Cuba to launch military drill to
warn US not to underestimate
Havana
Cuban Vice President Raul Castro
warned the United States on
Tuesday not to repeat its
mistakes in Vietnam and Iraq by
invading Cuba, saying that next
week's nationwide military
maneuver will tell the US "not
to underestimate our people."
The large-scale military drill,
which is dubbed Bastion 2004 and
will be held across Cuba from
Dec. 13 to 19, will be a show of
preparedness of the Cuban
people, and "the Americans
should watch closely, so that
they do not commit the mistakes
they made in Vietnam and are now
making in Iraq, where they are
bogged down," Castro told
reporters.
Castro, minister of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces and
the younger brother of Cuban
leader Fidel Castro, reminded
his people of the television
images of troops and diplomats
escaping from Vietnam by
helicopters.
In describing the present US
military occupation of Iraq, the
general said that in spite of
the ethnic and religious
divisions prevailing in that
Arab country, the might of
resistance against Washington
has grown so strong that the
United States has bolstered its
military strength to up to
150,000 soldiers.
Raul Castro, the No. 2 man in
Cuba's political hierarchy, made
these remarks at the end of a
ceremony to honor major general
Antonio Maceo on the 108th
anniversary of his death.
Maceo, who fought the Spanish
colonialism in the 19th century,
is considered in the island as a
fighter for freedom.
Bastion 2004 is the latest
annual mass drill involving
troop exercises with civilian
involvement based on a guerrilla
strategy designed to resist an
invasion force. This year's
operation is more extensive than
last year's.
Tensions between the US and Cuba
have increased under the Bush
administration, which stepped up
efforts to squeeze Cuba
financially and undermine its
one-party state by restricting
visits to the island and curbing
cash remittances.
Cuba's government repeatedly
warns its population of the
danger of being next in line for
a US invasion after Iraq.
President Castro, who is
currently wheelchair-bound after
shattering his left knee in a
fall in October, has accused the
Bush administration of planning
to invade Cuba.
Colombian paramilitary leader
confirms to surrender arms
Salvatore Mancuso, top leader of
the right-wing paramilitary
organization United Self-Defense
Forces of Colombia (AUC),
confirmed Tuesday he would turn
in weapons along with 1,600
followers on Friday as agreed in
a peace deal with the
government.
Mancuso said he will surrender
arms along with 1,600 combatants
of the "Catatumbo Bloc" in
Turbo, 600 kilometers northeast
of Bogota, and then go to a
demobilization zone in the
northern province of Cordoba.
The government and the AUC
agreed in May to create the
368-square-km concentration
zone, where disarmed AUC members
are protected by government
troops and exempted from
prosecution. But they could not
leave without government
authorization.
Mancuso's statement came two
weeks after a Supreme Court
ruled to authorize his
extradition to the United States
to face drug charges. Many
feared he would not finally
fulfill the disbanding
commitment for rejection to the
extradition.
Friday's ceremony will be part
of a peace agreement Colombian
Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos
Restrepo announced on Nov. 3,
that calls for all 20,000 AUC
fighters to return to civilian
life by the end of 2006.
Restrepo and officials from the
Organization of American States
will oversee the ceremony to be
held in a rural estate.
The AUC was established in the
1980s by drug traffickers and
land owners to fight leftist
guerrillas in areas where
government troops had little
control. It has been active in
northern Colombia, particularly
in the areas of Antioquia and
Cordoba.
Its demobilization is widely
seen a positive step to ease
Colombia's civil war, the
longest in Latin America, which
kills about 3,500 people a year
on average.
The first batch of 450 AUC
fighters turned in their guns to
government in the northwestern
town of Turbo on Nov. 25.
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Mexican FM seeks OAS
secretary-general candidacy
Mexican President Vicente Fox
announced Tuesday that his
Foreign Minister Luis Derbez
will seek the post of Secretary
General of the Organization of
American States (OAS).
At a gathering of foreign
correspondents, the president
said Mexico decided to support
Derbez because he is well
respected, knows both the United
States and Latin America, and
would bring new energy to the
post. Fox told the reporters
that "I expect the support of
the United States."
Fox highlighted the
respectability and "leadership
capability" of his foreign
minister, who is a professional
economist moved from the post of
economy secretary to the job of
foreign relations in January
2003, to occupy the post left
vacant by Costa Rican Miguel
Angel Rodriguez after his
resignation.
The leader said support will
also be sought from other
governments in the region. He
said that if Derbez is elected,
it will not be Mexico who will
lead the OAS, as the decisions
of the organization are taken in
a collective way.
Fox said "The OAS is a key
institution for peace and
harmony among nations and to
eliminate conflicts; it demands
a strong leadership to give more
presence to the American
states."
The president said that Derbez
will soon present to Washington
the "vision of the future our
country will put forth before
the OAS, as well as the work
plan he would use, should he
obtain the support of the member
countries."
In case Derbez is elected in the
coming OAS general assembly, it
will be the first time Mexico
has a citizen as head of the
regional group.
Following the resignation of
Rodriguez as OAS secretary
general on Oct. 8, the Central
American leaders agreed to
present a singlecandidate based
on consensus.
The Central American presidents
elected former Salvadorean
President Francisco Flores on
Friday as the sub-region's
candidate for the post of OAS
secretary-general.
Flores got the support of most
Central American countries, but
Honduran President Ricardo
Maduro balked.
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