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Cuba passes new labour law - allows more than one job
HAVANA, Cuba, June 29: The Cuban Council of State passed on June 26th, 2009, a new Decree-Law number 268 entitled: "Reform of the Labor Regime" which was published by the daily Granma newspaper as an Official Note reproduced in full below. The law allows for workers to have more than one job and for students to work in part-time jobs. It also frees up enterprises in Havana to hire workers from other provinces directly instead of them having to be hired through the state employment agency.
OFFICIAL NOTE
An important part of this legislation is related to the rational use of human resources and work contracts, in order to palliate the effects of population aging, to encourage work in the society, as well as to give the possibility to workers to increase their income.
In addition, it establishes, with more precision, the requirements and conditions for the granting of maternity monetary benefits. It also deals with the acknowledgement of the workers’ right to receive compensation for economic and moral damages suffered, when the authority or entity revokes the disciplinary measure imposed, due to the non-observance of the essential procedures and formalities needed to impose such measure.
The Decree-Law places particular emphasis on the comprehensive regulation of the holding of more than one job by individual, through which workers are enabled, after fulfilling the duties their positions require, to have more than one job and to earn the corresponding salary.
Out of these working contracts, one will be considered as the principal, which is the one agreed upon by the worker before signing the additional contract. This will not be applied to directives and officials, health technicians and professionals, researchers, professors, teachers and auditors, except for the holding of teaching, scientific research or other positions that were approved by express decision of the authority or entity which appointed or chose them.
The Decree also gives the possibility to students in the regular
courses at the middle-high and higher education levels, of working age, to start working through contract for a certain period of time, in the part-time job modality, and to earn salaries based on their performance, without affecting their professional training, academic performance and the fulfilling of the social service once they graduate.
In all cases, the Decree-Law defines that workers holding more than one job have the legally established working and social security rights.
The ability to hire in the capital city workers from other provinces, in order to cover their labor needs both temporarily and permanently, are transferred from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to the heads of entities, bodies of the State Central Administration and other national ones, as well as to the President of the Havana City Provincial Administration.
The Interior and Armed Forces ministries will pass the dispositions required for the application of this Decree-Law in their respective systems, according to their particularities, like the main leaders of the political, social and mass organizations will do.
This Decree-Law, besides adapting a group of labor dispositions to the current situation and eliminating prohibitions, ratifies the governmental will, along with other measures, to boost the productive forces, to enable the raise of income, as well as to contribute to make work the main source of satisfaction of the people’s material and spiritual needs, regardless of the government’s decision to continue protecting the needy.
Havana, June 29th 2009
Obama moves to ease travel restrictions
13 April: US President Barack Obama has lifted some restrictions that will allow Cuban Americans to travel more freely to Cuba, his spokesman has said.
Cuban-Americans will also be allowed to send more money to relatives in Cuba.
The move, announced by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, comes after Mr Obama last month signed a spending bill easing some economic sanctions on Cuba.
Mr Gibbs said the aim was to promote democracy and human rights on the Caribbean island.
"The president has directed the secretaries of state, treasury and commerce to carry out the actions necessary to lift all restrictions on the ability of individuals to visit family members in Cuba and to send them remittances," said Mr Gibbs.
The changes fulfilled a pledge made by Mr Obama during his presidential campaign and would help bridge the gap between divided Cuban families, he added.
Restrictions would also be lifted on US telecommunications companies applying for licenses to operate in Cuba, Mr Gibbs added.
White House Fact sheet on the changes click on the icon below:
White HOouse fact sheet on Cuba 130409
Tories tell Obama to end embargo of Cuba
20 March: The Conservative Party leadership in the UK is calling on President Obama to lift the half-century-old American blockade of Cuba, in an attempt to pressure the Communist regime to change its ways, according to a report published in the Times newspaper today.
William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, became the first senior British politician to visit Cuba for many years this week, holding talks with the new foreign minister and other senior figures.
He found that far from weakening the hardline Communist tendencies of the Cuban Government, the American blockade was continuing to reinforce them, and was being used as an excuse by ministers for the poor state of the economy and the locking up of dissidents.
Mr Hague believes that the election of Mr Obama, who has suggested a fresh approach to foreign affairs in other areas such as Iran, could provide the opportunity to change the long-standing stance on Havana.
