Chronicle on Cuba - November 2008

Economy

November 1: Cuba's said its economy grew by 6% in the first half of 2008, but won't maintain that pace because of damage caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said the rise in gross domestic product in the year's final six months won't match the results of the first, which finished with six per cent growth. Rodriquez said the principal challenge is the reconstruction of the country, whose losses were initially calculated at $5 billion but which are seen now as far higher. He offered no new estimates. Civil Defence Chief Ramon Pardo Guerra told visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that collective damage from the storms had reached nearly 8.7 billion convertible pesos, or about $9.4 billion. That makes them nearly twice as costly as officials originally believed. Rodriguez projected last year that the economy would grow 8% cent in 2008, but he and other officials began warning in July, even before the hurricanes hit, that rising global food and oil prices would cause "inevitable adjustments and restrictions" (The Canadian Press, 1/11/08).

November 2: The Havana International Fair will welcome a record 1,300 business people representing 457 firms from 56 countries, organizers said. Cuba's largest trade and business event expects its 26th edition to break the records set last year in terms of the number of countries participating, leased exhibition space and business people taking part, Havana International Fair organizing committee chairman Abraham Maciques told the media. Spain, Canada, China, Italy and Germany will have the largest presence at the fair, with businesses from Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Panama leading the way among Latin American participants. Fair organizers plan to highlight Cuba's need to "import resources to deal with problems like those in the agriculture and housing sectors," especially in the wake of the hurricanes, Maciques said. During the 2007 trade fair, Cuban state-owned food company Alimport purchased more than $300 million worth of food from businesses based in Canada, China, Venezuela and the United States. Cuba imports more than 80 percent of the food it consumes (EFE, 3/11/08).

November 3: Cuba opened its top annual trade fair, welcoming thousands of business leaders from 56 countries who are interested in selling everything from lumber to lollipops, cars to construction materials on the island. Cuba's government controls well over 90 percent of the economy, but Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez said during the fair's opening ceremonies that through September, the country had seen a 39 percent increase in foreign trade as compared to the first nine months of 2007. He said its top trading partners are Venezuela, China, Canada, Spain, Brazil and Vietnam. De la Nuez did not provide details on why foreign trade was up, but Pedro Alvarez, head of Cuba's food import company Alimport, said the government has been forced to increase its buying of agricultural products from abroad after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike ripped through the island in August and September, crippling food production. "Agriculture was totally destroyed," he said (AP, 3/11/08).

November 3: Some 20 Cuban tourism companies are participating in the 13th International Tourism Fair of Latin America that is underway in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event, regarded as the most important of its type in the continent, is being attended by the companies Gran Caribe, Cubanacan, Isla Azul, Gaviota, Habaguanex, Hoteles C, Oasis, Sol Melia, Sandals and Accor, as well as Havanatur, Ecotur, Gaviota Tur, Paradiso, San Cristobal, and Cubertura, among others. The director of the Cuban Office of Information and Tourist Promotion for South America, Mario Ramos Alvarez, told Prensa Latina news agency that in the middle of the financial turbulence that affects the world, Cuba is promoting its main attractions in Buenos Aires as evidence of the consolidation of its tourism industry (ACN, 3/11/08).

November 3: Cuba's economy is expected to grow 4 percent in 2008, despite the devastating effects of two powerful hurricanes that caused more than $5 billion in damage, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said. He also said 2.4 million Cubans are receiving additional food rations to help them through shortages caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which struck the Caribbean island two months ago. Lage did not say what would account for the economic growth. Before the storms and the financial crisis that hit the global economy, Cuba had predicted its socialist economy would grow 8 percent this year. "There are no doubts that the effects of the hurricanes have produced a strong blow," Lage told reporters at the opening of Havana's annual international trade fair. But, he said, "the economy is going to grow more than 4 percent. It's the estimate and it's going to create conditions to keep advancing in the following years," he said. The storms destroyed 30 percent of Cuba's crops, which touched off food shortages that led the government to increase, in the hardest hit areas, the monthly food ration provided to Cubans (Reuters, 3/11/08).

