Venezuela gives Cuba satellite access

[Say_What]

<clips>

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg): Venezuela will grant Cuba access to the South American nation's first-ever satellite, due to be launched in September, as ties between the states deepen and the health of Cuban President Fidel Castro grows more uncertain.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage on Wednesday signed accords on telecommunications, steel and agriculture, calling for Venezuela to share use of its new "Simon Bolivar Satellite" with Cuba and to spend up to 1.1 trillion bolivars ($512 million) to create a series of joint ventures. The purpose of the satellite wasn't disclosed.

"Castro's government needs the force and lungs of Chavez to ensure that Fidel's death has the smallest impact possible," said Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Caracas political research firm, Datanalisis. "These accords give the Cuban government oxygen to maintain its connection to the people and minimize the risk of imbalance, domestic or foreign, during the transition after Fidel dies."

The Cuban delegation's unexpected visit to Caracas on Wednesday, announced minutes before Lage and seven ministers appeared outside the presidential palace with Chavez around noon, comes as an ailing Castro begins to reap growing rewards from his ties with his Caribbean neighbour. More than 100,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil, supplied daily to Cuba at a 40 percent discount, helped fuel 12.5 percent growth in the island's $60 billion economy in 2006, according to the Cuban government.

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000053/005373.htm

[Vidar]

1. Good for Chavez.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. hm

so the socialist countries like Cuba, China, and Vietnam are all growing at over 10% a yr?? BUT BUT BUT I thought socialism was pure evil and could never produce a stable economy!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Say_What]

4. The economic outlook for Latin America in 2007

You might enjoy this... Note his comment about possible coup attempts.

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It is a well-known fact that Latin America's economy depends a great deal (too much, I might say) on the avatars of international economy, especially on the economy of the United States, its main trading partner. That dependence is an evident symptom of weakness, because growth or reduction is the result of the behavior of a series of variables that are not under the control of governments, not even of the major national enterprises.

In 2006, Latin America's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.2 percent and, although the increase varied substantially from one country to the next, the growth marked a tendency that has repeated for four consecutive years. For 2007, both the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL) and the World Bank (WB) predict a GDP growth of about 4.5 percent, a rate acceptable from any point of view, so long as the poorest countries experience above-average increases, which is hard to expect.

The countries with the greatest GDP increase were Cuba (12.5 percent), Trinidad & Tobago (12), Antigua and Barbuda (11), the Dominican Republic (10), Venezuela (10), Argentina (8.5), Panama (7.5), Uruguay (7.3) and Peru (7.2 percent.) The countries with the weakest performance were El Salvador (3.8 percent), Nicaragua (3.7), Brazil (2.8), Guatemala (2.5) and Haiti (also 2.5 percent.) The rest of the Latin American nations experienced growth rates that range between the two extremes.

According to ECLAC and WB economists, the reasons for the growth were the high price of raw materials exported by Latin America, an increase in the domestic demand -- something that varies widely from one country to the other -- and a favorable global context. Others say the most important element was "the adoption of autonomous economic decisions that were counter to the neoliberal policies and market policies imposed by the major centers of world power."

...In addition, don't dismiss the possibility of coups d'état, as evidenced by the policies of the current U.S. administration and its intentions of wiping out "the leftist trends" in Latin America. Time will tell. As always, I invite you to meditate.

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Eduardo_Dimas_ant&otherweek=1169704800

[Say_What]

3. Venezuela to sign deal for poor tourists to travel free to Cuba

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The government of President Hugo Chavez plans to sign an agreement with Cuba to send at least 100,000 poor Venezuelans to the communist-led island for no-cost vacations, an official said Wednesday.

Chavez and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage were expected to sign the deal allowing low-income Venezuelan families to soak up the sun on the Caribbean island during talks in Caracas, Tourism Minister Titina Azuaje said in a statement.

The tourism program would benefit Venezuelans who are involved in newly created communal councils — neighborhood-based groups that resolve local problems — and government-run programs called "missions," which provide education, subsidized food and health care for the poor.

The Venezuelan tourists would travel on Cuba's state-run airline Cubana de Aviacion, Azuaje said.


http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-01-25-venezuela-cuba-tourism-deal-fee-vacations-poor-tourists_x.htm


A tourist walks past pictures of guerrilla leaders Cuban Camilo Cienfuegos, left, and Argentine-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara, at the Revolution Museumin Havana.

[Judi Lynn]

5. That's remarkable! We've been reading for a year or two about the

successful programs in place sending eye patients to Cuba for treatment, or surgery. The Venezuela program became so successful it appears Cuba stepped up its similar programs with other islands, etc., as well. I remember reading years ago that they had a medical tourism industry established, as well, attracting Europeana clients.

This new "mission" is a breakthrough. Looking forward to hearing the first reports on how it's working.

Maybe we should create a building in the States showing portraits of great Republicans, like the revolutionaries, Cienfuegos and Guevara, in the photo!

I've got two immediate candidates: former Congressman Phil Graham, and Nathan Sproul, campaign consultant, and former Republican party head in Arizona, organizer of "Put Marriage First," or some such brilliance. Maybe Mitch McConnell, too.

[Judi Lynn]

6. A wall of Cuban "exiles" in the current U.S. government might be educational.

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/Pictures/Persons/003206/003206-188682.jpg

Florida Republican Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz Balart (nephews-in-law of Fidel Castro), Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, New Jersey Senator (Democrat) Robert Menendez, Florida Rep. Senator, former _Bush H.U.D. Secretary, Mel Martinez, _Bush Sec. of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, Assistant _Bush Secretary of State (Western Hemisphere), Lino Gutierrez, and these are just the ones who come to mind IMMEDIATELY. There are many more.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I hadn't heard of Lage going out of Cuba on official trips, but then we've never been given

any information other than stories on Fidel Castro which could be spun, right?

Found a photo showing Lage, wearing the black shirt, meeting people at an event some might recognize as one of the activities surrounding the swearing-in of Evo Morales in Bolivia. That was defintely SOME TIME AGO, wasn't it?



Hmmmmmm. Better late than never. Oh, yeah! I just recognized the man in the blue shirt behind him: Cuban Foreign Minister, Felipe Pèrez Roque.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Reuters: Cuba, Venezuela extend ties despite Castro's illness

Cuba, Venezuela extend ties despite Castro's illness
By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) - Cuba and Venezuela extended their ties on Wednesday with a raft of economic accords, including an underwater fibre optics cable plan meant to bypass a U.S. embargo, despite President Fidel Castro being sidelined by illness.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Vice President Carlos Lage signed deals to develop a range of production projects involving nickel, electricity and rice as well as the construction within two years of the cable between the two Caribbean nations.

In his absence, the two officials still sought to give Castro centre stage.

At the signing ceremony, Chavez from a letter he said his mentor Castro wrote to him this week about the countries' integration deals, which sustain their anti-U.S. alliance.
(snip/...)

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=129802007