Speech delivered by Fidel
Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba, on the occasion of the 47th
anniversary of his entry into the province of Pinar del Río at the ceremony
held in celebration of the successful installation of electric power generators
in this province. Pinar del Río,
(Stenographic version – Council of State)
Dear fellow Cubans:
I will not intend to explain to you how life in Pinar
del Río was once like. Peasants forced to pay a rent equivalent to more than 30
percent the value of their produce, large and privately owned estates,
precarious social conditions, unemployment, the merciless exploitation of the
people, illiteracy, high infant mortality rates, the almost complete absence of
medical and educational services, the absence of drinking water and basic
public services. Until the triumph of the Revolution, it was known as
Whenever I visit this, our country’s westernmost
province on a January 17th, I cannot but recall the passionate words
I spoke that day in Artemisa and Pinar del Río 47 years ago today. No sooner
had I arrived than I was making my first speech there, saying verbatim:
“I know there are many people in need”, I said then, ”I know there are many who are ill who have no
hospital to go to, that there are many children who have no schools to attend,
that there are many families who go hungry, but we will not help one or two
people, we will help everyone”.
“I will not promise you anything, I will only say
that we will do everything in our power, that we will do more than what we will
promise to do. And changes won’t happen overnight, they won’t arrive
immediately”.
“That is why I ask you to have faith in us, that is
why I say to all of you who are in need that we won’t be helping one, two,
three or four people, that the aim of the revolution is to help everyone,
because there are hundreds of thousands of Cubans who are in need and to help
but ten or twenty people is really to do nothing at all, what we must do is
help hundreds of thousands of Cubans”. I should have said millions of Cubans.
“I have faith in the Cuban people, I know the Revolution
will continue to make progress, I know that our country’s sovereignty will be
respected and I know that Cuba will one day be one of the world’s most
prosperous, just and happy nations”.
Back then, Artemisa, whence came most of the
revolutionaries who participated in the attack on Moncada and who accepted the
highest of sacrifices and gave their lives, was part of the
I cannot but marvel at what Pinar del Río means to
the world today when I go over its history in my mind, after 47 years of a
criminal, imperialist blockade, perfidious acts of aggression, the Bay of Pigs
invasion, the October Missile Crisis, thousands of terrorist actions against
our people, the disintegration of our former socialist allies, the collapse of
the Soviet Union and the advent of Cuba’s Special Period.
Let us look at some figures, to begin with the most
evident achievements:
Pinar del Río’s current unemployment rate is only 1.1
percent, what, around the world, is considered full employment.
There are 31 dams and 65 mini-dams in the province
which hold over a billion cubic meters of water, all of them constructed by the
Revolution.
Pipelines carry this vital substance to nearly all
towns in the province, whether they face many or few difficulties.
Rare are the homes —save in isolated places that are
difficult to reach—that have no electricity.
In 2005, infant mortality was of 5.4 per 1 000 live
births, one of the lowest ever reported in the province’s revolutionary
history, a far more encouraging figure than that reported by the capital of the
United States.
The population’s average level of schooling is upwards
ninth grade. There are now 44,591 university graduates in a province that,
before 1959, had only 541, of whom only 33 were women; that is to say, there
are now 80 times the number of people who have completed higher level education
than there were then.
The province has a rich cultural life, especially in
the visual arts and in literature. More and more people are involved in
sporting activities, and a significant number of athletes who are in national
teams and participate in international events come from the province.
Pinar del Río’s natural beauty, especially its
mountains and its westernmost region, makes it an attractive tourist
destination indeed.
Two of the world’s biosphere reserves are found in
the province: the
On 21 August, President Hugo Chávez attended the
inauguration of “Villa Bolívar”, a facility constructed in cooperation with
On the historical Aló Presidente broadcast from Villa
Bolívar, the people of Pinar del Río expressed the Cuban people’s profound love
towards that sister nation and their determination to make the Bolivarian
Alternative for the Americas victorious.
As part of an investment program and the victorious
Battle of Ideas that our people are involved in, important programs in educational,
health, cultural, sport and other spheres have been undertaken in Pinar del
Río.
Four thousand nine hundred and eighty five students
have completed the Comprehensive Continuing Education Program for Young People
which began in 2001, all of whom have entered university. Today, 7 158 students
are enrolled and pursuing the course in 37 different locations.
