CUBANET ... CUBANEWS

August 23, 2002



Cuba News / Yahoo!

Yahoo! August 23, 2002.

Cuba restructures sugar industry

Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.

HAVANA 22 (AP) - Cuba is paying for 60,000 sugar cane workers to learn new skills as the communist country restructures its ailing sugar industry, officials said Thursday.

The 60,000 workers will study for technical careers while another 40,000 will move into agricultural or farming jobs, said Noel Casanaz, a spokesman for the sugar ministry, which employs about 420,000 workers.

The sugar cane workers who will enroll in the classes will continue to earn monthly salaries ranging from $11 to $38.

The restructuring plan calls for closing 70 of the country's 154 sugar cane centers, but officials hope to maintain Cuba's annual production of 4 million tons of sugar despite the cuts.

Cuba will still guarantee shipments to traditional buyers, including Europe, Russia, and China, Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales said.

As world prices tumble, Cuba is struggling to remain competitive by remaking its sugar industry — replacing about half of the 3.5 million acres once used to grow cane with higher-income crops or to help feed Cubans.

The sugar industry has also been battered by Hurricane Michelle, which marched across central Cuba in November.

Cuba remains among the world's most important sugar exporters — fourth behind Brazil, the European Union and Thailand.

Venezuelan lawmakers ask Supreme Court to annul oil pact with Cuba

Thu Aug 22, 3:48 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela - A group of opposition lawmakers asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to annul an oil assistance pact with Cuba.

Rafael Octavio Rivero, of the Social Christian Copei party, said the pact is illegal because President Hugo Chavez's government failed to seek congressional ratification before signing it in October 2000.

The Supreme Court is considering a similar case introduced earlier this year by another group of opposition politicians.

The Chavez-dominated National Assembly voted in 2000 that the pact didn't require congressional approval because it was the continuation of a 1992 pact with Cuba. Rivero argued the 1992 pact also lacked congressional approval and that it involved science and technology, not oil.

Under the 2000 pact, Venezuela sells 53,000 barrels a day of oil to Cuba under preferential financial terms. It has similar deals with other Caribbean nations.

Venezuela provides one-third of Cuba's oil imports. Chavez considers Cuban President Fidel Castro a close friend and has tightened relations with the communist island.

Executives at the state-oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela suspended shipments to Cuba during an April coup that briefly ousted Chavez, arguing Cuba owed dlrs 142 million in the deal. After Chavez regained power, PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez ordered that shipments resume in September and allowed Cuba more time to pay the debt.

Edgar Paredes, a top PDVSA executive, publicly criticized the deal this week, saying Cuba's "high levels of debt" were harming the oil company's finances.

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