18 November 2024

A Cuban minister has said that Cuba will not experience any economic growth this year owing to the impact of hurricanes Oscar and Rafael and recent seismic activity in eastern Cuba.

The three events caused damage over a period of twenty days to housing, electrical distribution, agriculture, water supply, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure in provinces in both Cuba’s east and west.

Speaking to the media about the economic effect, the Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, said despite not having an exact quantification of the impact, and it not being possible to make an accurate forecast of the impact on planned GDP growth, “it can be intuited from now on, that there will be no growth in the economy during the year.” While recovery work is underway, he said, this will largely depend on available resources.

Alonso was speaking after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale shook eastern Cuba on 10 November adding new challenges to the economy and the recovery process still underway from Hurricanes Oscar and Romero, and continuing blackouts which together have left many Cubans apprehensive and uneasy.

Highlights in this issue: 

• Russia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission meets in Havana – new agreements outlined
• China’s President authorises second round of humanitarian support for Cuba
• Trump nominates Marco Rubio to be US Secretary of State
• Extensive power outages continue despite gradual restoration of the grid
• Agriculture Minster stresses importance of recovering agriculture

The epicentre of the earthquake, according to a report by the US Geological Survey, was centred about 40km offshore and south of Bartolomé Masó in Granma province, with the effects felt particularly strongly in the small municipality of Pilon, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second-largest, and across Cuba’s eastern region.

Speaking to the media,  Alonso said that a preliminary assessment showed that more than 34,000 homes have been reported damaged by the three events, with the impact varying from total to partial with many roof collapses. In relation to the distribution of electricity, he said that around 2,449 transformers had been affected, along with high voltage towers, 200 km of distribution lines and an undetermined number of fallen cable carrying poles.

The economic damage to agriculture, he told the media, was  considerable with 37,000 ha of land dedicated to agricultural production lost along with 381 agricultural facilities. A preliminary estimate in relation to agriculture, the minister said, put the cost to Cuba at CUP383mn. He also noted that damage has been reported to twenty-two hospitals, 605 communication towers, 276 educational facilities, 189 domestic trade establishments, 25 warehouses, 88 pumping stations for water, and four bridges in different areas.

Separately, a meeting of Cuba’s National Defence Council heard that intense work is being carried out in Granma and Santiago de Cuba provinces in response to the effects of the earthquake.

The First Secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson, said that the National Centre for Seismological Research (CENAIS) had recorded more than 1,130 aftershocks, more than fifty of which were perceptible. Preliminary data in the province of Santiago de Cuba indicated that at least 230 homes were affected by the earthquake in the municipalities closest to the epicentre. Damage was also reported to some state, educational and health facilities.

Other speakers at the meeting reportedly stressed the need to respond to the sudden and large-scale event by visiting families even if they had not suffered physical or material damage, “to transmit trust and security, as well as to maintain information and social communication through all channels

Leading members of government, the military, and Communist Party who were participating also discussed work underway in the provinces of Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque to recover from Hurricane Rafael, and in Guantanamo province in relation to the earlier damage caused by Hurricane Oscar.

18 November 2024, Issue 1257 

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