14ymedio, Madrid, 19 June 2024 – The monthly meeting that Prime Minister Manuel Marrero holds with the provincial governors did not leave good news, which is not a novelty. The June meeting laid bare the painful situation of the housing program in Cuba, where by the end of May, only 3,579 homes had been completed, 0.8% of what is needed, according to data from Delilah Díaz Fernández, general director of Housing.
The account indicates that the Government needs 447,375 properties, even despite the population collapse due to the emigration of the last two years, whose numbers are unknown due to the delay in the preparation of the census due to economic reasons, according to the regime. “As a general rule, the times projected to stop the deterioration and resolve the deficit are increased,” said the official, who described the rhythms of execution as “low”
Díaz Fernández placed responsibility on the lower levels, an increasingly common practice in the Government. “This is a sign of the lack of attention to the territories,” she said. In order of severity, the problem affects Havana, Camagüey, Mayabeque, Santiago de Cuba and Isla de la Juventud.
Manufacturing achieves a miserable 0.5% of the needs in “all lines,” the official warned
This is the logical consequence of a production of materials that is still in a bad situation. Manufacturing reaches a miserable 0.5% of the needs in “all lines,” the official warned. At this point, there was no other option than to return to the issue of the use of mud and clay, which has been a constant since just a year ago when the authorities of the Ministry of Construction and the state group Geicon proposed on television to leave marble and hard materials for export for foreign exchange and take advantage of the natural resources of the Island so that “each of the regions can obtain its own materials to build.”
At that time, the first vice president of the state company, Reynolds Ramírez Vigaud, said that the figures were better in 2023 than the previous year, so it was hoped that production would improve, although “the expected results were not yet achieved, as a result of the energy situation.” In the light of the data – including, precisely, those for energy – few things have improved, although there has no information in the provincial press of successful local brick and ceramic productions thanks to the ovens, ecological or not.
“On the issue of