[NYTr] Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - Jul 25, 2007

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

Progreso Weekly - Jul 25, 2007
http://www.velaccess.com/~progres1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=71&Itemid=1


Cuban Radar Newsbriefs - July 25, 2007
A Service of Radio Progreso


* Cuba will produce 50% of its oil and gas needs

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.