One thousand seven hundred and forty eight students
are enrolled in the Ministry of Sugar’s Continuing Education Course for Workers,
which began in 2002 and is offered at eight locations:
One thousand and eighty seven young people, 794 of
whom are women and 936 members of the Young Communists League, have graduated
as social workers. The seventh academic year has seen an enrollment of 454
students, who pursue studies in 138 different study groups based in residential
houses.
One thousand seven hundred and seventy one students
have graduated from the General Comprehensive Secondary School Teacher Course.
The current enrollment is of 761.
Six hundred and eighty seven outstanding students
from all of Pinar del Río’s boroughs are enrolled in the National University of
Information Sciences, an institution which is enjoying growing international
prestige.
Five hundred and thirty four members of the José
Martí Brigade have graduated as art instructors: 143 have specialized in music,
One thousand five hundred and twenty four students
are enrolled in the specialties of Optometry and Optics of the Health
Technology Course which began in 2004.
Thirty three Video Clubs have been created. On an average
day, 5 282 children and 4 325 adults (a total of 9 607 people) attend these
clubs.
Thirty six Computer and Electronics Youth Clubs, a
Six thousand three hundred and sixty four television
sets and 2 526 VCRs, distributed across 942 schools (163 of which are fitted
with solar panels), are used in the Audiovisual Program.
The Introductory Computer Sciences Course is offered
in the province’s 689 primary schools, to a total of 66 719 students who have
access to a total of 1 540 computers. The student to computer ratio in primary
schools is 43.3:1; at the junior secondary level, it is of 36.7:1, at the
senior secondary level 23.1:1 and at the technical-polytechnic level 25.3:1.
One thousand one hundred and seventy two students
have graduated from the National Institute for Sports and Recreation Qualification
Course which began in 2004; currently, 640 students are enrolled in this
course.
The universalization of higher education has reached
all of the province’s boroughs and sees an enrollment of 21 502 students. Five
thousand five hundred and thirty six students are enrolled in regular daytime
courses offered in the province’s four universities, for a total enrollment in
higher education of 27 038 students, more than twice the number of students who
were enrolled in higher education, in the entire country, before the triumph of
the Revolution.
The Libertad Publishing House Program has made 122 253
copies of 15 different books used as course material and 22 418 copies of books
on
Three hundred and thirty nine students from 44
different countries are enrolled in the specialties of General Practice, Physical
Therapy and Rehabilitation offered by the Latin American School of Medicine.
The programs undertaken as part of the Revolution in
the Battle of Ideas have created 42 429 new jobs in recent years.
Three hundred and fifteen computers have been installed
in libraries, genetic centers and blood banks as part of the Public Health Computerization
Program.
Eight thousand seven hundred and ninety six patients
have been treated in Municipal Intensive Care Units, for a general survival
rate of 97.9 percent. Six thousand and twenty three patients with low survival
probabilities (97.1 percent) are saved.
Twelve dentistry units operate in the province’s
polyclinics and 38 new dentistry clinics have been set up.
Fourteen opticians’, 8 of which have been repaired as
part of this program and 4 of which are new, offer services to the public.
Of the province’s 132 community pharmacies, 106 have
been repaired and 26 have been newly constructed. The fourteen main municipal pharmacies
are equipped computers which are interconnected.
Thirty five radiology units are in operation.
Whereas before there were just 4 ultrasound units
working only in provincial hospitals, today there are as many as 31, plus 43 such
equipment offering full coverage in polyclinics and hospitals. Eighty two
students have completed ultrasonography training programs (56 graduating as
specialists and 26 as technicians) and now attend to a total of 33 523 patients, successfully treating these
in primary care centers.
Endoscopy services have been expanded and now are
offered in five polyclinics. These services will eventually be offered at all
polyclinics, without exception. Three thousand one hundred and twenty one patients
benefit from these new polyclinic services, which before were offered only in
provincial hospitals. Thirty six general comprehensive medicine specialists and
24 nurses have completed diploma programs in this specialty.
Allergy laboratories have gone from 5 to
There are now 14 minor surgery rooms in the province:
Twelve comprehensive services, in which 167 000
patients have been treated to date, are offered in the 25 new rehabilitation
rooms distributed across the province’s municipalities.