Read the Times report HERE
US Congress votes to ease Cuba sanctions
March 10: The US Congress has voted to lift restrictions on relations with Cuba imposed by the Bush administration. Cuban-Americans will be allowed to travel to the island once a year and send more money to relatives there.
Curbs on sending medicines and food have also been eased. The measures were part of a $410bn bill to fund US government operations. The legislation was approved by the Senate after clearing the House of Representatives last month.
The bill was supported by two Cuban-American senators who had initially opposed it. They changed their votes after receiving assurances from the Obama administration that the changes did not amount to a major reversal of the 47-year-old US trade embargo on Cuba.
The legislation overturns rules imposed by the Bush administration which limited travel to just two weeks every three years, and confined visits to immediate family members. President Obama - who needs to sign the bill - has said he supports it.
He has also indicated that he would be open to dialogue with Cuba's leaders.
But he has said that like previous American presidents, he will only consider a full lifting of the embargo once Cuba's communist government makes significant moves such as the holding of democratic elections.
Cuba's President Raul Castro has said he is prepared to negotiate with the new US administration, providing there are no preconditions.
Raúl Castro reshuffles cabinet
02 March: Cuban leader Raul Castro has announced a major cabinet reshuffle that includes the removal of two of the country's most prominent politicians.
State television said Cabinet Secretary Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque were among 10 officials who are stepping down.
It said the move was in line with the president's plan to improve efficiency. It is the first big reshuffle since Mr Castro took over as president from his older brother, Fidel, last year.
Mr Lage, 57, kept his job as vice-president of the ruling Council of State but was replaced as cabinet secretary by Gen Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra, a top military official.
Mr Perez Roque, 43, who had been foreign minister for 10 years, was replaced by his deputy Bruno Rodriguez.
Both Mr Lage and Mr Perez Roque had been seen as possible future candidates for the presidency, and were considered close to Fidel Castro.
Other ousted officials include Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez, Finance Minister Georgina Barreiro Fajardo and Labour Minister Alfredo Morales Cartaya.
Four ministries were merged in the reshuffle. The full text in English of the official government note explaining the changes can be found HERE
US Congress set to ease Cuba travel
26 Feb: The US House of Representatives is about to vote on a bill that would lead to the easing of restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to Cuba.
The provisions are part of a $410bn (£283bn) bill before the House to fund federal government departments until September, the end of the fiscal year.
Republicans say the bill is expected to pass, with the Senate due to vote next week.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his first full budget.
The "omnibus" spending package being considered by the House has been described by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "last year's unfinished business".
The bill contains provisions that would prevent the federal government from spending any of its budget to enforce rules brought in under President Bush in 2004 that restrict Cuban-Americans to visiting Cuba once every three years.
President Obama has signalled that he will sign the legislation, which also still has to pass the Senate.
It would allow Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year and spend $170 a day on the island, instead of the current daily limits of once every three years and $50 a day.
It would also create a general travel licence for Americans who sell food and medical supplies to Cuba and allow the Cuban authorities to pay for US products once they arrive rather than pay up front before they are sent.
These measures would represent a first move in broader efforts to ease the US trade embargo and end travel restrictions for all Americans.
US Embargo has 'failed' says top Republican
23 Feb: The US economic embargo of Cuba "has failed" and should be re-evaluated, senior Republican Senator Richard Lugar argues in a report.
"We must recognise the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuba regime in a way that enhances US interests," Senator Lugar says.
President Barack Obama has promised a new look at US policy towards Cuba, including easing travel restrictions. But he has also said he believes the embargo is an "inducement" for change in Cuba.
Senator Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a hugely influential figure in US politics, says Washington's policies towards Havana have been ineffective.
"After 47 years... the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people'," he says.
"It may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished people."
Senator Lugar's views are contained in a report that was drawn up by a member of his staff and was released on Monday 23 Feb.
"By directing policy toward an unlikely scenario of a short-term democratic transition on the island and rejecting most tools of diplomatic engagement, the US is left as a powerless bystander, watching events unfold at a distance," the report says.
It stops short of calling for the whole trade embargo to be lifted but does urge:
- an end to restrictions imposed during the Bush administration on travel and remittances to Cuba
- reinstituting formal co-operation on migration and tackling drug-trafficking
- allowing Cuba to buy US agricultural products on credit
The report, which comes a year after Fidel Castro officially handed over power to his brother, Raul, suggests leadership changes provide an opportunity to rethink policy.
