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Havana, Cuba. Year 11 - Friday, September 12, 2008.
Pinar del Río
First the winds of Gustav, now the floodwaters of Ike
By Leticia Martínez Hernández
FROM up above, chaos seems to reign in Pinar del Río province. It is enough to go up a number of meters — this time 300 — in a Revolutionary Air Force helicopter to grasp the magnitude of the disaster. In addition to the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Gustav’s furious winds, there is now the devastation of Ike’s floodwaters inundating towns and fields. Two hurricanes that have disrupted the lives and surroundings of the people of Pinar del Río.
More than 100 homes in the neighborhood of Isabel Rubio in Guane municipality were flooded by the waters of the Cuyaguateje River, the largest river in the western region, making access impossible. The heavy rains also threatened the lives of more than 7,000 residents of Sanguily, who had to be hurriedly evacuated. From the air, the view of these two residential areas is shocking: one devastated by the force of a river that invaded it, the other by the solitude that prevails in its streets.
Some figures speak for themselves about the effects of the rainfall in Pinar del Río: when Hurricane Ike hit, reservoirs were at 63% capacity; after its passing, they were at more than 80%. Of the province’s 31 reservoirs, 18 of them are now overflowing, including La Juventud, the largest.
Gustav’s powerful winds were followed by Ike’s floodwaters, halting recovery efforts. According to Marbel Piloto Hernández, a member of the Party Bureau in Pinar del Rio, in the days following the first hurricane, more than 3,000 homes were repaired and 1,500 temporary facilities created. Electricity had been restored to 70% of the province. "Now we are assessing the damage, work is beginning again, but with more efforts than before," she said.
And it is true that activities have resumed with more impetus. That was confirmed by the tenacity of the 800 electrical line workers and 200 construction workers from other provinces who returned to work after the floods. The housing repair brigades created in neighborhoods are also evidence of that. Jorge Luis Izquierdo and Juan Fernández, two men with skin burned by the sun after repairing so many roofs, are part of one of those brigades. And they proudly demonstrate the new roofs that Ike was not able to rip away.
One might think that Nature was merciless with Pinar del Río. The fact that two hurricanes plowed through the same place in less than 10 days seems incredible. From the air, the image of destruction is repeated once again, but on the ground, the merits of the people of Pinar del Rio are confirmed once again, as they flood their province with their work.
Translated by Granma International •
ON Thursday afternoon, President Raúl Castro received a telephone call from Namibian President Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba expressing his nation’s solidarity with the people of Cuba following the devastating passage of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike across the island.
During the conversation, Raúl thanked the president of this sister nation for his concern and provided detailed information about the damage caused by the meteorological phenomenon over the past 11 days. Never before in the history of Cuba has there been a case such as this, stated the General of the Army, referring to the force of the winds, prolonged rainfall and flooding caused by Gustav and Ike which occurred over such a short period of time.
Raúl expressed his confidence that just as on other occasions, we will continue forward with the high morale and organization of the population.
At the end of their conversation, President Pohamba asked his Cuban
counterpart to send greetings to Leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz.
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U.S. ambassador expelled from Venezuela
CARACAS, September 11.—Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has ordered the U.S. ambassador in Caracas, Patrick Duddy, to leave the country within 72 hours, a measure that was adopted in solidarity with Bolivia, and at the same time informed Washington of Venezuela’s decision to cut off supplies of crude oil to that nation, the AFP reported.
"As a gesture of solidarity with Bolivia, from this moment on, the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela," the president said during an election campaign rally in Puerto Cabello, 120 kilometers west of the capital, for his party’s candidate for regional elections in November.
The Bolivarian leader expressed his support for Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose government is experiencing a crisis that has been incited by reactionary forces in the country. Morales had also expelled Washington’s representative in La Paz, accusing him of being behind the opposition’s maneuvers.
Chavéz’ announcement came just hours after the Venezuelan administration presented taped recordings of conversations and denounced an attempted coup d’état against Chávez, planned by active and retired military officers with the full support of the U.S. administration.
Likewise, the President announced that he would halt oil sales to the United States if the Latin American country is to become the target of an attack by the White House.
Speaking live on television, Chávez also gave instructions to his Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro to arrange for the immediate return of the Venezuelan ambassador in the United States.