November 3: Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage presided at the opening ceremony of the 26th Havana International Trade Fair. With an attendance of 1,420 companies from 56 countries, this fair has set new records for attending firms and countries, as well as showground space. Raul de la Nuez, Cuba’s Foreign Trade minister, also present at the inauguration, underscored that this event will enable participants and the host country to complete sales and identify business opportunities in order to raise the living standards of the Cuban people. De la Nuez said the country had seen a 39 percent increase in foreign trade through September as compared to the first nine months of 2007. He said its top trading partners are Venezuela, China, Canada, Spain, Brazil and Vietnam. FIHAV 2008 will run till November 8, the only day when it will open to the public. Also attending the opening ceremony were Cuban VPs Jose Ramon Fernandez and Ricardo Cabrizas, as well as Cuban Informatics and Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes and Transport Minister Jorge Luis Sierra (ACN, VNA, 3/11/08).

November 4: At Havana’s International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2008), it was announced that by the end of September this year, Canada was Cuba’s third largest trade partner, with a 9.4 percent growth in trade over 2007. During the inauguration of the Canadian Pavilion at the 21st FIHAV, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade Raúl de la Nuez said that trade between the two nations has amounted to 1.4 billion USD so far this year. In addition, Canadians represent 30 percent of the country’s tourists, with more than 667,000 last year, and a 9 percent growth over last year. The Minister highlighted the cooperation between the Canadian International Development Agency and the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, within the context of the 2004-2008 bilateral program, with a 24 million CDN budget and 83 cooperation projects. Canadian Vice Minister of Foreign Relations and International Trade Alexandra Bugailiskis expressed Canada’s willingness to cooperate in Cuba’s recovery efforts after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, by way of the program for humanitarian support of more than 10 million dollars. Erik R. Ordoñez, market manager for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Canadian Wheat Board Company, and Pedro Álvarez, president of Cuba’s Alimport, signed an agreement for the sale of 150,000 tons of Canadian wheat to Cuba (ACN, 4/11/08).

November 5: An agreement to manage the exchange of legal and technical information and investment projects was signed in Havana by representatives from Cuba and Brazil. The accord was penned by Alessandro Texeira, president of the Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments (APEX) and by Anaiza Rodriguez, Head of the Department for the Assessment and Management of Investment Projects at the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation (MINVEC). The ceremony was attended by MINVEC Minister Martha Lomas, and by the APEX representative in Cuba, Hipolito Rocha. Texeira, who is visiting Cuba on the occasion of the recent inauguration of an APEX office in the Cuban capital and the ongoing 26th Havana’s International Trade Fair, is also the president of the World Association of Agencies for the Promotion of Investments (ACN, 4/11/08).

November 5: “Cuba has trade relations with more than 3,000 firms from 176 countries in spite of the strengthening of the US economic blockade against our country,” said the Cuban Foreign Trade Minister, Raul de la Nuez. Speaking to reporters at the 26th International Fair of Havana (FIHAV) that is underway at the EXPOCUBA exhibition centre in the Cuban capital, de la Nuez added that 1,420 companies from 56 countries are attending this event to sign agreements and to identify business opportunities. De la Nuez explained that the Americas account for 53% of the total Cuban foreign trade, while Europe accounts for 22% and Asia and the Middle East account for 21%. He recalled that Cuba’s main trade partners are Venezuela, China, Canada, Spain, Brazil and Viet Nam (ACN, 6/11/08).

November 5: The efficiency of the 57 sugar industries involved in this campaign will determine the fulfilment of the 2009 plan, said Ulises Rosales del Toro, Cuban Sugar Industry Minister. Rosales del Toro assured that next harvest’s output can be bigger than
last year’s, depending on the extracting of all the sugar from the canes, whose number will be larger as well, despite the passing of hurricanes Gustav and Ike through the Caribbean nation. Next month the sugar industries whose crops have reached a bigger level of ripeness will start the harvest, one of the ways to achieve over-10 percent dry weight in the sugar canes and thus profitability (ACN, 6/11/08).

November 5: The Cuban government informed that bilateral trade between Cuba and Mexico grew by 89 percent between January and September in comparison to the same period in 2007 and it is expected that by the end of 2008 the increase will reach 100 percent. Marta Lomas, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Investment and International Cooperation, indicated that trade with Mexico reached 280 million USD just in the third quarter of 2008, which is indicative of a “growing trend.”  Bilateral trade fell short of the 300 million USD mark in 2007, reaching only 270 million USD in 2006  (EFE, 6/11/08).

