Radio Havana Cuba May 17 http://www.radiohc.cu/homeing.htm Forty-fourth Anniversary of Cuba's First Agrarian Reform Law Havana, May 17 (RHC)-- Today, May 17th, marks the 44th anniversary of Cuba's first Agrarian Reform Law. On this date in 1959, the Cuban government placed limits on land holdings and expropriated the remainder with compensation. According to a special program on Radio Reloj this morning, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st that year, the Cuban people became the rightful owners of their own country. Up to that time, wealthy foreigners and companies owned 75 percent of Cuba's arable land; five U.S. sugar companies owned or controlled more than two million acres. The Cuban Revolutionary Government offered compensation in 20-year, fixed-term government bonds paying an annual interest rate of 4.5 percent. But the United States formally protested the new Agrarian Reform Law and especially the terms of compensation. Washington was upset because compensation was based on tax assessment rates which had not been adjusted for nearly 40 years, thus allowing the owners to pay very low taxes. Radio Reloj pointed out that the Agrarian Reform Law, signed on this date in 1959, limited land ownership to 1000 acres for land used for livestock, sugar or rice production. The expropriated land along with land already owned by the State was transferred to cooperatives or distributed free of charge in "Vital Minimum" tracts. Any farmer or agricultural worker with less than a tract of 66 acres of unirrigated fertile land for a family of five was able to apply for the minimum acreage. Over the next months and years, the Cuban Revolutionary Government successfully negotiated compensation to property owners and to the governments of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Sweden -- but the United States refused to negotiate and was the only country that refused compensation. The special radio program on Radio Reloj noted that the first Agrarian Reform Law was the most revolutionary and far-reaching redistribution of land in Latin America. Today, May 17th, is celebrated in Cuba as the "Day of Agrarian Reform." +++++++++++++ Cuba Produces Anti-retroviral Medicine for AIDS Patients Havana, May 17 (RHC)-- Cuba is manufacturing the anti-retroviral drugs used in the triple therapy treatment given to HIV/AIDS patients, who receive them completely free of charge. According to Granma Internacional newspaper, each tablet of would cost more than three dollars on the world market, bringing the annual cost of this therapy to more than 11,000 dollars -- thus making the treatment inaccessible to many of the 42 million people living with the virus. Melvis Heredia Molina, director of NOVETEC Laboratories -- a part of the West Havana Scientific Center -- told Granma Internacional that this year the company has plans to produce sufficient quantities of the drugs for 1,500 patients. She explained that to date, Cuba only has five anti-retrovirals registered (Zidovudine, Didanosina, Lamivudina, Estavudina and Indinavir), adding that "we are working together with the Center for the Research and Development of Medicines (CIDEM) so that this figure reaches 13." A combination of three drugs is used to fabricate the anti-AIDS "cocktail" treatment. The newspaper article notes that Cuba's Health Minister, Damodar Peņa, reports that the island has the lowest number of AIDS patients in Latin America -- 0.05 percent of 15-49 year olds. The anti-retrovirals are a best seller for NOVATEC Laboratories; other tablets for human consumption produced in the laboratories include anti-ulcer drugs such as Omeprazol (the world's most popular medication in 2002), antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, anti-hipertensives, analgesics, antacids, fever reducers and nutritional supplements, all destined for the country's network of hospitals and pharmacies. The article reports that the pharmaceutical company also manufactures drugs for export. In 2002, for example, over one million dollars worth of anti-retrovirals were sold. Heber Biotec, the company that markets products from the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, also distributes its products abroad. +++++++++++++++++ At the United Nations, Indigenous People Demand that Corporations Pay for their Destruction United Nations, May 17th (RHC) -- Indigenous leaders gathered at the United Nations to discuss ways to protect their culture and environment are demanding that multinational corporations accept legal responsibility for practices that destroy indigenous lands and lifestyles. Leaders of the world's 350 million aboriginal peoples meeting at the UN this week and representing territories from the Himalayas to the Amazon rainforests have told countless stories about how oil, gas, lumber and mining projects by multinational firms, and in some cases by national governments, continue to pose threats to the survival of their communities. Victoria Tauli, of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus on Sustainable Development - one of the 1,500 activists gathered at the meeting - said "one would think that industries on indigenous lands were meant to bring development and to reduce poverty, but what they have brought is more poverty." Leaders of Nigeria's Partnership for Indigenous People's Environment said that the Ogoni people's ancestral lands in that African nation have been devastated by oil drilling and spills, and that transnationals should be held legally accountable. Activist Nana Akuoko Sarpong, of Ghana, noted that trees in tropical forests that sometimes take 200 years to mature are felled at the stroke of a chainsaw. The World Bank launched earlier this week a 700,000-dollar-fund called the "Grants Facility for Indigenous Peoples," which was expected to provide up to 50,000 dollars for projects on development themes recommended by the UN. But indigenous leaders called the fund "a cruel joke," noting that many of the World Banks officials earn more money than that every year, and that the financial institution has lent millions for projects that have destroyed indigenous communities and their environments. They demanded that the World Bank also address the issue of compensation for that devastation.