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The 13th Mexican Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, in session in Acapulco, paid homage to former president of ICAP (Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples), Sergio Corrieri, who died in Havana recently.

A proposal in this regard, made by coordinator of the Mexican Movement of Solidarity with Cuba, Jesus Escamilla, was approved in a plenary session by 573 delegates from all over the country.

Escamilla extolled the work carried out by Corrieri in favour of Cuban culture and his performance as president of the entity in charge of developing friendship and solidarity with all the peoples.

Standing, delegates observed a minute”s applause for the ICAP leader.

“Mozart in Havana,” eight live concerts by 11 Cuban pianists on three DVDs by the Cuban pianist Ulises Hernandez, will go on sale in Havana sponsored by Colibri Records to commemorate the 250th birth anniversary of the Austrian musician.

The DVD was launched by Ulises Hernandez on January 27 at the house where Wolfgang Amadues Mozart was born in Salzburg and includes all sonatas and fantasies composed for piano by this musician.

Colibri director Marta Bonet told press that the work is a combination of images of the piano players interpreting Mozart’s compositions with sequences of this city.

The participant musicians are Victor Rodriguez, Roberto Urbay, Ileana Bautista, Elvira Santiago, Maria Victoria del Collado, Marita Rodriguez, Yanet Bermudez, Pedro Rodriguez, Fidel Leal, Leonardo Gell and Ulises Hernandez.

All concerts were held in the Amadeo Roldan Theater in Vedado and in La Basilica of San Francisco de Asis in Old Havana.

Sunday, the 614 deputies-elect are meeting here to constitute the seventh legislature of the Cuban National Peoples Power Assembly.

This will be the first time since 1976 that the leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, will be absent from candidacy for the position of president of the nation”s State Council.

Five days ago he announced that he neither aspires to nor will accept reelection.

Thus, the nomination and election of who will be the new president of the leadership of the Cuban state for the next five years is of special relevance. .

The present system of governance of Cuba was approved by 97.7 percent of voters in the referendum of February 24, 1976 and December 2 of that year the first legislature was installed.

This seventh session began at 10:00 AM at the Havana International Conference Center under the direction of the (CEN) National Electoral Commission President Maria Esther Reus.

Reus and the other CEN members will examine and validate the certificates of election of each of the deputies.

When this is accomplished, she will declare the legislature”s validity, inform of its social composition and validate quorum. When the National Anthem plays, the deputies will be sworn in and the National Assembly officially constituted.

The new deputies will then nominate and elect those among them who will occupy the posts of president, vice president and secretary of the assembly.

Later they will nominate and elect from among themselves those who will hold the positions of president, first vice president, five vice presidents, secretary and other members of the State Council.

The candidates for these great responsibilities come also from the extensive consulting process made by the National Candidates Commission (CCN) composed of representatives from Cuban NGOs.

CCN President Amarilys Perez will present the two candidacy proposals for the deputies” consideration and explain the basis guiding their elaboration. The president of the Electoral Commission will submit both candidacy proposals for the deputies” scrutiny and approval by secret and direct vote.

According to the electoral law, those obtaining more than 50 percent of the votes will be declared elected. The Cuban Constitution establishes “in the Republic of Cuba sovereignty resides in the people, from whom flows all State power.” It adds that “this power is exercised directly or through the Peoples Power Assemblies and other State organs derived from them, in the form and according to the norms established by the Constitution and the law.” In the same way, the State Council is the organ of the National Peoples Power Assembly which it represents between sessions, executing its accords and complying with other constitutionally attributed functions.

It also is inferred to represent the Cuban State nationally and internationally.

Ricardo Alarcon, incumbent president of Cuba”s National Assembly of People”s Power, was reelected to his post Sunday during the opening of the assembly”s seventh legislature.

Infografía: Presidencia Asamblea Nacional

Alarcon was reelected a third time as the National Assembly”s president, with incumbent vice president Jaime Crombet also reelected.

Miriam Brito was elected secretary, replacing Ernesto Suarez.

Alarcon, born May 21, 1937 in Havana, is a graduate of the University of Havana with a doctorate in philosophy.

He became active in Cuba”s revolutionary struggle while at the university, where he was appointed president of the Federation of University Students in 1959.

In 1962, he was appointed director of the Foreign Ministry”s Americas division. Between 1966 and 1978 he served as Cuba”s permanent representative to the United Nations.

In 1978, he was appointed first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He became Foreign Affairs minister in 1992 until, in February 1993, he became president of the Cuban National Assembly.

He is a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party since the Party”s second congress, and was promoted to the Political Board in the fifth congress.

On January 20, 2008, Alarcon was elected deputy from the Plaza de la Revolucion municipality.

The establishment Sunday of the Cuban National Assembly’s seventh legislature marks the conclusion of the general elections process begun July 9, 2007.

At today´s session the 614 lawmakers will elect the president, vice president and secretary of this legislative body, as well as the 31 members of the State Council, the organ of the National People’s Power Assembly representing it between each ordinary period of sessions.

The Council of State is made up of the president, who is chief of State and government, one first vice president, five vice presidents, a secretary, and 23 other members.

It has a collegiate nature and, for national and foreign purposes, is the highest representation of the Cuban State, as stipulated in Article 89 of the Constitution.

When voting, the deputies will take into consideration the proposals made by the National Candidacy Commission, in which are represented student and grassroots organizations.

In October Cubans chose 15,235 municipal delegates from the more than 37,300 citizens proposed in the neighborhoods September 1-26.

Once elected and constituted, on December 2 these delegates nominated the candidates to the provincial and national assemblies.