Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19780120
-YEAR-
1978
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
DEDICATION OF BULK SUGAR TERMINAL
-PLACE-
PUERTO CARUPANO, LAS TUNAS PROVINCE
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19780120
-TEXT-
Text of Castro Speech

FL202317Y Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2209 GMT 20 Jan 78 FL

[Speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro at dedication of bulk sugar
terminal in Puerto Carupano, Las Tunas Province--live]

[Text]  Comrade workers, dear compatriots of Las Tunas Province:  We
thought there was going to be a small event on this wharf, and we have
found this large crowd, which will not even be able to applaud because
there is no room.  [applause]  We have reason to be satisfied, more than
enough reasons to be satisfied and happy this afternoon; among them is the
dedication of this project, which is of great significance for all.

This matter of raw sugar has a history.  In the last century, sugar was
loaded in wooden boxes.  There were times when it was loaded in barrels,
which weighed 500 pounds and even more than 1,000.  Can you imagine a team
of oxen hauling barrels which weigh 1,000 pounds?  But above all, can you
imagine what men had to do in order to load those barrels onto the wagons
and afterward aboard vessels?  Things improved later on and the sugar was
loaded in smaller boxes.  But in those days, sugar did not come out as
refined as it is now.  The sugar was a little bit like molasses candy.
That is why it could not be packed in bags and boxes were used instead.
The technology improved later on and the sugar grains were more refined,
drier, and it became possible to pack the sugar in bags.  But that did not
improve the life of the workers in the least, because then it was packed in
325-pound bags.  The workers in the warehouses of our sugar mills, at the
railroad cars and at the ports then had to shoulder bags weighing 325
pounds.  Listen, you must have very strong shoulders to carry 325-pound
bags, and on top of that they had very little nourishment.  No one can
imagine how our workers were able to carry those bags.  They were true
heroes.

Afterward, as a result of our workers' struggle, they were able to attain a
reduction in the weight of the sugar bags.  What was the reduction?  Was it
250 pounds?  How much did this bag weigh?  Not this one; this is 100
pounds.  It was approximately 250 pounds; the weight of the bag was
reduced.  But it continued to be a tragedy.  Everything was done by hand,
and on the shoulders.  In addition, another factor is the loading time for
a vessel--10 days, 15 days, 20 days and even 25 days loading a vessel.  All
that work was done by hand.  It is clear that the capitalists were
interested in shipping the sugar in bulk because they saved in manpower,
made more money.  But the workers said: No, then we would be unemployed.
We would rather carry the 325- or 250-pound bags than allow the sugar to be
handled in bulk.  In those days, the sugar mills were owned by the property
owners; the railroads were owned by the property owners; the ports were
owned by the property owners and the capitalists.  The people had nothing.
They would gain nothing from the handling of bulk sugar because they would
be left without jobs.  The workers opposed it.

Everything changed later on.  The sugar mills ceased to be owned by the
property owners; the canefields and sugarcane areas ceased to be owned by
the landowners; the transportation means ceased to be owned by the
capitalists; the ports ceased to be operated by private enterprise; and
everything became the property of others.  Whose property?  [Crowd answers:
"The people"]  It became the property of the people.  It became the
property of our workers and peasants.  Then, it was possible.  If it was
going to benefit the workers, if it was going to benefit the people, let
the sugar come in bulk.  [Castro smiles as the crowd applauds]  With the
revolution, unemployment ended and the problem was another thing.  There
was a lack of arms to carry the bags, haul them and carry them to the
ports.

Then, the bulk sugar was going to solve a serious problem of the country's
economy and of the people.  That is what socialism can do by making the
contradiction between an economy that does not belong to the people and the
people's interest disappear. When the economy belongs to the people, then
let everything come.  Let the harvester that liberates us from cutting by
hand come; let the bulk sugar that liberates us from carrying those bags
come; let mechanized transportation come; let mechanization come; let
automation come, because all of this belongs to the people.

