Communist Web Thursday 16th March 2000 9.30pm gmt Ruthless attack on the main national industry LOSSES resulting from the U.S. blockade and aggressions affecting the Cuban sugar industry total more than $11.1 million USD, announced Andrés Sarasola, consultant to the minister of the sugar industry, during the presentation of expert testimony in the court where the lawsuit against the United States is being heard. Listed among the main causes of this loss was agricultural sabotage; arson committed against sugarcane plantations, warehouses and other installations in the sector; destabilization of the work force; breakdowns obliging the sugar mills to store cane for prolonged periods, thereby severely reducing its sugar content; and threats of armed aggressions requiring the mobilization of workers from the sector into combat posts. However, the expert stressed, the first attack, direct and ruthless in nature, against this industry was the cancellation of the sugar quota by the U.S. National Security Council at the beginning of the 1960s which totally closed off access to a market where Cuba had sold 60% of its sugar, the mainstay of its economy. This had serious repercussions for the first harvests after the triumph of the Revolution. The loss of the market also forced Cubans to import machinery from distant countries lacking in experience of sugarcane technology, and whose equipment was poorer quality and frequently inadequate, according to expert Juan Godefoy García, who also testified during the hearing. Andrés Sarasola explained that the equipment brought from the former socialist bloc required a vast amount of fuel, which together with other factors, contributed to a huge... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/rut/rut.html