November 5: Iranian Vice Foreign Minister Alirza Salari said in Havana that his country was interested in increasing commercial, economic and political ties with Cuba. During a meeting with Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez, visiting Salari said both countries should work together to raise the level of their economic exchanges, and there was a need to tap into the potential of mutually beneficial trade. Cuba and Iran have yearly meetings between their foreign ministers to review and deepen bilateral relations. During his stay in Cuba, Salari also visited the Havana International Trade Fair, Cuba's top annual business expo, with the participation of thousands of businessmen and women from 56 countries (Xinhua, 6/11/08).

November 6: Two planes from Toronto and Montreal, Canada, opened the tourist high season in Santiago de Cuba, a season forecasted to witness an increase in the number of visitors. Around 190 tourists, who arrived in the two planes from the Canadian tour operator Sunwing, chose city and beach hotels in eastern Santiago de Cuba province, while others continue to Marea del Portillo resort, in the neighbouring Granma province. During the high season 13 flights a week will arrive in this city from Canada and from France, Spain, Italy, Dominican Republic, Haiti, among other countries. Also from Canada, specifically from its capital city, Ottawa, there will be a weekly night flight from December 11 until April 30, and all the three Canadian cities will have straight flights to Santiago de Cuba (ACN, 6/11/08).

November 6: The 26th International Trade Fair of Havana (FIHAV 2008) concluded successfully with participants closing business agreements worth $ 350 million. During the closing ceremony of the event at the Convention Center, the president of the Organizing Committee, Abraham Maciquez, praised the results of the fair. Maciques referred to the enormous damages caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which hit the Caribbean nation last September. Products from Cuba, Spain, Germany, Brazil, China, Italy, and Venezuela won gold medals during the event while the First Prize of Integral Communication was for the Cuban Telecommunications Company ETECSA. Other awards were granted in the categories of design and advertising, among others. The closing ceremony was attended by Ramiro Valdes, Minister of Information and Communications, and Jose Ramon Fernandez and Ricardo Cabrisas, vice presidents of the Council of Ministers, among other government officials (ACN, 7/11/08).

November 8: Raul Castro and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin met in Havana to continue negotiations on trade, aid and joint ventures. A reading of Russian news sources discloses that during Sechin's 10-hour stay, Russia granted Cuba a $335 million credit line until December 31, 2010; the Russian company Nornickel signed a cooperation pact with the state-owned Cubaniquel; and a memorandum of understanding was signed allowing the Russian oil company Zarubezhneft to develop designs for the extraction of natural gas and the oil company Transneft to modernize Cuba's oil pipeline.  According to Transneft's president, Nikolai Tokarev, who traveled with Sechin, "[the Cubans] have very old pipelines that need to be rebuilt." Studies are already under way for the reconstruction of the entire infrastructure, including the construction of new conduits, Tokarev told reporters. Several new joint projects in the aviation, shipbuilding and rail transportation sectors were examined. The Avtovaz company agreed to deliver 630 new Lada cars to Cuba this year and 2,000 next year and create an assembly and repair plant for the Ladas and other Russian-made vehicles. The Cuban press limited itself to reporting that the Castro-Sechin meeting dealt with "matters of bilateral interest regarding cooperation in various sectors." This is Sechin’s third trip to the Caribbean island in three months. His visit came at the end of a tour that included Nicaragua and Venezuela (The Miami Herald, BBC, 10/11/08).

November 9: Rainfall associated with Hurricane Paloma has increased the volume of water in the reservoirs of eastern Las Tunas province by around 15%. The 23 reservoirs controlled by the Regional Office of Water Resources are holding some 285 million cubic meters, which represent close to 85 % of their total capacity. Nine reservoirs of the municipalities of Manatí, Amancio, Majibacoa, Puerto Padre, Colombia and Jobabo, and two pertaining to the latter -Las Mercedes and Jobabito- are draining water. This situation is benefiting the province, characterized by long droughts (ACN, 9/11/08).