Thus, with the triumph of the revolution, this system of bulk sugar began
to develop.  During the first years of the revolution, Che showed great
concern over this and in stepping up the construction of the first bulk
sugar warehouses, the first terminals.  The first were those at Guayabal
and at Matanzas.  Later on, the one at Cienfuegos was built.  In order to
show you the benefits derived from one of these terminals, suffice it to
point out that more than 10 million tons of sugar have been shipped through
the Cienfuegos terminal since it was built.

And in bags alone--and bags have to be imported and paid for in foreign
currency--the Cienfuegos bulk sugar terminal has saved 50 million pesos in
foreign exchange for the country.  However, it is not only the millions and
tens of millions in foreign exchanged that is has saved, but the hundreds
of thousands, the millions of hours of hard work it has saved for our
workers.

Four more terminals are not being built and completed--the Boqueron
terminal in Guantanamo, which was completed in the middle of last year;
this one in Carupano, which is inaugurated today, the one in Mariel, which
will be inaugurated very soon; and the Ceiba Hueca in Manzanillo, which
will be inaugurated this year.  Four more terminals and we will then have
seven bulk sugar terminals.  These seven terminals represent a labor
savings of between 5,000 and 6,000 men p er year.  Furthermore, they
represent a great savings in foreign exchange, which we had to spend on
bags.

These are not the only benefits.  Sugar has to be sold to specific buyers
in the world.  These buyers have built sugar installations.  In order to be
able to export sugar, they want the sugar in bulk because it reduces costs.
Our country must be prepared for such exports.  Of course, not all
customers buy bulk sugar.  There are always some customers who do not have
the piers to handle bulk sugar, and they buy sugar in bags.  Refined sugar
cannot be shipped in bulk.  It must be shipped in bags.  But bag shipment
is also being mechanized, and we already have mechanized shipment of bags
in Matanzas, and we will soon have [mechanized] shipment in bags in
Guayabal for those customers who want sugar in bags or for those customers
who buy refined sugar.

The fact is that by 1980, with much better harvests, 90 percent, 90 percent
of big harvests, 90 percent of our sugar exports will be mechanized.  But
there is something more--the time that is saved in ships, the 10, 15, 20
and 25 days is reduced to 1 day.  We are going to load that Soviet ship
with 5,000 tons.  In a few hours--10 or 12 hours--we will load that ship.
We would have taken 10 days by other means.  And the countries that buy our
sugar also need to take advantage of their ships and their labor force, and
save time.  It is not the same thing to spend 24 hours to load a ship and
24 days to load another. The [former] ship can make more trips and produces
more.  Moreover, this allows us to fulfill our commitments; our harvest to
grow; shipments to increase annually.  With these warehouses, we can load
ships in no time at all, in a few hours.  In this way, we free man from
some hard work.  This is what socialism does.  When it introduces
technology, it does not do it to enslave the worker; to exploit the worker;
to leave the worker jobless, but to help him.  And in this way, thousands
of our port workers are freed from such hard work.

When we were visiting the port and warehouses, we saw some comrades who
were not carrying bags.  They were moving a lever, opening the chutes.
Some women were handling the automatic controls with some little
buttons--so much sugar, 100 tons, for this hold; 600 for that one; 550 for
the other, and so forth for the other hold and the other one because
everything cannot be loaded simultaneously into a ship's hold or else the
ship can capsize.  But with buttons, the women were loading hundreds of
tons in hours--in an hour which before took scores of workers days.  This
means that the workers, doing work that is less hard, will load three times
more sugar in a year.

Can you imagine that the last bag of sugar was delivered here?  It was bag
No 102,888,898.  I remember it, I remember it.  [applause]  I remember it
because after the 102, all were eights except the second to the last, which
was a nine.  [laughter]  I said to myself:  Caramba!  If there had been 10
bags less, we would have had 102,888,888.  [laughter]  But we no longer
have a lottery or the numbers racket or anything like that.  [laughter]  So
we cannot be playing.  In any case, it is a beautiful number:  102 million.
How were those bags loaded; how through this port?  With so much effort; so
much sweat; so much sacrifice; so many problems of [workers] columns; so
many difficulties so that our generations of workers could load 102 million
bags on their shoulders!

