Upon arrival he found an open-air facility. More than 90% of the roofs of warehouses, production areas and other premises had blown up, but its workers, the desire to recover and the sense of belonging never went away. About 20 days later, when we arrived at the place, these were the testimonies that received us.

The night-early morning from September 26 to 27 will be unforgettable for Jesús González Arronte, one of the two directors of UEB that La Conchita has, who shows us in photos the disaster on the roofs, windows and doors of the factory. “The next day we started the recovery and in less than 10 days we were already producing, although we still have things to restore, especially roofs.”

The manager highlighted the high sense of belonging of the workers, despite the fact that more than half of the workforce had damage to their homes. “We are helping many of them and we have even sold them coal, eggs and some resources,” he says, which is confirmed by Raidel Crespo, one of those most affected by Ian’s impact. “I didn’t think they were going to help people so quickly. That speaks very well of real solidarity.”
“No one was summoned here to deal with the destruction. More than 100 colleagues showed up. That showed the love of the workers for their center, because we know the economic importance we have for the province and the country”, says Aracelys Ajete, general secretary of the union bureau, with optimism.

“Thanks to that, several production lines are already working. With our own strength we erected new roofs, collected fallen trees and cleaned the areas”, explains the veteran trade unionist who treasures 33 years of work in La Conchita in her body and spirit. “I remember other natural phenomena like Gustav, but I had never experienced something like this. Ian was devastating, but we will get up. Even a group of us went to La Coloma to help”.

United in life, and in business!
Yunia Castro has been in this factory for 13 years and suffered damage to her home, and even so, she returned to her workplace knowing the importance of resuming production, since not only Pinar del Río benefits, but also Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana and other provinces.

“This situation has been difficult. Working hard at home and at the workplace is complicated, but there is no other option but to push forward, ”she says. “Ian affected my roof, however, La Conchita is like my house, that’s why I joined. This is where my salary comes from, the sustenance of my children, ”she confessed.

Yunia highlighted the interest of some of her managers and colleagues in helping her solve her damage. “Here we are a big family, we help each other and that is worth a lot”, she certified while she with a couple of screams, due to the intense noise of the production, she called her husband.

“I’m Martínez Álvarez, Director of Maintenance,” she said, although we barely heard him over the whistling of the equipment. “I can’t move from here now. The cyclone hit the company hard, although thanks to everyone’s efforts we have come out ahead. We have set foot on the ground because we have to produce, it cannot be stopped”.

Another veteran in these parts is Julio César de la Vega. He is from Havana, but he fell in love with a Pinar del Rio woman and has been in La Conchita for 36 years, now as head of the laboratory. “Here there were doors that the hurricane took with the frame and everything. We prepare because we have a cyclone culture. For example, sugar is collected days in advance, many raw materials are packed in tanks with lids and even then they are covered with canvas.

“The equipment is intact. The technology is not very modern, but we take care of it. Vinegar, compote for children and vitanova are being produced in this same workshop”, she informs as if he were wasting time joining his work.

“The secret of quality is putting love into it and counting on the good technologists and teachers we have,” acknowledges Julio César, who could not escape the baseball controversy because he is a fervent industrialist.

Before leaving and after touring the almost complete factory, we return to the dialogue with González Arronte. “The production plans will not be affected, only that it will force us to work more in double shifts, and of course our recovery is vital, because we produce food for the population. And now more are needed.”
One final idea we take from this group. “The idea is that the factory will be better when we finish the recovery”, emphasizes Arronte. “We put the cultural detail of the installation,” says Aracelys Ajete. “Journalist, this factory is emblematic, nobody stops us,” concludes Raymand, one of the many Pinar del Rio residents who will never forget the night his son asked him to sit at the door so that Ian would not enter his house.

( By: Joel Garcia, Daniel Martinez Rodriguez/ from Workers)

On his account on the social network Twitter he wrote: “We appreciate the offer of humanitarian aid from the US. The material contribution valued at 2 million USD through the International Federation of the Red Cross will contribute to our recovery efforts and support to those affected by the ravages of Hurricane Ian”.

We appreciate the US offer of humanitarian aid. The material contribution valued at 2 million USD through the International Federation of the Red Cross will contribute to our recovery efforts and support to those affected by the ravages of #HurricaneIan.

– Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) October 18, 2022

In a press release published on the website of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is planned that this contribution will contribute to the enormous recovery and reconstruction efforts carried out by the national authorities together with the people.