To read the whole report click on the icon below:
Fidel's remarks upset Chilean President
The issue, dating back to the War of the Pacific, has long been a wedge between Chile and landlocked Bolivia, which still do not have full diplomatic ties. Bolivian President Evo Morales had applauded Castro’s comments.
Castro went on to question whether a swathe of far northern Chile, rich in copper, really belonged to Chile or Bolivia.
"With the same frankness and clarity with which we discussed the future agenda with President Raul Castro, I told President Castro of my annoyance at the erroneous declarations in an article after my courtesy visit to see the former ruler of Cuba," Bachelet told reporters on landing back in Chile after her visit to the island.
"I signalled, as our country has always signalled, that we do not accept meddling by third parties either in domestic affairs or bilateral issues, and that Chile and Bolivia discuss alone issues which correspond to both countries," she added.
Fidel Castro published a second article on Saturday, in which he said he had not intended to offend Bachelet by referring to the long-standing border dispute, and accused Chile’s "oligarchs" of seeking to create trouble.
"I received the Chilean head of state with total respect," 82-year-old Castro wrote. "I did not use a single word that could offend the illustrious visitor. That would be nonsensical."
"I was pretty moderate in saying that it was not clear whether those minerals belonged to Chileans or Bolivians. It was a diplomatic way of expressing the realities," he said.
Russia and Cuba sign 'strategic partnership'
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) shakes hands with Cuba's President Raul Castro in the Kremlin in Moscow January 30, 2009. [Agencies]
"We are old friends, we've known each other through good times and bad, and have great experience," Castro said. "Today is an historic moment, an important landmark in relation between Russia and Cuba."
"The strategic partnership which we have agreed on in the communique reflects what we have reached and what we will seek in the future," the 77-year-old Cuban leader said, referring to a strategic partnership pact signed by the two leaders after their talks.
Medvedev, for his part, congratulated Cuba on the 50th anniversary of its communist revolution and sent his best regards to Raul Castro's brother Fidel Castro, who retired as president last February for health reasons.
The Russian president also described Castro's ongoing visit as an important milestone in bilateral relations.
"I think that your visit will open a new page in the history of friendly Russian-Cuban relations and will mean their entry to the stage of strategic partnership," Medvedev told Castro.
Medvedev added that the two countries have great potential for increasing bilateral trade turnover, which currently stands at a "modest" 239 million US dollars.
"We need to implement agreements having recently been reached" so as to advance bilateral trade and economic cooperation, the Russian leader said, noting that a large number of accords have been signed over the past month.
Ten agreements, covering aviation, car-manufacturing, education, sports, agriculture, tourism and fishing, were signed following the meeting between the two leaders. In particular, there are deals on loan and food aid to Cuba.
Speaking to reporters after the Kremlin talks, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said Cuba would use a loan of 20 million dollars from Moscow to buy Russian construction, energy and agricultural equipment.
Russia initially planned to send 25,000 metric tons of grain to Cuba. But Sechin said Russia would deliver an additional 100,000 metric tons of grain to Cuba in view of the great damage caused by two tropical hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in September 2008.
The deputy prime minister also said Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot and Cuba's largest airline Cubana de Aviacion were considering setting up a joint venture.
The formal talks at the Kremlin followed Thursday's nostalgia-tinged lunch in the Zavidovo hunting lodge outside Moscow, which the Castro brothers visited two decades ago.
Moscow was Cuba's main benefactor during the Cold War era but their ties had cooled down after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
However, Russia has recently moved to rebuild links with Cuba, as well as other Latin American states. Medvedev paid a visit to Cuba last November, during which he met with the Castro brothers and pledged to promote political and economic ties.
Castro, who arrived here Wednesday for a weeklong trip, is the first Cuban leader to visit Russia since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He is to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin on Monday.
Fidel Castro speaks of Obama's 'honesty'
Spain calls on the US to "change its attitude" towards Cuba
09 Jan. Spain's Secretary of State for Ibero-American Affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, today recommended that President-elect Barack Obama institute a "change of attitude" towards Cuba if he wants his administration to influence a "process of change" on the island, Europa Press reported.