November 10: Cuba will begin mining gold and copper-zinc deposits in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara under the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) agreement. In statements to the Cuban weekly newspaper Trabajadores, Armando Garcia, chief of operations for the Geominera del Centro Company, said that the gold mine is located in the municipality of Placetas and the copper-zinc mine in Manicaragua.  The company will use similar technology currently being used in other mines in Cuba (ACN, 10/11/08).

November 11: Iran’s Wagon Pars Company has planned to export wagons, worth 25 million euros, to Cuba and China by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2009), the company director Gholamreza Razzazi said in Tehran. The company’s exports to Cuba and China reached 19 million euros last (Iranian) year, he said. This is while in the first half of the current year, the exports hit a high of 16 million euros, he added. The company has so far exported 1,500 cargo wagons to Syria, Sudan, Cuba, 67 passenger wagons to Bangladesh, and 160 passenger wagon bogies to China, Razzazi noted, according to Iscanews news agency (Tehran Times, 11/11/08).

November 11: Cuba will present its first results in its effort to obtain a vaccine against bird flu during the November 30-December 5 Conference Biotecnologia Habana 2008, the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Centre, or CGIB, announced in Havana. The head of the CGIB's Animal Biotechnology division, Mario Pablo Estrada, said at a press conference that his agency was working "to achieve an effective vaccine against bird flu." The scientist said that, "at this time they're performing some tests at the laboratory level on birds" with the two experimental vaccines the communist island has in hand. He explained that the current phase of the experiments constitutes the initial steps toward showing that this preliminary vaccine "can produce an interesting response in the immune system of birds," and therefore what will be presented at the conference are the "first results" in obtaining a vaccine. In addition, Cuba will take to the congress new experimental vaccines to control ticks in dogs and hemorrhagic fever in rabbits, as well as "very convincing results" of a new product against classic swine fever, Estrada added (EFE, 11/11/08).

November 11: Cuba has suffered almost $10 billion in damages from the three hurricanes that struck the island this year, President Raul Castro said in a report aired on state-run television. He made his comments during a visit to Camaguey province, where officials said 8,000 homes were damaged when Hurricane Paloma struck over the weekend, the report said. "We're almost getting to $10 billion in losses in the last three months, that's how the economy is," Castro said. Paloma followed hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which struck 10 days apart in late August and early September and caused destruction across much of the island. Officials said almost 450,000 homes were damaged by the storms. Initial damage estimates from the first two storms totaled $5 billion but officials have been raising the number in recent days. Raul Castro, dressed in military clothes, went to Camaguey a day after Paloma spun itself out over Cuba. The lengthy television report showed Raul Castro talking with storm victims and promising to rebuild their homes, most of which were built of wood near the sea (Reuters, 11/11/08).

November 13: The actions taken so far to compensate for the damage caused by Hurricane Ike have made it possible to repair almost 1,900 homes in eastern Baracoa city, one of the municipalities hardest hit in Guantanamo province. The work, conceived in three stages up to December, 2009, initially prioritized the repair of houses that had partially collapsed or had roofing damage, and to the solution of problems related to electricity, roads, water services, the coffee harvest and food production. A total of 70 from the 88 apartments severely damaged by the impact of sea waves in Cuba’s First City, Baracoa, have also been repaired, and work is now being done on buildings located in areas of the seafront, six of which have been waterproofed. Maisi, another of the devastated territories, where losses equivalent to 300,000 five gallon drum of coffee grains have been calculated, has managed to control the explosive ripening of this crop and the municipality is about to meet its figures for the harvest (ACN, 13/11/08).

November 13: Cuban Central Petroleum Perforation and Extraction Company celebrated the arrival to the one million tons of crude oil (7 million barrels) extracted in their facilities during 2008. It is the fourteenth time that they reach this figure in a 12-month period, a 14 percent increase from what they achieved last year (ACN, 14/11/08).
 
November 14: Some 1,368 acres of different crops were damaged by the recent passing of hurricane Paloma through Las Tunas, according to local preliminary reports. The Agriculture Ministry’s office in this province, 670 km to the east from Havana, announced that the biggest damage was done to 677 acres of root crops and vegetables and 123 acres of plantains, which is the main crop of this area. The hurricane also affected 289 acres of beans, 170 of corn and 106 of yucca, while other vegetable harvests were damaged by the heavy rains. The major damage was reported in Amancio, the municipality next to Santa Cruz del Sur, where Paloma made landfall (ACN, 14/11/08).