He adds that “Cuba has received and appreciates the material support and solidarity of various governments and international organizations and other countries in the face of the immense material damage caused by the hurricane and the hard task of recovery.”

(Cuba minrex)

This mobile team will be transferred to Pinar del Río to meet the urgent water and sanitation needs of the population most affected by the passage of Hurricane Ian and will allow the country’s authorities to move it to carry up to 15,000 liters of treated water per day to the communities that need it most. This will facilitate access to safe water on a regular basis for many families.

The plant, which also has a kit of materials to promote hygiene habits and to meet the most urgent sanitation needs, was channeled in coordination with the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) and the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources. (INRH).

Regarding this important contribution, Consuelo Vidal, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System, expressed:

“The United Nations System will continue to redouble actions to help and reinforce the efforts of the Government of Cuba in the response to the emergency of Hurricane Ian and in recovery actions to improve the living conditions of the affected people, in particular, of the most vulnerable.”

This long-term, sustainable solution – the plant has a useful life of 20 years – supports the recovery efforts of affected communities and improves the country’s resilience to natural disasters.

About 3.2 million people in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud were affected by the severe impact of Hurricane Ian in the western region of Cuba.
It is estimated that one million people need support. Nearly 636,218 children and adolescents from zero to 18 years of age live in the affected provinces, of which 223,000 reside in the most vulnerable municipalities.
47,000 people still do not have access to drinking water in Pinar del Río and in most of the places where the service is provided it is done by means of tanker trucks.
The United Nations System in Cuba supports recovery efforts with interventions in the sectors of Water, Hygiene and Sanitation, Education, Food Security, Housing and Health.

(Taken from Unicef)

El bienestar de las comunidades se ve afectado por el odio desbordado desde la nación norteña. Los ejecutores y sus financistas solo dan importancia a sus ansias de violencia y destrucción. Ningún acto queda impune. La participación del pueblo y las autoridades ponen fin a cada pretensión terrorista.

También vuelve sobre un controversial tema de su anterior emisión televisiva. Los enemigos de Cuba han manipulado una de las imágenes empleadas en el material, que refleja las intenciones armamentistas y violentas de personajes radicados en Florida. En este programa ofrecemos un nuevo testimonio de Mayelín Rodríguez Prado, La Chamaca de Chamaco, donde esclarece los hechos.

Los enemigos de Cuba permanentemente incitan a cometer acciones de este tipo. Pretenden reclutar personas sin escrúpulos en territorio nacional para que, por unas pocas monedas, cometan estos delitos.

Capturados delincuentes que protagonizaron hecho vandálico en Isabela de Sagua
Con la verdad, ante todo, hemos sido testigo de la denuncia pública producto del impacto social que generó en la provincia de Villa Clara el incendio ocurrido el pasado 25 de septiembre por la madrugada en Isabela de Sagua, donde el caney de esta localidad fue incinerado en su totalidad por un elemento antisocial del poblado.

Fueron muchas las noches sin dormir para lograr dar captura a los vándalos que protagonizaron este delito, resaltando la labor de algunos vecinos y transeúntes del lugar que aportaron detalles para que el hecho no quedara impune, así fue como las fuerzas del Ministerio del Interior lograron capturar al ciudadano Nilo Christian Denis Cruz, de 22 años de edad, quien se encontraba esa noche en áreas cercanas al caney y es el autor principal del siniestro, es decir, fue quien prendió el fuego al guano del techo del caney donde en ese momento se encontraban personas, realizando esta acción sin pensar que estas pudieran sufrir lesiones e incluso fallecer.

Pero todo no termina ahí, siempre hay alguien más, por eso Nilo tenía un cómplice, el ciudadano Berto Ariel Fernández Toledo, quien lo trasladó hasta su domicilio en un triciclo eléctrico luego de materializar el hecho.

Luego del trabajo realizado por las fuerzas del Ministerio del Interior en la provincia se pudo constatar que producto de este actuar delincuente, la afectación económica por los daños materiales y de alimentación sufridos al ser quemado la totalidad del local, asciende a los 250 000 CUP.

Pues toda esta maquiavélica idea en contra de instituciones estatales de este municipio fue diseñada por Duvier Méndez Véliz cubano residente en Estados Unidos el cual financió con 75 000.00 CUP el acto de sabotaje contra el caney del pueblo. Quedando claro que todas estas acciones para crear el pánico y la incertidumbre entre los cubanos es dibujada por el enemigo creyendo que nuestro sistema policial y de justicia dejarían estos hechos impunes.