The president stated that "when there is a new government in the United States," Venezuela will send an ambassador but as long as President Bush is in power, Caracas will have no diplomatic representation in that country.
The Bolivarian leader placed responsibility for the tense situation on the U.S. government, which is "behind all the maneuvers of political destabilization currently underway in Latin America," he stated.
Translated by Granma International
•
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TEN YEARS AFTER THE FIVE’S ARREST
A new anti-Cuba spectacle in Miami
• In the context of the election campaign, the CIA and Cuban-American
Congress members are developing a new hysterical campaign brought to life by
Colonel Chris Simmons, an intelligence officer from the military reserves
BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD
• TEN years on from the operation unleashed by Miami’s FBI chief Héctor Pesquera at the request mafia ringleaders to eliminate Cubans infiltrated in their organizations, a new witch hunt is taking place in this city to foster hatred of the island, justify new operations against the Revolution and favor the interests of the Batista-loving Congress members in Florida.
On September 12, 1998, after spending the entire night involved in an operation just like those you find in the worst Hollywood movies, before he had even notified his own FBI bosses, Héctor Pesquera informed Cuban-American Congress members Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart of the arrest of a "network of spies" just as had been planned.
Pesquera, Díaz-Balart and the CIA network that supported them had commanded the operation take place, not just to the FBI but also to Attorney General Janet Reno and her group of collaborators.
Days after the arrest, the FBI chief for South Florida acknowledged that this case would never have existed if he had not directly insisted on it to Louis Freeh, then head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. With respect to Reno’s advisors, he confessed to Miami Herald reporter Larry Lebowitz in December 2003 that "other people in the Justice Department didn’t want to touch this."
The reluctance of his own collaborators (reported in detail by investigative journalist Ann-Louise Bardach) and, evidently, by his immediate superiors, as well as objections from State Department specialists, carried little weight in the face of the manipulation mechanism of the intelligence organizations associated with his accomplices in Congress.
The Cuban anti-terrorist fighters were arrested in the middle of night, in a spectacle that was identical to those used for the very worst kind of criminals, without any consideration for the children who were witnesses to the intentional melodrama of the situation, and the men immediately vanished into the most secret cells of the Federal Detention Center in Miami. Against all national and international regulations. UN experts confirmed this when years later they demanded the Five’s release without success.
SIMMONS HAS A FREE HAND
That same horde comprising the Díaz-Balart brothers and the underground mechanism of manipulation, not just of public opinion, but of the police-judicial apparatus and Mafioso politicking, organized a new anti-Cuban cabaret a few months ago in which the star of the show was one Christopher Simmons, an officer with the military intelligence reservists.
Con una puntería mediática calibrada por sus apoyos mafiosos,
Simmons has infested the city’s press publications with his prophecies, premonitions and super-lucid visions to condemn the omnipresence, not just in Florida but throughout the world, of legions of Cuban spies who are, of course, placing in the empire’s security in extreme danger.From Miami television’s most scandalous program "A Mano Limpia" presented by Dominican Oscar Haza, to the pages of the Herald which gave him exceptionally wide coverage, Simmons is able to attack reputations and launch threats with impunity. He is protected by the same McCarthy-ist apparatus that uses him as a showman to foster the climate of paranoia that favors its interests.
Retired lieutenant colonel and counterintelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, as well as being a former analyst with the military intelligence agency, Simmons commercialized his trade some years ago by registering the Cuban Intelligence Research Center in Leesburg, Virginia, a comfortable façade that also allows him to promote himself as a "Super Spy" and serve the interests of the extreme right.
He writes articles and books, proposes ideas for films and organizes conferences. His public addresses, always on the subject of "Castro’s spies" cost some $50,000 for audiences of "up to 25 people".
ILLEANA OPENS THE DOOR OF CONGRESS TO HIM
It is not known whether he charged the same amount when Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, currently the Republican leader on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, took him to meet her colleagues in Washington.
What is certain is that the Mafioso politician took advantage of the circumstances to extend the subject to "the relationship between the Castro and Iranian regimes", a combination inspired by the anti-Iran discourse of the Bush administration and its Israeli friends who grease the palms of his campaign fundraisers.
The Cuban government is a "trafficker of intelligence" that provides sensitive information on the United States to its allies throughout the world, harped on Simmons for almost two hours during an interminable address to members of the House of Representatives, according to an EFE cable.