November 14: Cuba welcomed its 2 millionth tourist of 2008 with a salsa band, strong mojitos and word that the island expects to set a record this year for foreign visitors despite three hurricanes and a global economic crisis. Authorities hung a red-and-white banner reading "welcome visitor" in five languages just outside the customs area as Air Canada Flight 370 from Toronto touched down at Havana Airport. "Is this a nice way to start? I'll say!" said Helen Lueke, a secretary in her 60s from Sherwood Park, Canada, who comes to Cuba about once a year — but has never been greeted at the airport with mojitos. Cuba didn't single out a visitor No. 2 million, rather symbolically marked the flight's arrival along with similar celebrations at international airports in the eastern city of Santiago and in Varadero, the famous beach resort northeast of Havana. Alexis Trujillo, first vice minister of tourism, said Cuba has surpassed 2 million annual foreign visitors every year since 2004. But November 14 is the earliest date the communist nation has ever reached the mark, he added, leading Cuba to predict it would pass its 2005 record of 2.3 million visitors. Trujillo said tourism is up 10.7 percent compared to last year, despite Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma, which destroyed nearly half a million homes and did more than $10 billion in damage when they roared through the island in recent weeks (AP, 15/11/08).

November 14: Cuban Construction Minister Fidel Figueroa, who is on an official visit to Angola, visited works destined to restore the Quibaxe-Bula Atumba road, in Bengo province, 50 kilometres north of Luanda the Angolan capital. Figueroa expressed his satisfaction for the contribution made by Cuban volunteer workers in this project, which will speed up the transportation of people and products to the capital -like coffee, the region's main means of support. The Minister highlighted the historical ties linking Angola and Cuba, Prensa Latina news agency reported. Angolan Deputy Minister for Public Works, Manuela Becerra, said that the visit of the Cuban Minister is part of the accords signed by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos during his most recent visit to Cuba, in September 2007 (ACN, 14/11/08).

November 16: Cubans are applying for land by the tens of thousands for the first time since the 1960s as part of the Communist government's reform of the state-dominated agriculture sector, a top farm leader said. The president of the National Association of Small Farmers, Orlando Lugo Fonte, told members at a meeting in eastern Guantanamo province that some 80,000 land requests have been made by workers, private farmers, cooperatives and state companies since applications began in September. Lugo's comment, reported in state-run media, was the first to give any national data for the land lease program, though he did not say how much land had been requested, how much had been leased so far or to whom it had been given. The land is supposed to be granted from 45 to 100 days after application, but three hurricanes and the Caribbean island's state bureaucracy have slowed the process, according to sources. Cuba has not handed out land on such a large scale since shortly after the 1959 revolution when large landholdings were nationalized and some of the acreage given to small farmers (Reuters, 17/11/08).

November 17: While giving an update on the renegotiation of the island’s debt to Pebercan, a representative of the Canadian oil company said the international recession and the impact of the hurricanes are affecting the Cuban government’s actions. The company reported that the outstanding debt of Cuba Petróleo (Cupet) has reached 108.5 million USD and that its 2009 investments plan will depend on the results of the new negotiation. Pebercan extracts oil from sites on the north-western coast of the island, selling its entire 6,000 barrels-per-day output to Cupet. Cuba produces nearly 80,000 barrels per day. Despite frequent contacts with its Cuban partner, no concrete steps have been taken to address the delays in payment, said the company source. The Cuban debt had been restructured a year earlier, but Cupet fell into arrears once again, pointed out the Canadian company’s representative (Pebercan Press Release; La Jornada, 17/11/08).

