Chronicle on Cuba - October 2005

Economy

October 3: Chilean Representatives of travel agencies and tour operators received first-hand information about Cuba's tourist offers. The presentation, sponsored by Havanatur, was a good opportunity to promote the establishments the group Occidental Hotels and Resorts runs in the Caribbean island. According to sources from the tourist sector, more than 12,000 Chilean tourists have spent their vacations in Cuba this year. (Dominican Today, 3/10/05)

October 5: Over 500 experts from 20 nations are attending in Havana the 10th Latin American Congress of Internal Audit (CLAI) to analyze banking supervision in the Cuban financial system. The event, opened at Havana's Conference Center, coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Latin American Federation of Internal Auditors (FLAI), created in September 1995 to exchange and foster efficacy in management. (Prensa Latina, 5/10/05)

October 5: Caracas and Havana plan to conduct cooperation projects in 25 areas in the course of 2006, representatives of both governments said at the closing of the sixth Joint Commission on the Cuba-Venezuela Agreement. The parties signed a joint declaration listing the projects, which principally involve the areas of health, education, agriculture, mining and culture. The declaration was signed by Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez and Cuban Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas and conforms to the policies laid out in the 2000 Cuba-Venezuela Agreement. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage was present at the last session, at the head of a delegation of 46 high-ranking officials, including seven ministers. Closing ceremonies were led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (EFE, 6/10/05)

October 6: The Chinese-Cuban Biotech Pharmaceutical Co. opened its Beijing factory on the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two socialist countries. According to the Cuban newspaper “Ahora”, this facility will produce a monoclonal antibody to treat neck and head cancer. The German drug maker Oncoscience is also interested in this medicine. Two days before the Beijing plant was opened, a vaccine factory using Cuban technology started up in China’s northeastern Jilin province. (London Guardian, 6/10/05)

October 6: Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque told an Economic Club of Toronto that 600,000 Canadians will visit Cuba this year, a number that is increasing by 20 per cent annually, out of a total tourist trade of 2.3 million visitors. But while there has been investment by some Canadian resource companies -- notably Sherritt International Corp., as well as offshore oil explorer Pebercan Inc. -- Canadian corporations are "absent'' from the development of Cuban tourist facilities. The country is adding 3,000 to 5,000 hotel rooms a year "and it is, I think, a sector of our economy in which Canadian companies are not working today,'' the minister said. The Cuban economy, after shrinking 35 per cent in four years during the early '90s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been growing at about 4.5 per cent annually in recent years, and the government hopes for expansion of seven to eight per cent this year, Perez Roque said. (The Canadian Press, 6/10/05)

October 11: The number of buses operating in Havana has dropped 75 per cent in the last 17 years– from 2,700 to barely 700–, creating a public transport crisis which Cuban authorities blame on the US embargo. The total number of buses in service can only carry 600,000 passengers a day, in a city of 2.3 million inhabitants, according to a report by the Cuban Ministry of Transport. (AFP, 11/10/05)

October 16: Hundreds of young people took control of Havana's gas stations that accept dollar-pegged pesos in a drive apparently led by Fidel Castro to eliminate pilfering at the pump. Clad in black T-shirts, they were busy pumping gas, managing state credit cards and jotting down everything from car license plates to how much gas people bought and whether it was with cash or credit. "They arrived by surprise and sent all the attendants home at full pay for 45 days," a cashier told the press, asking that her name not be used. "They plan to compare data with the previous 45 days and see how much gas is pumped, how much gas state companies really use. In short, how much is being stolen," she said. The young people said they were part of a special force of social workers developed by Castro in recent years to tap into youthful enthusiasm for revolutionary ideals and combat socialist bureaucracy. Although the social workers have been instructed to manage the pumps and help customers, their inexperience has caused delays at some of the busiest gas stations in the city. "It's unbelievable. I've been here at this service station for more than half an hour and they still haven't helped me because these boys don't know anything about how to sell gas," one irritated Havana driver commented while he waited in line to fill up. The measure comes amid widely circulating reports over the past few weeks about a possible 10 percent fuel price hike. (Reuters, EFE, 16,17/10/05)

October 16: The Cuban Ministry of Finance and Prices and that of Audit and Control will carry out a “special” audit of 20 % of state companies on the island. The audit aims to address “indiscipline, illegalities and cases of corruption”, said an article in Tribuna de la Havana. (AFP, 17/10/05)

October 17: Building 8,000 new homes in 2006 represents a challenge for all the institutions in Las Tunas province related with this major project. Although this number of new homes is still not enough, provincial authorities consider it’s a good first step. Such a number of homes has never been built in only one year before. Authorities responsible for addressing housing problems in Las Tunas consider that 47% of current housing in that Cuban province are in regular or bad shape. (Granma, 17/10/05)

October 17: The maintenance activities at one of the main electricity generating stations in Cuba that have led to long power blackouts in some parts of the country will continue for some more days, the government said. After a summer marked by frequent and lengthy blackouts, Cubans got a respite in September, but the blackouts have been reinstituted for several hours each day in various cities, including Havana. The Cuban Electrical Union attributed the new outages to supply limitations at the Antonio Guiteras electricity plant, one of the country's most important power stations, which is undergoing maintenance. (EFE, 17/10/05)