Queda claro que todos estos actos vandálicos son protagonizados desde el exterior para crear todo un andamiaje de mentiras y manipulaciones en contra de la realidad cubana, pero lo que sí es evidente que ninguno de estos hechos vandálicos ha quedado ni quedará inerte ante los ojos de la justicia.

Por eso hoy denunciamos a todos los que desde el exterior se empeñan en crear un estallido social que desencadene el pánico, el miedo, la incertidumbre y la inseguridad entre los cubanos. Pero aquí estamos los revolucionarios, los que estamos comprometidos con la Patria y con nuestro sistema socialista, dando el paso firme para demostrarle al mundo que Cuba es un país libre y soberano, que no daremos chance a que intenten apoderarse de una sola de nuestras conquistas y el esclarecimiento de este hecho lo demuestra.

On this visit, in which he exchanges with the people and authorities of Pinar del Río, the Cuban leader is accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández.

At the provincial headquarters of the PCC, Díaz-Canel was received by Army Corps General Ramón Espinosa Martín; the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee Félix Duarte Ortega; the first secretary of the Party in Pinar del Río, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, and the governor of the province, Rubén Ramos Moreno.

The tour of the Cuban president began in Consolación del Sur, where more than 20,000 homes were affected. There, the electricity service has been restored to 25% of the clients and more than 300 Cubans from various provinces help in the recovery.

In Consolación, Díaz-Canel exchanged with the residents. He also shared with the pioneers at the Francisco Valdés Ramos school, in the Piloto town, in that municipality.

Today Pinar del Río, Isla de la Juventud, Artemisa, Mayabeque and Havana have suffered from the devastating passage of a hurricane, with Pinar being the most affected region.

I have not seen publications in support of the people who have now lost their homes, their property and more in just 6 hours. Nor have I seen the free concerts of those who coincidentally were next to the town on 11J. There have been exceptions: the renowned singer-songwriter Raúl Paz went to Pinar to sing to the people about him in the middle of the blackout, helped by a small power plant.

Another one who joined the aid work and concrete actions was Kcho together with his brigade, Marta Machado, also Raúl Torres, and many troubadours from various regions of the country. But even in other harsh recent events such as the fire at the Matanzas tanker base, for example, similar actions were carried out by the artist Michel Mirabal, the singer-songwriter Nelson Valdés Viera, theater projects for children, the AHS, troubadours from Santa Clara, Santiago and more.

But I’m still waiting for the mega free concerts and statements on networks from those who have been on the side of the people since such symbolic dates as 11J. It is worth wondering how within hours of that date they were already setting positions; however it has been more than a week of Ian and they still haven’t written or said anything.

Or is there a town for some things and not for others?

My respects in public for these great Cuban artists and for those who are now preparing to leave for Pinar del Río

(By: Oni Acosta Llerena)

Last Wednesday, from car to car, from stretch to stretch, we traveled about a hundred and fifty kilometers and reached Pinar del Río. Destruction, pain in people’s faces, fallen trees, houses without roofs, others on the ground. A bleak scene.

After talking with the first interviewee, the one who only had a roof fall off a terrace and her chest tightened when she assured us that she was not compared to others who had lost everything, there, just at that moment, something in us changed. .

We didn’t want to write but she had us travel the province, go to the most intricate places, feel the stories, try to tell them in the most reliable way possible. Without electricity or water, staying to sleep wherever the night took us, working mornings and afternoons in the provincial telecentre, but knowing that that was where we should be, and that despite everything, when we returned to Havana we had a roof over our heads, and that thousands in that land of good people had lost absolutely everything.

We didn’t want to write, but we did. There go the stories.

Walking along a road that is difficult to access, you reach “La Loma de la Candela”, the popular name of the first street at the end of the Diez de Octubre district, in the city of Pinar del Río. Cars cannot pass through the area, it is impossible, the road is in terrible condition.

In the surroundings of the highway there are simple houses, most of them made of wood, whose owners live as a family and that is how they passed Hurricane Ian.

Hopeful they say that the survey of the damages has already been done and that the area is included in a project that contemplates the total repair of the streets, the houses that are a few meters from them and public lighting. “Perhaps with Ian the process will be accelerated,” some say.

***
Testimonies from Loma de la Candela

Yusniel Norbel Valdés. Photo: Cubadebate.

“The three of us spent the cyclone together in the shop window”
On the night of September 27, Yadielis Madera and Yusniel Norbel Valdés sent their children Tania and Yudiel Alejandro to Yusniel’s mother’s house. “Because it is stronger. My wife and I stayed here to secure the roof,” says Yusniel, a 39-year-old turnboy.