This installation has many other encouraging things.  In the first place,
the project is 100 percent Cuban.  Cuban planners, we are already capable
of doing some things.  Cuban executors.  Moreover, it is a very rational
project.  All the old bag warehouses were used and adapted, and now,
instead of warehousing bags, they are used for warehousing bulk sugar.  The
old installations were used.

All mechanized means were established.  This is the work of the engineers
and architects; they adapted everything; they prepared everything.  There
was narrow gauge, some 100 km of it, and everything could not be changed
just like that.  They built two railways--one narrow gauge and another
standard gauge.  This makes it possible for the [railroad] hopper cars to
travel on both standard gauge and narrow gauge.  Guiteras and Menendez
[sugar mills] can use the narrow gauge and the Urbano Norris, Cristino
Naranjo and Antonio Maceo [sugar mills] can use the standard gauge.  The
Rafael Freyre [sugar mill] uses the road.  There is where the narrow
gauge hopper cars and dump trucks which carry the sugar on the road unload.
[sentence as heard]  Everything is solved.  In addition, traffic is much
better:  One uses one way and another uses others.

But besides, the standard hopper cars have not yet been built here; they
had to be imported from Japan.  But we are already building the narrow
gauge hopper cars.  I do not mean just here in Cuba, but here in Tunas the
narrow gauge hopper cars were built.  [applause]  With what were they
built?  They were built with old wheels.  It is an English name--that is
why I do not know.  It is called "trucks."  What do the workers call it?
Well, let us call it a set of wheels as Almeida calls it.  We built the new
hopper cars, which did not come from abroad but were built by Tunas
workers, on old sets of wheels.

There is something else:  In the future, the standard gauge hopper cars
will also be built by us.  The interesting thing is that not only was the
project and building done here, but many of this terminal's components were
also built here.  With the exception of the scale--I do not know where the
scale is; I think he left it behind; there it is!  We had to
import it...[leaves thought unfinished]  The comrades of the Sugar Industry
Ministry are already conducting studies to see if we can build it here.
They are very expensive--$250,000.  But if we bring the materials and
components, we can build them here and save tens of thousands of dollars.
We can save as well as create jobs in our country.

The rest of the mechanical components, except for the materials and motors,
we built everything here in this terminal.  This represents a development.
We will have draftsmen, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, architects.
Our workers acquire experience and manufacture all those things here.  This
undoubtedly represents an advance.

Now then, we have completed four new bulk sugar terminals.  We had to do
something about it, because the revolution builds so many
projects--factories, schools, hospitals--that it does not have the time to
inaugurate them.  We could not let the completion of our bulk sugar
terminals go by without honoring the inauguration.  We had to pick one.
Which one should we pick?  We said:  the Carupano terminal.  [applause]
Why?  It is a tribute to the port workers of Carupano.  [applause]  Because
throughout the years, they have been the most outstanding sugar bag workers
throughout all these years of revolution.  They have saved foreign
currency, because there is an agreement that when a vessel arrives in port,
it should be unloaded or loaded in so many days.  If the country which
exports does not load the vessel in that number of days, it has to pay the
vessel the per deim--and it has to pay it in foreign currency for every
hour, for every day of delay.