October 18: A bus manufacturer in central China's Henan Province will export 630 buses to Cuba, the largest deal in the country's bus industry of the year, according to the company's spokesman. The deal, involving 430 end products and assembly parts for another 200 buses, is worth nearly 50 million US dollars and will be delivered to the end user, Astro Bus, by January 2006, said the spokesman with Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co. Ltd., which is located in Zhengzhou, the province's capital. The spokesman said the company was awarded the new contract because Astro Bus had been satisfied with Yutong buses delivered under an earlier agreement signed in April, which involved 400 buses. Both deals were reached with the help of the Beijing Branch of China National Aero-technology Import and Export Corporation. (Xinhua, 18/10/05)

October 18: Hurricane Wilma, the 12th hefty storm of the Caribbean storm season, doused Cuba with heavy rainfall, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people from the eastern section of the island. Flooding had occurred in the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba und Granma, where landslides were also reported. About 200 buildings have been damaged, the reports said. (Monsters and Critics. Com, 18/10/05)

October 19: Cuba has begun prospecting for new deposits of nickel in the northeastern part of the island. “The prospecting will guarantee future supplies to the three processing plants located in (the municipalities) of Moa and Nicaro”, in the province of Holguín, said Rafael Pérez, principal specialist of the Geominera Oriente Company. Pérez did not disclose the number of deposits being prospected for. In two years Cuba foresees to increase nickel production from 75,000 tons to 121,000 tons, with Canadian and Chinese investments. (AFP, 19/10/05)

October 20: A natural and ecological line of cosmetics containing highly mineralized Cuban mud and water as active ingredients is entering the international market in diverse forms: dermatological soap, nutritive masks, thermal clay, anti-cellulite mud, facial toners and sunscreens. Ricardo Páez, from the José Isaac Corral Central Laboratories (LACEMI) where the cosmetics are produced, said that the company’s production capacity is small in terms of the demand for these so-called dermo-cosmetics, marketed by international natural pharmacies in Cuba and for exportation primarily to Spain and the Dominican Republic. (Granma International, 20/10/05)

October 20: Hurricane Wilma has prompted the evacuation of thousands of Cubans across the island. Civil defense officials said by midday more than 370,000 people had been sent to safer places, most in the island's west closer to the storm, and the island is prepared to evacuate up to 500,000 people. Although most evacuees stay at friends' homes, 20 percent rely on state-run shelters, which are staffed by doctors and cooks and stocked with medicine and food. Residents from La Coloma and all 5,125 residents of Surgidero de Batabano, in the south of western provinces of Pinar del Río and Havana, were being evacuated, said Hedilberto Lugo, a local civil defense official. Commercial flights between Havana and Cancun, Mexico, and between Havana and Nueva Gerona, in the Cuban southern Isle of Pines were canceled. (CNN, EFE, AP, Sun Sentinel, 21/10/05)

October 21: Export Assistance Canada, in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba, is organizing a Canadian trade mission to Havana, in the tourism industry sector from December 11 – 15, 2005. During that trade mission, participating Canadian companies will have the opportunity to personally meet the main Cuban hotel chains, such as Hoteles Melia, Grupo Cubanacan, Grupo Gaviota; and personally meet the Cuban officials from departments related with the tourism sector. (West Can Cuba Press Release, 21/10/05)

October 24: Massive waves churned by Hurricane Wilma crashed into Cuba’s capital city, flooding a coastal highway and seeping into nearby neighborhoods of old, crumbling buildings. Rescuers in inflatable rafts and amphibious vehicles pulled nearly 250 people from flooded homes. The ocean spread up to four blocks inland, inundating streets and buildings with water up to three feet deep. The extent of damage in Cuba's north was not immediately known. Red Cross workers said several people had suffered cuts as they scrambled through water and debris, but there were no immediate reports of storm-related deaths. State-run broadcasts said the flooding in Havana was the most extensive in three decades, outdoing even a memorable 1993 storm that inundated large swaths of the city. (The New York Times, AP, CNN, Sun Sentinel, 24, 25/10/05)

October 24: The outer bands of hurricane Wilma drenched western Cuba and flooded evacuated communities along the island's southern coast after the hurricane clobbered Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Basement apartments were submerged. The government in recent days evacuated more than 625,000 people, particularly in the island's west. Guanimar, a small fishing village of wooden houses due south of Havana, was totally under water, with floodwaters as high as 3 feet in some places. The community frequently floods during hurricanes and its several hundred residents were evacuated as a precaution. (The New York Times, AP, CNN, Sun Sentinel, 24, 25/10/05)

October 25: Army General Raul Castro Ruz, Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), congratulated the people of the province of Pinar del Rio for their efforts in preventing any loss of life and minimizing economic damages during the passing of Hurricane Wilma. In a telephone conversation with Maria del Carmen Concepcion, first secretary of the provincial PCC, the FAR minister spoke highly of the discipline and organization in which the people of Pinar del Rio confronted the hurricane. (Granma, 26/10/05)

