Manuel Marrero's meeting with governors and mayors of the country. Photo: Estudios Revolución

Havana, October 22 (RHC)-- Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz headed a recent meeting that, as every month, the country's top leadership holds, via videoconference and from the Palace of the Revolution, with governors and mayors of the country, which focused on several strategies to promote priority programs and increase the rigor in the fight against illegalities.

"It is essential to review and improve the work systems, especially those associated with monitoring and control. We have more capacity to design and approve legal instruments and plans of measures, than to implement and check them".

Marrero Cruz underlined that, although any problem of a province or municipality concerns the central government, there are issues that will not be solved from a national level; in many cases, the recipe has to be local and adjusted to the characteristics of each territory.

In the working session, also headed by the members of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power and of the Council of State; and Salvador Valdés Mesa, vice president of the Republic, the Prime Minister urged to increase the systematicity and rigor in the confrontation of illegalities and violations that undermine the institutionality and lacerate the government's management.

"We must eliminate tolerance for irregularities that today persist with total impunity, and with a very strong impact against the people," he said.

From a critical perspective, Marrero Cruz also emphasized the situation of accounts receivable and payable, an old issue that requires definitive solutions, since it is a breeding ground for corruption and illegalities.

The meeting also revealed the Prime Minister's indication to review integrally the measures contained in the Operation Fight Against Coleros, due to the growing complaints of the population about its ineffectiveness, since, in many cases, a climate of disorder and illegality has been generated.

The unforgivability of not putting the land into production

Taking into account the priority given to food production, the impact of the implementation of the 63 measures to revitalize agriculture was one of the topics on the agenda that raised the most complaints.

According to the head of government, these actions, whose comprehensiveness has been much emphasized, are aimed at ensuring that there is no lack of food, vegetables and agricultural products on the Cuban table; therefore, the basis for the control of their fulfillment are the results, according to the planned indicators.

And just those results, still far from what the country demands, were reported by the vice prime minister, Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, who alluded to delays in the delivery of idle state lands in usufruct, the non-compliance with the cold campaign of various crops, with more than 3,800 hectares still to be planted, as well as the decrease in areas destined to banana, sweet potato and malanga.

Tapia Fonseca also called for the promotion of self-consumption in state entities, questioned the weaknesses of the contracting process, which requires a different performance for the year 2023, and pointed out the non-compliance in meat and milk deliveries.

Today, he said, to cite just one example, "around 4,143 producers have defaulted on their contracts with meat companies. However, - he asked - what analysis has been made with each one? Have the local authorities, the delegate of agriculture, all the factors involved been summoned?"

In his opinion, "there is a lack of control, but not of a general type, but in the municipality. Each territory has to be analyzed, because the country has no more money to import. And we must demand discipline in the fulfillment of the plans, not because of numbers, but because of what this represents in food for the people".

Contracting cannot be left to spontaneity, agreed Salvador Valdés, while calling attention to the non-payments to producers, a problem identified in six of the 11 provinces he recently visited, and in which the lack of management was evidenced as the fundamental cause.

In Cuba, Marrero Cruz insisted, "it is unforgivable not to take advantage of every bit of land to produce", and at the same time he oriented the review, in each territory, of the mechanisms used for the adequate follow-up of the 63 measures.
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