Coffee Planting Grows Back in Cuba

Cuban farmers added to cooperatives have increased their coffee plantations and many have undertaken to collect it with their own forces, which would represent a substantial saving by reducing the number of people mobilized from other sectors of the economy and services.

After the sharp decline in the contributions of coffee in recent years for various reasons, farmers, officials and Cuban technicians in the industry are engaged in what they have set as the slight increase in production.

When the planting of coffee trees has been completed and its collection has even started, agriculture strategists say that the volume of grain to be delivered should be increased by 10% over the last collection.

That is, is expected to harvest 700 tons of coffee more than compared to last year, efforts in which private farmers will have a decisive role because they collect 64% of coffee in the country.

Today, as in order to increase food production progress on the implementation of the new law that encourages the delivery of land in usufruct, one can say that in Cuba there is a greater number of people with an interest in growing coffee.

This news is encouraging because labor force on coffee plantations located mainly in the mountains, where increased urban migration, was significantly reduced in recent years.

The State cannot continue to appeal to its coffers to compensate for deficits in national coffee production, since these allocations are already ranging between 40 and 50 million dollars annually.

Last year, for instance, Cuban coffee purchases in the international market amounted to 18 000 tons to ensure local consumption.

The State also allocated 190 million pesos in national currency to subsidize the sale of powder to get the nectar.

It is for this reason that stands out the common effort to reforest the coffee plantations with younger fields and lush bushes and take care of them in a more actively way.

Four thousand hectares of coffee were planted in Cuba last year and this amount reached 7 thousand this year, to increase such actions from 2012 to 2015, the year estimated when national demand can be met and grain may have exportable surpluses.

Efforts to increase the results of the coffee harvests are capped by very favorable official decisions.

These include doubling the payment to producers for their contributions and State delivery of fertilizers for the first time in several years.

Similarly, new shrub species are introduced to eradicate the homogeneity of coffee plantations, a circumstance in which they become more vulnerable to the devastation in the event of pests.

Cuban farmers are working to increase yields per hectare that are very low today, basically by the aging of the trees and the lack of stable work force.

Peasants are expected to work with full care and dedication to Cuba to recover its historical levels of coffee production.

By Alex Silva from Radio Havana Cuba

I´m ready to keep with my fight until my last day, says Rene Gonzalez

” I´m ready to keep with my fight until my last day” were some of the first words by Cuban anti-terrorist fighter Rene Gonzalez upon his release from a Florida prison last October 7 amidst a highly emotional encounter with his daughters, father and brother.

First Images of Rene Gonzalez out of Prison Along some of his Closest Relatives

Holguin specialists work to assist autistic children

Psychiatrists, neurologists, speech-language pathologists, social workers and nurses in Holguin are developing a multidisciplinary project to assist autistic children, aimed at improving the quality of life of these patients.

The project is headed by the Neuropsychology Department of the Clinical Hospital "Lucía Iñiguez Landín" in this city.

Autism is a serious developmental disorder characterized by limitations on language, impaired social interaction, cognition and behavior.

Work with these children includes activities such as training classes at kindergartens involving patients, relatives and childminders.They also include stimulation actions in the early years of the kids who are greatly benefited by therapies.

According to specialists work experience is useful for treatment of children with other language deficiencies, their social interaction and behavior such as patients suffering from mental retardation, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Rett Syndrome and other pathologies.

One of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzalez, released today at 4:30am from US prison

This Friday, at 4:30am Rene Gonzalez was released from a jail from Marianna, Florida; although he will have to remain in the United States on three-year probation.

Outside the correctional, he was embraced by his two daughters, Irma and Ivette, his brother, Roberto, and his father, Candido, apart from his lawyer, Phillip Horowits, said teleSUR correspondent Aissa Garcia.

“Today, Rene Gonzalez has become the first of the Cuban Five antiterrorists to be released from US prisons, and set foot outside jail,” said the reporter from the site.

The Cuban was released at 04H30 local time (08H00GMT) this Friday and is currently with his family, said his lawyer Phillip Horowitsz to teleSUR.

He told Aissa Garcia that Rene Gonzalez is reported to be in good health after being examined following his release.

Despite he left prison, Gonzalez won’t be able to return to Cuba, due to a court order that forces him to remain three years on probation.

The Cuban is currently with his daughters, his father and his brother. However, he cannot see his mother Isma Sehweret or his wife Olga Salanueca, because the US government did not grant them visas to wait for his release.

In Cuba, teleSUR correspondent informed that this afternoon “all religions will join and make a proclaim of the Committee of Solidarity with the Cuban Five”.

“In the proclaim that will be carried out by believers they will also demand the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles.”

Rene Gonzalez is one of the Cuban Five who were condemned in the United States for monitoring Cuban-American terrorist organizations based in Miami. Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero are still imprisoned in the US since September 12, 1998.

Their case has unleashed a series of protests in different parts of the world. Intellectuals, relatives, politicians and other sectors of civil society have demanded their release.

Cuba Denounces US Denial to Reveal Facts About Cubana Plane Attack

The U.S. Government's denial to release information, compiled by the CIA, related to those responsible for the terrorist attack to a Cubana Airlines plane in October 1976, was denounced by Cuba's Granma newspaper on Tuesday.

Cubans in Nicaragua Claim Justice for Barbados Crime "Why did the United States tell Venezuela they did not have any information on the October 6, 1976 events that could be used during the trial against the masterminds of the attack?", underlined Granma's article after presenting extracts of reports of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The article, entitled "What did George Bush know about the Cubana Plane attack in October 1976?", reproduces extracts of a more comprehensive article published in May 2006.

During a hearing at the U.S Senate in September 1988, 12 years after the 73 occupants of the Cubana plane died, Democrat Senator representing Iowa, Tom Harkin, asked the then vice president about his investigations on the participation of Posada Carriles in the attack.

A CIA document, dated in June 1976 (two months before the terrorist attack), proves that the organization had information on the plans of Orlando Bosh of destroying a Cuban aircraft.

Another secret CIA document, dated in October 13, 1976, and addressed to the FBI Intelligence Department included other clues related to persons involved in the October 6 events.

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Taken from Prensa Latina