October 26: The crashing waves that flooded Havana's coast brought another destructive element besides water: salt. The sea salt will contaminate and corrode hundreds of already precarious buildings, some older than 100 years, experts said. It's a risk the city's housing stock, already strained from massive overcrowding and years of neglect, can hardly endure. ''The floods will make everything worse,'' said Florida International University professor Nicolás Quintana, a former city planner in Cuba. "Will the floods ruin the buildings? These buildings are already ruined. "I don't think half the people will be able to go back to their homes, and they don't have anywhere to go.'' In Hurricane Dennis in July, 1,800 homes were damaged in Havana alone, the government said. During Hurricane Charley, 2004, the government reported 65 Havana buildings collapsed. Hurricane Lili in 2002 affected 76,000 homes, ruining 15,000. In 2001 alone, 38,000 families were left homeless by bad weather, a Cuban government report said. (The Miami Herald, 26/10/05)

October 26: During a press conference in Caracas, Cuban Ambasador Germán Sánchez said that over 26,000 Cuban health professionals work in 40 countries around the world. “Only in Venezuela there are 20,000 doctors and other health related professionals as part of those 26,000", Sánchez said. According to ONE, Cuban National Statistics Organization, in 2004 the island had 69, 713 doctors. (AFP, 26/10/05)

October 26: High season for tourism may come early this year for Cuba, as travelers originally bound for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula change their plans due to Hurricane Wilma's destructive assault on resort cities like Cancun. Damages to Cuba's own tourism industry from the storm were minimal, and tourism officials are evaluating travel agency requests for hundreds of rooms for tourists moving their destination from Mexico to Cuba, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said. "Cuba's tourism infrastructure resisted the strength of this hurricane -- the damage is insignificant," Marrero told a news conference in Havana's historic Hotel Nacional. The ocean smashed in windows and doors of seafront hotels, but of 14 hotels in the city that were evacuated ahead of the storm, Marrero said only three remained out of operation. Repairs on the three hotels, as well as tourist cabañas on the northern key of Cayo Levisa, would be made in upcoming weeks. The tourism ministry also suffered damages after the waves pummeled through the building's ground floor, shattering windows and tearing down doors. Of the 35,000 tourists in Cuba as Wilma approached, just under 1,750 were evacuated, Marrero said. The tourism minister also reported that three male tourists from Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy were killed in a car accident over the weekend on the highway between Havana and Trinidad, a colonial city in southern Cuba. "They had a car accident, which is being investigated," he said. "But it had nothing to do with the hurricane." (AP, 26/10/05)

October 27: The air route between Barcelona, in Venezuela, and Havana, aimed at transporting 700 Venezuelan patients to Cuba daily, was opened and will take two hours and forty minutes. Pointing out that before patients had to go to Caracas, Anzoategui Governor Tarek William said that departure from Barcelona, 248 miles from Caracas, would also make it easier for patients from the nearer Caribbean islands to receive medical treatment in Cuba in the future. The treatment of patients in Cuba and the new airport are part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, that aims to strengthen Latin American and Caribbean integration. (Prensa Latina, 27/10/05)

October 31: Businesspeople from 42 nations gathered at the 23rd International Havana Fair (FIHAV 2005). FIHAV is the biggest Cuban commercial commodities exchange, headquartered at Expocuba´s exhibition site. More than 1,800 national and foreign firms will exhibit their products and technologies. The Fair’s inaugural day honored the delegations of Spain and Canada. It will also honor the national days of Venezuela, Mexico, France, Brazil, Germany and the Peoples Republic of China. (Prensa Latina, 31/10/05)

October 31: Venezuela has become Cuba's top trading partner, selling the Caribbean island $1.4 billion in oil and other goods annually, Cuba's government said. Trading has increased amid strengthening political ties between the two countries under the leadership of presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba, who also share a close friendship. Cuba is now buying $1.1 billion worth of Venezuelan oil annually along with another $300 million in food, construction materials, and other products, Foreign Commerce Minister Raul de la Nuez said on the first day of the island's annual trade fair. De la Nuez predicted trade between the two nations could reach $2 billion annually by the end of 2006. ''At this moment (Venezuela) indisputably is Cuba's top trading partner,'' he said. (AP, 1/11/05)

October 31: Rains associated with Hurricane Wilma benefited drought-striken Cuba, filling reservoirs to 76 percent of capacity, the state-run Trabajadores newspaper reported. The hurricane did not make landfall on the island, but rains from its outer bands pounded eastern and western Cuba for several days as the storm made its journey through the Caribbean before shooting into the Gulf of Mexico. Conversely, the rains have been too much for the island's coffee crop. Recent storms caused many coffee beans to ripen too quickly, prompting workers to scramble to pick the beans before they go bad. Students and teachers have been sent to help in Maisi and Yateras, the principal coffee-growing regions of Guantanamo Province, Trabajadores reported. (AP, 1/11/05)