by the El Reportero’s news services
Raúl Castro
President Raúl Castro has made food sovereignty his top priority since taking office two years ago. His government has concentrated most of its liberalization efforts on the domestic agricultural sector.
To date, the results have been mixed at best, at a time when the need is urgent. In April, following disappointing first quarter results, a fresh round of ministerial shakeups was followed in short order by a new five year plan that will assign the sector more autonomy, provide production incentives and boost competition. In short, market reforms.
EU-Latam summit sidetracked by migrants
On May 18 the VI European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit concluded. Somewhat surprisingly, President Cristina Fernández de Kircher from Argentina set the tone for the final day with a heartfelt plea to European governments that they should look after Latin American migrants during the current economic downturn.
Spain’s Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, immediately responded saying that the message had been received and understood.
Latin America Remembers 115 Anniversary of José Martí”s death The legacy of the Cuban Apostle José Martí, was remembered at the School Republic of Cuba, in Asuncion, with the attendance of students, teachers and members of the Paraguayan Coordinator of Solidarity with the Island.
The Adviser Minister of the Cuban Embassy in Asuncion, Ricardo Tur Novo, evoked facets of the national hero, his insurgent struggle that bega whe e was just 17 years old, his sentence to prison been a teenager, his deportation and return to his beloved island to resume the struggle.
His thougths’ dimension are and will be the guide for the new generations of Cubans, Tur Novo said.
The Cuban ambassador in Paraguay, Rolando Gomez, and Marcia Gamarra, one of the four directors of the school, placed a wreath before Jose Marti’s bust, at the entrance of the school.
In Quito, Ecuador, with a simple but moving tribute, pupils and teachers of the Fiscal Experimental Institute José Martí today paid tribute to the Apostle of the Independence of Cuba.
Similar events took place in other Latin American countries like Venezuela and Dominican Republic.
President of Ecuador Criticizes European Migration Policies
The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, regarded here as terrible the migration policies applied by the 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) with the Latin American emigrants in his Wednesday intervention at the EU-Latin American and Caribbean Summit.
“I find it a historical ingratitude,” Correa expressed, and wondered what effect it had caused in Europe if Latin America had used the same policies when this part of the world received the great migratory wave during the Spanish Civil War.
I don’t know how the EU will explain the future generations, at least from an ethical point of view, that while it was enabling a global world and a bigger flow of capitals and goods, criminalized the most principal of the movements, the human one, underlined the Ecuadorian leader.
He said that the policies of the Old Continent penalize the immigration more and more, something he evaluated like a monstrous inconsistency.
