HavanaReporter YEAR VIINº 18

SEP 29, 2017HAVANA, CUBAISSN 2224-5707

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

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International Solidarity Aids Intense

Recovery EffortP. 2

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

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HAVANA – Since Irma furiously smashed against Cuba’s northern coastline, gestures of international solidarity have continuously arrived, incentivizing the intense nationwide recovery, rebuilding and repair works underway.

Messages of support from governments and international agencies immediately followed Hurricane Irma’s departure from the Island.

Venezuela’s 7.3 tons of humanitarian assistance was the first such cargo to arrive at Havana’s José Martí International Airport.

A flight carrying 8 tons of aid, including water, blankets, milk and rice from Suriname followed shortly afterwards and a Dominican Republic Navy ship loaded with zinc sheeting, metal doors, mattresses and other goods docked in Havana.

The Vietnamese Thai Binh Trade and Investment Corporation sent some 150 thousand dollars worth of construction materials, food and other basic consumables as a modest but most welcome contribution to ease uba’s post- hurricane distress.

Other Vietnamese companies also declared their willingness to support the Caribbean island. The Rang Dong corporation is sending 80 thousand energy-saving light bulbs and the AMV Group is evaluating how best to assist.

The Japanese government’s International Cooperation Agency swiftly responded by sending Cuba a cargo of emergency assistance.

China has promised to donate one million dollars in cash in addition to basic products and tents, electricity generators, mattresses, blankets, water pumps and lights.

A ship load of rice from China is also due to arrive in the middle of October at the western Cuban port of Mariel, where a further five loads will land over time.

Messages of solidarity were also received from presidents Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

President Putin announced his nation would help Cuba through its Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The Spanish government expressed in a communiqué its deep sorrow for the damage caused by the hurricane to Cuba.

A number of other international agencies ratified their willingess to accompany and support Cuba’s government with the recovery form Irma.

David Beasley, the World Food Program’s (WFP) executive director, announced in Havana a donation of 1.5 million dollars in food and 5.7 million dollars in food aid and promised that his organization would work on the mobilization of additional resources.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide consumables and equipment for the

restoration of the nation’s agricultural infrastructure, which was seriously damaged by Irma.

In order to facilitate receipt of the many offers of humanitarian assistance from governments, agencies and individuals worldwide, Cuba has created the HURACAN-DONACIONES, 0300000004978829 numbered bank account.

Contributions will greatly support the supreme efforts that the Cuban State and people are making to confront the consequences of what was the worst hurricane to ever hit the Caribbean region.

As it passed over almost the entire national territory, Irma caused the tragic loss of 10 human lives and economic and material damages, set to run into thousands of millions of dollars.

CUBA

International Solidarity Aids Intense Recovery Effort

By VivianaDIAZ

CUBA 3

HAVANA.- Despite the increased tensions in Cuba-US relations since President Donald Trump came to office, the U.S. airline JetBlue opened two new offices in Havana on September 1st this year.

Ibrahim Ferradaz, the Cuban Aviation Corporation’s (CACSA) business director, said that offices opened by JetBlue and other U.S. Airlines in Cuba, attest to their strong interest in the island and the viability of their operations.

JetBlue now has a commercial office on a central street near the city’s emblematic Malecon (sea front) and another at Havana’s José Martí International Airport.

On August 31, 2016, JetBlue launched the first direct commercial flight between Cuba and the United States in more than 50 years.

In the intervening year, it has operated more than 2,000 such flights between the neighboring nations and carried in excess of 390,000 passengers.

It presently flies into Havana, the central city of Santa Clara and the eastern cities of Camagüey and Holguín.

The other U.S. carriers with regular flights to Cuba are American Airlines, Delta, United, Southwest and Alaska Airlines.

It is interesting to note that a total of 30,000 U.S. Citizens visited Cuba during the first semester of 2017.

In the year since scheduled flights to Cuba resumed, U.S. visitors have focused their attention on getting to know Cuban people as much as on traditional tourism activities.

There is a broad range of reasons that inspire U.S. nationals to visit the island under one of 12 categories licensed by the government that prohibits them to travel as tourists.

Significant progress had been made in this regard prior to President

Trump’s announcement of further restrictions that present new obstacles for U.S. citizens who want to visit Cuba; ill-advised measures that have been universally rejected.

However, the North American

neighbors have now tasted the “forbidden fruit” and many continue to come through third countries, an invisible avalanche, anxious to learn more about Cuba’s health, social, education and family structures and have a first hand experience of other aspects of authentic Cuban life.

The first US to Havana flight landed on November 28, 2016, but there had been regular flights to other parts of the country since August 31.

The first American Airlines connection to land at José Martí

International Airport on November 28 marked the reopening of scheduled flights between that country and Havana.

Miguel Landeras, CACSA’s Senior International Relations and Communication specialist, announced on its arrival that the American Airlines MD for the Americas, Alfredo González, had travelled aboardthe plane.

That Miami-Havana flight marked the opening of regular flights from the United States to the Cuban capital and carried 157 passengers.

On that same day, a JetBlue operated flight from New York also landed, inaugurating scheduled flights to Havana’s International airport.

Jet Blue; however, claimed the historic honor of becoming the first U.S. airline to fly to Cuba by operating the flight that landed in Santa Clara, the administrative center of the central province of Villa Clara, on August 31, 2016.

In June 2016, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued permits to six U.S. airlines to operate scheduled flights to Cuba.

This approval opened the way for regular air services between the United States and Cuba to resume following a more than 50 year breach.

Other companies providing connections included Spirit, Frontier, Delta and Southwest, but it was JetBlue that took the coveted prize for operating the first commercial U.S. flight to Cuba since 1961, from Fort Lauderdale, in northern Miami, to the city of Santa Clara.

HAVANA.– For 25 years, the now legendary Pastors for Peace caravan has challenged the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba.

Through that coercive, cruel and unilateral policy, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) restricts travel and exchanges between US citizens’ and Cuba.

In spite of this, convoys coordinated by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) has, since 1992, challenged such obstacles and as a result has become one of the most important Cuba solidarity movements in the United States.

