Yahoo! News
October 29, 2001
Economic Planner: Cuba Not in Crisis
HAVANA, 29 (AP) - Cuba is not facing an economic crisis despite a slump in
tourism following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and a recent
weakening of its currency, says Cuba's top economic planner.
Rather, the Cuban economy is expected to grow 4 percent this year, slightly
less than the 5 percent earlier projected, said Vice President Carlos Lage, the
architect of modest economic reforms over the last decade.
Lage also said Sunday that a roughly 20 percent weakening of the Cuban peso
in recent weeks against the U.S. dollar was of a "transitory character''
and expected to stabilize.
"We do not have the situation, nor will we have situation of 1993 and
1994,'' Lage told reporters Sunday at the opening of the Feria de La Habana,
Cuba's most important annual trade fair.
Cubans describe 1993 and 1994 as the most desperate years of a severe
financial crisis that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. For decades,
Moscow had provided Havana with massive aid and preferential trading agreements.
"Our people can be confident, they can be calm, because the country is
much better organized, and is economically stronger,'' he said.
Cuba Steps Up Criticism of Russia
HAVANA, 27 (AP) - Stung by Moscow's plans to close its listening post here,
Cuba complained Saturday that Russia was trying to become the kind of capitalist
country it once abhorred.
"An abyss separates our thinking from the opportunism, the egoism, and
the lack of ethics that today prevails in the decadent field of the imperialist
and capitalist system, or of those that aspire to it,'' the Communist Party
daily Granma said Saturday in a front-page editorial about the base closure.
Cuba, which enjoyed favorable trade and aid agreements with the Soviet Union
as its communist Cold War ally, suffered "terrible hurt, damage and
suffering'' with its disintegration a decade ago, the paper said.
Cuban leaders wanted to develop close economic ties with Russian President
Vladimir Putin (news - web sites)'s government in Moscow, but have been unable
to do so because of "the chaos that reigns there,'' the newspaper said. It
said that while political relations have been good, economic ties have been "a
disaster.''
Russia announced Oct. 17 that would close the electronic listening station
at Lourdes, built in two years after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s communist government
called closure of the facility a "grave threat'' to Cuba's security. The
government also says it has it has not approved the closure and that more
negotiations between the two countries are needed before a decision is made.
Russia has said that closing the base 13 miles south of Havana will help it
save at least $200 million annually in rent and an undisclosed amount in
salaries. | 
