Cuba will produce 50% of its oil and gas needs
A Service by the Radio Progreso
Alternativa Havana Bureau Read Spanish Version
During a visit, on July 21, to the Santa Cruz del Norte oil belt, in Havana province, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers Carlos Lage announced that soon Cuba will be producing half of its fuel needs.
The Cuban leader said that the Western Oil and Gas Drilling and Pumping Company had produced one million tons 18 days before the preset date, 118,400 more tons than on the same period in 2006.
Cuba to import sugar
For the second consecutive year the Cuban government will import sugar to satisfy the local demand, which is 600 to 700 thousand annual tons.
According to a report by Reuters, approximately 250,000 tons will be imported.
Cuban sugar production figures in the past two years have not been published, but experts believe that the last harvest did not reach 1.2 million tons, while the goal was to produce 1.6 tons.
According to a report by the London based International Sugar Organization, in 2006 Cuba bought sugar from Colombia and Brazil.
Changes for a better socialism
“We must make changes and improve our economic structures, but the accomplishments of socialism will be defended with all the strength of our spirit,” said Cuban poet and ethnologist Miguel Barnet.
Present at the 17th International Poetry Festival in Medellín, Colombia, Barnet made the previous declarations to EFE news agency, which were reproduced by Radio Habana Cuba.
“There will have to be changes, but changes to improve socialism, not for destroying it,” insisted Barnet, who is also Vice President of the Cuban Writers’ and Artists’ Union (UNEAC).
“In my country there is a dictatorship –the dictatorship of the spirit and the dictatorship of solidarity with other peoples… I do not live in a perfect society, but my country can not be equaled to hell, as it often is,” concluded Barnet.
Disappearing water
A report by Enrique Milanés León published in Granma on Monday, July 23, details how and where the water is disappearing in the city of Camagüey, in eastern Cuba.
"(…) of the 77 million cubic meters of water pumped for the population, in 2006 the province wasted 46.2 million, more or less the capacity of the Santa Ana reservoir. Thus the equivalent of that reserve disappeared right before our eyes,” wrote Milanés
Experts at the Institute of Hydraulic Resources say that the losses are due to the bad conditions of pipes and illegal detours.
The city’s aqueduct was built in 1928 and the article makes no mention whether it has been repaired since then.
The good news is that in May full repairs will begin, which will last five years. During that time 93 kilometers of pipes will be substituted and 254 kilometers of new conduits will be installed. With the repair the city and 47 boroughs in the surroundings will receive an efficient and safe service.
External debt at more than $15 million
According to the 2007 annual of the Office of National Statistics, Cuba’s external debt rose to 15.385 million dollars. This figure reveals an increase of 24% as compared to 2005
Cuba and Iran sign agreements
The daily Granma, in its edition of Wednesday, July 25, reported that the governments of Cuba and Iran signed commercial treaties with preferential tariffs.
According to the report the treaty will stimulate the bilateral exchange to more than 140 products in both directions.
Raul Castro will speak
Granma reported on Wednesday, July 25, that Cuba’s interim president, General Raul Castro Ruz, will speak in the act celebrating the 54th anniversary on the attack of the Moncada Barracks.
The act will take place at the Ignacio Agramante Plaza in the city of Camaguey, in the western sector of the country, and will begin at 7:30 in the morning.
The 26th of July, 1953, Fidel Castro and his companions assaulted the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, in the city of Bayazo, initiating the war for national liberation.
This date is the second most important date in the Cuban calendar. The most important is January 1, the day of liberation.