The humanitarian aid transported by the Caravan’s activists has always arrived in Cuba, having overcome diverse barriers imposed by different US administrations.

An example of such obstacles was the confiscation of a school bus by representatives of the US Department of the Treasury in 1993.

Caravan activists responded by going on a hunger strike for more than 20 days and organizing a series demonstrations around the world to demand the return of the bus. In the end, it came to Cuba.

But as if that had not been enough, three years later, US authorities tried to seize 400 computers bound for Cuba on the San Diego border. Once again the situation inspired widespread protests.

Caravan members travelled to Washington D.C, and after applying political pressure and demonstrating their robust resistance, they managed to recover the equipment.

The Pastors for Peace project was first conceived by the North American Reverend Lucius Walker, during a stay in Nicaragua, where he was injured in an attack by the Contras.

As part of the US interreligious platform

founded in 1988, he organized over 20 Friendship Caravans that also toured Mexico and Nicaragua.

After his death, on September 7, 2010, his daughter Gail took charge of the Pastors for Peace Caravan, to honor his legacy of courageous solidarity with Cuba and other countries.

During a press conference on the island last July, Gail stated that the tightening of the blockade announced by President Donald Trump had reinforced her determination to defend the Revolution “come what may.”

The executive director reiterated that Pastors for Peace’s primary objectives were the lifting of the blockade and the return of lands illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base, in Cuba’s southeast.

Other causes that Pastors for Peace have supported include the long but ultimately successful campaign for the release of 5 Cuban anti-terrorism operatives, who were unfairly imprisoned in the United States in 1998.

At the height of the campaign for the freedom of the men who became internationally-known as ‘The Five’, Pastors for Peace joined the worldwide movement and worked from their churches to foster understanding of the men’s plight in the United States.

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González had been arrested by US authorities while preventing terrorist attacks on Cuba promoted by groups operating on US soil.

René and Fernando were released on completion of their respective sentences and on December 17, 2014, the victorious return of their brothers – Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio – was announced.

Pastors for Peace Unfailing Solidarity

with Cuba

By RobertoCAMPOS

Cuba-US Commercial Flights: One Year On

By LauraBECQUER

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WASHINGTON.- A series of protest actions against the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than 55 years, was held in the U.S. capital and Maryland between September 11 and 16 last.

The 2017 Days of Action against the Blockade became an alternative platform for solidarity groups and friends of Cuba to reiterate their calls for an end to the policy in force since 1962.

Public talks, community events and an information seminar attended by members of congress formed part of this year’s initiative – the third to date.

A number of DC and Maryland universities became the perfect places from which to explain the damage the US Blockade has caused, particularly to Cuba’s health sector, which was the focus of the event.

Participants listened to the testimonies of a Cuban doctor, U.S. graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana and members of the principal nursing trade union in the United States.

There was also an exchange of views with Leima Martínez of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and Yoandris Ruiz, first secretary of the Young Communist League in the province of Camagüey.

A 2016 ELAM graduate, Abraham Vela described his experience as a student at the school from which more than 28,500 doctors from 103 countries have

graduated free of charge, 170 of whom are from the US.

Participants roundly criticized Washington’s stance and from the very first day, the presence of Cuban doctors around the world and their humanitarian missions in inhospitable places and in times of natural catastrophes was recognized and explained.

Dr. Lucía Agudelo, a Californian ELAM graduate, praised the humane nature of Cuban medicine and shared about her time on the island as “a student of a great works”.

At the opening session, the U.S. coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, Alicia Jrapko, rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to renew, for one more year, the Trading with the Enemy Act, on which the blockade of Cuba is based.

She called attention to the fact that

while Trump was making that decision on September 8 , Cuba had hundreds of doctors in theCaribbean region, ready to assist as required in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Cuba’s Ambassador to the United States José Ramón Cabañas, highlighted his country‘s commitment to its universal and free public health system and that possibilities existed for the two nations to work together for their mutual benefit.

U.S. Dr. Margaret Flowers, coordinator of the Health before Profit ampaign, explained that many of her compatriots do not understand what the Blockade means and how it actually affects both Cuba and the United States.

Jrapko told The Havana Reporter that she considered this a “a very positive event which attracted many new and young people and university students” .

She singled out for particular praise, the information seminar about the blockade and its negative impact on health, hosted in Congress by Democrats Barbara Lee and Karen Bass.

The activist explained that an information pack about the Blockade had also been sent to the offices of 40 congress members of both the Lower House and the Senate.

U.S. Voices Raised Against BlockadeBy Diony SANABIA

HEALTH & SCIENCE 5

WASHINGTON.– In an expression of profound gratitude to the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), Abraham Vela, a young US graduate of Guatemalan descent, told The Havana Reporter that “the clinical experience and the sense of humanism I attained in Cuba are equally priceless.”

This young California-born man is one of 170 students from the United States who have graduated, free of charge, from the renowned medical school, created on the island in 1999.

Having studied in Cuba between 2010 to 2016 -- a time in his life he is now especially proud of -- Vela has applied for a residency in Family Medicine, the equivalent of General Medicine in Cuba.

“In the US, a doctor’s objective is to make a profit and patients are clients rather than human beings. In Cuba, we were taught that it really is possible to build a better world, not only in the areas of health and education but when addressing issues such as racism,” he commented.

Vela was one of a number of ELAM graduates who recently participated in this year’s Days of Action against the Blockade of

Cuba, in Washington DC, which this time focused on the damage caused to the Caribbean´s nation health system by the ongoing economic, commercial and financial siege.

During the interview, Abraham stressed the impact that his stay in Cuba has had on his life and the words gratitude, solidarity and humanism appeared throughout.

Vela said that it was through a University of San Francisco professor that he discovered the possibility of studying in Cuba. The idea very much excited him and he made contact with the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/ Pastors for Peace, which supports ELAM in their US student selection process.

“Studying medicine in the US would not have been possible, it would have taken me a very long time and left me with a level of debt that would have prohibited me from serving my community as had I wanted to.”

He added that prior to departing, he thought that in coming to Cuba, he would be confronting the most difficult experience of his life.

