The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

I would like to make reference to the Associated Press article in the Business section on April 15 (Cuba fights public anger with reform in country’s tense east) about the devastation and disappointment of the people from Santiago de Cuba and the efforts of the Cuban government to solve the urgent needs of the population of that important region.

Allow me to inform, once again, that the Cuban economy has to navigate every day in the ocean of problems that need to be solved and in which everything is important: education, health, social programmes, provision of food, attention to the children and elderly, etc. The list will be endless.

Whether we like it or not, the embargo imposed on Cuba by the Government of the United States for more than five decades is still in force and is being fully implemented.

It would be very useful if, when illustrating Cuba to the Bahamian public, your paper could also show the other side of the coin. It would be gratifying to read about one’s country an article that could offer the Bahamian readers not only the problems that my country has but also the real reasons that causes such problems and the hardships the Cuban economy faces on a daily basis.

Despite all the problems mentioned in the article, there is no mention for instance of the efforts of the authorities from some provinces of the east of the country, particularly from Santiago de Cuba, in alleviating the critical situation left by the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

In this regard, let me share some information. Hurricane Sandy hit Cuba in October 2012, causing damage that totalled more than 4,700 million pesos, out of which 2,600 million corresponded to housing and 1,400 million to the agriculture sector. It means that, speaking only of housing, 171,380 houses (50.2 per cent of the Housing Fund of the territory), of which 15,889 were demolished completely, 22,177 suffered partial collapses, 50,586 lost completely the ceiling and 82,728 partially, while major agencies quantified more than 5,980 affected facilities. In this regard, at the end of last year, out of the 171,380 houses affected, 95,545 were declared as completely repaired.

At the end of 2014, two years after Sandy, the affected territories had recovered 83 per cent of the facilities destroyed starting with education, with 1,044 centres renewed. The trade sector comprises 1,238 rehabilitated units, culture 198 and agriculture 783 just to mention a few.

Moreover, the government has given priority offering monitoring and control in the distribution of resources and financial treatment to survivors with more than 461 million pesos in Bank loans, 129 million in subsidies, 43 million for purchases in cash and 25 million bonuses. This financial aid has totalled more than 660 million pesos.

All this information has been offered with the sole intention of minimally illustrating the efforts that the Cuban government makes to give an answer to its people’s problems.

It is not an easy task for the government of Cuba to offer right now, to the entire population, the salary scale that is needed, deserved and necessary. In order to increase the salaries, Cuba must reach a level of productivity and self-dependence, in many spheres, that it has not reached yet, having as one of the main causes the American embargo against Cuba, which makes it hard and very difficult to trade with other countries and produce internally.

ERNESTO SOBERON GUZMAN

Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Cuba,

Nassau,

April 20, 2015.