Twenty nine thousand five hundred and two patients
needing ophthalmologic services and
Two new hemodialysis units have been set up in the
The unit in the
One thousand six hundred and sixty five patients have
been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for Heart Conditions; of these, 672
suffered acute myocardial infarctions and reported a mortality rate of 9.6
percent. Between 1995 and 2000, the mortality rate associated to acute
myocardial infarctions was of 17.8 percent. For patients who underwent
thrombolysis and were administered streptokinase —a Cuban product, developed in
our research institutions— the mortality rate was of 6.6 percent, that is, one
third the number of people who died as a result of this condition at the end of
the 1990s.
There are 43 electrocardiographs in operation across
the province.
Three hundred and ninety patients have undergone
mammography, for which a recently installed unit was used. For the past seven
years, the province had no such unit.
A Nuclear Magnetic Resonance unit was assigned to the
Abel Santamaria hospital. The projecting stage has been completed, and the
construction brigade is now ready to begin work.
The construction of the facility which is to house
the Excimer laser, a unit used in eye operations, has been completed and its
climatization system is now being set up.
Studies in five important health specialties are
pursued: medicine, dentistry, BSc’s in Nursing, health technology and
psychology. These programs are offered in five different sub-centers in the municipalities
of Sandino, Consolación,
Nine university polyclinics operate in 7 different municipalities;
165 medical students —participating in a new program—and 116 teaching
assistants are trained in these.
Two thousand eight hundred and forty four training
courses, in which
46 098 workers in this sector have improved their
skills, have been offered in Pinar del Rio as part of a program aimed at the
development of human resources.
Eleven schools in the countryside that had been
closed (in the
Since 2000, the Risso digital press has published 170
books by 198 different authors (a total of 106 959 copies) for the territorial
publications program. In any
municipality, any talented young people will have the opportunity to
write. They won’t need to wait for 40
years or death for their works to be published.
All municipal cultural divisions have computers, which
have allowed them to implement this program.
These are the most important tasks that social
workers have undertaken in the province as part of
Checking of electrical appliances used in Cuban homes.
The whole people cooperate, of course,
because they know how beneficial is this energy Revolution for the whole
people. Nine hundred and eighty five social workers visited 208 127 homes.
Checking of electrical appliances used in the
province’s 8 120 workplaces, a task which involved 756 social workers.
Replacement of incandescent bulbs with 18-watt lamps,
in which 785 social workers participated; they replaced 610 000 incandescent
bulbs with energy-saving bulbs, a service which was free of charge.
Seminars on the use of the multi-purpose pressure
cooker and the use of electricity as a domestic energy source. Six hundred and
twenty five social workers participated in these seminars.
A study on the movement and use of fuel by the tobacco
factory in Consolación del Sur, in which 16 social workers participated. These
social workers visited 46 production units, met with 22 managers and 846
peasants, and measured the energy-consumption of 92 irrigation pumps, 39
tractors and 36 freight vehicles.
Distribution of electrical appliances to family
households (rice cookers to families who used LPG or kerosene to cook with;
multipurpose pressure cookers, electric hot plates, water heaters). Old
television sets were also replaced with new ones in the Sandino municipality,
and fans were distributed in all parts of the province. Two thousand four
hundred and twenty six social workers and 2 342 university students
participated in these efforts.
Socially important tasks, such as services for people
with disabilities, undernourished children, and other tasks assigned as part of
this program.
The extension, into Pinar del Río, of an
extraordinary nationwide campaign, headed by social workers, against the
squandering, diversion and illicit sale of fuel.
Completion of the “Talking to Tractors and Trucks”
campaign and keep track of the itinerary of tankers that distribute fuel.
As part of a campaign that university students have
now joined, social workers have replaced or distributed the following appliances
to Cuban households. The conditions in
which this is being done are well known by the whole people. In some cases these appliances are being sold
at half their price in hard currency, and according to the present exchange
rate. In other cases, the price of those home appliances will be
equivalent to their cost in hard currency, depending on each and every case,
the credit conditions, etc., of which I will not speak right now, for I don’t
have any of these in writing.
Other articles which do not consume electricity and contribute
to energy-saving measures were also distributed:
The following numbers of makeshift appliances,
previously used in the households visited, have been collected:
A series of measures aimed at consolidating this work
are now underway; these include the repair and improvement of electrical lines;
at the present time, 520 line-men are at work on this task in 6 municipalities
(290 of them come from other provinces).