This alleged trafficking of information "places us in a very dangerous situation" affirmed Simmons.
In a statement to the press following this somewhat grotesque spectacle, Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart launched a harsh attack on Cuba to accredited journalists in Congress, stressing the "insufficient attention" paid by Washington to the relationship between Havana and Tehran.
At the Heritage Foundation, a cenacle of the U.S. extreme right, Simmons even talked about dozens of Cuban agents infiltrated at "the highest level" of the U.S. governmental apparatus, including "the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, Congress and the White House."
In this frenzy of outrageous declarations, the ineffable Roger Noriega – quoted by Fox News – even dared to suggest that "Cuban intelligence has whipped the backside of U.S. intelligence for decades."
This chain of interventions by Simmons that was unleashed some months ago is clearly aimed at maintaining an atmosphere of anti-Cuba paranoia in South Florida that also favors the interests of the Mafioso Congress members and allows them to justify any extremist action against the island, including terrorist attacks, the release of notorious terrorists and the arrests of innocent people. As well as ensuring that no appeal process for the Five would come to fruition.
Meanwhile, in Miami, where the Five were subjected to a long succession of maltreatment and abuse, from their arrest and rigged trial through to their unjust imprisonment, Luis Posada Carriles is freely driving around in his latest model Lincoln and his buddies are fiercely demanding the release of terrorist chief Eduardo Arocena.
Little has changed in the most retrograde city in the United States since the arrests of de René González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González, that day in September 1998.
"We have done this to call the public’s attention," declared Héctor Pesquera at the time when he announced the capture of those he immediately described as a "network of spies, a description that in no way corresponded to the activities of the accused but was indeed convenient for a campaign of media terrorism.
Pesquera then asked for the public to call in and denounce the suspects. The radio stations of the anti-Cuba mafia were bombarded with calls denouncing their neighbors. Ninoska Pérez-Castellón led the press campaign with an out-of-this-world brand of fanaticism, urging people to call her radio program on WQBA-1140 AM directly.
What is certain is that today, like ten years ago, that same Mafioso network continues to dominate in Miami, in a widespread operation directed by the annexationist extreme right that reigns in Washington and sectors of the intelligence organizations in its service.
A network that, ten years ago, corrupted the judicial world in its favor and
against the Five and which today – facing adversaries for the first time ever in
the elections – is desperately trying to cling on to its power and privileges. •
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AT 11:50 yesterday, Tuesday, September 9, the U.S. State Department sent Verbal Note No. 252/18 to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, in which, after expressing its regret at the additional damage caused to the Cuban people by Hurricane Ike, it insists on sending "a humanitarian assessment team" to our country "to inspect the areas affected."
Today, September 10, at 7:20 p.m. the Cuban Interests Section in Washington sent the State Department Verbal Note No. 046/08, in which it thanks the U.S. government for its expressions of regret at the damage caused in Cuba by Hurricane Ike, and reiterates that Cuba does not require the assistance of a humanitarian assessment team, as it has sufficient specialists who are trained to carry out this task.
The note emphasizes that if the government of the United States has a genuine will to cooperate with the Cuban people, it would ask it to allow the sale to Cuba of essential materials, such as roofing covers and other items to repair houses and re-establish electricity networks.
At the same time, it reiterates the request that the U.S. government suspend the restrictions preventing U.S. companies from granting private commercial credit lines to Cuba in order to buy foodstuffs in that country.
The Note equally calls the attention of the State Department to the fact that allowing the sale of the above materials and authorizing private credits for food purchases does not require the visit to Cuba of a humanitarian assessment team.
Finally, the Verbal Note from the Cuban Interests Section emphasizes to the State Department that that its Note No. 252/18 persists in a request to which the government of Cuba responded in its Note No. 1886 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 6, 2008 and, what is more significant, that it has not really responded to the two concrete requests that the Cuban government made to the government of the United States in order to confront the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav and which it reiterates in the Note presented today.
On the other hand, in the last few hours, U.S. government spokespersons have tried to justify President Bush’s refusal to allow the sale to Cuba of essential materials and to authorize private commercial credits to acquire foodstuffs in that country.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice affirmed categorically on Sunday, September 7, "I don’t think that… the lifting of the embargo would be wise."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack insisted in a press conference on Monday, September 8, on the alleged importance of Cuba accepting an assessment team to make an "in situ" inspection of the damage. In response to the observation by journalists that other countries have supplied aid without demanding a prior inspection of the damage on the ground, McCormack evasively replied, "See if the Cuban government changes its mind about allowing us to help the Cuban people."