On top of the roof they put some sacks, but as soon as the wind began to blow strongly, the first fiber of the front of the portal was lifted. And that’s where the never-ending battle began.

“I tried to hang on to pull it out, but I couldn’t and they all went away. We had to get inside the window to get past the cyclone.”

At 3:30 in the morning, from their temporary shelter they felt their door being pushed. “It was Reinier Pérez, one of the neighbors, asking for help.”

Reinier had fled from his wooden house. He was afraid that a tree would fall on the house. He went into the window with Yadielis and Yusniel. They had a bad time together.

Yadielis and Yusniel say that some windows became loose, others fell. The walls behind the kitchen cracked, the ones in the corners. Everything got wet: the mattress, the children’s notebooks, the equipment. During these days they continue giving things sun, “let’s see if we can recover them”.

Yadielis remembers that they spent the night watching how the zincs flew through the air, “with the fear that instead of doing it from the outside, they would go inside and catch us. It was the saddest night of my life.”

Her husband insists that he knows that everyone is affected, “but we have two small children and the roof gets completely wet. I had to look for the fibers in the streams and put them patched up, full of holes, to see if one day they help me with the fibers, or two bags of cement. What the State can”.

Reinier, Yadielis and Yusniel.Photo: Cubadebate.

“I had to run away, because otherwise the house would fall on top of me”
With Reinier we also talked. When I left desperately around 3:30 a.m., because some segments had already fallen from the bush next to my house, I called Yusniel and the three of us went inside the shop window to wait for the thing to finish. As soon as I left, the bush fell on my house. If I managed to stay in there, I wouldn’t be doing the story right now”, he expresses with determination.

For Reinier, who graduated in Physical Education 22 years ago, Ian’s attacks broke the television, the refrigerator, the ceiling lamps… The mattresses were soaked in water.

“Here is my little house,” he says and points to what was left of his house. “This is what I have been able to achieve on my own, and now I have backed off with the hurricane. What is needed for the Revolution to help me make a ‘quimbito’, as the good Cuban says. I ask for nothing more.”

(By Angélica Arce Montero, Thalía Fuentes Puebla/ Cubadebate)

The same state that they call “failed” bravely called, just a week ago, for a referendum on the very advanced Family Code. The unequivocal majority of the Cuban people supported it, and a few hours later it became law. Before, this inclusive project, conceived from popular participation, had to go through a fierce campaign of demonization based on supposed moral and religious precepts. Overtly political manipulations were not lacking either. None of this prevented the triumph of the yes, reflected in a pale and reductionist way in the hegemonic press.

Coinciding with the entry into force of the Code, a devastating hurricane hit the western region of Cuba, leaving dozens dead in the United States in its wake. It is painful and difficult for any country that suffers such a contingency to get back on its feet, alleviate the suffering of those affected, try to recover from the damage and move forward.

For Cuba – economically strangled and slandered for decades – the challenge is multiplied. Only the incontestable decision to allocate the scarce resources of the country so that no one is left abandoned and the conviction that only with the participation and support of the people is it possible to move forward, can explain why we managed to overcome it again, without stopping thinking about going far beyond.

While people and organizations from all over the world have expressed their solidarity and offered concrete support to Cuba, while sister governments have provided assistance and friends like those of The People’s Forum have called on President Biden from the pages of the New York Times to show signs of the most elementary humanitarian spirit and does not hinder the Island’s purpose of rising up with its own efforts, other voices have taken advantage of the tragedy to install the opinion matrix that our ills and the difficulties to face them are a consequence of the inability of the Cuban government.

They want to capitalize on the logical discomfort of citizens deprived of basic services in the hope that nature will finally achieve what so many desperate attempts to destroy the Revolution have not been able to do. Now they politicize demonstrations and spontaneous claims, move through the networks hysterical and aggressive hate speech, incite street violence, oppose the slightest relaxation of the blockade and follow the script of the “soft coup” to the letter.

In a few days, sixty years have passed since the October Crisis, perhaps the moment of greatest risk experienced by the revolutionary process, those days in which -as Che said in his farewell letter- Fidel shone like few statesmen in history . Once again, fate offers us the alternative of surrendering to adversity and threats or imposing ourselves on them with imagination and audacity. No “failed state” could dream of the second option; no worthy people would support him.

Today the Cuba so often defamed is recovering from the ravages caused by the hurricane. Instead of the repression attributed to the fabricated “virtual country”, in the “real” one, the authorities constantly visit the affected areas and talk directly with the citizens.

