Communist Web
Thursday 16th March 2000 9.30pm gmt
Ruthless attack on the main national industry
LOSSES resulting from the U.S. blockade and aggressions affecting the Cuban
sugar industry total more than $11.1 million USD, announced Andrés Sarasola,
consultant to the minister of the sugar industry, during the presentation of
expert
testimony in the court where the lawsuit against the United States is being
heard.
Listed among the main causes of this loss was agricultural sabotage; arson
committed against sugarcane plantations, warehouses and other installations
in
the sector; destabilization of the work force; breakdowns obliging the
sugar mills
to store cane for prolonged periods, thereby severely reducing its sugar
content;
and threats of armed aggressions requiring the mobilization of workers from
the
sector into combat posts.
However, the expert stressed, the first attack, direct and ruthless in
nature, against
this industry was the cancellation of the sugar quota by the U.S. National
Security
Council at the beginning of the 1960s which totally closed off access to a
market
where Cuba had sold 60% of its sugar, the mainstay of its economy.
This had serious repercussions for the first harvests after the triumph of
the
Revolution. The loss of the market also forced Cubans to import machinery
from
distant countries lacking in experience of sugarcane technology, and whose
equipment was poorer quality and frequently inadequate, according to expert
Juan
Godefoy García, who also testified during the hearing.
Andrés Sarasola explained that the equipment brought from the former
socialist
bloc required a vast amount of fuel, which together with other factors,
contributed
to a huge... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/rut/rut.html
