Cuba will encourage introduction of efficient technologies

Havana, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba reportedly will further enforce regulations to prevent the import of technologies with low energy efficiency, marketed here by state-owned chain stores, micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

To that end, the National Office for the Control of the Rational Use of Energy is preparing a new resolution, continuing two others in force since 2021 (No. 235 and 236), to prohibit the entry of goods with high specific electricity consumption, Granma newspaper reported.

The measure will expand the modalities of regulated equipment and will be aimed at retailers such as Tiendas Caribe, Cimex and Palco, as well as micro, small and medium-sized companies, the Control Office senior specialist René Martín Páez.

According to the expert, the country needs to introduce modern technologies capable of contributing with great savings to the National Electric System and to the customers’ own economy.

If the population changes its resistance stoves for induction ones, the country would save 760,000 tons of fuel per year, and would avoid the emission into the atmosphere of an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to 2.3 million tons, he said.

The energy efficiency of induction stoves, he added, fluctuates between 75 and 80 percent, and competes with that of pots and rice cookers, although they have much higher performance.

Likewise, he added, they are more comfortable and minimize the risk of accidents due to causes such as burns.

While LED luminaires have the potential to save 200,000 tons of fuel and avoid 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, among all the consumption of the island, he argued.

They consume between 35 and 40 percent less than fluorescent lamps, and with similar quality standards, while their useful life can last at least five times longer, Páez said.

mh/jav/mem/mjm

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Cuban delegation visited hydraulic projects in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) The delegation of experts from the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) of Cuba that is on a working visit to Ethiopia today toured hydraulic projects in the city of Adama.

The Cuban group led by INRH Vice President Javier Toledo Tapanes was accompanied by State Minister of Water and Energy Asfaw Dingamo and his advisor Abera Endeshaw, the Havana embassy in Addis Ababa revealed.

They held a meeting yesterday with the director of the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute and president for the African continent of the World Meteorological Organization, Fiten Teshome.

Both parties agreed to work on capacity building in the meteorological sector.

They also visited the Ethiopian Institute of Water Technology where they exchanged views with its directors, the source said.

Since July 1, the presence of the INRH delegation is in response to a visit made by Dingamo last year to the Caribbean island, which resulted in cooperation projects in the water sector.

To that end, the Cuban experts will explore areas of collaboration in this sector.

mh/abo/ro/nmr

Posted in Exchanges | Leave a comment

Russian airline transports over 100,000 tourists to Cuba in a year

Moscow, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot Group, have flown over 100,000 tourists to Varadero Beach, a renowned seaside resort in Cuba, since such flights opened on July 1, 2023, the company reported on Wednesday.

Its release stated that Rossiya transported 110,000 on the Moscow-Varadero flight during the year. Meanwhile, 20,000 other vacationers traveled to Havana from December 2023 to May 2024.

The highest number of passengers was recorded in January this year, when almost 5,000 people chose Havana, the capital of Cuba, for their New Year’s trips. Flights from Moscow to Cuba are the longest for Rossiya Airlines.

This summer’s flights to Varadero operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Aeroflot Group’s regular flights between Russia and Cuba strengthen cooperation in the diplomatic, business, and tourism sectors.

The airline’s flights to Varadero ensure a stable flow of Russian tourists.

mh/iff/mem/gfa

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Canadian organizations demand the exclusion of Cuba from US list

Havana, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba solidarity organizations in Canada requested the exclusion of the island from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, drawn up by the United States, the Foreign Ministry announced today.

Through a message on X, the Cuban Foreign Ministry published a message reporting on the demand made from Canada, with the hashtag #NoToTerrorism and accompanied by a 42-second audiovisual material.

Coordinators of different organizations in solidarity with Cuba in Vancouver, Canada, pronounced themselves in favor of the exclusion of Cuba from the spurious list of alleged State Sponsors of Terrorism’, the post assures.

The video points out that three years ago, US President Donald Trump included Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and thus intensified the economic blockade against the Caribbean nation.

It also highlights that the country ‘has defended peace and international cooperation during the last 65 years’ and urges to increase the rejection of Trump’s decision.

mh/abo/ro/raj

Posted in The Blockade? | Leave a comment

China will not allow third parties to slander relations with Cuba

Beijing, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ming stated on Wednesday at a press conference in Beijing that China will not allow third parties to slander her country’s relations with Cuba.

In response to a publication in the Wall Street Journal, according to which there are listening stations in Chinese military bases in Cuba, she commented that “we have taken note of the report and also of the fact that Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío has pointed out that the report is groundless. The alleged Chinese military bases have never existed, nor have they ever been seen by anyone.

