In this beautiful place and with such noble people, where this Wednesday morning President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez spoke more than once about the magic of a landscape made of the mixture of sea with palm trees and coconuts, we also lived a thinking workshop that denied schemes and technocracies, that advocated for work styles with impact, and that did not forget - as the Head of State said - that the effort for the country involves a fight against time.

Effort among all, shared truths, daily work - so that quantity achieves the leap towards quality. The dignitary reflected on such philosophies at the concluding meeting of a visit to the municipality of Baracoa, where a true exercise marked by sincerity and born between the leadership of the country and the leaders of the municipality was experienced.

“What’s important is to make a cut by priorities every month, to create a work system,” insisted the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, who, accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization, Roberto Morales Ojeda, he shared various reflections after having visited three places in the territory.

Díaz-Canel takes advantage of all spaces to transmit ideas, to propose; he does it especially when he dialogues with the people in the streets and tells the crowd about the meaning of these visits and about the country’s urgent needs. To the leaders, as happened this Wednesday in the primate city, you can comment on the culture of detail, especially in such a beautiful place; or about the priorities that the Communist Party and the Government have outlined for 2024 - especially if it involves making them tangible in the trickle of everyday life.

Cuban Chocolate and Other Potentialities

A chocolate candy factory is one of the most attractive places in the world. The one in Baracoa is one of the most promising in Cuba, right now. Its name is Base Business Unit (BBU) Cocoa Derivatives, belonging to the Confectionery and Flour Derivatives Company, with national rank.

There, where Pedro Azahares Cuza - director of the BBU - explained to the president various details regarding the operation of a place founded by Che Guevara, the Head of State insisted on the quality of the country's raw materials, because each homemade chocolate product can compete at the highest standards internationally.

In the concluding meeting of the visit he commented on the idea that the BBU - which has not achieved full takeoff despite a significant investment made in 2018 - “transitions to being a municipal company, because this is where cocoa is”, and he stated that “everything that’s done in the world of jams, with chocolate, we can do.” We have to aspire, he said, for “this industry to produce so much that it can then be linked with other industries, to be distinguished by Cuban cocoa chocolate.”

The second point on the agenda was the Oil Extraction Plant at Baracoa Agroforestry Company, an entity that since 2021 has tripled its productive capacity based on a significant investment, and that today suffers instability in the supply of raw material: coconut-crop that in the territory suffered the lashes of Hurricane Matthew.

The president spoke about the importance of obtaining this raw material; about bringing it even from other parts of Cuba, because the luxury that the country cannot afford is that an entity like the Oil Extraction Plant is at a halt for not having anything to put into its machinery.

The BBU Baramar, belonging to the Guantánamo Fishing Company, was the third point of the tour. The elver, a star product of that center that enjoys strengths such as the stability of workforce, is highly valued in markets abroad.

Among other challenges, the rise in temperatures in waters where the elver are captured affected the plans for 2022; and another issue is the obsolescence of boats that must be used in fishing.

Words with the People

These types of visits are part of “a work system that we began to do this year, so that we can gradually get out of the very complex situation we have been experiencing in the last four years.” This is how President Díaz-Canel spoke to a group of people from Baracoa, to whom he reminded that the direction of the country, in 2024, was already in the Guantanamo municipalities of Maisí, Manuel Tames, and El Salvador.

"Today - the Head of State exemplified - we have visited the combined chocolate factory and the coconut factory, which are both investments that have been made and still not being exploited at full capacity. “This helps us take with us a group of ideas to discuss now with the ministries.”

Díaz-Canel commented on those “two places that are very typical of you, that give identity, that generate employment and that can give prosperity and well-being to the municipality.” These are, he said, “very typical products of this area, which even distinguish the country.”

The things that work poorly - the Head of State reflected - we want to revert that, “and we’ve already begun to see places that are in the middle, that were bad last year and are beginning to move forward to achieve good performance. We are all learning from them.”

The president also spoke about social problems - which are important topics in this type of tour - and brought up the challenges with housing, with the road that goes from Moa to Baracoa, with the water supply, with the problems of transportation; and especially with productive problems.

Regarding the latter, he reasoned: “There’s land here to produce the food that Baracoa needs. Because we continue to think that food is going to be nothing more than what the country imports.” He then spoke about the need for everyone to work. And he shared his reflection on those who don’t contribute to society and who still “claim rights but do not fulfill their duties.”

Incorporating, adding - as Díaz-Canel sees it - has to do with not discriminating against anyone, with transforming social realities and making it possible for people added to employment to become a support for their families. “We have to do all of this,” he emphasized, “together.”

From the crowd someone commented to the President about the issue of housing. And at that point the president spoke about the limited production of cement; and he said: “We have a debt of more than thirty thousand homes,” a deficit that’s a consequence of the different hurricanes crossing over different parts of the country.

Whenever people on the street shout long live Díaz-Canel, the president responds long live the Revolution. "You are the important ones here," he told the people of Baracoa, "you are the ones who are here taking things forward."

To the people of the primate city the dignitary expressed: “This is a unique place; it’s a typical, beautiful, Cuban place; and we must take care of Baracoa.” He said it because of the legacy that universe keeps, because of all the culture and history of a setting that, when visited, is never forgotten again.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff