-DATE-
19900712
-YEAR-
1990
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
ANPP Begins Deliberations; Castro Attends
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Television Service
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-90-134
-REPORT_DATE-
19900712
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000012013
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     FL1207023090
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-90-134          Report Date:    12 Jul 90
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     5
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       5
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       12 Jul 90
Report Volume:       Thursday Vol VI No 134

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Television Service

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   ANPP Begins Deliberations; Castro Attends

Subheadline:   Further on Tourism Problems

Source Line:   FL1207023090 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0000 GMT 12
Jul 90

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [Excerpts] At this first day of sessions of the National Assembly of the
People's Government [ANPP], the report on the management of tourism in the
country was approved. [passage omitted]

2.  The need for everyone to understand what the development of tourism
represents today was set forth very clearly by our commander in chief [Fidel
Castro].

3.  [Begin recording] [Castro] This is an important point, very important,
because it must be made very clear to all the deputies so that every time they
ask a question, every time they speak, they will understand the meaning of all
this, the economic meaning of all this.  It is also a matter of producing a
social benefit at the same time.  Tourism can generate 200,000, 250,000 jobs in
this country, well-paid jobs.  In any country in the world, jobs alone are a
great goal, ensuring jobs for 200,000 or 250,000 [people], well-paid jobs.  But
we want something more, besides well-paid jobs.  We want a large income for the
country and we also want the people to benefit from these facilities as far as
possible. [passage omitted]

4.  [Deputy Victor Rodriguez] For example, we are not allowed to invite a
tourist or a foreigner to a restaurant to eat, a restaurant where you pay in
Cuban pesos that is accessible to the Cuban public, because they have to pay in
dollars.  So then you sometimes find yourself in a bad situation with
colleagues who have treated you very well, with a lot of care, at international
fora or events, and you have no way of treating them well in return.  They
always tell us that it is not the law, but there is a decree.  I have brought
it up here because I am tired of having disputes in restaurants, problems, and
this has not been resolved.

5.  [Castro] This can happen, [ANPP President Juan] Escalona, because they go
to a restaurant such as that that charges in the two [currencies], in pesos and
in dollars.  They have an income report that came out sometime.  I do not know
how many millions of cases there may be of this.  I do not think there are
many.  I think that the comrade has spoken about this with too much bitterness. 
I think that the best thing is to understand, as he says, that these are the
risks of the situation.  It seems that it is the intellectuals who most ask
people out to eat, because that is where the most complaints have come from
about this matter.

6.  But these restaurants have an income of 435,000.  We talked about this. 
This means, well, that there they pay with the two kinds of currencies: if one
is a tourist, in dollars; if one is Cuban, in pesos.  There is the hybrid case
of a foreign tourist or someone who has come to visit, and a Cuban.  And the
case he has mentioned may occur.  Of course this upsets him; it upsets me, too. 
But it seems that we are upset by more things than he is.

7.  I say he is right; I say he is right because this should not happen.  We
would rather run the risk that a money changer [jinetero] will change money and
steal something from us than that we should have to go through the humiliation
he is referring to, when it is a question of good citizens of this country. 
That is my opinion on this.  [applause] [end recording]
-END-