We are monitoring the hourly demand and the total consumption
at the end of each day. This allows us
to have data on the province as a whole and to obtain precise information on
the municipalities of Pinar del Río, Consolación del Sur and Candelaria. This allows political leaders to better guide
discussions in those areas that show the greatest energy consumption.
This task demands that mass organizations work
systematically on a household to household level that the primary student
organization (Pioneers) and the media work on educating the public to read
their meters as well as to make a maximum effort to free up peak hours of
electrical use.
The Energy Revolution in Pinar
The serious difficulties faced by the National
Electrical System in 2004, analyzed in detail during the Round Table
Discussions held in September of that year and in successive meetings, resulted
in the implementation of new concepts aimed at the development of a safer and
more efficient national electrical energy system, after the situation was
closely studied and after the experiences we had in dealing with a series of
strong hurricanes.
The main measures that were adopted to transform our
system were:
·
Acquisition
and installation of safer and more efficient generating equipment with power
generators and motors conveniently placed in different locations in the
country.
·
Accelerated
intensification of a program to increase the use of the national oil
accompanying gas in order to generate electricity using a combined cycle.
·
Complete
repair of the out-dated and inefficient distribution networks that were
affecting the cost and quality of the flow of electrical power.
·
Prioritizing
minimum necessary resources for an improved availability and conservation of
electric power generators.
·
An
intensive research and development program in the use of wind and solar energy
in
As of January 15, we have installed 205 power
generators with a capacity to generate 253 500 Kw/hour.
This new concept of energy generation has the
following advantages:
·
minimum
amounts of fuel per Kw/hour generated consumed: 210 gr./Kw/hour, on average,
for Diesel or Fuel Oil, depending on the motor type and its purpose.
·
Unit
power values whose capacity, in the case of breakdown, has no significant impact
on the functioning of the system.
·
Adequate
geographic distribution, which helps protect the electrical service for the
population and economically and socially important facilities against
hurricanes and breakdown.
·
Availability
greater than 90% and much greater than 60% of the thermo-electrical plants
functioning in our system at the present time.
When oil is extracted, large quantities of gas are
released. In recent years, approximately
1 million tons of oil equivalent in gas have been consumed.
To carry out these plans, it has been necessary to
increase the production of cables and posts in the country and to triple the
production of distribution transformers, so that we can reach the number of 15 000
per year.
In order to carry out this work, regiments of
line-men have been mobilized throughout the country, especially in the
provinces of Pinar del
In our country, thermoelectric plants, many of which
have been in use for more than 25 years,
account for 2 940 000 Kw of installed power, have an average
availability, as we have already mentioned, of 60% and consume large amounts of
fuel per Kw/hour generated.
This thermoelectric plants system which I mentioned will
be gradually replaced by the new generation of motors, including the combined
cycle motors, and for this the minimum
necessary resources are apportioned in order to maintain the most efficient
units functioning. Other units will be
kept and will be ready to work when the system requires them, while the first
phase of the transformation of the present system is under way.
As a strategic development in this field –-the
development of wind energy-- different technologies, including those designed
to withstand the frequent hurricanes which lash our country.
Areas with wind power potential have been identified
in the country and include:
Pinar del Río is among the places under study. We already know how wind power is like at the
Cabo San Antonio. Tests are being made
there and elsewhere.
Measurements of wind speeds are being taken at
altitudes of 50 meters at selected sites within these macro locations. This will allow us to determine the precise
location of the most ideal sites and steps will be taken to discover the
potential for wind energy in the entire country.
In addition to this, the nation has purchased a total
of 4 158 emergency power generators, representing a total potential of 711 811
Kw.
To date, the country has received 3 003 of these
emergency power generators, representing 72.2 per cent of the total number
purchased.
The emergency power generators can be switched on
after an order. They can release the
energy they are consuming without starting up. If there is
a deficit of 100 000 and the installed capacity is of 100 000, they will
start up with the 100 000 at that peak consumption time. So these are there as
part of the reserve, but they have a role to play in hospitals, at cold stores,
areas were foodstuff must be preserved, areas where there are key industries
which can not dispense with electricity not even for a single moment. All of these equipment are brand new.
As part of Cuban medical assistance to
The installed potential to date guarantees the
protection of the following basic centers and institutions, among others:
40 000 dollars, and the so-called
compensator costs around 1 300 dollars.
With that compensator the capacity of the motor that supplies the Manuel
Lazo neighborhood would be more than enough to operate a 35 Kw equipment, and
then we could reassign the far more powerful generator which has been installed
there to another location as an emergency generator.