His ideas about what would be a new place had been based on lots of news distorted by a hostile media and his family had their own concerns.

He now knows that leaving Cuba proved to be a far more difficult experience.

He observed that “a typical lesson at a US university involves sitting down with a large group of students facing a professor at the blackboard. Exams evoke a lot of rivalry between students and there is no space for comradeship.”

“The first thing I realized was how different things were here. Our professor explained that we were classmates in a school of solidarity and brotherhood and that we had to help each other.”

He also said about that the time he spent at the institution – where 28,500 doctors from 103 countries have graduated – that he had benefitted from the opportunity of

sharing with people from different origins from whom he could learn about different religions and languages, taste diverse types of food and dance to different rhythms.

“And the most important thing is that I became part of a global family. I can go now to any continent and find friends there. That is a beautiful brotherhood.”

Reflecting on this recent period of his life, he reiterated his

gratitude to ELAM, to the Cuban people and the historic leader of their Revolution and creator of the teaching center, Fidel Castro.

He said that the opportunity had ensured that the only debt with which he had returned home with

was the moral commitment to Cuba to work within his community.”

Vela admitted that his return to the US and the exams he faced to qualify for a residency would be tough because of differences in the education systems, but that he had received an excellent training in Cuba.

He explained that things had been even more difficult for the first generations of graduates who opened the way, because the quality of their training was unknown.

However, once residency programs became more familiar, they were increasingly impressed by graduates trained in Cuba and that perceptions had now changed for the better.

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ELAM Injects Humanism into US Medicine

By MarthaANDRES

HAVANA – Suffering a disease is a problem for any patient, but if this is accompanied by pain, the situation is even worse.

A disorder that drives people extremely crazy and affects their peace is the migraine: the most recurrent headache that occurs when the vasodilatation of the blood vessels (their internal diameter) increases.

To diagnose a migraine, the doctor needs to be sure that there’s no infection or tumour nor breathing symptoms or any other disease that may cause the headache, as Dr. Leidy García, a specialist of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute (INN, in Spanish) told The Havana Reporter.

“The migraine pain is generally pulsatile; that is, you feel as if your heart were on your head. It generally occurs on oneside of the head, though it can change from right to left,” said Garc‘ia.

According to the neurologist, who’s specialized in the treatment of epilepsy, the

patient can feel nauseous, be vomiting and have difficulty in seeing; that is, to see lights that move from one place to another.

“For that reason, and to avoid complications, we recommend patient not to take medications without consulting first a health specialist, in order for them to receive the appropriate treatment,” she commented.

The expert added that the National Health System conducts a Community Program as part of which the hospital specialists see patients in the polyclinics of all the provinces of the country.

García highlighted that as migraine is a recurrent disease, it’s difficult to evaluate patients in the hospitals.

She added that, for that reason, when neurologists go to the polyclinics, it’s more feasible to conduct an assessment in each health area, as not all the sufferers need to be monitored in hospitals.

“Some patients suffer migraine and

control it easily, because they are disciplined and know the factors that cause it. These patients do not need to be monitored in the INN, an institution located in the capital that has over 50 years of experience,” noted García.

MIGRAINE TRIGGERING FACTORS“There are several factors that trigger

the most recurrent headache that can cause a crisis,” pointed out Marianela Arteche, head of the Ictus Room at the INN, a center of national reference in different fields of the neurosciences, neurological and neurosurgical diseases.

In relation to these factors, Arteche commented that patients don’t have to stop eating all the food included in the list they gave them, but those who normally affect their health.

Those food include chocolate, dairy products, smoked meat, canned goods, seafood, citrus, red wine, beer and others.

Other factors that also trigger crisis are exposure to the sun, stress, high temperatures, long fasting, the lack of sleep and digestive and menstrual disorders.

Cuba Attentive to MigrainesBy Reina M.LARDUET

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6 CULTURE

NEW YORK. - Cuban Singer songwriter Silvio Rodríguez seduced thousands of people at the Central Park of New York with his music and a message of tolerance and understanding among human beings.

“Long live Cuba! Long live the entire world without any exceptions! were the opening remarks made by the icon of the revolutionary Latin American song during his September 10 concert in New Yo, where he combined pieces of his latest album Amoríos with Ojalá (1975), La Maza (1982), Ángel para un Final (1984), PequeñaSerenataDiurna (1975) and other emblematic titles.

The founder of the Nueva Trova music movement was cheered and applauded for more than two hours during the Summer Stage, a series of open-air performances at the symbolic park of New York. He had to put off his last song at least five times because the audience wouldn’t stop singing and asking for more pieces.

Love and nostalgia, the fight for a better world and the commitment to principles were present in a concert very much enjoyed by this patchwork of nationalities and races found in New York. This varied audience packed the Central Park and embellished the magical night in New York with enthusiasm, seven years after the Cuban singer songwriter had performed there (Carnegie Hall) for the last time.

His messages were as much applauded as his songs when expressing solidarity with the people affected by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and the United States, remembering the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and honoring Baptist Pastor Lucius Walker.

The connection Silvio establishes with people from different countries and generations is amazing and the fact that he can do it in New York makes it special, a young Colombian told The Havana Reporter.

HIS WELCOMEIn addition to the thousands of voices that

applauded him at the Central Park, Silvio was welcomed by the speaker of the New York City Council Melissa Mark-Viverito.

“Your dream of performing at the Central Park has come true and we are all grateful for being who you are,” she said.

According to Mark-Viverito, Silvio’s music turns out to be optimistic amid these stormy times, particularly “the destruction posed by the current administration to the White House.”

The official took advantage of the event to praise Cuba’s solidarity with other Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma.

“Thank you Cuba. We now hope you are returned that same support after the suffering felt these past days,” she noted.

Text and Pfotos: WaldoMENDILUZA

Silvio Seduces New York with his Music and Love

Message

SPOTLIGHT ON 7

SPOTLIGHT ON

Irma Takes Center Stage

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HAVANA.- Even though Havana’s Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso suffered only slight damage during Hurricane Irma, the cultural sector’s formal recovery program commenced there to ensure its program of performances would not be interrupted.

