Agricultural production reported strong decreases in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2009 in key food products in Cuba, according to a report by the National Office of Statistics (ONE). While the collection of tubers in general increased 4.5 per cent and rice, essential in the island’s diet, the production of beans and vegetables fell by 40.5 and 35.1 per cent, respectively. Moreover, citrus fruit decreased 21.6 per cent.
Read MoreAn earthquake of 4.1 degrees on the Richter scale was reported Friday evening in the Havana municipality of Artemisa, some 50 kilometers west of the Cuban capital, reported the Network of Stations of the National Seismological Service. The unusual earthquake was followed by aftershocks of between 2.8 and three degrees.
Read MoreIn the middle of the night off the coast of Caibarien, Cuba, Miakiel Gonzalez waded the waist-deep Caribbean water until he stood a mile from the shore. Carrying nothing more than a bag packed with two changes of clothes, some drinking water and his Cuban ID, the 31-year-old waited several hours in the sea for the smuggler boat to arrive.
Read MoreIn the beginning, I didn’t have the luck of having someone to tell me what to do. Fortunately, in 98, a friend began to support me. She’s heterosexual but we forged a friendship that continues today. She understood me, and I’ll thank her eternally for being there, because she was on my side in very difficult situations and without her I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to continue.
Read MoreThe 10th Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) began Friday in the Cuban capital, reported IPS. The representatives of the cooperative and small farmer sector will debate the means to increase food production, substitute imports and increase exports.
Read MoreThe European Union (EU) Common Position toward Cuba prevents the 27 member nations “from having the possibility of establishing a serene and respectful dialogue and backing the changes that the Cubans want to make when they decide to make them,” said Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, Spanish secretary of state for Iberian America. De Laiglesia denied that Madrid’s wish to establish a new framework of relations with the island means relegating “the political and especially the human rights demands.”
Read MoreA group of Cuban intellectuals at the International Poetry Prize rejected the manifesto of their Spanish counterparts asking for support for “the democratization of Cuba,” according to a declaration released in the island’s capital. The signatories of the document released in Madrid “take on a position that attempts to wound the sovereignty of our country and plays along with the eternal enemies of the island who in the last 200 years have not ceded in their annexationist and colonial dreams.”
Read MoreThe nationwide activities on the occasion of the Day Against Homophobia began in the Cuban capital with an exhibition by visual artists and the opening of a cinema week, reported the local press. The activities will last until May 17, when the main ceremony will be held in El Mejunje, a cultural institution known for its defense of sexual diversity, located in the central city of Santa Clara.
Read MoreCuba’s National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) is working with the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) so that sex education “is established as a State policy and that all sexual rights also be included,” affirmed Mariela Castro, director of that institution.
Read MoreThe Cuban authorities will set up more than 50 agricultural polytechnic institutes to strengthen the training of young people in specialties related to food production, announced Orlando Lugo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP). According to Lugo, only 21,000 youths from the island, the majority from farmer families, are linked to cooperatives.
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