HAVANA, Cuba, (ACN) – The idea that Cuba will leave no one unprotected is directly aligned with the principle of social justice of the Revolution and a major premise of the measures recently announced by the government to boost the economy.
“It is very difficult to explain in just one speech a number of decisions which are not the result of improvisation but of the months-long work of experts; then we have to tell people what each of them is all about, because they may be complex and give rise to others,” said the Hero of the Republic of Cuba Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, national coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR).
“The CDRs are part of the neighborhood and it is up to us, just as we have done at other times, to organize debates with specialists,” he added. “Sometimes we complain when they are distorted, but that’s because we have failed to explain things correctly. This is neither a neoliberal policy package nor the nonsense that some claim; it is about improving our system and righting some wrongs.”
Hernández Nordelo pointed out that one of the long-discussed issues has to do with subsidizing people in need rather than products, as well as with providing protections to the most disadvantaged, a well-known fact at community level.
“We are a blockaded nation that suffers great hardship in every way; households find it hard to make ends meet, and this also happens at the country level, where so many pressing matters have to be tackled in a complex economic scenario,” the leader stressed. “They have tried to stifle us for more than 60 years and then criticize us for not being able to breathe well!”
Various deputies interviewed by ACN agreed that clear explanations are vital so that our basic goods and services do not become even more expensive, as well as on the importance of municipal autonomy, power-saving measures and other strategies announced in the context of the 2nd Ordinary Session of the National Assembly of People’s Power by prime minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, who stressed that “the safest resources are those we are able to produce, which calls for more and better efforts.”