Jiménez made the comments after having breakfast with his counterpart from the United States, Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Thomas Shannon.
Jiménez said that Cuba is the "most complicated" subject in U.S. relations with Latin America and said that even if the U.S. is not going to enact immediate concrete policy changes, they should initiate an attitude of "greater respect toward Cuban authorities, of not imposing any position and not publically pressuring."
He also noted the "disposition" on the part of Raúl Castro to find "an understanding and dialogue, even in the most informal way" and in his judgment, "in the way that there are gestures coming from one side, there could be some from the other."
Finally, Jiménez said that the recent incorporation of Cuba in the Rio Group and the normalization of relations that they have achieved with the rest of the region "obligate" Washington to "maintain a different position" toward the island.
Secretary Shannon advocated a policy that focuses more on human rights and democratization in Cuba, but also said that he has advised the Obama team to "deepen" its relations with Spain to have more "success" in Latin America.
Spain was the principal actor behind the European Union's decision to end sanctions toward Cuba and follow a path of engagement.
You can read the Europa Press article here (in Spanish).
Visits by Latin American leaders send a message to Obama
Journeys to Cuba this week by Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa kicked off a series of visits by Latin American heads of state designed, according to analysts, to signal to President-elect Barack Obama that a change in U.S. policy towards Cuba is needed, the Reuters news agency reported.
"With the succession of visits by Latin American presidents, the region is sending a strong message to the Obama administration: it wants Washington to end the embargo and open up political and economic relations with Cuba," said Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue.
Torrijos visited over the weekend, Correa arrived on Wednesday and Argentine President Cristina Fernández will begin her visit on Saturday. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet will visit in February, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon is also expected to make a trip to the island in the first part of 2009.
In a statement following a meeting in Brazil last month, leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean urged the U.S. to end the embargo. It was the only issue on which the group issued a joint statement.
"All of this intense diplomacy is part of a strategy to involve the United States," said Sarah Stephens, Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas.
"The parade of Chiefs of State arrives just when the Cubans are sending unmistakable signals that they are ready to speak with the United States, " she added.
Since assuming power, Raúl Castro has improved relations with a number of countries, Russia and Mexico most notably, and carried out a "diversification" of Cuba's foreign relations. He noted Cuba's success at strengthening relations in the hemisphere while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Revolution.
"Today we are not alone in front of the empire on this side of the ocean, like we were in the sixties," he said.
Oswaldo Paya, the head of the Cuban Christian Liberation Movement, was quoted this week criticizing the impending visit of President Bachelet. He said the Chilean embassy in Cuba had cut off contacts with his group.
You can read the Reuters article here.
You can read Mr. Paya's comments here.
The revolution turns 50
This year, Cuba is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the revolution that swept Fulgencio Batista from power and ushered in the government of Fidel Castro
Our intention, this week, is to let that coverage speak for itself. To that end, we offer an array of articles that have been published recently about Cuba's Revolution, where things stand now, and the prospects for change moving forward.
Raúl Castro reiterates willingness to talk to Obama
4 Jan. Cuban President Raúl Castro has offered to talk directly "without intermediaries" and on equal terms with incoming US president Barack Obama, who has said he would consider direct dialogue.
"A gesture for a gesture. We are ready to do it whenever it may be, whenever they may decide, without intermediaries, directly, but we are in no rush, we are not desperate," Castro said on state television late on Friday 2 Jan, a day after Cuba marked the 50th anniversary of its revolution.
After years of economic embargo and US efforts to isolate the island, Havana now faces rare potential for change with Obama, who has voiced willingness to engage world leaders the administration of President George W. Bush has sought to sideline.
Obama, who takes office on 20 January, could "do a great deal, could take positive steps," said Castro, 77, adding he did not expect him to change overall hostile US policy. "But I hope I am wrong about that," the Cuban president said.
"A president is coming in who has raised a lot of expectations in many parts of the world, hopes that are too high, I think."
But Castro allowed that a new US president "may be able to make more just ideas move forward, and may be able to stop the almost uninterrupted rule since the United States was created that almost every president has had his war or wars."
The Cuban president repeated his argument that US "carrot and stick diplomacy" was a dead end.
