and
that is a help. I believe that when it's done like that, the foreign
investor is even more grateful, because he knows it is something
serious, that it is something that will give results, it is not
simply a matter of auctioning off the country to the highest bidder
and often not even to the highest bidder but to the one who is
willing to join in little games, and then fat accounts appear in
Swiss banks and in other places that allow them to pay for their
holidays and make statements from luxury resorts.

Privatization of 90% of the banking system, along with
telecommunications, petroleum, those 1.6 billion tons of reserves,
that no longer belong to the Argentines, it was privatized, sold off;
the airline, electricity. In fact, in the case of the oil company it
is said, there are all sorts of comments made by reliable sources,
that there was even some kind of deal with those who had to estimate
the value of the company to not include 30% of its reserves so that
the sale could be made more cheaply. This may or may not be true, but
there are a lot of comments about it and it really would not surprise
us, seeing exactly what has happened in that country.

Aside from that, all of this privatization is based on the idea that
one must accept lock, stock and barrel that the State is always a
lousy manager. It has become an axiomatic truth and I don't know
where the question was settled, where that discussion took place, who
was the judge that ruled that the State is always a bad manager and
the market a good manager. If the market is such a good manager, why
did Enron fail, go bankrupt and drag thousands of U.S. citizens down
with it, who had invested their fortunes in it? I know of lots of
cases of state companies that run efficiently, I could mention many
countries. Singapore is always given as an example. And I know of
privatizations that have been disastrous, where the privatized
company has been much more inefficient afterwards. I don't want to
give any examples, but I could mention a lot.

What is the fallout from all this privatization? Well, first off
there is the party, the booty, the income from the sale of these
assets. But what happened in the ten years since they took place?
It's quite simple, between interest and profits no more and no less
than 6.253 billion dollars went abroad, through the income account.

3. Then as well, in addition to this privatization spree, and
following a fundamentalist concept closely linked to their political
beliefs, a decision was taken to tie the monetary system to the
dollar, through something called the system of convertibility ¾ we
don't want to go into that in detail so as not to go on too long, but
one of the consequences was an overvaluation of the Argentine
currency. Why was this done? Well, to attract foreign investment, to
avoid exchange risks, and it was also done to control inflation, and
it did just that for a short while.

4. The fourth point is what they euphemistically call "flexibilizing"
labor legislation. Translation: stripping the workers of all
protection. In plain English, making sure there is no chance a worker
can demand any rights.

On this point I took some interesting notes. In April 2000, the
Senate passed an amendment to the labor law to give companies more
freedom to lay off their work force. The result of this -- and this
is another lesson -- a bitter clash with the unions and a situation
of instability was created in the country. But the most interesting
thing is that, in September 2000, several senators were accused of
having accepted bribes to pass this amendment. One sometimes wonders
if behind all this there is really a conviction that one is doing
what has to be done, or if it is personally expedient, a way of
getting rich for those who behave this way. If they adopted policies
which would give more protection to their people, then they would not
have access to all these sources of embe_zlement, of bribes.

And fifthly, they not only completely opened up the balance of
payments for capital flows, but they also opened it up for foreign
trade. An overvalued currency, and foreign trade with no controls. To
sum up, over those years, a 23.8 billion dollar trade deficit.

Now, to try to clear that deficit, and we are talking of a trade
deficit of 23 billion dollars, a deficit in the income statement of
more than 60 billion. Incredible deficits, how can they be cleared?
At first they used the money that was left over from all the
privatizing, I say that was left over because we all know that a good
part of those funds left for who knows where. It is all part of the
magic trick of losing money. The only way out was to go into debt,
and to go back not very far, from 1990 to date, the Argentine debt
grew from 62 billion to 145 billion ¾ I am very doubtful about that
figure of 145 billion ¾ it does not include the debt that the
provinces may have contracted directly, and there is a lot of doubt
about other kinds of debt that may not be included, but the figure
available to us says 145 billion, 2.3 times in ten years, it grew 2.3
times.

They paid (interest of) 180 billion in the same time period, in other
words they paid three times the debt they had in 1990 and now they
owe twice as much as they owed in 1990.