If the vessel is loaded ahead of schedule, then the vessel has to pay the
country.  Over many years, the Carupano port workers not only have saved in
per diem, but have loaded the vessel ahead of schedule--and, consequently,
obtained foreign currency for the country.  The large majority of the
vessels they loaded in these ports had to pay prompt clearance.  [applause]
The Carupano workers have established a large number of production records,
and now, when the Carupano workers will no longer have to carry sugar on
their shoulders; when the country has four more bulk sugar terminals and
one of them had to be dedicated, the fairest thing to do to recognize those
workers by the country was to dedicate this terminal in the port of
Carupano.  [applause]

This tribute includes all the workers of Las Tunas Province and it includes
selfless sugarcane workers, sugar industry workers and transportation
workers.  Las Tunas has now become a province.  It is not yet a rich
province.  Let us say that Las Tunas is less developed than other
provinces.  We are not calling it poor.  We could not say it is poor.  We
are not calling it Cinderella [laughter in the crowd]; that is what Pinar
del Rio Province was called.

Let us say that it is a province less developed than other provinces of the
country for one reason or another.  They are historic reasons.  In some
cases, the raw materials determine where to establish new industries.
Other cases are determined by the port, geographic location.  Las Tunas is
not rich in mineral resources.  Its resources are primarily agricultural.
Nevertheless, the province has developed somewhat.  It now has one of the
country's largest sugar mills--the Guiteras sugar mill.  It has several big
mills--the Mendez, Argelia, Colombia [applause], Amancio Rodriguez and Peru
sugar mills.

You do not have any small sugar mills; they are all big.  And they continue
growing and increasing their capabilities.  The capabilities of the Jesus
Menendez, Amancio, Colombia, Peru and practically all the others will
increase.  And the possibility for a new sugar mill is under study for the
time when we attain greater sugarcane production; when the lands still now
under cultivation are in production; when we attain greater yields per
caballeria, and when we are able to expand the irrigation areas.  We are
working on this.

You know how these zones are.  Sometimes they are too dry.  It does not
rain.  And when there is no need for rain, it rains.  But we do not have
any big river here.  The Cauto River did not want to come through here and
it went over there.  [the same with] the Nipe, Toa, Mayari.  We do not have
any big rivers here.  It is not easy to find water.  [There are] some
underground basins, some small streams where microdams are built, and some
slightly bigger ones where we can build certain dams.  An effort is being
made to study all the hydraulic possibilities of this province to see how
we can expand the irrigation area.  In any case, you will be one of the
most important sugar producing provinces in this country.  Production is
growing.  This year, sugar production increased according to plan from
slightly more than 500,000 tons to nearly 700,000.  It is a big increase.
We have much more sugarcane this year.  And we can have a good harvest.

Investments are being made in the sugar industry to order to expand and
modernize it.  In the future, we will have a daily grinding capacity of
slightly more than 5 million arrobas.

There is an industrial development plan for Las Tunas.  It is not too big,
but it is something.  Those were the data we were asking.  [sentence as
heard]  In this 5-year period, there is an industrial development plan of
more than 1 million pesos.  The principal investments that are being made
or planned are:  the mechanical structures factory in Tunas, with a
capacity for 20,000 tons; the bottle factory, with a capacity for some 300
million bottles--and since we have to work it is good to have refreshment:
a beer; a little rum now and then, especially if it rains hard--of food
stuffs,milk, fruits, medicines.  In any case, we are going to have in Tunas
a good bottle factory which will be the country's largest.  [applause]
There are:  the floor title factory; the gravel and sand cleaning plant;
the yeast factory in Guiteras, which will be able to produce 10,000 tons of
yeast in order to utilize the molasses and get proteins from which we can
get food; the bakery in Tunas; nine sugarcane collection and preprocessing
centers; the silos; the liquid livestock feed factory; the bagasse boards
factory of the Jesus Menedez Sugar Mill, which converts bagasse into boards
and boards into furniture, housing and whatever is needed [applause], the
refreshments factory; the Puerto Padre Salt Works; the prefabricated
elements factory; the Guayabal bulk sugar terminal--its expansion so that
it can have mechanized shipments of bags--this one which we are
inaugurating today in Carupano.

There are:  industrial investments in the Peru, Argelia Libre and Guiteras
sugar mills, the diesel locomotives installation shop; the Jesus Menendez
sugar mill's factory for hydros lime; reconstruction and expansion of the
shop in the Amancio [sugar mill], and reconstruction and expansion of the
shop in the Argelia Libre.