As in all difficult situations, solidarity, the basic principle of our coexistence, comes to the fore. Let our friends know that the overwhelming majority of the people recognize themselves in their leaders, participate in the recovery of the country and defend the principle that is on the threshold of the new Constitution approved in April 2019: “Cuba is a socialist State of law and social justice, democratic, independent and sovereign”.

Havana, October 2, 2022.

According to a report by Tele Pinar, the meeting reviewed the main actions carried out in Vueltabajo to recover —in the shortest time possible— the damage caused by Hurricane Ian.

Living place:

63,000 forms of needs to account for losses are distributed in the province, 1,619 are ready and 62 of them belong to families who are in evacuation centers.
Families who are evacuated will be prioritized and help will begin with those most affected.
Education:

The school year should start next Tuesday gradually according to the possibilities of each municipality. Several of the educational centers serve as shelters for the victims.
Energy:

3.5% (7,546) of customers in Pinar del Río have electricity service and that figure should double by tomorrow. In Los Palacios a lot of progress has been made.
In 15 to 20 days, the bulk of the electrical service in Pinar del Río should be restored.
There are eight water wells that have electric service.
Priority will be given to restoring electrical service to water wells.
Water supply:

In Los Palacios, water pumping was interrupted due to lack of fuel at the three key points.
Work is being done in the municipality of Pinar del Río to restore the pumping of water in all its wells.
In La Palma (head municipality) the generator set that guarantees electricity for pumping water burned down, but solutions are already being sought.
For Guane, a generator was brought to mount it and guarantee the pumping of water.
21 large-capacity plastic tanks are installed in the buildings of the Hermanos Cruz neighborhood.
Evacuation centers:

The living conditions of the evacuees have been improved in terms of food and comfort.
At night a group of beds, bunk beds, destined for these centers will arrive in the province.
Dissatisfactions: Little presence of culture personnel and INDER in the evacuation centers.
Basic basket and food:

A group of products from the basic basket will be increased (soaps, detergent, toothpaste)
Totally free donation modules will soon arrive in the province (grains, oil, canned products)
Pregnant women and vulnerable cases will benefit. In the case of the vulnerable, they will receive double products (per vulnerable case and for the family nucleus).
Several tons of potatoes will be distributed throughout the province, starting with the municipality of Pinar del Río, then La Palma, Viñales and so on to all the municipalities.
The biscuit factory is producing 24 hours a day so that in cases where the bread cannot be produced, it can be replaced by it.
Food tablets have been created for sale to the population.
The CDP also evaluated the situation of water supply, the delivery of the basic basket and other resources that reach the province:

According to Francisco Ismael Valdés Chirino, delegate of Hydraulic Resources in Pinar del Río:

The municipal capitals of Guane and La Palma are the most critical of the water supply due to problems with the generator sets.
There are already 21 tanks of 30 with a capacity of 1,500 liters on the multi-family buildings of the Hermanos Cruz neighborhood.
More than 1,000 200-liter plastic tanks were sent to the municipalities.
Tapia Fonseca pointed out that inertia is still present in some teams when making decisions to speed up. In the case of the distribution of food and supplies, it was reported that:

A toilet soap per consumer and half a laundry soap, a liter of detergent and a turn of toothpaste per nucleus will be distributed.
A donation after day six, of 229 tons of grain at a rate of 1kg per nucleus and double to vulnerable cases.
21,700 liters of oil will be received at the rate of one liter per nucleus.

Two cans of sardines per core. In the case of pregnant women from the municipal seat, they benefit from double delivery.
An additional three pounds of rice per kernel and corned beef will be provided.
1,100 tons of potatoes are about to arrive in the territory. The sale will start in the head municipality starting tomorrow. San Luis and San Juan will be prioritized later.
There is flour coating for making cookies
Prepared food is sold in 141 units in the province at affordable prices.
Tapia Fonseca indicated speeding up the distribution of coal since only 10 tons have been sold to the population of more than 100 who have been delivered.

San Juan y Martínez: Vulnerable families must be a priority
Likewise, the recovery actions in the Municipal Defense Council of San Juan y Martínez were checked. This territory has four points to receive construction materials and with the possibility of continuing to expand.

It transpired in the meeting that they began to lift the damages, however, they are not advancing at the required pace. Tapia Fonseca was critical in reasoning on this point. Vulnerable families have to be a priority at this point, he urges to collect debris to identify the most affected. It is time to act, he said.