Mao pointed out that not even the United States Embassy in Cuba believes in friendship, camaraderie and brotherhood between both peoples.

She stressed that cooperation between China and Cuba is solemn and, above all, it is open and direct, it is not directed against a third party and slander will never be accepted or permitted as the report maliciously discredits.

The spokeswoman urged Washington to stop interfering in Cuba’s internal affairs, and denounced the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the White House for more than half a century.

“The report mentions Guantanamo, which is clear evidence of more than a century of illegal occupation by the United States in Cuba. The United States has imposed the blockade and sanctions against Cuba for more than 60 years, which has brought big disasters to the Cuban people,” she noted.

The spokeswoman also denounced Cuba’s inclusion in Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list.

“Throwing mud at others will not alleviate your own crimes. The United States must do the opposite. Stop interfering in the internal affairs of Cuba. Immediately remove Cuba from the list of so-called State Sponsors of Terrorism. Lift the blockade and sanctions against Cuba.”

jg/mem/elr

Posted in The Blockade? | Leave a comment

Cuban authorities praise teleworking modality in Cuba

Havana, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) Cuban authorities on Tuesday praised the implementation of teleworking and telecommuting as a way to support the country’s economic development.

An article published on Tuesday in Granma newspaper refers to the matter, and reviews the trajectory of this modality in Cuba.

The text recalls that in the 2023 Annual Balance Report of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS), one of the projections was to consolidate the use of telecommuting and teleworking, with the identification of positions allow the use of this modality that by their nature.

However, the 2024 report does not allude with the same force to this issue, neither as a projection, nor with concrete work results, the newspaper warns.

Granma indicates that Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero recently stressed the need to apply such labor modality wherever it is possible and controllable.

The leader noted that it is a question of distance work, teleworking, change of work, and shift work in the offices.

In this line, Labor and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito Cabrera, on her X account, has repeatedly noted the need to see telework and distance work as a constant form, and not as an alternative for contingency times during energy crises or the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the National Statistics Office (ONEI), over 4.5 million people employed in the economy in 2022, while the MTSS reported that about half a million employees were teleworking or telecommuting in 2021.

Considering the benefits of these employment modalities under the current domestic conditions, it is necessary even more to promote it, the article notes.

Since 2013, Law 116, Labor Code, established that the parties in the workplace have to agree on the schedule, duration the working day and structure of it. Meanwhile, Resolution 71 of 2021 establishes, properly speaking, a regulation on teleworking and telecommuting.

According to MTSS Employment Director Ariel Fonseca, in his recent appearance on the “Cuadrando la Caja” TV program, both are flexible forms of work organization, as they do not depend on the presence of the worker in the labor institution.

He explained that in teleworking, the employee does his work at home or in another place outside the entity, but the communication, the interaction with the institution is done through technological means.

On the other hand, in telecommuting, the employees are outside the entity, but do not depend on technology and, therefore, with more frequency, they visit the workplace where their are hired.

jg/omr/mem/rfc

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dutch doctors demand Cuba’s removal from US terrorism list

Amsterdam, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) Dutch physicians and from other European countries demanded on Tuesday that United States President Joe Biden remove Cuba from the unilateral States Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list.

In a letter to the US president, the Cuba-Europe Educational and Scientific Exchange (CEESE) organization warned about the impact of this type of measures, conceived by the White House to increase financial pressure on sovereign nations.

More than governments, these actions severely harm the people, especially children, according to a research conducted along with colleagues from Italy and the United Kingdom, says the letter, signed by Dutch Doctor and Professor Paul Jonas, who shared it with Prensa Latina.

The specialists published a study entitled “Economic Sanctions on Countries are Indiscriminate Weapons and Should Be Banned” in the British Medical Journal in 2021.

The primary care expert from Leiden University Medical Center and CEESE secretary urged President Biden on behalf of his colleagues to pay attention to the study.

“We hope that you will take note of the results of our research, because you always claim to support and protect the Cuban people,” he stressed.

Cuba was included again on the unilateral SSOT list in January 2021, just a few days before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, as part of his policy to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba for over six decades, a crusade that Biden has maintained.

The letter warns that with Cuba’s presence on that list, the US Government harms its own people by hindering scientific cooperation between institutions from both countries.

Jonas recalled that during the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuba developed vaccines that could be tested and administered in the US, where the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus killed more than one million people.

The medical professionals from the CEESE noted that Washington’s hostility affects medical and scientific exchange between European institutions and Cuba, in an example of the extraterritorial scope of the blockade.

“When I am asked why Cuba is on the SSOT list, I do not have an answer, because the inclusion is not based on any evidence,” the signatory of the letter said.