A small winged sculpture of the Greek goddess of victory on top of one of four identical domes was bent over by the hurricane’s forceful winds.

But this and other minor damages suffered failed to force the institution to close its doors to its public.

Cuba’s Deputy Culture Minister Fernando Rojas described as heroic the joint endeavors by young firefighters and Civil Defense members to remove the sculpture during the hurricane.

The affected statue and further

damage to a patrimonial component of the oldest theater operating in Latin America posed a potential risk to passers-by on the busy central Havana corner of Prado and San Rafael Streets.

Rojas explained that although Hurricane Irma damaged 211 of Cuba’s cultural institutions, the country’s heritage had not been seriously affected because the appropriate preventive measures had been taken by all concerned.

The Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso was the first of the country’s principal theaters to reopen after the hurricane, for sell out performances by Cuba’s Acosta Danza Company between September 14 to 17.

The Spanish choreographer Goyo

Montero cleverly fused dance and ‘Cubanisms” for the opening night of a play entitled Imponderable, based on the work of the Cuban trova musician Silvio Rodríguez and written especially for Carlos Acosta’s Company.

Montero gave nine Acosta Danza Company members an opportunity to reflect their personalities in the contexts of a lack of affection, risk, spirituality, nostalgia, hope and dedication.

Owen Belton’s extraordinary work with Silvio’s songs, the dance performances, the lighting by Olaf Lunndt and Montero himself fused intimate aspects of Cuban people and a Cuban essence absent to date from the spotlight.

Although just four of Silvio’s songs

By MarthaSÁNCHEZ

are included -- Ojalá, Fábula de los tres hermanos, Te amaré and Con 10 años menos -, fans of the Cuban Nueva Trova music movement‘s icon discovered elements that connected them to the other themes, thanks to excellent choreography and lighting.

In addition to this world premiere, the dance company also performed a series of pieces employing diverse styles, to portray through performance a range from contemporary to neoclassic.

Irma’s presence in the Caribbean prevented part of the international staff due to perform with the Acosta Danza Company from traveling to Cuba.

The company consequently had to make some adjustments to its program and postponed the planned world premiere of Mermaid, choreographed by Belgian Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and created especially for the company.

As a result, another effect of Hurricane Irma can be registered as the debt the dance company now has to its Cuban dance fans.

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8 8 CULTURE

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HAVANA THEATER FESTIVAL

(Several venues) Oct 20-29

‘LIZT ALFONSO DANCE CUBA at The National

Theater Oct 19-22

FESTIVAL MOZART-HABANA 2017

Oct 21-28

LATIN AMERICAN & THE CARIBBEAN 9

SAN SALVADOR. - Maliciously embellished tales of horror and mystery,published by a politically motivated mainstream media, would have us believe that El Salvador is a corpse littered hell on Earth, where one is at constant risk of being caught up in a violent robbery or shoot out and a place that nobody of sound mind would dream of visiting.

However, just below such prejudices and fear lies one of Latin America’s most beautiful countries, inhabited by an honest and noble people with a wealth of traditions, who are engaged in a serious attempt to eradicate both the root causes and symptoms of the violence that does in fact exist here.

This has been one of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front’s (FMLN) principal priorities since coming to power in 2009.

This Salvadoran leftwing grouping took charge of a country that an oligarchy had believed was a private estate on which citizens were mere tenant farm laborers.

The FMLN had in fact inherited a nation deeply scarred by social scourges and profound inequalities, caused by the fact that a dozen families essentially controlled the economic and political landscape through their reactionary Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA)party.

Problems provoked by the massive economic gap and the lack of opportunities were greatly exacerbated by a mass deportation from the US of Californian based

„maras“ or gangs, at the end of the last century.Their existence is an undeniable fact and there is

a plague of ongoing ‘turf wars’, primarily between the mara Salvatrucha and 18th street gangs.

Their unscrupulous members indiscriminately kill, kidnap and blackmail.

This relatively small nation’s elevated homicide rate has exacerbated the daily drama and it is widely accepted that a serious culture of violence has in fact developed in El Salvador.

The civil conflict that tore the country apart for more than a decade hardened the hearts of many and left a considerable arsenal on the street, something that has also to be taken into account.

These scourges have needed to be tackled in a manner that comprehends that violence only generates further violence.

In the middle of last year, the FMLN adopted a series of extraordinary measures to fight crime and despite mainstream media endeavors to conceal their effects, they are already bearing fruit.

The National Civil Police and the Armed Forces began visibly patrolling the streets and conducting operations to dismantle ¨mara¨ cells and detain gang leaders.

The National Assembly introduced a special telephone tax to finance the resources required by local authorities to more efficiently combat gang related crime.

Community social and preventative programs were created to teach the young that there can be more to life than tattoos and guns.

In a cynical attempt to repossess their private ¨estate¨, ARENA has opposed all such initiatives because it considers social investment a ¨waste of money.¨

The results; however, speak for themselves, the homicide rate has been cut in half and criminal gangs are now constantly confronted and curtailed.

Public forces are being purged to eradicate abuses of power and human rights violations.

The panorama is of course still far from idyllic but it is undoubtedly improving.

However, a colloquialism that translates as ¨the Salvadoran nose¨ -- a radar-like sixth sense that warns of imminent danger has not been at all discarded by people who are very much committed to simply “Stayin’ Alive”.

MEXICO CITY –The parents and the relatives of the 43 student teachers of Ayotzinapa, Mexico, continue demanding the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto that their beloved appear alive, or that their mortal remains be found. However, they only receive evasive replies andare told that new investigations will be carried out; but nothing is said about the truth.

Over one thousand days have gone by since September 26th, 2014,when local police officers and members of the GuerrerosUnidos drug cartel made students of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teacher College disappear in Iguala, the Mexican state of Guerreros.

“The main issue to be resolved is finding the 43,” said Francisco José Eguiguren, Chairman of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Mexico.

Eguiguren acknowledged thatprogress has been made in the

investigations conducted by the authorities, but the whereabouts of the students or their remains is still in limbo, as well as what really happened. For this reason, he demands exemplary punishment for those responsible for this crime, which continues keeping all the Mexicans moved.