For his part, Cuban-American Carlos Gutiérrez, secretary of commerce and co-president of the committee responsible for applying the Bush Plan against Cuba, hypocritically stated yesterday, "…we reiterate our offer to allow a USAID assessment team to travel to Cuba to assess the situation."
The government of the United States is behaving in a cynical way. It is trying to suggest that it is desperate to cooperate with Cuba and that we are refusing that. It is lying unscrupulously.
Why is the U.S. government insisting on the pretext of making an inspection on the ground when information circulated on the serious damage provoked in Cuba by the hurricanes is ample and evident?
Why is it placing as a condition the sending of an inspection team, something that no other country of the dozens that are already offering us their generous cooperation has done?
Why is the U.S. government refusing to allow Cuba to buy materials there for repairing houses, roofing covers or components to re-establish electricity networks?
Why is it prohibiting U.S. companies and their subsidiaries in any country from offering Cuba private credits to buy foodstuffs, currently essential in order to guarantee the alimentation of the affected population and replace the country’s reserves in anticipation of other hurricanes?
Those are the questions that the government of the United States should be answering.
Those are the questions that the international community, which overwhelmingly supports Cuba in its fight against the blockade, is putting to the government of the United States.
Cuba has not asked the government of the United States to make it a gift of anything. Just that it allows it to buy.
The rest is pure rhetoric, pretexts and justifications that nobody believes.
Cuba will come through. Neither hurricanes, nor blockades, nor aggressions can prevent that.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Havana,
September 10, 2008
Translated by Granma International
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Preliminary effects of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike on housing
More than 320,000 houses damaged
Ike alone completely destroyed 30,000 homes
By Marta Hernández
SANTA CLARA, September 10.—The passing of Hurricane Ike damaged more than 200,000 houses in Cuba, of which 30,000 were completely destroyed, reported Víctor Ramírez, president of the National Housing Institute (INV).
Ramírez explained that this figure could increase if the rains and wind associated with Ike continue in the western part of the country.
The effects of Gustav on the island’s housing stock, eight days before the arrival of Ike, brings the total figure to 320,000, the majority of which have broken roofs.
The close cooperation of neighbors and the maximum utilization of local resources are the basic premises everywhere, as the means of finding immediate solutions for all those affected, Ramírez emphasized.
On this occasion and after a tour of the western part of Cuba, Ramírez said that many roofs were designed for winds of less force than those registered in recent weeks.
He said that they were analyzing the use of more resistant materials for houses located in areas where hurricanes are more frequent.
It is the people who are the executors of 70% of homes built in Cuba, for which the INV foresees an assessment and quality control system to guide house builders – sometimes empirical – and avoid the mass damage witnessed, he noted.
In conclusion, the president added that nobody will be left homeless and solutions will be forthcoming according to the characteristics of each place. (AIN)
Translated by Granma International
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Letter from Fidel to Randy Alonso,
director of the “Roundtable” program
DEAR Randy,
Yesterday’s “Roundtable” program was particularly interesting and the information provided was extremely valuable. It is a pity that at that time the whole island was without electricity, from Punta de Maisí to Cabo de San Antonio. Just a few family homes in the Camilo Cienfuegos district that were able to resist the fierce winds had power. An underground cable connected to the generator at the Luis Díaz Soto Hospital reached that area.
When this energy, so necessary to our era, is absent, there are many shortages and nothing functions. We yearn for the day when all those homes capable of withstanding hurricanes, which I talked about some days ago, are able to receive electricity via underground cables. Unfortunately, this will take some time and will be a tremendous expense.
For a second, I imagined what would have become of the inhabitants of our island in the face of the natural disaster that has just occurred without the Civil Defense system and the population’s emergency services, such as hospitals, polyclinics, bakeries, information centers and other similar services, if these had not had available electrical energy.
The images of homes and other buildings destroyed, crops ruined, trees brought down, rivers bursting their banks, houses invaded by water in low-lying areas, people swept away by the force of rapid currents and saved thanks to the desperate efforts of others; these were devastating. I think that some of these images should be re-broadcast in the future so that those who had their televisions switched off will be able to witness them.
