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Carta de Cuba, la escritura de la libertad |
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November 29, 2006
PERPLEXITY CONCERNING CASTRO’S APPEARANCE Havana – The possible appearance of Fidel Castro at the tribune of the so called Revolution Plaza has kept Cubans on the edge. The official press does not assure the presence of the communist leader, and party officials do not dare to ratify or deny that Castro will assist, in his olive green uniform, at the tribune of a military parade celebrating Granma’s landing and the dictator’s 80th birthday. It is commented why Raúl Castro, the designated successor, did not appear at the Armed Forces activity, or at the encounter that took place in the Carlos Marx Theater. For the moment, and to content the capital’s inhabitants, the government advanced the delivery of the products established at the ¨rationing books¨, adding some extra pounds of rice, beans and coffee, something which gladdened families in the capital. In the interior of the island, in contrast, the population complains on the delay of the ¨food quota¨, the shortage of agricultural products at the markets and the lack of medicines at the drug stores.
MILITARY PRESENCE Havana – The military presence in this capital makes itself evident hours before Castro’s parade, where it will be shown the regime’s military capability, which, according to specialists, has lost more than 50 per cent of its operational capacity. The lack of spare parts for the equipment maintenance, the reduction of troops due to the serious economic situation which the country has been facing, in the last ten years, and the disappearance of the Soviet help, minimize such ¨power¨ to some one hundred thousand men, a number quite distant from the half million soldiers which the island’s armed forces had on the ‘80s.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PARALYZED Havana – The lack of public transportation in the streets of Havana is bothering the population, since last Monday. According to reporters from Carta de Cuba, in the capital’s bus terminals, the dispatch of ¨guaguas¨ (buses) has been greatly reduced, something which is troubling the population, incapable of moving from one municipality to another. ¨It is that just now all the available transportation is at the disposal of the military parade¨, indicated Javier Soto, a chauffer of the Alamar-Cojímar route, at the east side of the capital. For a population larger than two million inhabitants, Havana barely counts with some 70 buses for public transportation.
IN FAVOR OF PRIVATE PROPERTY Ciego de Avila – Inquiries made by independent journalists of the Free ¨Ciego de Avila¨ Press Agency, in three municipalities, Morón, Pina and Ciego de Avila, has shown that the great majority of people interviewed wants the privatization of small and middle enterprises. Of a total of 250 persons from different levels of the Cuban civil society, 93 per cent believe that the national economy and the labor discipline would improve if the small and middle enterprises were private. 4 per cent stated that there is no experience in that respect and only 3 per cent agreed with how things were now… It is well known by all Cubans, that in the year 1993, when things (crisis or special period, as the government called it) got ugly, the government authorized the opening of small private businesses, something which gave immediate results.
HEALTH DEFICIENCIES ACKNOWLEDGED Ciego de Avila – The First Secretary of the Communist Party in this province, Edildo Companioni Moreno, publicly recognized the deficiencies in the health services quality, in a debate which took place at the Provincial Committee of the local Communist Party. Companioni, who is also a member of the Party’s Central Committee, told those present that according to inquiries taken place in ten regional municipalities, the health care at hospitals, policlinics and assistant centers, was deficient and the population was unsatisfied and discouraged. Doctors and technical health personnel indicated to the independent press that the lack of resources and the scarce attention to professionals redound in the poor quality of medical services. |