November 17: Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Cuba for a two-day visit to promote further economic ties with the island struggling to recover from three hurricanes and the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis. The two nations are agreeing multiple deals on trade and loans as China bid to strengthen its links with Latin American and Caribbean nations. China is now Cuba's biggest trading partner after Venezuela, with bilateral trade at $2.3bn (£1.5bn) in 2007. And across Latin America, China has seen its trade climb from $13bn in 2000 to more than $100bn in 2007. "My visit is aimed at increasing friendship and co-operation between our two nations, and working together with our Cuban comrades to build a promising future," Mr Hu said in a statement. China offered Cuba soft loans to help it through the difficult 1990s, and these loans are now beginning to come due. Restructuring their repayment is likely to be one topic on the agenda when the two leaders meet. Other agreements already signed, or set to be signed, reportedly include Chinese purchases of nickel and sugar from Cuba, Chinese-backed energy prospecting in Cuba, and other deals in education and health. The island's state-run news agency AIN reported the two countries had reached "almost a dozen" agreements, including plans to rehabilitate the island's aging ports and earthquake detection systems. The Asian giant currently buys about 400,000 tons of sugar annually from Cuba and is estimated to get close to half of Cuba's annual nickel production of 75,000 tons a year. Although both Cuba and China are run by Communist parties, they have pursued very different economic models. China has adopted market economics while Cuba still has a command system with most of the economy under state control. Cuban state newspaper Granma praised the Chinese model but highlighted "an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, marked difference between city and countryside and the erosion of the environment" (BBC, AP, Reuters, 18/11/08).

November 18: Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to put off some of Cuba's debt payments and gave the island $80 million for hospital modernization and other projects during a visit to strengthen ties between the Communist-run countries. His two-day stopover, which included a meeting with former leader Fidel Castro, deepened China's already-substantial involvement in Cuba and provided aid for the island's economy, battered by three hurricanes and the effects of the global economic crisis. The two countries signed accords that put off for 10 years payments for an unspecified trade debt Cuba ran up through 1995, and for five years a $7.2 million credit China granted in 1998.
The two countries have not disclosed the full amount Cuba owes the Asian giant, but loans are starting to come due at a time when Cuba, which suffered $10 million from hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma this year, could ill afford it. The two countries had signed a dozen accords calling for, among other things, China to continue buying Cuban sugar and nickel and to provide agricultural products. China is Cuba's second largest trading partner after Venezuela at $2.3 billion in 2007. It buys 400,000 tons of sugar from the Caribbean country each year and close to half its annual output of 75,000 tons of nickel, which is Cuba's top export (Reuters, 19/11/08).

November 19: An agreement for the modernization and assembly of heavy trucks was signed in central Cienfuegos province, between Cuba’s Construction Ministry (MICONS) and Ukraine’s AutoKraz Company. The letter of intent foresees the complete repair, shortly, of 450 units, coming from all over the island, after some thirty years of exploitation on construction work. The Mechanical Solutions Enterprise (SOMEC), in Cienfuegos, will receive the first 15 containers of spare parts necessary to restore the fleet of vehicles, which will then improve their performance and efficiency. A second stage of the accord will be devoted to the assembly of no less than 500 vehicles, in order to satisfy the demands of the Cuban construction industry. First Deputy Minister of MICONS, Jorge Luis Rodríguez, said that this agreement between Cuba and Ukraine will maintain technology already mastered by mechanics and technicians, besides reducing current expenditure on the purchase of spare parts (ACN, 19/11/08).

November 20: The tourists keep coming to Cuba despite the American trade embargo, the high prices, or the vicious storms. Take Stan, a 57-year-old engineer from Clearwater who was sipping a mojito cocktail at Havana’s old Hotel Nacional. He offered the barman a dollar for his copy of the Communist Party daily Granma. The front page was a photo of Chinese President Hu Jintao clasping hands with the ailing Fidel Castro. "It is still Fidel's Cuba but we don't know how much longer he'll be around," said Stan, who declined to give his full name because he traveled illegally to Cuba via a third country. "I wanted to come and see it while Fidel was still alive. I wanted to be here before it changed." With history -- and dollars -- in mind, Cuba's Ecotur travel agency is offering a tour package for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, which will be celebrated next January 1st. About 150 tourists have signed up for the package, which includes tours of the mausoleum where the remains of Argentine-born Che Guevara rest, in the central city of Santa Clara, and the huge farm where the Castro brothers were born and raised in Holguin Province. The last stop is in Santiago de Cuba for festivities marking the half-century anniversary of the 1959 revolution. "They will be reliving Cuban history throughout the island," said Marlene Martinez, an Ecotur representative. "It should be a very emotional experience" (Sun Sentinel, 20/11/08).