We must never forget the scenes of the men from the Armed Forces and their special troops carrying out missions to aid and support the population and the victims. The actions of the Firefighters Corps were very impressive, risking their lives, wading through dangerous currents to help their compatriots.
You need rigorous training and courage to fulfill these tasks. Only in very exceptional circumstances are we aware that these men exist and they prepare themselves in silence for critical moments. I confess that I thought the images of José Ramón Machado Ventura and Ramón Espinosa Martín, first vice president of the Council of State and chief of the Eastern Army, respectively, were very moving; weather-beaten by the struggle, together with much younger comrades, presidents of the Defense Councils, they tirelessly visited the places that had been worst hit and immediately indicated the measures that should be adopted. This also occurred with other high-ranking Party leaders, together with Joaquín Quinta Solá, former head of the Central Army and current deputy minister of the FAR, and Leopoldo Cintra Frías, chief of the Western Army, and the presidents of the Defense Councils in the provinces and municipalities they visited.
I saw with more clarity than ever before the value of symbols. The Cuban flags shone like never before on the shoulders of Party leaders, be they women or men, at this difficult and testing time. These are the subjective factors without which all would be lost and without which victory would not be possible.
The work carried out by the journalists, who did not sleep or rest, at times defying the rain and wind, has been excellent, informing the country of the events, transmitting truths, examples and experiences, which made us feel that we are part of a national community interlinked with all the inhabitants of the planet. The peoples of the world who have sent their messages of solidarity, even though a large part of them are suffering from poverty and attacks by nature, which the consumer societies with their sophisticated technologies are driving towards a point that is incompatible with human survival itself.
The time will come to analyze the objective factors, the rational and optimum use of material and human resources; what must be done in every concrete place, where we should or should not invest; what to do with every cent; respond to every question that has to be asked in situations of emergency. And under normal circumstances, when everything returns to its place and the normal lives of children, adolescents, and adults continuing moving forward, always prepared to fight and win without ever becoming disheartened in the face of the adversities of today or of tomorrow.
Our duty is to overcome!
Fidel Castro Ruz
September 10, 2008
12:14 p.m.
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Evo orders expulsion of U.S.
ambassador to Washington
LA PAZ, September 10.—Bolivian President Evo Morales stated on Wednesday that he had ordered the expulsion of Phillip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador, whom he accused of backing conservative opinion and seeking division in the country, Reuters report.
“The person conspiring against democracy and, above all, seeking to divide Bolivia is the U.S. ambassador,” affirmed Morales in a meeting at the Government Palace, in which he strongly condemned the wave of violence, including attacks on gas pipelines, unleashed by the opposition in various regions.
“I am asking our foreign minister of the Republic… to send a note to the ambassador today, informing him of the decision of the national government, of its president, that he must immediately return to his country; we do not want a separatist who conspires against unity, who attacks democracy,” the leader added.
On the other hand, Juan Ramón Quintana, minister of the presidency, warned in a press conference that the nation is “on the threshold of an atypical coup against the institutional order, which is currently underway on the part of the opposition prefectures and civic committees and in which tanks are no longer needed.”
Quintana announced that the government has provided “greater cover, a larger presence of military units” to preserve refineries and oil pumping units in the southeast of the country, cut off by roadblocks.
Translated by Granma International
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Ike gradually moves away from Cuba
More than two and half million people were evacuated
Significant rainfall could still occur today in western and central areas
BY Orfilio Peláez
pelaez@granma.cip.cu
Commandante en Jefe Fidel Castro’s continued interest in keeping abreast of the situation in the provinces hit by Hurricane Ike was highlighted by presenter Randy Alonso after telephone conversations with Olga Lidia Tapia, José Ramón Monteagudo, Lázaro Expósito, Jorge Luis Tapia, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Pedro Betancourt, presidents of the respective Provincial Defense Councils in Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos, Granma, Ciego de Avila, Holguín and Matanzas during yesterday’s Mesa Redonda program.
According to Colonel José Ernesto Betancourt from the Civil Defense General Staff, by four o’clock yesterday afternoon, some 2,615,794 people had been evacuated, a figure that demonstrates the agility with which this vital preventative task had been carried out.
After crossing the eastern region of Pinar del Río province and exiting the country at a point of the northern coast close to the Manuel Sanguily community in the municipality of La Palma, last night Hurricane Ike was moving through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico in a west northeasterly direction at a rate of 10 kilometers per hour, gradually moving away from Cuba.