These are the industrial investments planned for this province during the
present 5-year period.  Aside from this, there is an important social
investments plan such as urban basic secondary schools and basic secondary
schools in the countryside, and hospitals.  Two big hospitals are under
construction--one in Puerto Padre and another in Tunas.  A primary school
teachers training school is under construction and a number of other
projects, such as child care centers and homes for the elderly.  However,
we need more.  We now have to determine in what period we are going to
include other investments we need:  the Camilitos [military vocational]
school for the province, a vocational school for the province--that is to
say, the Camilito vocational school; the physical education teachers
training school for the province; the basic sports training school for the
province; the arts school for the province; the school of education for the
province, and the province's school of medicine.  And this is not counting
technological and polytechnical schools.

There is an entire program of social development.  But considering that
this is one of the less developed provinces; devoted to agriculture, it
belongs to a group of provinces where it will become necessary in the
future to step up the construction of housing, the construction of urban
and rural housing.  We cannot have so much cane and so much countryside
without housing.  The workers living conditions have to be improved in the
industries and in agriculture.  A program of investments in irrigation has
to be completed in order to increase production.  Comrade Faure [chomon]
was telling me that in general the province needs a greater effort on
roads.  We will have to build sports, recreational facilities.  We have to
find a way of making good use of that beach you have very near here.
[applause]

A road is already under construction.  Not only do we have to think about
beaches but also about some pools in the municipalities, in the cities of
the interior.  Not only should you use those centers as recreational places
during the summer but also for children's sports and to produce some
champions.  You already have a boxing champ.  [someone yells "Stevenson";
applause]  He is 2 or 3 kilograms overweight, but the trainers consider him
to be in excellent condition, which makes us believe that for a long time
to come you will have a champ in the highest division of boxing.
[applause]  The rest of the sports should be developed.  The physical
education teacher-training school will greatly contribute to that as will
the basic sports training school.

Investments have to be made in waterworks, sewers.  In a word, we believe
that as a matter of national justice, these less developed provinces should
be given greater attention and aid from the planning agencies of our
economy.  But we feel optimistic.  We will have more gravel, more sand,
more cement.  We have the strong-arms.  We have machinery, much machinery.
Those arms liberated from canecutting by the harvesters and those liberated
from the ports are arms that can be used in other activities needed by the
country.

Perhaps I should have pointed out also among the mechanization efforts that
one I mentioned--the one of sugarcane.  How many thousands and thousands of
manual workers have we liberated with the harvesters?  In the neighboring
province of Holguin, we already have a good and modern harvester factory.
[applause]  We expect that you will not be forgotten.  Your land is flat
and can be mechanized perfectly well.  Thus, cutting cane by hand has been
partially liberated and will continue to be liberated progressively in the
future.

This is the revolution.  This is socialism. [applause] The cultural levels
are being raised.  There is an accelerated ongoing progress in school
attendance in this province and in the rest of the country.  The number of
students is continuously growing in Las Trunas province.  All of you--sugar
industry and port workers; cane workers; transportation workers;
construction workers--know that your children have a guaranteed opportunity
to study whatever they want to.  They have the opportunity in education,
which in the past only the children of the bouregois and landowners had.
There is not a single child in this province without a school, without a
teacher, without an opportunity to attend a secondary school, a polytechnic
or preuniversity institute.  And if he is outstanding in his studies, he
has the opportunity to attend centers of higher education.  Then, today
could become physicians, engineers, artists, athletes or highly qualified
workers.  All the opportunities are within reach.  That is what socialism
and revolution mean. [applause]

Health is assured with the hospitals, polyclinics, dental clinics, child
care centers for working mothers--in one word, as many possibilities as the
revolution can offer our people.  We have to struggle.  We have to work.
We have to face up to the various difficulties which arise.  Now in Tunas,
a special effort is demanded from us in this harvest, first because the
planned sugar production increases by almost 200,000 tons of sugar.  The
cane is there and we have to cut it, process it and export it through this
port.