The official added that the International Commission’s main task is getting information, as soon as possible, on the whereabouts of the missing students.

CIDH has been the bridge for dialogue between the Mexican State and its authorities and the relatives of the victims and their representatives. It also takes part in the investigations and looks for the fulfilment of the recommendations, while it continues waiting.

For his part, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Minister of the Interior, stated that they will work until what really happened is made quite clear. But

according to experts, Osorio Chong has repeated this phrase on other occasions and everything remains the same or worse, as time goes by.

Every day, the voices of the parents and relatives, accompanied by workers, teachers, intellectuals, are heard crying out: we want them alive.

The investigations conducted by the human rights specialists and the international experts indicate that the police acted on behalf of former Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca, and that the students were handed in to members of the GuerrerosUnidos drug cartel, who made them disappear.

The most surprising thing about this case is that TomásZerón, technical secretary of the Security Council, recently affirmed that after more than 800 search actions and almost 3 years after the events, no sign shows that the conclusions reached have changed: they were incinerated and their ashes scattered at the San Juan river.

However, the relatives of the student teachers affirm that this version was rejected and discredited by several studies conducted by Mexican and foreign experts.

Vidulfo Rosales, the lawyer who gives advice on the victims’ case, considers that it’s all part of a State strategy to finally let the case go unpunished.

In the meantime, the students’ parents, with the support of human rights and citizen protection organizations, continue to demonstrate and demand the return of their children.

This topic shows the negative feeling of the Mexicans toward democracy and the way justice works in the country.

The faces of the missing student teachers continue to be posted on walls and squares and are shown in the computer screens and students’ notebooks. Together with their beloved, they tour all the states and keep raising their voices for the truth to come to light, which is still hidden.

By raúlGARCIA

Finding the 43 Ayotzinapa Student

Teachers: A Pending Issue

El Salvador Successfully Confronts Inner DemonsBy CharlyMORALES

10 CULTURE

BUENOS AIRES – With the humbleness that characterizes big names, Leo Brouwer often stood up from his seat to smile, applaud and thank once and again the tributes.

Brouwer, one of the most renowned guitarists that has ever lived, a source of pride for the Cuban people, was in Argentina for the first time as part of a long-awaited visit. The youth as well as the old wanted to thank him for his brilliant work.

“I am really happy. I have longed to be here for a long time, but distance and situations made me postpone this visit,” the musician told The Havana Reporter (THR) in an exclusive interview shortly before the start of one of the several events held in Buenos Aires in his honor.

After praising the quality of the Argentinean, Chilean and Brazilian guitarists, both professionals and amateurs, the artist, one of the most influential guitarists in the 20th and 21st centuries, told THR that he was about to share the stage with a dear musician: Brazilian Egberto Gismonti.

“Gismonti invited me to play here in Buenos Aires four or five times. However, the opportunity never arose. But who knows if it can happen one day. He is one of the most extraordinary improvisers in both the piano and the guitar in Brazil, and his music has an excellent quality. He is a virtuoso,” he said.

The symphonic hall of the Kirchner Cultural Center was ready and jam-packed with an audience that freely accessed the place to listen to Argentina’s Camerata de Guitarras, a group that filled the first concert with its magic; a concert that was dedicated to Brouwer’s comprehensive work for guitar ensembles.

The maestro stood up and thanked the 20 musicians on stage – brilliantly directed by Martín Marino – with a big applause. On the occasion, the piece Concerto grosso, a three-part work the Cuban composer specially made for the Camerata, was premièred.

Among the excitement of the audience who cried ‘Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Leo, Leo,’ Brower, moved, went on the stage and modestly thanked the guitarists.

Earlier that day, he gave a talk to youths who attentively listened to and watched every movement, every word of the maestro. He told them: “The 20th century is essentially a century of contrasts in what regards articulation, which is the most important thing, the real secret of a player.”

But Brouwer was still to participate in other exciting activities. At the age of 78 and after a whole life dedicated to music, to the sounds and the culture of his country, he didn’t keep still for a minute. He granted interviews, kindly let everyone take a picture with him and answered all the questions

especially those asked by young people,. He also made a stop in the headquarters

of Universidad Tres de Febrero, in the town of Caseros, where hundreds of students were awaiting him. In an event full of emotions, the academic secretary of that institution, Carlos Mundt, granted him the title of Honorary Professor.

On that occasion, Mundt said: “I am convinced that you do more honour to us than we can do to you.”

Before the auditorium, he also pointed out that culture “is changing because of the influence of the media, trade, managers, record shops; it’s turning into a simple entertainment.”

Once invested with the title of Honorary Professor, Brouwer talked about the first

steps in his career, his views about art and what he expected from the future generations of musicians.

The last day in his honour, an exciting occasion at the Kirchner Center, homage was paid to him as part of the Latin American cycle.

Leo, who had taken part in and had supervised the rehearsals, watched the staging of his pieces Tres danzas concertantes and Concierto elegíaco, directed by maestro Pablo Agri and with Víctor Villadangos as soloist.

Again, he expressed his excitement for being in the homeland of one of his close friends, writer Julio Cortázar, and for visiting a country he was longing for and where he was welcomed with ovations and gratitude.

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New Version of Song Yolanda by Omara Portuondo and Haydée Milanés

HAVANA.- A version of Pablo Milanes’s Yolanda, a well-known song to many Ibero-Americans, was launched recently thanks to the audacity of the Cuban composer’s youngest daughter Haydée, who recorded the piece together with the Buena Vista Social Club diva, Omara Portuondo.

The duet can be heard on digital platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, ITunes, and even YouTube, where the young artist shared a video of the recording process at PM Records studios in Havana, her birthplace.

With this new version of Yolanda, the two singers want to honor its author, one of the founders of the Cuban Nueva Trova music movement and undoubtedly one of Ibero-America’s greatest composers.

By doing this Haydée has also enriched the deluxe edition of her album Amor, which includes eleven pieces by her father that they sing as a duet.

Haydée, who is also a musical arranger and producer, chose the guitar as the leading instrument in the CD and had her 74-year-old father play it again after many years without doing so.

