Washington, May 31 (Prensa Latina) Prensa Latina and Radio Miami Today, based in the United States, signed a collaboration agreement on Friday, in the context of the 65th anniversary of the Cuban news agency, founded by Fidel Castro on June 16, 1959.

The document was penned in the city of Miami by Prensa Latina First Vice President Luisa María González and Radio Miami Today General Director Max Lesnik.

González said that for the media outlet that she represents, “it is essential to create alliances at this time when the media war is so strong internationally, and when large media corporations try to silence the voice of smaller communication projects.”

She added that for more than six decades of Prensa Latina’s work, “we have had fluid relationships with many institutions,” as an example she mentioned her participation in the Hispanic American Press Congress in New York on Friday and Saturday.

González also mentioned the project developed with the Associated Press (AP), with which “we have had agreements for a long time, such as one to digitize Prensa Latina’s photo archive.”

She pointed out that her news agency has the largest photographic heritage in Cuba and one of the largest in Latin America. “An archive about the first years of the Cuban Revolution.”

She commented that it is possible to dialogue and have collaboration always based on respect.

Lesnik, in turn, said, “We here follow the example of Prensa Latina and therefore we are heirs of that journalistic tradition that has been maintained over the years, despite the hardships.”

“The reality is that Prensa Latina (its name says it all) is the voice of the Americas,” he stressed.

The leadership of the news agency traveled to the United States as part of a program to celebrate the anniversary of Prensa Latina, founded by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, a few months after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.

Also in Miami, González received, on behalf of the news agency, a plaque of recognition from the José Martí USA Cultural Association.

Her agenda also consists of meetings with media representatives and the inauguration of the photographic collection “65 Years at the Service of Truth,” which contains images captured by photojournalists and correspondents of Prensa Latina throughout these years.

As González stated, they will remain faithful to the founding commitment to report objectively and professionally, something Prensa Latina’s 35 correspondents around the world currently do.

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HAVANA, Cuba, May 28 (ACN) During his official visit to Antigua and Barbuda, Cuban VP Salvador Valdés Mesa met with Gaston Alphonso Browne, Prime Minister of that Caribbean nation.

During the meeting, in which Valdés Mesa presented his host with a letter of invitation to visit Cuba and thanked him for Antigua and Barbuda’s continued opposition to the U.S. blockade, both leaders talked about the current state of bilateral relations and agreed to keep strengthening the thirty-year-old historic ties of friendship, solidarity and cooperation between the two countries.

On his end, Browne expressed his gratitude to Cuba for participating in the IV Conference of Small Island Developing States, as well as for the cooperation given to Antigua and Barbuda in terms of health care and human resource training.

Saint John, May 28 (Prensa Latina) The imbalances of the international financial system do not provide the necessary stability to achieve the objectives of sustainable development and meet the needs of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa asserted today.

During his speech at the high-level meeting on resources mobilization for SIDS, based in this country, he stressed that the challenges presented are exacerbated exponentially for Cuba, due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States for more than six decades.

Also due to the country’s arbitrary inclusion in the unilateral list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, he added.

The Cuban minister indicated that in the current context, comprehensively addressing the financing deficit will require, among other actions: recapitalizing the Multilateral Development Banks and improving their loaning conditions.

Furthermore, it is necessary to fulfill, once and for all, the commitment of first world countries to Official Development Assistance, through allocations based on vulnerabilities, not just income, he noted.

He added that it is important to define SIDS’ access to concessional financing and technical cooperation and to comprehensively review the International Monetary Fund’s surcharge policy, including its suspension, significant permanent reduction or elimination.

In relation to this, he mentioned another action: implementing a specific service to support the sustainability of the debt of these countries, involving multilateral, official bilateral and private creditors, under the auspices of the United Nations.

The only viable solution lies in rethinking the unjust and unequal international economic order and the current bases that define North-South relations and life on the planet, highlighted the Cuban vice president.

During the day, the Cuban vice president also held a meeting with the Foreign Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Douglas Denzil, during which he highlighted the excellent state of bilateral relations, based on friendship and cooperation.

Valdés is attending, leading a delegation from the Island, to the IV International Conference of SIDS, which brings together senior dignitaries until next Thursday, to discuss the priorities and objectives in terms of progress and sustainability for this specific category of countries, of which Cuba is part of.

At the same time, the Cuban vice president makes an official visit, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between both these nations.

As part of the bilateral program, he holds meetings with country authorities, representatives of solidarity, Cuban residents and aid workers.

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Havana, May 29 (Prensa Latina) The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum of the U.S. University of Arkansas and the National Council of Cultural Heritage (CNPC) recently signed in Havana a memorandum of understanding to strengthen ties with the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Cuba.

The Cuban Ministry of Culture informed today that this step will intensify academic contributions between the foreign institution and the museum dedicated to preserving Hemingway’s legacy on the island.

The executive director of Hemingway-Pfeiffer, Adam Long, who signed the agreement on the U.S. side, thanked the authorities of the Ministry of Culture, the CNPC, the Ernest Hemingway Museum and the Foreign Ministry for welcoming him.

He referred to his visit to Cuba in 2013 to participate in the Ernest Hemingway Colloquium and added that he was impressed by the work carried out by the Museum.

He stressed that this visit to sign the document, which is endorsed by the Arkansas University dean, is the beginning of future collaborations between the two institutions.

Also the president of the CNPC, Virgen Perez, signatory for the Cuban side, said the memorandum respects the strengths of those involved in its content, guided by the joint desire to promote the work they do.

These include research, training and cooperation in academic disciplines of mutual interest and benefit.

The exchange between professors and students is another way of socialization that can be carried out and become a platform to promote the Ernest Hemingway International Colloquium (organized in Havana) through the results of their research.

The president of the CNPC added that the most important thing is the opening of a new opportunity for collaboration between Cuba and the United States, whose main objective is to preserve the work and historical legacy of the American writer Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize in Literature.

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