"That is over now, that was another era," said Raul Castro, who took over in July 2006 from his brother, iconic Cuban leader Fidel Castro, now ailing and 82. Raul Castro officially took over the presidency in February.
"We will continue to wait patiently," Castro said. "That is incredible if with our Cuban temperament we learn to be patient. Well we've got it, and at least on this front, we have shown it to be true."
In his anniversary address Thursday, Castro said future leaders of the revolution must not be duped by the "siren songs of the enemy," as the Cuban government refers to the United States, which he said "will never cease to be aggressive, imposing and treacherous."
Latin American leaders urge end to US embargo
Dec. 18: Latin American leaders have urged US President-elect Barack Obama to end the 46-year trade embargo on Cuba.
Their call was made at a summit in Brazil where they formally accepted Cuba into the Rio Group of 23 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
"Cuba returns to where it always belonged," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The move is a blow to long-standing US efforts to exclude Cuba from regional organisations.
Cuba was expelled from the Organisation of American States in 1962 at the height of the Cold War.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the summit in the north-eastern resort of Costa do Sauipe that he hoped the new Obama administration would bring "a change in US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean".
That included, President Lula said, an end to the embargo on Cuba "which no longer makes sense - neither economic nor political. In fact, there is no reason for it."
Cuban President Raul Castro, on his first foreign tour since taking over from his brother Fidel earlier this year, has said he is open to meeting Mr Obama to discuss the issue of the embargo.
He described his country's entry into the Rio Group as a "transcendental moment in our history".
Brazil's President Lula welcomes Raúl Castro
Raúl Castro makes first official visit overseas
Dec. 13: Cuban President Raúl Castro in Venezuela of his first overseas visit today signed agreements with President Hugo Chavez to expand Cuba’s oil-refining capacity.
The agreements during a meeting at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, include the expansion of the refining capacity at the Hermanos Diaz refinery in Cuba to 50,000 barrels a day from the current 22,000 barrels.
Castro, 77, agreed to form a holding company to expand Cuba's oil refining system and to build a new refinery in Cuba that will have the capacity to process 150,000 barrels of oil a day, according to Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias.
"You honour us with your visit, Raul,'' Chavez said at the ceremony, "Today, Venezuela celebrates the 50 years of the Cuban revolution.''
Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in Latin America, sends Cuba about 90,000 barrels of oil a day in exchange for services from thousands of Cuban professionals, including doctors, agricultural specialists and athletic trainers that Fidel Castro has sent to live in Venezuela since their agreement started in 2000.
Castro and Chavez also agreed to form ventures to develop software. The two countries carried out joint agreements worth $1.36 billion during 2008.
New Poll: Most Cuban Americans want to lift embargo
03 Dec: Most Cuban-Americans living in Miami want an end to the US embargo against Cuba, a new poll suggests.
With 55% of those interviewed opposing the embargo, the poll result marks a major shift of opinion among Miami's Cuban-Americans, researchers said. Some two-thirds of respondents said they wanted travel restrictions lifted.
The poll, conducted by the Brookings Institution and Florida International University, interviewed 800 people and had a margin of error of 3.6%.
Most of the poll respondents voted against Barack Obama, who said before winning US elections in November that he would favour direct talks with Cuba's leader.
Mr Obama also said that he would lift restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba but maintain the US trade embargo.
At least 65% of those questioned said they favoured dropping restrictions on money transfers and travel, and re-establishing dialogue and diplomatic relations.
Sean Penn interviews Raúl Castro
Left: Actor Sean Penn in Havana in October
YouTube video (3 minutes):
http://www.thenatio
November 25: Cuban President Raul Castro Sits Down with Sean Penn & The Nation magazine for First Foreign
Relations With the Pentagon; Hugo Chavez Interviewed As Well.
In the cover story of this week's Nation Magazine,
[http://www.thenatio
Penn questions Cuban President Raul Castro in his first-ever
interview with the foreign press.
military relationship between the Pentagon and Cuba over Guantanamo.
Penn, making his second trip to Cuba, spoke to Castro at the Presidential Palace in Havana with the knowledge of Castro's brother Fidel. In the interview, Castro:
* Expands on the secret military relationship between the Pentagon
and Cuba, detailing a remarkably structured series of monthly
meetings, formal response plans to crises on the base, and even a
hotline and collaborative emergency response exercises held jointly
between the two militaries. This cooperation belies the popular image
of two antagonistic nations on the brink of conflict.
