Cuban Energy Revolution Underway
The current energy revolution in Cuba aimed at securing the national power supply system will mark a new stage, said Cuban President Fidel Castro.

In a ceremony held Tuesday night at an electric substation in western Pinar del Rio province, the Cuban head of state talked of the decisive battle of this project, and officially declared energy independence in that territory.

Pinar del Rio is the first province to have completed installing a network of energy-saving power generators that make it self-sufficient in the generation and distribution of electricity, as part of a program to transform the sector in the country.

In his speech, the statesman explained the program arose after serious energy difficulties in 2004, and the territory’s experience with hurricanes.

As part of the country’s saving policy, Fidel Castro said that as of May 1, 2006, 100 percent of Cuban families consuming liquefied gas will stop using it, in favor of highly efficient electrical appliances.

Before 1959, Pinar del Rio was called Cuba´s Cinderella for its poverty indicators. Land was sold at over 30 percent its value, there was merciless exploitation, large landed estates, illiteracy and almost total absence of medical care and education, as well as lack of water and public services.

Today, Pinar del Rio has a current unemployment rate of 1.1 percent and an infant mortality of 5.4 per 1,000 babies born alive, a lower rate than Washington DC.

According to Fidel Castro, all this has been achieved despite the criminal US blockade, premeditated aggressions, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the October missile crisis and thousands of terrorist actions against the Cuban people.