MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castro announces second belt tightening and calls on Cubans to work the land

“The land is waiting for our sweat”, enough of “down with imperialism” underlined Raul Castro

On the 56th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution, the message from President Raul Castro was not at all celebratory: the country must prepare for a second round of belt tightening because of the global financial crisis and promoting agriculture and food production is a “strategic priority”.

On one of the most sacred days of the Castro brothers calendar, Revolution Day, July 26th., the Cuban president announced that on Tuesday he would hold a meeting of the Council of Ministries “dedicated to the analysis of the second cost adjustment in this year's plan, due to the effects of the global economic crisis, especially on the reduction of revenues from exports and the additional restrictions on accessing external financing.”

The global economic downturn has hit Cuba hard. Revenues from key exports like nickel are down, and so is the tourism trade. On the other hand the price of imports, like food, is up. Any proposed cuts will affect a Cuban population already feeling the squeeze.

Cuba had already announced a significant reduction in its growth target for this year, down to 2.5% from 6%, and at the time launched a strict program so save power and cut consumer consumption of electricity.

On Revolution Day, marking the attack 56 years ago on the Moncada military barracks which signaled the beginning of the revolution, Raul Castro in a short but strong speech challenged the crowd: “the soil is there, here are the Cubans, let us see is we work or not, if we harvest or not, if we keep our word or not”.

Raul Castro took a few swipes at the US trade embargo but made it clear that Cubans only are to blame for agriculture shortages.

“It's not just a question of shouting 'fatherland or death, down with imperialism, the blockade knocks us out' when the land is there, waiting for our sweat.”

Cuba has seen hard times before and has always worked to pull through, Castro said in front of the 200,000 people packed into the parade grounds of Holguin, about 500 miles southeast of Havana

However the regime’s path so far has been to make the government managed economy more productive, instead of introducing much needed reforms.