* Offered his prediction about the (then) upcoming U.S. Presidential
election. "If he is not murdered before November 4," he says of
Obama, "he will be your next President."
* Describes the drama and unheard details about the Cuban missile
crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion.
* Responds forcefully to allegations of human rights violations and
suppression of free speech, and defends criticism of Cuba as a haven
for the drug trade.
* Extends a surprising olive branch to the United States, proposing a
summit with President-elect Barack Obama.
Castro, sipping tea and discussing films as well as politics with
Penn, is at times defiant towards the United States. "Iraq is a
child's game," he tells Penn, "compared with what would happen if the
U.S. invaded Cuba." Largely, though, Castro is respectful towards the
United States and it's people, challenging policy ("a blockade is an
act of war, so Americans prefer the term embargo") but expressing
generosity towards Americans. "The American people are among our
closest neighbors," he says. "We should respect each other. We have
never held anything against the American people. Good relations would
be mutually advantageous. Perhaps we cannot solve all of our
problems, but we can solve a good many of them."
In the article, Conversations with Chavez and Castro, Penn also
travels to Venezuela as well as to Cuba with journalist Christopher
Hitchens and historian Douglas Brinkley. In Venezuela, the group
interviewed President Hugo Chavez at length, discussing his view of a
potential relationship with President Obama, the Monroe Doctrine and
human rights and freedom of expression under his presidency.
The article is online now at:
[http://www.thenatio
VideoNation interview with Sean Penn.
Hurricane damage is put at $10 bn
Havana, Nov 14 Cuba has sustained losses worth more than $10 billion in three hurricanes that have devastated the Caribbean island in the past three months, President Raul Castro has said."We’re almost getting to $10 billion," Castro told reporters Wednesday in eastern Cuba that bore the brunt of the latest of the three hurricanes, Paloma.
Between Aug 9 and Nov 9, Cuba was battered by three powerful hurricanes, the Gustav, the Ike and the Paloma that left a trail of destruction across the island, killing scores of people, destroying thousands of cattle head, razing homes and inundating standing crops and agricultural lands.
Cuban officials earlier had estimated that losses from the first two hurricanes — the Gustav, which devastated western Cuba Aug 9, and the Ike, which crossed the island from east to west Sep 7-9 — were more than $8.6 billion.
The Gustav and the Ike destroyed or damaged half a million homes, according to official figures.
"We’re going to resolve (the situation). Everything you lost we’re going to resolve. Sometimes it’s not tomorrow, you have to wait a little bit, but the people of Santa Cruz understand," he said, referring to the town of Santa Cruz del Sur that was most affected by the hurricane Paloma that crossed the country Nov 9.
Hurricane Paloma hits Cuba
8 Nov: Hurricane Paloma, reaching winds of up to 195kph, hit the central Cuban province of Camaguey overnight on Saturday, the third powerful hurricane this season to strike the island.
The Cuban weather service said the storm weakened slightly from the 230kph winds that had threatened. Cuban officials said they expected Paloma to leave Cuba on Sunday morning headed for the Bahamas.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said the storm had dropped from Category 4 — with winds of 230kph — to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Cuban state-run TV reported widespread blackouts and said a communications tower had fallen in the province of Camaguey, where Paloma made landfall on Saturday evening near the town of Santa Cruz del Sur.
Rains of up 25cm were predicted, with more possible in mountainous areas, the hurricane center said.
A storm surge up to 6m had caused coastal flooding, pushing the sea as much as 700m inland and flooding hundreds of homes. TV reports showed waves whipped up over coastal barriers, a beached boat listing on its side and, on shore, trees bending in the wind.
"The weather is really bad. It’s raining heavily and the wind is blowing strong," said Mirtha, who was on watch in the Communist Party headquarters in Santa Cruz del Sur.
"I almost cannot open the windows but I can see some small palm trees that have fallen over," she said, declining to give her full name.
More than 1 million people were evacuated as Paloma approached. So far, no deaths or injuries had been reported.
Cuba was struck by two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, within just seven days of each other between August and September. The island was devastated, with an estimated US$9 billion in damage.