Odalis Hernández, head of the water subgroup, explained:

The ten popular councils of the municipality already receive water by pipe and through the distribution network. Today aqueduct is responsible for 28% of supply, the rest is done by the tobacco company.
Not in all cases the population has received the service, hence the supply is reinforced with the ten pipes that are available for distribution.
Today a strategy is being carried out to reach 30 multi-family buildings, in addition to resolving the situation with the 21 tanks affected during Ian’s passage.
The deputy prime minister directed linking the commercial pipes for the distribution of water and also using the existing ones in the productive structures to supply the largest number of people in this municipality with around 43 thousand inhabitants. “True municipal autonomy must be put to work.”

Espinosa Martín reasoned about the importance of linking all the organizations in the recovery. The people must also do and help the soldiers and groups specialized in the collection of waste. We cannot sit idly by, we have to join in, this task belongs to everyone. Here there are six trucks, four lifters and chainsaws.

In the case of food distribution, all work centers with conditions to carry out this task are added to the cooking and sale. Yesterday, 8,000 thousand meals were sold. Already today the sale and distribution of milk to customers who consume this food will begin. The sale of cookies has begun, although insufficient, it is an incentive at this time when most of the infrastructure for the production of bread was rendered useless. In this case, work is carried out in two uninterrupted daily shifts.

Distribution of the basic food basket is starting – albeit slowly – due to workforce limitations, which is why it is a priority to strengthen human resources and speed up this important issue, as Ramos Cordero directed.

Here the largest number of damages is associated with tobacco houses and the housing fund of the municipality.

More than 100,000 homes were affected in Pinar del Río by Hurricane Ian

Photo: Tele Pinar.

More than 100,000 homes in Pinar del Río were affected, in one way or another, by Hurricane Ian, a category 3 phenomenon on the Saffir-Simpson scale (out of a total of five) that left a mark of destruction in the province .

According to Andrés Marín, Provincial Director of Housing, this figure represents about 60% of the housing fund and the main damage is found in the roofs, taking into account the high percentage of existing light roofs in the western territory.

Ian’s strong winds were felt strongly in Vueltabajo, with reports of significant gusts, the highest of 218 kilometers per hour in the municipality of San Juan y Martínez.

Today there are 103 paperwork offices – one in each defense zone – in order to expedite surveys of damages, finish quantifying them and bring resources closer to the victims, the official said.

Vueltabajo presents a complex situation since it is one of the provinces with the largest number of houses pending construction from tropical cyclones in previous years, more than 6,000. He assured that among the strategies in Pinar del Río is now to promote local production construction materials, especially for the manufacture of tanks for storing water.

Housing constitutes one of the fundamental effects caused by the hurricane, in addition to agriculture and electrical and telephone services. In a recent recovery review meeting, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, insisted on urgently working on the issue of housing in Pinar del Río due to the magnitude of the damage and the number of unrecovered dwellings from past events.

I propose that we do everything we can do without going through the phase of temporary facilities, because there are people who have had up to five cyclones in temporary facilities and do not have a strong home. These temporary facilities – he said – are the first that later fall with the winds, highlights the national press.

Likewise, René Mesa Villafaña, Minister of Construction, referred to the shipment to the province from various parts of the country of trucks loaded with cement, in bulk and in bags; tiles of different types; wood, wire rod, nails, among other materials to undertake the reconstruction in the shortest possible time.

(With information from Tele Pinar and Guerrillero)

The ambassador of the Aztec nation on the island, Miguel Díaz Reynoso, and local authorities, received the solidarity charge that will contribute to the recovery in the western region.

Recently, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced the sending of aid in the face of the effects caused by Ian and recognized that this determines the continuity of the exchange between the two countries, constantly in recent years.

During his morning conference at the National Palace, the president conveyed “a hug to all the Cubans on the island and I hope they come out well because the hurricane hit them and affected their electrical power system, I’m sure they will come out ahead.”

This new contribution ratifies the policy of support for Cuba maintained by López Obrador, who also supplied medicines and food in 2021 during the covid-19 pandemic and assisted with the Armed Forces and technicians from Petróleos Mexicanos in controlling the fire in Matanzas.

For its part, Cuba agreed with the Ministry of Health the arrival of around 500 doctors, in order to make up for the shortage of specialists and provided nine million doses of its Abdala vaccine, intended for children, and its Sovereign formula is in approval process.

According to official data, the greatest damage reported in the western towns affected by Ian is in homes, electricity networks and agriculture.

(With information from Prensa Latina)