We have ordered 500 such compensators to
operate the water supply system in the whole country. Each one of them will have its own motor, but
we have to check them all. There are
more than
100 000 water pumps, most of them very old
already, electricity-guzzling equipment.
That is why I was telling you that there is still much to be done.
Today we disinfect water and do something
else: almost everybody boils water for drinking. All of that has been duly studied, as well as
the appropriate solutions to this problem, since the country is consuming 15 to
20 percent of the fuel available to heat water for bathing and boil water for
drinking. There is much more to say, but
not everything will be said here today.
One thousand nine hundred and thirty four of the
program’s power generators remain to be installed. These are motors, because there are other
power generators made up of several motors, which means those yet to be installed, 569 274 Kw of
power. A special effort is being made, and this will also be so in the next few
days. Everybody is getting ready for
that.
A gigantic construction and assembly effort has seen
the installation of
2 281 power generators in just 6 months –the smallest
were the first to arrive- and today our main effort lies in the maximum usage
of installed capacity in order to increase efficiency of each Kw. The example I
mentioned of a pump that supplies the Manuel Lazo neighborhood explains all
this very well. We must install there
the appropriate pump, the electrical emergency pump, the adequate pump with its
corresponding compensator. It costs
almost nothing as compared to cost of other equipment.
A special effort has been seen in the work of the
provinces and municipalities, which have contributed much to the progress
attained; our comrades in Pinar del Rio are especially worthy of recognition
for their efforts. All entities have
taken part in this program.
The new system has already been installed in the
Pinar del
Is that clear?
It is very important to look at the way this is being done here in Pinar
del Río.
Very soon, the provinces of
We can understand the meaning of the energy
revolution better in these terms: a
significant saving for the nation in convertible hard currency, a noble, safe
and healthy fuel –the electrical fuel all those households will have- without
flames, gas, odor or bad taste, without any misappropriation of resources,
without robbery or fraud, without heavy objects to carry up the stairs, without
all the odious attendant miseries to each frequent and inopportune black-out that characterized
an old-fashioned concept for the delivery of electrical power.
Once this program, which we are working on at top
speed, has concluded, the nation will be saving one billion dollars each year.
I have been very cautious in sharing this information
with you. Much thought has gone into
this. The technical data I’ve offered
you, and each one of the steps which need to be taken, are much more
complicated and detailed than I have outlined, since I am constrained by time
and other obvious reasons.
This grand energy revolution, and the social impact
it has had on Pinar del Rio in such a
brief period of time, would not have been possible without the important work
of the Party and its provincial and municipal cadres under the direction of
Carmita –as we affectionately call her- the Party’s First Secretary, a woman
who is the representative of the manual and intellectual workers of this
province. I can speak of her activities
because I have been in touch with her almost on a daily basis, especially
during the last decisive phase of this battle, when she was directing the
political and social forces of her province, mainly in the town of
I have asked myself many a time how we managed to do
all this. Carmita was not just the
administrator; she directed and coordinated, she requested information, she
analyzed each detail scrupulously, conveyed information at the national level,
reported on the general situation, what progress had been made and what
problems had been run into, together with her analyses and points of view; she fulfilled all instructions in a
disciplined fashion, she traced the corresponding provincial strategy,
confident in victory and radiating her reassurance and optimism to everyone
around her. Her style and methods serve
as an example to other cadres. We have
been able to see the efficiency of the Revolution in action and the experienced
political direction of cadres of different generations.
I was reminded of the glorious days spent fighting
battles both within and outside of the nation:
in days of yore, with our heroic “mambises”; in the more recent past, in the struggle
against the Batista tyranny; today,
against the cowardly blows of an impotent empire that attacks Cuba, in a world
where people are saying “no” to being colonial slaves, “no” to imperial
domination and plunder.(APPLAUSE.)
Here today, together with the people of Pinar del
Rio, stand the national leaders of political and grassroots organizations, the
highest representatives of our national government, the political and
government leaders of each of our provinces, wherever the battles of our nation
are being waged in this decisive moment of our history. Our glorious Armed Forces will also
participate in this titanic effort. There will be a before and an after to this
Cuban energy revolution. It will teach
lessons that will be useful to our people and the other peoples of the world.
Homeland or death!
We shall overcome!
(OVATION)