Paloma is the third hurricane and the fifth major tropical storm to hit Cuba this season.
It is the 16th storm in the current season — set to end on Nov. 30 — in the Atlantic Ocean.
Amnesty International calls on Obama to lift Cuba embargo
Nov 7: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama should lift the 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, the head of human rights group Amnesty International said on Friday.
Obama has said he would grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit Cuba and send cash to their families there, and is open to talks with President Raul Castro, but that he would keep the trade embargo as a way of pressuring Cuba to make democratic changes.
Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, said changing Washington's Cuba policy would help Obama restore the United States' moral authority, which she said was damaged during the administration of President George W. Bush.
"We would like President-elect Obama to lift the embargo against Cuba because we believe that that embargo is contributing to denial of human rights to the people, and is not therefore conducive to human rights change," she told Reuters news agenbcy during a visit to Chile.
Khan also repeated calls for Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba where hundreds of suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups have been held without trial in the last seven years.
"Obama should close Guantanamo. Obama should make a public statement confirming the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment," she said.
International community rejects US embargo at UN
Only the United States, Israel and Palau voted against the Cuban resolution, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained from voting. Absent from the vote were Iraq and El Salvador.
Cuba and EU formally restore ties
European Commissioner Louis Michel signed the acord with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque on Thursday.
It marked "a turning point for EU-Cuban relations", he said
Mr Perez Roque welcomed its respect for the island's political independence.
Under the deal, Cuba will now receive 2m euros ($2.6m) of emergency hurricane recovery aid, with 30m euros ($38.9m) available next year.
An EU delegation will return to Cuba in November to determine the needs and priorities for the financing to be made available in 2009.
Now Cuba and the EU have agreed to resume co-operation.
A joint declaration, signed by Cuba's foreign minister and the European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, calls for respect for Cuba's political independence and non-intervention in its internal affairs.
However, according to Mr Michel, the Cuban government has agreed to resume political dialogue in which "no subjects will be taboo".
This opens the way for talks on issues such as democracy, human rights and political prisoners.
Need for aid in Cuba increases after Ike
Hurricane Ike
16 September: With little time to recover from Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike entered and hammered the eastern part of Cuba this week, completely destroying the town of Baracoa in Guantanamo. Fifty-foot storm surges blasted seaside towns and villagers as civil defense volunteers and soldiers scrambled to shuttle endangered residents inland to hospitals, schools and other evacuation centers.
Hurricane Ike then moved over central Cuba on Monday, ripping Holguin, Las Tunas, Ciego de Avila and Camaguey, where it swept away houses, roofs, trees, crops, electrical posts and other key infrastructure.
In Camaguey, the ferocious winds toppled buildings, including colonial columns that graced the city, a UNESCO-designated historical site, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ike crossed over Pinar del Rio, the province hit the hardest from Gustav, where it finished off many houses and other structures barely left standing after Gustav.
The damage is immense. Just one week after Gustav destroyed around 100,000 houses and caused billions of dollars in damage, the United Nations now estimates that Ike piled on between $3 billion and $4 billion in losses, with more than 140,000 structures damaged or destroyed.
Unlike Hurricane Gustav, Cuba was unable to avoid casualties and seven deaths were reported. A greater number of deaths were avoided due to Cuba's mandatory evacuation policy. Neighboring Haiti has said that more than 1,000 people have died due to hurricanes over the last month.
President Raúl Castro directed the massive evacuation and public security operations from Havana, giving orders to the leaders of the 14 Cuban provinces in conference calls. State media reported that 2,615,794 people were evacuated over the three days that Hurricane Ike terrorized the island.
Care International, working on the ground in Cuba, said today that a "full assessment of the damage is not yet possible as telephone communication infrastructure through the affected regions has been significantly affected."
It is, however, known that "the main damage is concentrated in agriculture, power and telephone systems, homes and economic and social installations. As a result of the large track of the storm, virtually all agricultural activity on the Island has been impacted in varying degrees," said the statement.
"We are very likely looking at tens of thousands of people without a roof over their heads, and the very real possibility of shortages of essential food staples," said Caroline Poussart, Director of CARE in Cuba.
You can read the Care International advisory here.
320,000 houses damaged
According to Victor Ramirez, president of the National Housing Institute, Hurricane Ike damaged over 200,000 homes, 30,000 of which were completed destroyed, the Cuban News Agency has reported.