The Inter-American Development Bank calculated that at that rate the
debt would reach 167 billion by 2003. This policy of constantly going
into debt, what other consequences does it have? It makes Argentina
more and more dependent on the financial markets and on hand-outs,
sometimes juicy hand-outs naturally, from the International Monetary
Fund. And so they had to follow the policies dictated to them without
much argument.

Some of the things demanded of them were: cutting public spending ¾
we already know what cutting public spending means, because it
doesn't mean cutting the salaries at top government levels, it
doesn't mean cutting the means at their disposal. No, we are talking
about health, education, we are talking about pensioners. And the
government, following their game, follows what I have called the
suicidal policy of trying to have a zero budget deficit in an economy
in recession. We all know that a budget deficit, at the right time,
can help get the economy going, help it to expand. A zero deficit is
a recessionary policy. Even the United States, at this stage of the
recession, you have seen how they are trying to use many methods to
stimulate spending. The result of this includes, as we have been
saying here, workers without paychecks, workers who went three months
without getting paid. I can imagine that our population hears this
and is amazed, horrified. How can the day when you are supposed to
get paid arrive and they tell you: "No sir, you are not getting paid
today." "But, well, why?" "No, because look, they money didn't come."
"But what do you mean, I did work!"

These things happen, and of course, this is not a violation of human
rights. This is "adjustment" which has to be made so the economy
works and there are no further implications.

All of these policies exacerbated the social crisis and also created
huge conflicts between the central government and the provincial
governments ¾ powerful governors like the one we were watching just
now, the former governor of Buenos Aires ¾ whose policies put them on
a collision course with the central government. This also created a
certain lack of confidence, a lack of political credibility, in those
markets that they had so much need of and that led them to pay
extremely dearly for the indebtedness that they were forced to
increase. They needed to constantly increase their foreign debt, to
borrow more money to pay what they owed and to be able to keep the
country working. The so-called country risk reached 40%. It was
obvious that the country was going to go bankrupt, that it was
impossible to go on like that.

One of the things that I remember clearly is that many months ago our
Commander-in-Chief had already said: Argentina is exploding. Then he
said it publicly, but long before he mentioned it publicly, he had
said it in private.

In fact, at the Sao Paolo Forum, December 7, 2001, twelve days before
this explosion, he said, and I quote: "There is no need even to puff:
it is going to fall down, there is no cure, even if they bring in
some from one party and some from another, here and there. This is
the picture, it can't be sustained, and no one is going to come and
save their economy, at this late hour, for those strict, 100%
neoliberals, chemically pure neoliberals. The Bank people, the U.S.
[Federal] Reserve people, they no longer have the slightest respect
nor regard for that State. That is why I told them, you can't go on
that way.

How could the Commander-in-Chief, at a distance of thousands of
kilometers, with the information he receives, have managed to have
such a very clear insight, almost the only thing he failed to do was
to say what day it would explode, yet those who were there did
nothing to prevent this situation, as far as one could see? Which is
like someone who walks along a mountain path and blindly goes on and
on because there are others behind saying: "Go on, there is no cliff
there." And he goes on crazily, without looking at anything. And
finally what the Commander-in-chief had predicted came to pass.

When it could already be clearly seen that the country was going to
go bankrupt, foreign capital stopped flowing in. Inside the country,
those who had money in the country, those who had good information ¾
they are not those poor people we saw, that woman who said "They have
stolen my money." The well-informed person simply put his money in a
safe place abroad. A person like that did not suffer any negative
consequences.

Randy Alonso.- An investigation has begun, Soberón, into the
president of the Central Bank because they say that there are 120
people...

Francisco Soberón.- We are going to look at that a little later.

Now at this time I would say that it was already a do or die
situation. Every man for himself. Reason disappeared over there and
at a time like that there were many voices saying to the government:
"The debt must be restructured. We have to say that we can't take it
on." There were even those who were saying: "Declare a temporary
moratorium." They insisted on waiting until the last minute to
declare this moratorium, but at what cost? Because it was not at the
cost of the salaries nor of the personal fortunes of those who were
taking those decisions. The cost was that a a given monent they had
to say: "Since I now have no money ..." Because all the foreign
savers, all the foreign investors had taken all the money. What money
is left in the banks? Ah! The population's money, the small
businesses' money, the money belonging to those who for one reason or
another had not taken their money out of the country. The
government's decision: I will pay the Monetary Fund and I will take
the money away from my people. Graphically speaking, in my opinion,
it is like grabbing every single Argentine and taking the money from
his pocket or the money he had in the bank and, quite simply, handing
it over to the Monetary Fund, so they say, what a good boy you are,
how well you meet your obligations. And, at the end, they didn't even
manage that, in spite of everything they did.