Para vivir, Hoy no estás quizás más lejos, Ya ves, Te espera una noche de éxitos, Ya se va aquella edad, Amor, Hoy la vi, El breve espacio en que no está, A veces cuando el sol, El 405 de nunca, and Canción are the pieces chosen for the album, which will have a deluxe edition releasedlater this year.

With the objective of enhancing this tribute to her father, Haydée also decided to include pieces sang as a duet with different artists from Cuba and Mexico as is the case of the Buena Vista Social Club diva Omara Portuondo, with whom she recorded the songs La soledad and Yolanda.

With Mexican Julieta Venegas, Haydée performed one of Pablo’s popular pieces: Si ella me faltara alguna vez; with Cuban Pancho Céspedes she sang El primer amor; as well as another piece with Mexican guitarist and singer Rosalía León.

Milanés is organizing a concert for December 20 at Havana’s Mella Theater, where she would like to share the stage with guest artists to further promote the album that summarizes the relationship with her father: Amor (Love).

Omara Portuoundo is undoubtedly expected to be one of the artists invited to the concert. At 86 she sings as though she needed to constantly rehearse her voice. Singing does not seem to be a job to whom is popularly known as “the bride of feeling.”

Asked about her favorite repertoire, she told The Havana Reporter: “I sing anything but I prefer Cuban music, which is the best, and not because I am Cuban but because

everybody likes it,” she noted.The album Gracias (Thank You) earned her the 2009 Latin

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album, thus becoming the first artist living in Cuba to win this prestigious award, which she received personally.

This CD, in which Omara goes through her 60 years of musical career, includes special performances by Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, Brazilian Chico Buarque and Cuban Pablo Milanés, with whom she has a very close friendship that has become stronger with the newly recorded version of his memorable piece Yolanda.

By MaylínVIDAL

Leo Brouwer Receives a Hearty Ovation from Argentineans

By MarthaSÁNCHEZ

PHOTO FEATURE 11

HAVANA.- Havana’s landmark Malecon sea front promenade has an extraordinary and mythical significance that inspires almost everyone there to capture it on digital film to eternally retain the image. Or so it was before the destructive force of Hurricane Irma left her malicious mark.

The natural phenomena affected almost everywhere and everyone in Cuba between September 5 and 11, bringing

winds to certain places that at times exceeded 200 kilometers per hour.

Even though the winds recorded In Havana were in the 100 km per hour Tropical Storm force range, angry and strong seas unmercifully pounded the Malecon.

Compare the images of Havana’s Malecon in the Antonio Maceo Park and Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital area, before and after Irma’s furious passing.

By FranciscoMENENDEZ

Hurricane Irma’s Toll On Havana’s

Landmark Malecon

12 POLITICS

HAVANA – Cuba participated as a guarantor in the successful Colombia’s peace process, but in addition to playing an important role in disarmament, it sowed the seeds of a dignified homeland for the future generations of that South American nation.

When Cuban President Raúl Castro stated that peace is not an utopia, he knew for sure that more than 50 years of armed conflict could end on good terms - although the signing of a document to attain the longed for objective was just the beginning of a long road.

In order to maintain its contribution, last March the biggest island of the Caribbean offered the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces-People’s Army a number of scholarships for Colombian youths to study at the Latin American School of Medicine.

This initiative foresees granting a total of one thousand scholarships – 200 annually – for the next five years.

Six months after this offer was made, a group of Colombian youths are already studying in Cuba.

The group arrived last month and each face showed the happiness the youth of that South American country rightfully deserved; a country where the echo of the explosions, the burst of the gun fires, the groan of disabled persons, the cry of the orphans and the moan of the heartbroken mothers are no longer heard.

Speaking to The Havana Reporter, Duerney Pérez, one of the students, said: “I come from the department of Caquetá, an area that has been affected a lot by the violence generated by the war.”

“It’s great to have the opportunity of being in Cuba, because the health system developed here is aimed at unselfishly providing services to the human beings and it always tries to prevent diseases, which I think it’s great,” Pérez added.

“In spite of the limitations suffered during the course of the Revolution because of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for over 50 years, Cuba is at the forefront in the field of medicine throughout the world,” noted the future doctor.

“It’s interesting what I heard about the country; that it shares what it has and doesn’t give what is leftover. We want to learn about that philosophy to contribute to Colombia’s rural development,” he affirmed.

“Farewell to arms!Long live peace!” said Pérez. Erika Benavides, 24, said: “I’m a Colombian; I’m coming to this country to study medicine and I have a lot of expectations.“

Benavides added that one day, she would love to specialize in aesthetic surgery. But as time goes by and she enriches her knowledge here in Cuba, she would make a choice on any field of the medical sciences. This young girl had to postpone her dreams because of an armed conflict that lasted over 50 years.

For his part, the rector of the Latin American School of Medicine, Antonio López, told the press that the Colombian students are to join the academic activities foreseen in the island’s health system.

They will be taught the same curriculum as the foreign students who come to study in Cuba, which in turn is identical to that the Cubans are taught.

By Joel M.VARONA

BRASILIA. - A victim of obstinate judicial and media persecution for three years now, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is convinced that his political future is not at hand.

So he stated during the recent Caravan of Hope he headed recently for 20 days in the nine states of the country’s northeast, where he visited 58 cities and held tenths of meetings that allowed him hug people with smell of dust, hope and dreams, according to him.

“I do not know what will happen between now and the 2018 presidential elections, but if the members of the Workers’ Party (PT) and of the Brazilian Popular Front want me to run, it will be to win and prove that a lather operator-mechanic is more capable of helping recover the country’s economy and prestige than the Brazilian elite,” Lula said.

During the last leg of his tour in San Luis, the capital of Maranhao, Lula addressed millions of people at the Don Pedro II Plaza and said he was convinced that the people would govern Brazil again.

“They are wrong if they think: ‘let’s take Lula out of the scene and everything will be solved. (They are wrong) if they think that I am the problem, because there are millions and millions of persons who think like Lula now,” he stressed.