November 20: Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel is considering the possibility of becoming an operator in a metals plant construction project in Cuba, the company's CEO said. Vladimir Strzhalkovsky said it would take between six and nine months to complete a feasibility study, after which Cuba would apply to Russia for a loan to implement the project. "I believe that Cuba has a good chance of getting it," he said. In mid-November, Norilsk Nickel and Cuba's Cubaniquel signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in prospecting for solid serpentinites at Cuba's Nicaro Mines. They also agreed to exchange specialists and share experience in mining, marketing and environmental issues. Norilsk Nickel is Russia's largest diversified mining and metals company, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, and one of the world's largest producers of platinum, rhodium, copper and cobalt (RIA Novosti, 20/11/08).

November 21: Cuba’s First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura stressed the need to increase the saving of resources in order to boost the country’s development. The top Cuban government official toured different economic and social centers in eastern Granma province. “We need to get the most out of all available resources,” said Machado Ventura at the end of the tour, in which he was joined by the First Secretary of the Communist Party in the eastern province, Lazaro Exposito Canto. Some of the centers visited by Machado Ventura included a shipyard in the locality of Manzanillo, where he was briefed about ongoing ship repairs and other initiatives aimed at replacing imports like the production of telephone boots. The Cuban First VP expressed interest in the current water supply situation in two cities of the eastern region and in the plans aimed at increasing food production. He also held an exchange with neighbors at the Las Caobas community, which was hit by floods brought in by the most recent cold front that affected the eastern Cuban region. Machado Ventura insisted that the efficient use of available resources in each locality requires discipline and organization (ACN, 21/11/08).

November 22: Russia has announced plans to invest in Cuba's oil and nickel industries, ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's upcoming visit to the island. Moscow is considering a number of deals, which require certain Russian firms to explore Cuba's coastal waters for offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico, Russia's Ambassador to Havana Mikhail Kamynin said. Cuba is already in talks with firms from Spain, Norway, India, Canada, Vietnam, Malaysia, Venezuela and Brazil to explore prospects of offshore drilling. Should Moscow and Havana ink the deals, Russian firms would be responsible for developing crude oil and oil derivative storage facilities as well as modernizing the island's oil pipelines, Kamynin said. The planned deals include one between Russia's NorNickel and Cubaniquel to build a plant in Holguin province. In October, Cuban officials said the island's crude reserves were almost twice what they had predicted to be, claiming that the Caribbean nation had a crude reserve of 21 billion barrels. The Russian president, who embarked on his Latin American tour, is expected to arrive in Havana on November 27, after making stops in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela (TV Press, 22/11/08).

November 23: Cuba's tobacco industry will fulfill all "commitments" for the remainder of this year and 2009 on both the domestic and international markets despite the damage from the hurricanes that ravaged the island, the official press reported, citing high-level officials. "All the commitments made for exports, domestic consumption and the cigar industry in what is left of this year and 2009 will be fulfilled," Osvaldo Encarnacion, vice president of state-owned TABACUBA, told the official daily Granma. The tobacco industry official said Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which hit the island in late summer and caused $8.65 billion in damage, arrived before the 2008-2009 season had started, so "the losses in agriculture were minimal." Hurricane Ike, which battered the island on September 7-9, and Gustav, which hit western Cuba on August 30, wiped out hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland, damaged or destroyed 500,000 dwellings and caused extensive damage to infrastructure (EFE, 23/11/08).

November 24: Cuba's government has trimmed its growth estimates for 2008, largely as a result of the hurricanes that hit the country at the end of August and in September. To some extent, the global credit crunch is also indirectly hurting the economy. At the end of 2007, Cuba's minister of the economy projected that GDP growth in 2008 would be 8%. In early November, the vice-president, Carlos Lage, said that damage caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike would cut full-year growth to around 4%, compared with growth in the first half of 6.2%. The direct impact on Cuba of the global credit crunch has been relatively slight because of Cuba's limited access to international credit before the crisis. Nonetheless, it has contributed to a curtailment of import capacity that has restricted growth. There have been reports that some repayments have had to be rescheduled because it has become harder to raise new money. This has coincided with lower nickel export prices and an estimated $1USbn rise in the food import bill (to $2US.5bn) owing to higher world food prices this year. In this context, new financing facilities offered by Spain, Russia, Mexico and Brazil will be significant, in addition to continued financing from Venezuela and China (Business Latin America, 24/11/08).