We have reached the moment when what is called the Corralito (little
corral) took place. The day that the Corralito happened I said,
Rather than Corralito, which is something picturesque, I would say
that the Argentine people's money has been put into a moat full of
crocodiles. This is not a Corralito, it is a prison with a moat full
of crocodiles around it. So that in order to get at that money, in
fact, they are going to have to take a lot of beatings from the
police, unfortunately for them, such an honest, hard-working people
whom we love and admire so much.

Around 65 billion was frozen, but 45 billion of this, since there was
parity between the dollar and the Argentine peso, was in dollar
deposits and 20 billion was in peso dep_sits.

Something that we perhaps do not have a very good grasp of is that
this was not just the population's savings. No, it is more serious
than that; because in Argentina a high percentage of salaries are
paid through bank accounts, the company deposits your salary in a
bank account . This latest restriction means that you can't get at
your current salary either. You might need it to pay the electricity
bill, the rent, the gas bill, it is money that you have earned but if
it is above the established limit, you can't withdraw it, let it just
sit there.

And there is talk that they are going to put it into a deposit
account, a fixed term account, obligatorily, and that they will give
it back, starting in January 2003.

I had really wanted to give a more detailed explanation but
everything that has been said and everything they are doing is so
confusing and there are constant changes, that a tremendous feeling
of frustration has arisen, not only among the population, the level
of stress, of psychological problems among bank workers is extremely
high. There are some statistics on that, of insomnia, that they are
taking anti-anxiety drugs, a terrible thing. Because the visible face
of the bank is the person who is there at the wicket, and who
sometimes doesn't even know, can't even tell the person who comes to
the wicket what he can or cannot do. Can I withdraw my money? Can't I
withdraw it?

One thing is clear: there can be no withdrawals above a certain
limit and second, no one is going to be withdrawing dollars. It seems
to me that that much is quite clear. The promises made that people
would be able to withdraw their deposits in the money they were
originally made in, that anyone who had dollar deposits would be able
to withdraw dollars, that has gone with the wind, it's going to be
only pesos. Pesos that have been devalued to a rate of 1.40 ¾ but
that is for official transactions ¾ they would return part of their
money, maybe, at that rate, according to the established limits. But
if that person want to buy dollars, they have to buy them in the free
market and there the dollar is exchanging at a rate of 2.15 pesos to
the dollar, now it's 1.85, the bank intervened to prevent further
devaluation.

In previous round tables we have talked about the limits on the
deposits and I am always pleased to remind people that to cover his
costs an Argentine needs approximately 70 dollars, for example, for
his monthly electricity bill, for a family of four; gas, 35 a month;
water, 30 a month; rent, depending on the neighborhood, the same as
anywhere else, can be more or less expensive, between 300 and 1000
dollars. I know that these figures might seem somewhat unreal,
exorbitant to us, mightn't they? Because it is true that in Cuba one
is used to paying 13 pesos a month for electricity, which would be 50
U.S. cents a year. Now, I am obviously using this opportunity just to
say that the foreign press, often to make comparisons, says how much
a Cuban earns in dollars, dividing his salary by the exchange rate
given in the CADECA. However, they never say, using the same methods,
that a Cuban pays 50 U.S. cents a year for electricity, or a dollar
for rent, or that the basic food bill for subsidized items for a
family of four is around two dollars.

Now in this period the most incredible things have happened, and as
has been said here, if the subject were not so tragic, in some cases
they would be almost funny, such as the family we saw who went to
spend their holidays in a bank.

Randy Alonso.- In a bank.

Francisco Soberón.- Yes it's truly amazing.

And just look at what Duhalde himself said about the things that
happened during that period.

Duhalde said: There is an accusation that has been made in this
Congress about some of these funds having probably been sent abroad
using illegal maneuvers." When he said, "some of those funds" he was
referring to the 65 billion dollars which were stuck in that moat
full of crocodiles.

Randy Alonso .- Sixty five billion dollars.