Ramirez explained that number is likely to grow as some areas were still facing heavy rains and wind in the aftermath of the storm and other older wooden structures were collapsing after drying out.
The total number of houses damaged or destroyed by the two storms is now estimated at 320,000, the majority of which have broken roofs.
Cuba was already facing a severe housing shortage before the hurricanes. In 2005, a Cuban government report stated that 500,000 homes needed to be built by 2015 in order to deal with Cuba's massive housing shortage.
Ramirez gave assurances that no one would be left homeless and that more resistant materials would be used to construct new houses and repair damage to houses located in areas where hurricanes are more frequent.
You can read the Cuba News Agency article here.
Food crops hit hard, priority on food production
Cuban agriculture officials began to estimate the extent of damage to crops in the eastern part of the island on Wednesday, the Granma reported.
Bananas and plantains, coffee, yucca and corn were the hardest hit. Officials also reported significant damage to the poultry industry, small vegetable gardens and food storage facilities.
El Nuevo Herald reported that Cuba has lost 700,000 tons of food products in 10 days, due to the back-to-back storms.
Cuba imports around 80% of its food products and Raúl Castro recently implemented reforms in the farming sector in an attempt to stimulate domestic production. Cuba will have to import more food or face shortages.
"We must prioritize recovery of all areas related to food production in the shortest possible time," said Maria del Carmen Perez, acting minister of Agriculture.
Perez said that specialists are working to identify what can be salvaged and what needs to be replanted.
She also explained that short cycle crops and urban agriculture will be relied upon to get food to the population in the shortest possible time.
Perez also called on less affected provinces, such as Villa Clara, Matanzas and Ciego de Avila to increase their efforts to produce in order help other parts of the country and contribute to substituting food shortages.
The minister also noted the need to diversify where crops are planted in order to minimize the effect of storms in the future.
You can read the Granma article here.
Citrus severely affected as well
Tons of grapefruit and oranges were lost and processing plants suffered damage in another blow to Cuba's hurricane and plague-damaged citrus industry, the Reuters news agency reported.
Cuban state media showed workers rushing to salvage at least 50,000 tons of downed grapefruit ready or near ready for harvest and said that tons of immature oranges were determined to be a total loss.
The Granma reported that the "storm felled 35,000 tons of grapefruit and around 3,500 tons of oranges" in the central part of the island.
Jaguey Grande, a 23,000-hectare orchard in Matanzas, was hit hard again, after being hit hard by Hurricane Michelle in 2001, Hurricane Dennis in 2005 and suffering from drought in 2005 and 2006.
Hurricane Gustav devastated citrus crops in the Western province of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth less than two weeks ago, destroying processing facilities and destroying tons of fruit. It wiped out the entire crop on the Isle of Youth.
You can read the Reuters article here.
Sugar Cane
Hurricane Ike flattened 156,000 hectares of Cuban sugar cane and flooded even more, according to preliminary data announced on state-run radio, the Reuters news agency reported.
There are 700,000 hectares devoted to sugar cane in the country and 330,000 hectares of cane were harvested in 2008.
Tirso Saenz, president of the Cuban sugar technicians, said that the amount of affected cane is sure to increase as workers are just now gaining access to plantations because roads were washed out.
"The data is still preliminary and is going to increase ... I saw today a figure of 15,000 hectares flooded," Saenz told Radio Progresso.
Earlier reports suggested extensive damage to sugar cane infrastructure and sugar reporter Juan Varela reported that at least 700 kilometers of plantation roads were washed out as were14 rail and highway bridges linking plantations to mills.
Cuba had hoped to increase production this year, announcing in July that the 2009 crop would increase by 25 percent to 30 percent over 2008.
You can read the Reuters report here.
Politics over Relief
The United States has offered to provide aid to Cuba in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and Ike, but both offers were turned down by the Cuban government.
The United States said it has sent $100,000 in emergency assistance that will be distributed to non-governmental agencies and not Cuba's government, but that Cuba must allow a disaster relief team from the U.S. Agency for International Development to make an assessment to get more aid.
Cuba prefers that the United States ease the economic embargo so that it can buy housing and electrical grid supplies and increase purchases of food with private commercial credit.
