Chronicle on Cuba - July 2005

Economy

July 2: As part of a program for the protection of river-based ecosystems, the Guantánamo-Guaso river basin has been restored by planting hundreds of trees along the banks of the river. The initiative, sponsored by various Cuban institutions, includes reforestation, soil protection and environmental education. The program aids the recovery of the southern coastal area in the easternmost province of the island. It is a 1,752-square kilometer area of semi-desert caused by high sun radiation levels and evaporation, exacerbated by a shortage of rain. (Radio Habana Cuba, 2/7/05)

July 4: The Cuban Transport Ministry is applying an intensive program to improve transportation by repairing equipment and making new investments, Transport Minister Carlos Manuel Pazos asserted. Manuel Pazos made the remark in a meeting with deputies belonging to the Parliament Services Commission. (Prensa Latina, 4/7/05)

July 5: Soil erosion and deforestation are the top environmental problems facing Cuba, according to an official speaking at an international environmental conference in Havana. In opening remarks, the island's vice minister for the environment, José Díaz Duque, said repeated abuse and mismanagement of the land has lead to serious erosion throughout Cuba. He also pointed out that when Christopher Columbus came to America in 1492, forests covered 95% of the island. Today, it's less than 25% covered, he said. Contamination, loss of biological diversity and a limited water supply due to an ongoing drought are also plaguing the Caribbean island, he said. (AP, 5/7/05)

July 5: A true quality smoke is now available on the shelves in Shanghai’s first Cuban cigar shop. "We would like all cigar lovers to treat this like a home. To spend time and trade cigar knowledge," said manager Jeffrey Yu. Other “Casa del Habano” stores are already open in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. (China Daily, 22/7/05)

July 5: After two months of almost daily blackouts, Cuban authorities announced that the trouble would drag on for weeks -- at least until the end of July -- in the middle of Cuba's sweltering summer. "There is still a great deal of risk; there are a lot of limitations and there are still warning signs we can identify at all (power-generating) plants," Basic Industry Minister Yadira García said on state television. García, a member of the Cuban Communist Party's politburo, last October replaced then minister Marcos Portal amid a prolonged energy crisis that Fidel Castro said revealed that the national power system was "weak." (AFP, 5/7/05)

July 6: Cuba plans to close at least 40 of 85 sugar mills and take 33 percent of plantations out of production, industry and trade sources said, in the second major downsizing of the industry since 2002. "Ministry employees were told at least 40 mills were closing, with the resulting elimination of around 75,000 jobs up and down the line," a local expert said. "But the decision may not be final as many technicians believe it would be a strategic error to close so many mills and are appealing the decision," he said. The downsizing comes in the wake of this year's record-low crop and the prospect that next year's will be more or less the same. "They plan to wind up with between 40 and 45 mills, though for now many will not be dismantled," said a foreign trader, saying he had reviewed the restructuring plan. Industry insiders said only around 50 mills opened this year during the January to May milling season. The government has not commented directly on the harvest and future plans. (Reuters, 6/7/05)

July 6: The Attorney General’s Office uncovered at least 16,000 offences in state enterprises after conducting more than 1,740 audits in the last three years, indicated the Office’s Audit Director, Caridad Sabó Herrera. In a report by the official daily Granma, Sabó Herrera said that the most common illegalities are unauthorized sales by employees and a surge of illicit agreements between companies and individuals. (Notimex, 6/7/05)

July 7: Ecuador's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelo Fernandez travelled to Cuba to explore ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two Latin American countries. Fernandez will participate at the Sixth Cuba-Ecuador Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Bilateral Economic and Scientific Cooperation underway in Havana.  This will be the first joint commission to be held by authorities of the two nations after the dismissal of former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez last April. (AIN, 6/7/05)

July 8: Fires in Cuba are increasing, putting biodiversity on the island at risk. According to Colonel Manuel Lamas, of the Forest Ranger’s Office, in the 1960s there was an average of 158 forest fires a year, in contrast with 367 fires already reported in 2005, destroying 12,037 hectares. (AP, 8/7/05)

July 8: Hurricane Dennis tore down power and telephone networks in central Sancti Spiritu and Matanzas provinces. The 170-kilometer per hour gales damaged radio communication towers and power networks in Sancti Spiritus, vice-president of the provincial government Fidel Perez Luzbel said to the press. (AIN, 8/7/05)