Francisco Soberón.- Yes 65 billion dollars which were stuck in that
moat.

And he said: "These suspicions must be thoroughly investigated
because we must find out if someone has stolen this money" ¾
President Duhalde said this ¾ "from the people, and those who do not
find those who have stolen the money will go to jail."

Let us quickly look at a few cases. Here we have a gentleman, a very
good man, kind-hearted, whom the neighbors love and admire, who went
to the bank carrying a grenade, an insulin-dependent man, a diabetic
who needs insulin. We should point out that you need about 45 dollars
in Argentina to buy a month's worth of insulin treatment, the very
same insulin that we sell here for 1.25 pesos, the same, or that is,
the same type of insulin, the same dose, etc., which is sold here for
4 cents, over there it costs 45 dollars.

Now the man goes to the bank with a grenade and says: "Either you
give me my cash or we will all blow up." And of course, faced with
such a persuasive argument, they gave him his cash (laughter). Then
they sent him to jail. It says: "Although the police tried to recover
the money that Norberto had recovered, they could not find the cash,
now only he knows where it is," and, of course, one thing is sure, it
won't be in a bank (Laughter). The neighbors here say: Everyone on
the block thought highly of him, "the best kind of neighbor, very
good, very neighborly." When they were interviewed by the newspaper
yesterday, they all repeated the same thing, that "what he did was
done in the heat of the moment and in anger." The newspaper says that
Norberto is insulin-dependent, that his case is very severe, that he
has to inject himself twice a day and that he has fallen into
diabetic comas on several occasions.

Now the comic touch here, one can almost put it that way, is that
poor Norberto is accused of "extortion"; because he went to the bank
with a grenade to make them give him his money, the man now is facing
"extortion" charges.

Then the journalist said that they had received a lot of calls. "Of
every 10 calls, nine and a half were on his side and supported him,"
a journalist with Radio Tandil said. "One even warned" ¾ one of the
callers¾ "that if the man remained in jail they would organize a
popular demonstration." Banging pots and pans or something like that,
I imagine.

We also have some wire stories about the subject of the Central Bank
reserves. The Argentine reserves had reached a level of 24 billion
dollars, and I will read this report, from the Thursday, December 27
issue of El Clarín. It says: "Although the Central's numbers" ¾ it
means the Central Bank's numbers ¾ "claim that the liquid reserves,
which include gold and hard currency, are 14. 3 billion" ¾ in other
words, approximately 10 billion less that those that they had had ¾
"the stories circulating in the financial system claim otherwise.

"According to these rumors, when they opened the till they found
about 3.5 billion in cash and the rest in little pieces of paper, a
banker claims, referring to the surprise that the Secretary of the
Treasury, Rodolfo Frijeri received on Monday."

In fact ¾ I later tried to make a thorough check, there has been a
lot of contradictory information ¾ it is possible that the figure
might be somewhat inexact. It might be a little more, a little less,
but it does nothing to explain the situation, let's say the situation
of complete uncertainty which exists around something as important as
the Central Bank reserves.

Here is another report: "They assure us that the De la Rúa government
knew about the drop in the Central Bank reserves" -- referring to
this situation. "The manager of the Mortgage Bank, Julio Macchi,
today claimed that Fernando de la Rúa's government knew that the
Central Bank reserves were falling, and he said that it lied to the
people when it did not bring them up to date on the real state of
Argentina's finances.

""How can we have had enough reserves to maintain the 1 to 1 [parity]
and then the next morning away they flew and we had to devalue?'
Macchi wondered, remarking that "one of the biggest failures of thos_
in power is that they knew about this and lied to the people."'

"The former president of the Buenos Aires Trade Exchange thinks that
the bureaucrats must have known what the situation was, but they
falsified and fudged it." Another report reads: "Argentine justice is
making a more thorough investigation into the flight of deposits."

"Some of this money, the money that is now in deposits, which is not
being given back to the people, according to the sources, "had left
the country by means of shady maneuvers which slipped past official
exchange controls. We are investigating to see if the banks made
loans to themselves and to companies that could not pay them back, to
ghost companies and if they used off-shore banks' ¾ that is, banks
located outside the country, in tax havens which have very few
controls ¾ "to withdraw the money from the country, thus emptying the
banks, and to see if some of the of that money belonged to savers.'
Even President Duhalde has said that there are indications that a lot
of money left the country illegally."