November 25: China National Petroleum Corp., the nation's largest oil explorer, and Cuba's state oil company agreed to jointly develop oil and gas fields. The companies signed an agreement to cooperate in oil field engineering services and oil equipment trading, the Beijing-based company said in a statement on its Web site (Bloomberg, 27/11/08).

November 27: Cuba, Argentina and Peru are the Paris Club’s three largest Latin American debtors, according to a list disclosed by the group of creditor nations, which was formed over 50 years ago. The list shows that Cuba owes 29.7 billion USD, ranking second after Indonesia that owes 36.2 billion dollars (AP, 27/11/08).

November 27: The 5th Session of the Cuba-Lesotho Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation wound up in Havana with the signing of a final document that further strengthens bilateral cooperation links between both nations. Lesotho’s Foreign Minister Mohlabi Kenneth Tsekoa and Cuba’s First Deputy Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation Ramon Ripoll penned the final document of the session, which among other aspects stipulates that a 10-member Cuban medical brigade currently working in Lesotho will continue to offer its services in that African nation. Lesotho expressed its interest in exploring cooperation opportunities in significant areas, such as energy and the construction of solar panels in particular. Cuba also offered the African nation 10 scholarships for medical studies (ACN, 27/11/08).

November 28: Cuba and Bolivia signed an economic complementation agreement in Montevideo, host to the Latin America Integration Association (ALADI), to boost bilateral commerce and cooperation relations. The accord was signed by Cuban ambassador to Uruguay, Marielena Ruiz Capote, and by Pablo Guzman, Bolivian deputy minister for Economic Affairs and Foreign Commerce. Both officials represent their countries at ALADI, Prensa Latina news agency reported. The new agreement adheres to Bolivian President Evo Morales’s initiative known as The Peoples´ Commerce Treaty, of which Cuba is a signatory country; the treaty aims at the enhancement of cooperation and economic complementation to achieve greater regional integration. The protocol stipulates the mutual granting of tariff and non-tariff preferences, the recognition of original standards and reciprocal investment promotion and protection. The agreement particularly refers to areas such as services, commercial cooperation and industrial property (ACN, 28/11/08).

November 29: Cuba's trade minister said the Caribbean nation is seeking more business with Canada to bolster his country's economy during the global economic crisis. Raul de la Nuez told the press he hopes to boost the volume of trade between the two countries in the months ahead. De la Nuez met with his Canadian counterpart, International Trade Minister Stockwell Day, as well as Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "I think that we have an opportunity to improve or to increase the volume of trade that today we have," De la Nuez said. "We think that the relationship between both countries is important to us, and I think during this meeting we had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues." A spokeswoman for Day said the two ministers spoke about Canada supplanting Spain as Cuba's third-largest trading partner, and about the growing number of Canadian tourists vacationing there. Day also assured De la Nuez that Canada would make every effort to ease exports of agricultural goods and fertilizer to Cuba after three massive hurricanes swept over the island in the last two months. De la Nuez said there's a need in Cuba for food, chemicals, fertilizers, machinery and commercial and high-tech equipment from Canada. In exchange, he said Cuba can provide Canada with nickel and ore concentrate, cigars and other traditional Cuban products. Trade between Canada and Cuba totalled $1.6 billion last year (The Canadian Press, 29/11/08).

November 30: Cuban Vice President Esteban Lazo visited central Ciego de Avila province to assess the recovery process from the wake of Hurricane Ike that battered this region last September. During his tour, residents spoke to Lazo about food production destined for several other provinces and about the conclusion of several economic and social projects as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, reported Granma newspaper in its digital version. Lazo spoke with residents from the community of Pesqueria where the La Cuba Farm Company is based. The farm is an important producer on the national level, supplying root and other vegetables to several provinces. Lazo also visited the municipality of Venezuela and inspected a project that is constructing 20 “petro houses” —built using derivatives from the oil industry— as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela under the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). Lazo also visited the Juventud Heroica Farm Company. An official from the provincial ministry of Agriculture, Benito Migoya Diaz, explained
how after several years of difficulties the firm is now showing positive results and a leader in planting the next potato crop (ACN, 1/12/08).