July 10: Cuba continued recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Dennis, which killed at least 10 people and caused extensive damage across the island. Granma, Sancti Spiritus and Cienfuegos, in the central and eastern sections of the island, were among the provinces most affected by the storm. Santiago de Cuba, in eastern Cuba, also suffered damage, especially Baconao, a UN World Biosphere Reserve, which lost an estimated 80 percent of its species. The tourist city of Trinidad, on the south-central coast, was hit hard by the storm, especially its coastal sector. Some 70 percent of the houses in the coastal town of Casilda, a few kilometers from Trinidad, were damaged by the powerful winds from Dennis and the storm surge caused by the hurricane. I n Camagüey province, in Cuba's agricultural heartland, Dennis damaged or destroyed more than 2,191 homes. In Havana, some 1,828 houses were damaged by the storm, including 30 that collapsed. Most of the structural damage in the capital region occurred in Regla, Habana del Este, Marianao and Cotorro. In Aguada, a small city off Cuba's central highway, 6,000 homes were damaged and another 400 were demolished, Orlando Díaz, a local Communist Party official, said. Díaz said 666 people in the city remained in shelters and another 5,722 were living in the homes of relatives and friends. One fourth of the city's 46 schools were damaged as well as a sugar mill, Díaz said. (EFE, Sun Sentinel, 10/7/05)

July 11: Hurricane Dennis killed at least 16 people in Cuba, damaged or destroyed 15,000 homes and caused an estimated $1.4 billion in property damage when it pummeled the island, Fidel Castro said in an hours-long speech. Castro said that one and a half million citizens were evacuated and that if Dennis had directly hit Havana, the damage would have accounted for more than three billion dollars. He said the hurricane totally wiped out 100 hectares of crops, while 11,000 hectares planted with banana were lost and almost the entire citrus fruit harvest in central Matanzas perished. More than seven tons of mango fruit were also destroyed. Castro said that over 73,000 birds died, with severe damage sustained by the ecological system, particularly in Central Cienfuegos and eastern Granma province. In this last province, 6,536 coconut trees were torn down, and 20,000 hectares of forests were damaged. Most of the houses at the historical place of La Comandancia, in La Plata, Sierra Maestra, were destroyed. The citrus industry in central Cuba was devastated, he added. During his long speech by national TV and radio, Fidel Castro said that 21 hotels were severely damaged. Roads and railroads were severely damaged as well as 160 health facilities and 96 sports centers and 69 cultural institutions. Castro said that nearly 300,000 tons of foods in stock were damaged by hurricane Dennis. Over 73,000 chickens were lost. (AIN, EFE, La Jornada, Prensa Latina, Granma, 12/7/05)

July 11: Fidel Castro announced that all Cuban cities will soon receive power generators to help address energy challenges facing the island. The power generators are necessary in peak electric hours, said Castro, speaking on a TV news-commentary program spotlighting damage to the nation's energy producing capacity inflicted by the recent passage of hurricane Dennis. Castro noted that the power equipment is of high quality, automated and must be used only in “the most urgent circumstances” and in an "organized way". (AIN, 11/7/05) 

July 11: Fidel Castro stressed the need to save water currently being lost in an inefficient network of pipelines. Castro said that nearly 60 percent of the water being pumped is lost and that investment is needed to increase water efficiency. During the Round Table, a TV and radio broadcast, on the damage inflicted by hurricane Dennis, Fidel Castro spoke with Victor Gaute, the first secretary of the Communist Party of the central province of Matanzas. Gaute explained that the province received 320 millimeters of rainfall over a 24-hour period – twice the amount it usually receives throughout the entire month of July. That situation has put authorities and experts on watch for possible flooding. The Communist Party leader said crucial sectors are beginning to recover, such as the Cuban Canadian Energas power plant, which helps provide gas and water to the municipality of Varadero, Cuba’s largest tourist resort. (AIN, 11/7/05) 

July 11: Hurricane Dennis' crushing 12-hour stay in Cuba wreaked havoc on the nation's already precarious housing shortage, wiping out tens of thousands of much-needed homes, the island news media reported. According to official Cuban government estimates, some 1,800 homes were damaged in Havana alone. In Santiago de Cuba to the east, 5,241 homes were reported damaged -- 659 of those completely wrecked. Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma, reported that 25,000 homes were partially or totally destroyed in all. And the paper acknowledged that the figure did not include the hard-hit towns of Guamá and Tercer Frente, where communication problems, swollen rivers and blocked roads have kept officials from getting a damage report. Some media reports put Dennis' damage even higher. Citing ''preliminary press reports,'' the Agency France Press said that nearly 80,000 homes were damaged: 34,000 in Granma; 26,000 in Cienfuegos; 4,000 in Santiago de Cuba; 8,200 in Sancti Spíritus; 3,200 in Matanzas; and 1,800 in Havana. (The Miami Herald, 11/7/05)

July 12: Leisure Canada Inc. announced the signing of surface extension rights for the Company's Monte Barreto property in Havana. The extension letter was signed by Carlos Lage Davila, vice-president of Cuba. Located in the heart of Havana's affluent business district, the 400,000 square foot Monte Barreto project is the last significant piece of undeveloped waterfront property in the Cuban capital. Phase One of the 800-room Monte Barreto five-star all-suites hotel will be built to capitalize on increasing business travel to Cuba as well as high-end tourism to Havana. The Company currently has the rights to develop 4,200 hotels rooms, timeshare condominiums and two PGA championship golf courses in Cuba. (Market News Publishing, 12/7/05)