During the caravan the PT founder repeatedly denounced being the object of restless persecution by attorneys and sectors of the Federal Police involved in anti-corruption operation Lava Jato and by federal judge Sergio Moro as well, whom he called “hostages of Globo network”.

Last July Moro sentenced Lula to nine and a half years in prison for alleged

passive corruption and money laundering charges, without presenting any credible evidence at all, according to Lula’s defense lawyer. Meanwhile, the crushing proofs of his innocence were clearly ignored.

The sentence was appealed and, according to defense lawyer Cristiano Zanin Martins, it will be reverted for the simple reason that the evidence proves Lula’s innocence.

THE COUPISTS ARE DISMANTLING BRAZIL

The Caravan of Hope also provided a platform for Lula to ratify the need to rescue democracy and denounce that the coupist government of Michel Temer “is not ruling Brazil but commercializing and selling out the country” as though they were realtors.

What is at stake today are not just wage increases or the education or health agendas but the country’s sovereignty, he warned.

The parliamentarian-judicial coup perpetrated a year ago against constitutional President DilmaRousseff had one key goal only: to prevent the social policies from going on, said the PT founder, while reiterating the need to defend the Brazilian people’s right to smile, dream, and be hopeful again.

In order to achieve this it is necessary to raise the people’s political awareness and that the leftwing becomes stronger during the 2018 elections, he commented.

The reforms to be made in case of an electoral win would be closely related to this capacity for convincing the people to support the president in the National Congress; otherwise, everything would be just rhetoric.

CARAVAN OF HOPE IN BRAZIL

Lula: If I Compete, It Will Be to Win

By Moisés P.MOK

Cuba Honors Commitments to Colombia’s Peace

ECONOMY 13

Hospital Ortopédico

Frank País

Cement and non-cement hip endoprosthesis Total knee endoprosthesis Elbow and shoulder endoprosthesis Hip, shoulder, wrist, knee and ankle arthroscopy Herniated disk and spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis Scoliosis surgery Minimally invasive foot surgery Deformity correction with external � xation and limb lengthening. Use of platelet-rich plasma in orthopedics International Scienti� c Center

Tel.: 53-7 271 8646 / 7272 1053E-mail: tursal@fpais.sld.cu, gcomercialfp@fpais.sld.cu

http://instituciones.sld.cu/ortopfpais/

Avenida 51 No. 19603 e/190 y 202. La lisa. La Habana. Cuba

LEADING PROGRAMS

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Basic Grain Research Grows

in Cuba

By María J.MAYORAL

HAVANA.- TheGrainResearchInstitute (II Granos) of Cuba is involved in international research projects about beans and corn, after the progress attained with initiatives focused on the study of rice, the institute directors announced.

Jointly conducted with Japan, the works continue advancing witha view to improving the application of technical-scientific results when growing basic grains in Cuba.

They involve the production of rice, beans and corn in eight provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth), said the institute’s research director, VioletaPuldón. The plan largely includes training and demonstration areas with Japanese equipment that has been previously used, she added.

The institution is also taking part in an initiative sponsored by the World Food Program with the objective of “strengthening the links between social protection systems and the agricultural value chains,” the expert noted.

This project involves bio-fortified beans (higher zinc and iron content), aimed at enhancing human nutrition.

Launched in 2017, the cooperation project with the WFP support day care centers, elementary schools and agricultural polytechnic centers in the country’s east (Guantánamo, Las Tunas, Granma and Holguín provinces) and the western province of Pinar del Río, the official explained.

Progress is likewise attained in growing corn and leguminous plants with the assistance of Vietnamese experts, she explained.

In 2017, the Cuban institute gave priority to 23 research and development projects, 10 technical-scientific services –mostly for grain-processing agro industrial plants- and 19 general task programs.

As the leading institution of its type in Cuba, II Granos has highly experienced personnel that for decades have helped train new specialists in beans, corn, soy bean, sorghum and oleaginous plants (peanut, sesame and sunflower).

A concrete example of this is the ongoing program for genetically enhancing the common bean, with more than 30 commercial varieties, researcher Benito Faure said.

Another major step given by the institution was the first project developed to obtain different corn hybrids and varieties. So far “we have produced two new varieties with excellent agronomic features and high yield,” he stated.

The project is expanding its horizons to be able “to obtain new corn hybrids that can yield way more than the existing varieties, said specialist Eduardo Rodríguez of the genetic enhancement department.

Corn, he commented, is in much demand in Cuba (800,000 tons annually) and the country is still far from meeting that demand. Hence, the institute aims at increasing corn production mainly by using the right technology and introducing new hybrids and varieties.

According to the government, the contributions made by II Granos have helped replace imports and increase the country’s agricultural activity.

14 ECONOMY

Latin American Agriculture: Huge Potential, Big Challenges

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HAVANA.- Latin America, responsible for 16% of the world agricultural trade’s exports and 4% of its imports, faces huge challenges with the purpose of benefiting from its massive production potential and reaching a sustainable development.

According to studies conducted by several international organizations, the region will be at the head of the agricultural production increase for 2025 – with an annual growth rate of 1.8%.

However, the Latin American and Caribbean region will have to reduce the annual loss of field products – a third of the world production is wasted today –and better exploit irrigation, particularly of the soils.

For example, in the fruit-producing countries of the region, an annual loss estimated at 100 million dollars has been detected because of the diseasesand plagues

that affect citruses, bananas, watermelons, avocadoes, guavas, grapes, pears, plums and others.

In relation to the cultivation of passion fruit, damages amounting to 24% are reported in some nations.

Experts says that the attack of plagues, weeds and diseases can cause losses ranging from 27 to over 50 percent. An antidote to this evil is the use of technologies that protect plants.

For this reason, the use of adequate pesticides, the implementation of irrigation techniques, the selection of drought-resistant seeds and the efficient exploitation and care of the soils, will guarantee to double the current output levels.

In fact, the application of technology has contributed to the growth of the region’s agricultural production in recent years.

Suffice it to say that e agricultural exports increased from 8 to 23

percent in the two last decades, according to data provided by the World Bank.