But now, now there is something here that even surprised us a little,
because of how uncommon such an accusation is.

"Deputy Franco Caviglia, from the governing Peronist party, claimed
this Sunday in a conversation with Radio America, that "we are going
to start a preliminary investigation into the customs police.'
Caviglia demanded that the Executive branch ask for reports from the
Central Bank and the Customs Office to see if banking institutions
withdrew hard currency from the country shortly before the banks were
frozen." Even as I was reading the cable, I still thought that they
were talking of electronic transfers, the normal thing, of deposits
that were sent abroad through banking channels. No sir.

The cable goes on: "Caviglia said that between November 20 and 30,
around 358 trucks belonging to the bulk transportation companies" ¾
in other words, companies like SEPSA ¾ "Juncadella, Brick and
Vigencia, went to the Argentine airport and a significant sum of
money left the country from the airport." I do not want to add my
voice to this accusation. We have to see, this is an investigation;
but this gives one the idea of a Bonny and Clyde type operation. This
is not a sophisticated thing. And what's more, Bonny and Clyde would
go green with envy, it's a bank robber's dream, to make off with 358
trucks full, if it is true.

This other report talks about a search and seizure, because justice
is on the move. It says: "The police confirmed that the operations
were taking place at the request of the federal judge, Norberto
Oyarbide,"¾ in other words, there is search and seizure in the banks
¾ "following the accusation made" ¾ yet another accusation ¾ "by the
radical lawyer Juan Carlos Iglesias.

"Iglesias asked that an investigation be made into the alleged flight
of some 20 billion dollars between last November 1 and when the
so-called Corralito was imposed.

"The accusation that Oyarbide is investigating was made by lawyers
Isaac Damsky and Augusto Veronelly, who have made accusations of
fraud against former president Fernando de la Rúa, former minister of
the Economy Domingo Cavalho, and the head of the Central Bank, who is
stepping down, Roque Maccarone." In other words, not only is this
kind of search and seizure going on in the banks, there are also
accusations against the former president, the former minister of the
economy and the former head of the Central Bank.

Now another cable that says: "The largest deposits have already left
the country." I don't know how much. Well, there was more information
that said that just a few days before the Corralito was imposed, and
it seems this was this was a little known secret which only a few
people knew about, and they did have a lot of money in the bank, five
billion dollars was withdrawn.

Of course, when we see things like this we can't help but making the
analysis that we in Cuba, where there are supposedly all these human
rights violations, we have a social assistance budget of 2.3 billion
pesos and that even during the worst moments of special period, not
once did any of our pensioners go to the bank and not receive his or
her pension, which we have the resources to pay. I think that it
would never cross the mind of any of the country's leaders to use our
pensioners as gambling chips, to use the population that has so much
faith in our banking system, where it has around 5 million accounts.

Randy Alonso.- Quite the contrary, Soberón, in fact what the
Revolution is doing right now is creating programs to give better
care to those pensioners.

Francisco Soberón.- Exactly, all those social programs, and we would
go on forever if we mentioned them all here, which are exactly what
are given priority in our spending, the computers in schools Felipe
spoke about, the program that the Commander-in-Chief is carrying out
with such vigor, the social workers, so that any Cuban who needs one
can have a social worker to help him, and Cuba does not have the
wealth, unfortunately, that Argentina has in terms of material
wealth. But we do have a population which of course ¾ as has been
said ¾ is our greatest resource. Yet we also have a blockade. Or
rather, an economic war that has tried to sink us for over 40 years.
And it is under these circumstances that we have managed to guarantee
that our pensioners get their pensions. And of course, in this very
same forum, the Commander-in-Chief, scarcely two months ago, assured
our people that their bank accounts would always be respected, as the
Revolution has always respected them, and the result of that, Randy,
is quite simply that there have been more deposits made in the banks.
In other words, we have the population's complete confidence,
complete trust in its leaders, and above all in the
Commander-in-Chief.

Now I would like to end by mentioning an article which I think was in
fact an editorial that was published in the Wall Street Journal. As
you know, the Wall Street Journal, I think we could say that it
speaks for the commercial and financial interests in the United
States. Let's say an official establishment voice that reflects the
opinions of those who, one way or another, really govern and give the
orders in that country.