July 13: Cuban telecommunications are on the mend after winds from hurricane Dennis snapped cables, toppled telephone poles and wreaked other damage in that sector. A notice from Cuba´s Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) said many localities from the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Granma, Villa Clara and Matanzas have already been connected to long distance service. In eastern Santiago de Cuba some progress has been made. A total of 4,031 telephones had their service interrupted in Cienfuegos. Havana province and the capital were patching together local networks, but around 7 000 phones are still out of order. (Prensa Latina, 13/7/05)

July 15: Venezuela approved $20 million in funding for an electricity project in Havana. The “Banco de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Venezuela” (Bandes) announced in a communiqué that the project would cost $93 million and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEP) is cofinancing it. No further details on the project were provided. (El Nuevo Herald, 15/7/05)

July 15: The people now at the helm of the oldest copper mine in Latin America, located in eastern Cuba and shut down in 2001, want it to be recognised as a national and global heritage site. That goal is a key part of the plans for rehabilitating an ecosystem damaged by the mining industry, drawn up by experts from the governmental agency Geomining of the East, and for revitalising the village of El Cobre, which emerged from the exploitation of the metal reserves discovered there in 1530. The environmental damage is immediately visible, and reversing it requires patience and a healthy budget. ”This was farmland, with many groves of fruit trees, but all that was lost. The area was degraded and the change to the environment was total,” engineer Alina Yasell told the press. The mine is inside a hill 12 km from Santiago de Cuba, capital of the province of the same name. It was at its peak in the first half of the 19th century, when it produced 67,000 tonnes of copper. Four years ago, scant production and low prices for the metal on the global market led to the mine's closure. ( IPS , 15/7/05)

July 18: The Cuban power system, brought down by powerful hurricane Dennis, was reconnected after 15 days of intense work, local TV informed. The power plant increased its generation capacity to 300 megawatts. (Prensa Latina, 18/7/05)

July 22: The National Bank of Argentina (BNA) and Cuba's food import company (Alimport) have signed an agreement to launch a collateral credit fund, marking an important step in trade cooperation between the two countries. Under the deal, the two sides will implement their commitments on bilateral trade signed in 2004 to bring their two-way trade value to 200 million USD a year. The agreement also allows Cuba to transmit revenues from selling pharmaceutical products and medical technology to a collateral mortgage fund branch opened at the Argentina Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade. The Cuban side will use the fund to buy food from Argentina. (VNA, 22/7/05)

July 22: Cuba expects to cut its unemployment rate of 1,9% in half through professional development courses financed by the State, said the official daily Granma. “The objective this year is to continue creating jobs in order to cut current low unemployment rates in half”, said the newspaper. (La República, 22/7/05)

July 25: A programme for planting trees in yards and courtyards has become popular in drought-stricken eastern Cuba, as part of the effort to fight soil degradation and erosion. ”Reforestation is the only hope for the future,” said Teodosio Hernández, who heads a programme to plant fruit and lumber trees in the semi-arid southern coastal area of the eastern province of Guantánamo, 1,000 km from Havana. Planting trees is combined with the cultivation of crops like sweet potatoes and beans, both of which are staples among rural residents in the region. The project, which got underway in 2003 on state-owned and private land in nine farming communities, awakened greater interest than was expected, and the tree nursery will be expanded so that seedlings can be made available to anyone interested in planting trees in their yards. Ministry of Agriculture studies indicate that 12 percent of all agricultural land in Cuba is desertified to some degree, a proportion that will rise to 15 percent by 2015. (IPS, 25/7/05)

July 26: Cuba stopped importing incandescent light bulbs, according to a Foreign Trade Ministry (MINCEX) regulation published in the Official Gazette. The MINCEX resolution 190 of 2005 says that "in order to contribute to Cuba's energy/saving policy, it is considered sensible to cancel imports" of these products. They are "incandescent lamps and tubes, except ultra-violet or infrared rays, others of lower electricity consumption or equal to 200 watts that use an over-100-volt tension." On April 21, Fidel Castro publicly announced the official decision to eliminate incandescent light bulbs in Cuba to replace them with others of lower power consumption. (Prensa Latina, 26/7/05)

July 26: Fidel Castro said his government was revolutionizing Cuba's aging electrical system, asking a nation weary of recent breakdowns to be patient while his government works to fix the problems. ''We will overcome. Have a little bit of faith,'' the Cuban leader said in an address of nearly four hours marking the 52nd anniversary of his revolution. [Discurso de Fidel Castro] (AP, AIN, 27/7/05)

July 26: The Cuban economy will grow around 9 percent this year due to increased centralization and alliances with Venezuela and China, Fidel Castro announced in an upbeat address. "During the first half, the economy grew 7.3 percent and the estimate is for around 9 percent growth this year," Castro said during a marathon speech marking the 52nd anniversary of the start of his revolution. According to the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Cuban economy grew about 3 percent in 2004, below the 5 percent growth announced by Cuba, which uses its own methodology to calculate gross domestic product. [Discurso de Fidel Castro] (Reuters, 26/7/05)