Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:30:31 -0700

From: "IRC Communications" <communications@irc-online.org>

Subject: Cuba Offers Free Eye-Surgery for 150,000 US Patients

Cuba Offers Free Eye-Surgery for 150,000 US Patients

Havana, January 22 (AIN) Cuban President Fidel Castro offered free

eye-surgery for 150,000 poor US citizens including air transportation

and their accommodations on the island.

President Castro made the announcement during a TV appearance on

Sunday, which is part of a series of live appearances in which the

Cuban leader provided details on the energy revolution underway in

Cuba, an initiative he says will save one billion dollars annually.

He said the eye patients could travel to Florida from where they

would be brought to Cuba by plane.

President Castro said he took on the offer of free eye-surgery for

100,000 US people made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a

recent visit to New York. Fidel said he decided to add another 50,000

and ask the US organization Pastors for Peace to choose poor people

from any religion, political trend or that simply need the treatment.

The Cuban leader said that by practicing 500 daily eye surgeries all

those 150,000 US citizens can receive the benefit of recovering their

sight in just a 300-day period.

Cuba has all the equipment and specialized personnel considered among

the best specialists in the world, said Fidel. He asked if the US

government would prohibit those people from traveling to the island

and sentence them to blindness.

Fidel Castro said such eye-operations by no means bring any financial

benefit to the Cuban government and he recalled that Florida is

closer to Cuba than countries like Guyana or Grenada, also benefiting

from the Operation Miracle eye-surgery program.

He recalled that tens of thousands of people from 22 South and

Central American nations have been benefited by Cuban health

services.

"Will the United States fine those sick US citizens for coming to

Cuba for eye surgery?", Fidel asked in direct reference to the

arbitrary fines imposed by the Bush administration on US citizens

that have traveled to Cuba.

In that respect he recalled that during November the US Treasury sent

letters to some 200 members of the Venceremos Brigade and to Pastors

for Peace requesting information on their latest trips to Cuba, as an

initial step that could lead to the imposition of heavy fines.

Thousands of other US citizens have been threatened with huge fines

if they violate Washington’s travel ban, said Fidel Castro.

The Cuban leader then went on to denounce ongoing US maneuvers to

release terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, author of the 1976 bombing of

a Cubana airliner that claimed 73 innocent lives.

Posada, 77, is only charged with illegal entry to US territory and he

could be released following a hearing slated for January 24 in El

Paso, Texas, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office

will revise his status in the US.

Posada Carriles, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen, is wanted in

Caracas to stand trial in the plane bombing, but the US government

has ignored its longstanding extradition treaty with the South

American country.

In his speech, Fidel described as a strange coincidence the recent

exhibition of a German documentary that tries to accuse Cuba for the

assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. He called the

film a total fabrication of the CIA.

He also referred to other aggressions mounted by the Bush

administration against the island, including a committee for the

so-called democratic transition in Cuba, which has been assigned a

huge budget for subversive activities against the island.

Fidel Castro said that Cuba is the most stable country in the world

while the Bush administration has the largest number of criminals in

an empire similar to the one Adolph Hitler dreamed of.

The Cuban President noted the 500 billion dollar war budget approved

in the United States, a considerable part of the total 2.6 trillion

dollar annual budget. He pointed out that the growing fiscal deficit

is balanced with the money deposited in US banks by Third World

Nations.

Fidel Castro also said that the US budget includes nearly 38 million

dollars dedicated to anti-Cuba radio and TV transmissions, and

includes a 10 million dollar increase in order to purchase a plane to

beam such illegal transmissions to the island.