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Yahoo!
December 30, 2002.
Cuba Faces New Traffic Congestion Woes
By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 28,
6:11 AM ET
HAVANA - With its economy emerging from a decade of stagnation, Cuba finds
itself suddenly overwhelmed with traffic — a situation that officials say
is endangering lives.
Cubans who depended on bicycles to get them through fuel shortages of the
1990s are getting behind the wheel again, and the resulting gridlock has
prompted new traffic laws along with steep fines. They take effect on Jan. 1.
With traffic accidents the leading cause of violent death on the island, and
the fourth cause of all deaths, order must be restored to Cuba's streets and
highways, said Lt. Col. Francisco Buzon, head of the traffic division of the
National Revolutionary Police.
Among other things, drivers will be banned from using a cell phone with
their hands, playing overly loud music, or abandoning a car with engine problems
in the road — a common practice.
A national traffic safety commission is also being created to study creation
of a new and more complete code of traffic laws while more traffic police will
be assigned to the streets.
New fines will begin at $1.50 — a significant penalty in a nation where
the average government worker's monthly salary is only about $17.
Authorities hope the new law will "increase caution and responsibility
by drivers," said Maj. Raul Mora, of the Interior Ministry's Legal
Division.
There are an average of 28 traffic accidents daily in this country of 11
million, resulting in an average of three deaths and 28 injuries, Buzon said.
While the number of accidents has remained roughly the same over the past
several dozen years, the number of deaths has increased. "And that is our
concern," he told a news conference Friday.
After the collapse of the former Soviet Union more than a decade ago,
petroleum supplies dried up and many people took to the streets in bicycles to
get to work or school. As Cuba's economy has slowly recovered, cars have slowly
returned to the nation's roads.
Castro Appears for Book Presentation
Sun Dec 29,11:38 PM ET
HAVANA - President Fidel Castro showed up Sunday night for the presentation
of a new book, making his first public appearance almost two weeks after a
serious infection in his leg forced him out of the spotlight.
Wearing his traditional olive green uniform, the 76-year-old leader was
shown on state television, greeting several people as he walked without apparent
trouble into a meeting room of the National Library. He took a front row seat
for the book presentation.
On Dec. 21, Castro excused himself from a meeting of parliament saying in a
letter he was suffering from an injury to his leg.
In another letter, published on Dec. 25 in the Communist Party daily Granma,
Castro said that he had suffered an insect bite in his left leg that became
seriously infected and that doctors had prescribed antibiotics and rest.
It was the first time Castro had ever publicly mentioned an illness during
his nearly 44 years in power.
The book presented Sunday night was a collection of political cartoons drawn
by Gerardo Hernandez, one of five Cuban men serving sentences in the United
States on espionage charges. | 
