Nicolás Rivero, Rivero International
[1] Since the publication of the Anuario Estadístico 1989, the government of Cuba has not published new statistics on the performance of the country. The only source of economic and social data comes mostly in the form of speeches and interviews from high government officials such as Fidel Castro, Carlos Lage and José Luis Rodríguez. Information can also be obtained from a few technical articles published by a small number of academicians. The lack of statistical series after 1989 makes it quite difficult to quantify the performance of the economy with any degree of exactitude.
[2] Interview with Carlos Lage, Tele Rebelde, November 7, 1992.
[3] Based on data published in Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, Cuba: Handbook of Trade Statistics (U), September 1992 and Cuba: Handbook of Economic Statistics, 1991.
[4] For further analysis of Cuba's nickel industry, see La Sociedad Económica, Bulletin 26, "Cuba Nickel: Market & Production Outlook" by J.P. Rathbone, January 19th 1993. Although the nickel industry was originally developed by U.S. companies in the early 1940s, today's plants are of Soviet design and are very energy-intensive with high production costs.
[5] Sugar mills generate about one-fifth of total energy output using bagasse as boiler fuel. As a partial alternative to imported oil Cuba began construction, with Soviet economic aid and technology, of a nuclear power plant at Juraguá, but on September 4, 1992 Fidel Castro indicated that although construction was advanced, the project had to be halted due to the new relations with Russia. According to Julio Carranza Valdés, this nuclear plant would have served Cuba about three million tons of imported oil per year.
[6] East-West Center, Energy Advisory N[[ordmasculine]] 87, 1 February 1992.
[7] Television interview with Carlos Lage, November 7, 1992; see also Julio Carranza Valdés, op. cit.
[8] Inter Press Service "Cuba: Bid to Attract Foreign Oil Investors May Have Failed", datelined London August 2, 1993.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Henry C. Wallich, Monetary Problems of an Export Economy (New York: , 19 ), pp. .
[11] In his November 7, 1992 television interview, Carlos Lage stated that "if we are to take an overview inventory of the situation of the country's economy; the whole air fleet is Soviet; all of the sugarcane industry machinery, the combines are all Soviet. More than 60 percent of the electric generating equipment is Soviet and a good part of the hydroelectric plants and equipment at the hydroelectric plants is Czechoslovakian. That means there is no sector of the economy where there has not been an important technical influence of the socialist bloc."
[12] Lecture by Pedro Monreal, Georgetown University, August 4, 1993.
[13] Julio Carranza Valdés, op.cit