At the international level, Latin America is included among the top regions in relation to the volume of food it provides – which can be seen in the fact that it produces 80% of the bananas; about 60% of the total production of coffee; 30% of the meat, and 36% of soy bean.

According to data of the Latin American Integration Association and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the agricultural sector of this geographical region is responsible for 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 23% of the exports and 16% of the workers employed.

Despite this progress, the region will have to face huge challenges, including higher foreign investment; better availability of agricultural technology and the implementation of policies targeting sustainable development.

Firstly, it will have to work in the replacement of the workforce, as since 1960, the rural population has significantly decreased because of the urbanization process.

Although the productive possibilities of Latin America and the Caribbean are obvious and evident, the region also faces limitations, such as the short-term plans versus the long-term State policies, and the lack of investment in infrastructure (irrigation, roads and other works).

It likewise faces an incipient local research; the lack of

technical consultancy; inefficient value chains; poor education in the implementation of good agricultural practices, and weaknesses in the women-empowering processes.

All these challenges are related to a lot of existing limitations, such as the lack of clear regulations for the implementation of technologies

and of an efficient and democratic transfer of all the techniques.

Additional to that is the insufficient awareness of the urban citizens about the value of agriculture and the role it plays in the production of food and the elimination of hunger, which affects over 30 million persons in the region.

By RobertoSALOMON

SPORTS 15

HAVANA.- When the Russia 2018 World Football Cup qualifiers kicked-off, pretty few professional pundits predicted that either Argentina or the United States might not have an easy passage through the preliminary process.

Argentina is presently placed in a complicated 5th position in the South American qualifiers and needs to resolve this unsatisfactory situation in their two final games, in which they play host Peru and face Ecuador away in Quito.

The depth of the crisis facing the blue and whites has led management to move their headquarters for the Peru game from the River Plate Stadium to the Boca Juniors Bombonera pitch.

The hopes of the entire nation now rest on the shoulders of Lionel Messi, the only player believed able to bring their boys back from the abyss, because despite many shining in European leagues, the performances of his team mates for their national squad have been dull by comparison.

The squad managed by Jorge Sampaoli - the third coach appointed during these qualifiers after Gerardo Martino and Edgardo Bauza – is languishing in 5th place with just 24 points.

Peru also has the same number, but a better goal difference puts them 4th.

The first three places are occupied by Brazil, who have assured qualification with 37 points, followed by Uruguay (27) and Colombia (26).

Chile, with 23 points, Paraguay (21), Ecuador (20), Bolivia (13) and Venezuela with 8, are ranked in that order between sixth and last in this group of ten.

These World Cup qualifiers have been an uphill struggle for the seven squads closely contending available tickets to Russia, although it is now only Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Peru that have any real chance.

The first four placed teams ensure their direct passage to the Russian finals, and the team that finishes 5th would have to beat New Zealand, the Oceania group winner, to go through.

The United States team has found itself in a similar situation to that of Argentina.

With only 9 points, they are currently 4th in the CONCACAF qualifiers and also in the danger zone.

Mexico has already qualified with 18 points, while Costa Rica, with 15, has all but ensured their place and Panama has 10.

Honduras also has 10 points and

Trinidad and Tobago -- with just 3 -- are the only team who cannot qualify from the Northern, Central American and Caribbean or Hexagonal group.

The US team needs to guarantee good results from their last two games in these Regional Qualifiers – against Panama and Trinidad and Tobago – to ensure an eighth consecutive World Cup place.

It is hard to envisage football’s World Cup finals without Argentina or the United States, but with both countries in the twilight zone of the qualification process, neither can afford a slip-up.

The very thought that Messi might miss out on footballs epic four yearly finals, is a horrifying thought for millions of football fans around the globe.

Unexpectedly Exciting World Cup Qualifiers

HAVANA.– Baseball, a national passion and asymbol of identity in Cuba for over 150 years, has gone beyond the frontiers of gender in which it had been typecast for a long time because of the prejudices that prevented women from practicing this sport.

This distrust was even seen in the number of women who went to the ballparks and the few female specialists, reporters and journalists who addressed this sport, in addition to any other activity directly linked to it.

Fortunately, the situation has changed and baseball not only counts on a higher attendance of women to the facilities but also on their participation in the practice of this sport in an organized way, following a call made in 2003 by the then chairwoman of the Cuban Women Federation (FMC, in Spanish), Vilma Espín.

This was corroborated to The Havana Reporter by Margarita Mayeta, head of women baseball in the country. Mayeta added that after almost 15 years, this discipline is doing well, though it is still pending that girls can join the Sports Initiation Schools and the School Sports Games, which she hopes will become a reality next year.

In the development of this discipline, the bilateral matches conducted for 13 years now with the Canadians haveplayed an important role. Andre Lachance, Canada’s general manager of baseball, is the founder and creator of these matches.

The incipient development of women baseball has also resulted in the creation in the island of several International Invitational Cups, in addition to the holding, until the present, of four editions of the National Women Championship. This event, which is annually held in August, counts on the participation of players from almost all the national territory.

Cuba has participated in four World Cups, in which they have always been placed among the six or eight first. These results have allowed the Cuban team to directly qualify to the next edition of this world event.

The female faces of Cuban baseball also include the first and only woman umpire, until now, of the biggest island of the Caribbean: renowned Janet Moreno, who started out as a softball player before refereeing a match – the first- in 2004, during the Men’s National Baseball Series.

Prior to her involvement in the country’s main baseball tournament, Moreno used to work as a softball referee on weekends. And when she knew about the start of women baseball, she immediately began to practice this discipline for the rest of the week.

In an interview recently granted to the Juventud Rebeldejournal, she said: “when I heard of it, I realized it was what I wanted,” though Mayeta alerted her that practice was just starting, and she would be old when it would start bearing the first fruits, as she was 25 at the time.

For that reason, Mayeta and Espín were also a key element in the formation of the first Cuban female baseball umpire. Mayeta suggested that she choose this career in reply to the call made by the FMC leader as that was the only field in which women were not represented then

By YasielCANCIO

The Women in Cuban Baseball

By AlejandroMARTÍNEZ

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