In the past, the port could ship 200,000 tons; now, it can ship 600,000
with much fewer workers.  But we have to produce the sugar.  Climatic
conditions have been adverse at the beginning of the harvest.  There were
heavy rains in December and heavy rains in January that have delayed us,
especially here in this province.  The sugarcane is not giving high yields
yet because of humidity.  And cutting and transportation have been
interrupted because of the rains.  Therefore, we are delayed in some
provinces, especially in Las Tunas and Holguin.  In Tunas, we are now at 72
percent of the plan as a result of these initial difficulties in December
and the first half of January.  However, we are not going to allow
ourselves to be defeated by nature.  We still have a few months of the
harvest.

The situation is not the same in all sugar mills.  There has been more
delay in the Guiteros, Jesus Menendez, Argelia and Amancio sugar mills.
There are some problems which have affected--but not as much--some [other]
sugar mill's greater or lesser effectiveness and organization.  In any
case, there are four sugar mills where we must make a special effort.
Number one is the Amancio because it is located in the south and the spring
rains first begin in the south.  That is why Amancio must make a special
effort.  And here, the Argelia has to work hard because it usually rains
first around the Argelia, where the terrain is lower.  Generally speaking,
we can work in the Guiteras and Menendez sugar mills during May.  We have
that possibility.  But the province as a whole needs to make a great effort
in the months still remaining.  It has to cut and grind more than ever--not
80 [percent] or 85, but 90 or higher.  We must not let nature defeat us.
The country requires this effort.

We are making a good harvest and we propose to have a good harvest with
sufficient sugar.  We are not going to disclose figures yet.  Perhaps a
little later on we will set aside sugar discretion and we will say what we
are producing year by year.  Let our competitors advise each other.
[laughter]  In any case, we are mechanizing cutting, transportation and
ports, and we are automating the sugar mills.  We do not have to fear
anyone.  And prices...well, they will get used to the idea that we are big
sugar producers.  We have our socialist market.  We have the Soviet market,
which accepts much sugar.  Therefore, our markets are assured.  It is no
longer the mess of the past with restricted harvests here and over there.
No, no.  There will be nothing [like that].  We have sugar to satisfy the
quotas of world markets and satisfy the growing needs of our friends, the
socialist countries.  [applause]

Now then, with these delays that have accumulated in this province and in
Holguin, we have to make a special effort.  The party, government and
country expect a special effort from you, the people of Tunas.  Tunas has
never fallen behind--not in the '68 war or in the '95 war, or in the last
struggles for liberation.  Tunas never fell behind in patriotism or in the
will to work. [applause] Tunas will not fall behind in this harvest.
[applause] It does not matter how much it rains.  You who have some of the
country's biggest sugar mills; you who are big sugar producers will not
fall behind.  It does not matter how much is will rain; you will not fall
behind in the harvest or in the [sugarcane] cultivation or plantings
because in this year of 1978, we not only have to assure the present
harvest, but also assure the one for 1979, which must be bigger, and the
one for 1980, which must be even bigger.  What we are cultivating now is
for next year.  What we are planting now is for the next harvest.  And what
we plant after June is for the 1980 harvest.  In other words, three
harvests will be decided this year--the '78 and '80 harvests.

We have been gaining ground in [sugar] agriculture and industry.  That is
why now we feel certain when we speak of big harvests.  We have the
sugarcane.  We have excess sugarcane.  It has to be ground. [We have] new
varieties that are yielding more.  In recent days, we have been spreading a
new variety--a very, very good one which has a high sugar yield.  The old
POJ is behind us and the 42331 [variety] is also being left out.  It
resists drought but has a low yield.  It grows much but does not produce
much sugar.  Sugar is foremost, plus molasses, bagasse and whatever is
necessary.  The country is changing its position on sugarcane shoots for
sugarcane with much higher yields.  The results can be seen in some
provinces such as in Havana and Matanzas, where there has been rain and yet
they are already almost at 12 in yield. [as heard] They are growing quickly
and durable because the Barbados-4362, the Jaronu-60-5, the Cuba-87-51 are
sugarcanes of great agricultural yields and of important industrial yields.

