News

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is arriving this Friday to Cuba in reply to an official invitation. During his stay he will hold talks with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, according to official sources, reported IPS. China is Cuba’s second leading trade partner after Venezuela.

The abundant rains in July in Cuba are still insufficient to compensate for the deficit accumulated in the country’s aquiferous reserves, and the drought continues affecting economic and social sectors, warned Jorge Garcia Fernandez, director of Hydrographic Basins of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources. In statements published today by the official press, García said the contraction of the reservoirs and underwater sources is not only due to the shortage of rain last May and June, but rather that it had begun previously.

Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament) will protest “to the world” the “inhuman” treatment being received in prison by Gerardo Hernández, one of the five Cuban agents serving long sentences in U.S. prisons. Parliament leader Ricardo Alarcón said that Hernández is suffering from hypertension and bacteria that has damaged his health. Despite that condition he is kept under punishment for no reason at all.

Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas was discharged on Thursday from the hospital in his hometown of Santa Clara, where he spent the major part of a hunger strike he had begun on February 24. Fariñas stopped his fast on July 8, after 52 dissident prisoners began being released.

Cuban food purchases from the United States decreased 35 per cent in the first five months of this year, as compared to the same period in 2009, according to a specialized report published this Thursday in the U.S. press. The report affirms that from January to May this year, U.S. sales to Cuba stood at 182 million dollars, as compared to 278 million the previous year.

Paraplegic dissident Ariel Sigler, released from prison last June 12, since this Wednesday is in Miami, the mecca of the Cuban exile in the United States, where he was welcomed by around 100 supporters. Sigler is the first prisoner released after the dialogue that began in May between President Raúl Castro and Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcón this Wednesday held the United States accountable for the situation of Gerardo Hernández, one of Cuban Five who were given long prison sentences in that country over 11 years ago, whose “health is in danger.” The parliament leader complained that Hernandez, serving two life sentences, is kept incommunicado from his lawyers at a time when appeal procedures are being carried out in his favor.

Cuban parliament members began this Wednesday their work in commissions with a view to the plenary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power set for Sunday. According to the state-run media, the agenda includes the assessment of the economic plan during the first semester, work productivity and new self-employment experiences recently applied in the country.

The finding for the first time of abundant pieces made out of shells, among them corporal adornments, demonstrates the possible presence of farmer-potters among the indigenous people of central northern Cuba, Villa Clara province. Raúl Villavicencio, an archaeologist from the Centre for Environmental Studies and Services (CESAM) in that territory, explained to the Cuban media that the advanced technique used reflects a high level of development in primitive communities, since up to now there only existed traces of agricultural hunters in the province.