The title couldn't be more insulting: "Argentina on the way to
becoming a banana republic." Insulting and also somewhat
contradictory, because I looked up the term banana republic in the
dictionary, I was curious, and a U.S. dictionary defines it as: "A
Latin American country which is under the excessive economic
influence of the United States." That is how an American dictionary
defines what a banana republic is, they themselves. Please, don't
anybody get offended, it's the Americans who came up with that
definition, I am just telling you about it.

In fact, there couldn't be a more insulting article, I can tell you,
they show a level of contempt that would annoy anyone. They compare
what is happening in Argentina with the script of a Woody Allen
comedy. They say: "It seems as if this film's scriptwriters were now
designing Argentina's economic policy because the new reforms in that
country are certainly nuts. The policies are so bad that perhaps the
International Monetary Fund will even be reluctant to hand over more
money for a rescue operation." The article is even very disrespectful
to President Duhalde. We, as Latin Americans, feel truly offended by
this article.

Now, how does the article end?. It says: "In spite of all of that,
Argentina keeps asking for more" ¾ when it says, "in spite of all
that," all that is everything they say about the mistakes that they
supposedly have made, about the policies that don't work, about the
fact that they are insane ¾ "between 15, and 20 billion in new funds
from the IMF. But the IMF and the Bush administration Treasury
continue to say that they will only talk if Argentina submits the
right plan. But a country that acts like Argentina is acting does not
deserve to even expect international aid. It deserves to be thrown
out of capital markets of all kinds, both private and official. If
Argentina want to follow the _aitian way, that is its problem,
although it would be a tragedy for its people" ¾ naturally, the
article also shows a lack of respect for our sister nation Haiti.
"However, until it once again respects private rights and the
precepts of the law, Argentina deserves to be treated as any other
banana republic."

In fact, the Argentine foreign ministry is playing a very sorry role
in going to Washington to put itself under the orders of a master who
feels so much contempt for the country that they should be
representing in a dignified manner.

That is what I wanted to say.

Randy Alonso.- Well, Minister, and how different from what our
foreign ministry, throughout all these years, has done in defense of
our people's rights, is that foreign ministry which far from
defending the rights of its people, the concerns of its people,
spends its time to placing itself at the beck and call of that
master.

I would like to thank you, the Foreign Minister, the rest of the
panelists who have been with me this evening; I thank the guests we
have had with us in the studio, the delegation from the Spanish
United Left who have been with us at this round table. I thank
Comrade Lage and of course I offer special thanks to our
Commander-in-Chief for his presence at today's round table.

Dear fellow countrymen:

The entrenched kowtowing in the Argentine foreign ministry. Each time
an Argentine foreign minister has gone to Washington in the last ten
years, it has been an exercise in paying homage to and humiliation
before the powerful. Di Tella and Giavarini did it in their time. Now
it is the turn of Mr. Ruckauf, a total master of the double standard
morality, who has left the U.S. capital with a splitting headache.

When the Argentine people are going through such a serious crisis and
are bereft of the most basic human rights, such as the right to feed
oneself and to have access to health services, the Argentine foreign
ministry, far from sallying forth to defend the rights and demands of
its suffering people, presents its so called action "so the Cuban
people may be free" with complete self-assurance in the Empire's
capital, using our country as a gambling chip faced with the demands
of that power, which, through the IMF, has turned Argentina into the
living hell that it has become today for its people.

The cowardice and lack of moral courage shown by this foreign
minister and his ministry makes us angry, as we are deeply hurt by
the fact that the Argentine people have to live through such a sad
moment. We once again express our solidarity to those people.

Argentina, yesterday the paradigm of the neoliberals, is today the
best proof of a system that bankrupts nations and marginalizes human
beings.

Cuba, meanwhile, continues to build its dream of the fairest society
possible. The peoples, downtrodden and subjugated, are on our side.
It is they who make history; the others, the petty and those who
kowtow, will be forgotten on some obscure page of history.

Nothing will hold us back in the battle for our dreams.

For Cuba, with Fidel, we keep on fighting.

A very good night to one and all.

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[Observador]

Speaking of Cuba, Please tell us when they celebrated the last free
election, where the electoroate could decide on the candidates and
issues to elect the government officials....Thanks