The president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), Orlando Lugo, called on Cuba’s farmers to meet the production goals established with the government to avoid food imports such as rice, beans and corn, in statements to the National Plenary Meeting of the National Committee of that organization.
Read MorePeruvian President Alan García criticized the intention of his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro of carrying out reforms in Cuba, more than five decades after the start of the Revolution, in statements to that South American country’s press. “Why didn’t they rectify 50 years ago?” asked García, a defender of free market policies and opening to foreign investment.
Read MoreUnemployed persons working on the informal market represent 60 per cent of applicants for self-employment licenses, after the recent opening decreed by the government in 178 activities of this type, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Read MoreSpanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez called on the international community to “be conscious that the best we can do for the island is to support that process of reforms through a dialogue and greater opening,” when referring to the changes announced by the government of Raul Castro, in statements to that European country’s press. Jiménez also highlighted the “extraordinary relevance” of the release of more than 50 political prisoners this year.
Read MoreCuban Gerardo Hernández, one of the five prisoners in the United States charged with espionage, changed his defense strategy by highlighting that he was unaware of the intention of the island’s government to down the Brothers to the Rescue light aircraft in 1996 and recognizing that the event took place in international waters, according to details of his ongoing appeal reported by the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald.
Read MoreCuba will dedicate the next Book Fair to the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People’s of Our America (ALBA), reported the multinational Telesur television network. That event, the most important of the island’s literature, will be held February 10-20, 2011.
Read MoreCuban jurists stated their support for the promulgation of a gender law, which typifies domestic violence, the director of Training and Development of the People’s Supreme Court, Rufina Hernández Rodríguez, announced. According to Hernández, the persistence of the phenomenon “is partly due to the many roles women still carry out, the double work load: the professional and that of the home.”
Read MoreCardinal Jaime Ortega said a mass for Christmas in Cuba’s principal prison, the Combinado del Este, on the outskirts of the island’s capital, reported IPS. The ceremony was considered a sign of hope by the Ladies in White, who are still waiting for the release of 11 dissidents arrested in 2003.
Read MoreA new group of 60 Cuban doctors and support personnel arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday to reinforce the Cuban medical brigade fighting the cholera epidemic in the neighboring Caribbean nation.
Read MoreThe Cuban-Venezuelan Cuvenpetrol joint venture will carry out modernization and expansion works in 2011 on the refinery in Cienfuegos, 250 km east of the Cuban capital, affirmed Ramón Curapiaca, the Venezuelan representative in that industry, which hopes to increase its processing capacity from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels a day of crude. The new works will make it possible to produce diesel with low sulphur content, improving the reliability of the electric power system and advancing in the construction of the liquefied gas factory.
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