Speaking on the “Mesa Redonda” program, Dr. José Rubiera, head of the Forecasts Center at the Meteorological Institute, warned that today there are still bands of associated storm clouds that could cause significant bursts of rainfall in the western and central provinces of the country.
The specialist emphasized the extensive area of tropical storm force winds (from 63 to 117 kilometers per hour) produced by Hurricane Ike, which covered practically the whole of the western provinces for several hours. There were even hurricane strength gusts at different points – principally in City of Havana and Habana province – as it swept up through the island. Likewise, as the hurricane made its way along the length of the archipelago, it produced intense rainfall – accumulating 400 and 500 millimeters in 24 hours – in the Escambray massif and other points in the central region of the country.
Rubiera confirmed that for the next few days, there are no signs of any further cyclonic activity in our geographical area, which includes the tropical Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Translated by Granma International
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Raúl receives
solidarity from presidents of Nicaragua and Brazil
• Cuban president has been in
constant communication with the territories affected
by Ike
PRESIDENT Raúl Castro has received a phone call from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega asking about the damage wrought by Hurricane Ike.
A national media note stated that Raúl also talked with Rosario Murillo, wife of the Nicaraguan leader, and both transmitted a message of support to the Cuban people and the leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro.
Raúl has remained in constant contact with leaders in different parts of the country to receive details and plan measures for confronting Hurricane Ike and the steps to follow for a rapid recovery.
He had talks with José Ramón Machado Ventura, first vice president; and Esteban Lazo Hernández, vice president of the Council of State, both members of the Political Bureau, who are heading the working groups that have stayed in the eastern and central provinces, respectively.
Similarly, he has been in communication with General of the Army Leopoldo Cintras Frías, jointly appointed with Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, to assess measures and contribute to the situation in Pinar del Río in the wake of Hurricane Ike to recoup the damage done.
Raúl also talked with Ana Isa Delgado Jardines, president of the Defense Council on the Isle of Youth.
LULA OFFERS AID
Yesterday morning (September 9), the Cuban president talked with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva and, at his request, detailed the damage caused by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Lula asked how he could help the Cuban people and said that he would instruct his ministers to organize aid.
At the same time he asked Raúl to transmit to all the Cuban people and to Fidel his solidarity greetings in this difficult time.
Translated by Granma International
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Raúl expresses his confidence that we will recover from the damages caused by Ike
President Raúl Castro has expressed his confidence that the Cuban people will be able to recover from the damage that is likely to occur following Hurricane Ike’s passage through the island.
In telephone conversations to each of the first secretaries of the Party in the provinces threatened by this powerful hurricane, Raúl stated that we have to use all available means to protect human lives and the resources of the state and the population itself.
Aware of the measures adopted in these areas to confront this meteorological phenomenon, the likewise second secretary of the Party emphasized the importance of preparing for the worst from the "informative phase" onwards.
Raúl also stressed the importance of continuing preparations as a way of minimizing damage. He called on the officials in these provinces to send a message of solidarity to the population and the authorities for the stance they are adopting at a time such as this.
The president of the Council of State and Ministers confirmed his confidence in the preventative and organizational measures that have been taken and in the tasks that have been undertaken to reduce the impact of the hurricane.
In a meeting with the Civil Defense Councils from the distinct provinces, José Ramón Machado Ventura, first vice president ofthe Councils of State and Ministres, Esteban Lazo Hernández and Carlos Lage Dávila, vice presidents of the Council of State, General of the Army Ramón Espinosa, chief of the Eastern Army, - all members of the Political Bureau - , Abelardo Álvarez Gil, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Víctor Fidel Gaute and Roberto López Hernández, members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, General of the Army Joaquín Quinta Solá, deputy minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and other leaders confirmed the situation of evacuees and the work being carried out to guarantee the availability of food and other resources.
They also discussed the distribution of domestic fuel to families facing power cuts in the days following Hurricane Ike, and the situation at power stations and reservoirs.
These commissions highlighted the need to act with discipline, organization, and responsibility.
Translated by Granma International •
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General Editor: Lázaro
Barredo Medina.
Editor: Gabriel Molina Franchossi.
SPONSOR: Teledatos-Cubaweb.
La Habana
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