The text supports decisions that reject the blockade and call for its lifting, among them those issued by the United Nations General Assembly in annual resolutions dating back to 1992.

jg/omr/mem/wmr

Posted in The Blockade? | Leave a comment

AMLO expresses gratitude to Cuba for physicians’ work

Mexico, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday reaffirmed his gratitude to the people and Government of Cuba for sending doctors to this nation.

“We want to thank the Cuban people and Government because they are helping us by sending specialists that we do not have in our country,” the president assured at his regular press conference.

The head of State recalled that the neoliberal policy prevailing in Mexico for decades abandoned public education, especially at the higher level, and young people who wanted to study medicine were rejected on the pretext that they did not pass the entrance exam.

“The truth is that there was not enough budget and thousands were rejected. In the end, the result is that we do not have the specialists that the country requires,” Lopez Obrador stressed, stating that in this eagerness to privatize, the nation was left without the possibility of having more doctors.

We have been soaring the number of scholarships for these professionals and we are going to leave some 200 regional medical universities; however, they are not enough and that is why the Cuban Government is helping us, he added.

According to AMLO, at the beginning of his term he visited several hospitals that have been affiliated to the IMSS-Bienestar program for the federalization of healthcare services for people without social security, about half of the population, and he found that there was a shortage of specialists.

“We want to be able to raise white flags in the states in September and say, there is a 100-percent supply of medicines, we already have general practitioners, we already have specialists. It is quite a challenge. And it is not Denmark, it is going to be better, because we have been working for a long time”, the president announced.

jg/omr/mem/las

Posted in Healthcare | Leave a comment

Cuba Solidarity Meeting announced in Spain

Madrid, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) The 17th Cuba Solidarity Meeting will take place from October 4 to 6 in Torremolinos, Malaga, the Preparatory Commission of the event announced.

The State Cuba Solidarity Movement (MESC) expressed certainty that the event will have an important participation of representatives of different organizations in Spain, in the perspective of becoming a new milestone in the reinforcement of support for the Caribbean island.

In its call, the MESC pointed out that the material living conditions of the Cuban people are in a very difficult situation as a result of the United States blockade that has been tightened in recent times.

It recalled that during the Donald Trump administration, 240 new economic measures were approved in 2019 to tighten the blockade, adding Cuba’s inclusion on the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list.

In that regard, it meant that the action taken in January 2020, a few days before the end of his (Trump’s) presidency, implied that banking agencies and all international financial institutions would stop giving credits to Cuba and the situation of lack of foreign currency would worsen.

The MESC stressed that during the Joe Biden administration, “despite his electoral campaign promises to reverse Trump’s measures against Cuba, the blockade conditions for Cuba were maintained, since he did not dare remove them them due to pressure from the anti-Cuba mafia.”

After making a broad review of Cuba’s confrontation with Covid-19 and the ingenuity of its scientists to create the island’s own vaccines, the MESC noted that in 2023, the International Tribunal against the Blockade was held successfully at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, with the participation of world-renowned jurists and the active participation of the MESC.

The previous Cuba Solidarity Meeting was held in 2022 in Puerto de Sagunto, Valencia.

jg/arm/arc/ft

Posted in The Blockade? | Leave a comment

Association of Jurists calls for end to US aggression against Cuba

Buenos Aires, Jul 2 (Prensa Latina) The American Association of Jurists (AAJ) on Tuesday demanded Cuba’s exclusion from Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) list and an end to the blockade that the United States has imposed on the Caribbean island.

The AAJ issued a statement urging the US Government to lift the blockade and all sanctions, which violate international standards and human rights.

The association also expressed the urgent and immediate need to remove Cuba from the SSOT list, which it considered contrary to the fundamental principles and peremptory norms of law.

“The AAJ denounces this hostile action and demands the total and immediate removal of the designation of Cuba as a country that promotes terrorism. Once again, this unilateral action violates the United Nations Charter, whose precepts include respect for the principle of equality and the self-determination of peoples,” the declaration states.

“It also fails to comply with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly that, with the approval of overwhelming majorities, call for an end to the blockade. The list is contrary to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” the association added.

The AAJ considered that “this arbitrary decision aims to maintain in force and intensify the implementation of the unjust and inhuman blockade, as well as the coercive measures, to deprive the Cuban people of their right to self-determination, and their political, civil, economic, social, cultural, and development rights.”

“The blockade and other actions cause serious damage to Cuba’s economy in all its aspects, including infrastructure, industry, energy sources, finances and agriculture. It has dire consequences for the population who suffers in terms of health care, food and other basic needs,” the AAJ pointed out.

jg/llp/jha/gas

Posted in The Blockade? | Leave a comment