This is an investment, because if you have sugarcane that gives 10 percent
more sugar it is as if the capacities of the sugar mills are expanded by 10
percent.  It is very important.

We are now developing and importing new varieties.  And we have great hopes
to improve the qualities of our sugarcanes.

We are working intensely on irrigation.  There is a plan to have 50,000
hectares by 1980...[Castro corrects himself] not 50,000 hectares, but
50,000 caballerias of sugarcane under irrigation.  And work is already in
progress on plans to reach 100,000 caballerias of sugarcane under
irrigation by 1990.  We will have greater assurance to cultivate and plant.
We now have to wait for rain with tens of thousands of caballerias ready
for planting when it rains.  And sometimes when it rains it rains too much.
It is better to have the water to plant in January, February and March.  We
thereby take better advantage of the planting.  We have better quality
planting.  We can apply herbicides and we can use the fertilizers, use them
much better, assure the harvests.  If there is much rain in the year, we
can store the water.  If the year is dry, we then use the stored water.

The country is getting full of dams and microdams.  In the not too distant
future, all the rivers and stream will be dammed.  We will not depend only
on nature.  Drought will not affect us as much.  The rains...well that is
one thing we cannot control for now; no one knows if they can be controlled
in the future.  The rains fall and our people do not have any spigot.
However, in order to fight droughts which at times cause us a lot of
damage, we will have the dams, microdams and irrigation systems.  And our
country will mount its sugar production on very, very solid
foundations--mechanized, technological, with sugarcane harvesters for
cutting; with herbicides for cleaning; with fertilizers for increasing
production; with machines for plowing; with modern transportation means,
and with ports like this one form which to ship the sugar.

We have advanced much during these years.  In the past, all cutting was by
hand; all hoisting was by hand; all weeding was with spades; all shipment
was done on the shoulders--without any dam; without any irrigation,
defenseless against droughts.  And during these years, not only has the
revolution been consolidated; not only has it defeated its internal enemies
and external enemies; not only has it developed a broad internationalists
policy and helped other nations, but we, with our work, almost 100 percent
of the hoisting is done with machines.  [sentence as heard]  The sugarcane
collection and preprocessing stations have increased their productivity.
The sugarcane harvesters will be cutting around 60 percent of the harvest
by 1980.  A large portion of the weeds is eliminated with herbicides by the
use of machines and planes.  Fertilization is used on a large scale, and
irrigation is being expanded at an accelerated rate.

These are the new foundations which in these years our people have been
creating so as to have a solid economy without dead times; without hunger;
without illiteracy; without a lack of teachers and schools; without a lack
of doctors and hospitals.  This is the result and fruit of our work.  And
we will continue advancing.  We will continue developing the country.  And
we will accelerate [development of] the less developed provinces.  And we
will continue building and continue solving problems.  And [even] if this
generation does not have everything resolved, we know that these children
who are growing up now will live with confidence in a world much better
than the one we knew and even better than ours.  [applause]  We are working
for this.  We are struggling for this.  And in this effort and this
struggle, we are counting on you, people of Tunas, to be on the frontline
and to give a prompt response to the calls of the fatherland and the
revolution with the provincial People's Government organs [applause]; with
the party in this province and its leaders, and with our Comrade Faure
[applause], and old comrade-in-arms Faure Chomon, secretary of the party in
this province.  [prolonged applause]

We congratulate all of you for your brilliant successes.  And to all of you
people of Tunas, we express beforehand our confidence in future victories,
our conviction that you militant workers and their patriotic sons will
perform.  Fatherland or death!  We shall win!  [shouts of "Venceremos,"
applause]
-END-


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