Cuba hurricane reconstruction efforts buoyed by international solidarity

Cuba experienced its worst natural disaster in five decades when hurricanes Gustav and Ike raked the island with winds of up to 200 mph.

Reynaldo Fuente Soroa in his new home being constructed after the destruction caused by Ike and Gustav, October 2008. Photo: Bill Hackwell

Cuba now faces $5 billion in losses after experiencing years of solid economic growth. Some 440,000 houses were damaged and 63,000 were completely destroyed. While the Cuban government was in the process of implementing new measures to increase food production in the face of the global economic crisis, the hurricanes destroyed over 30 percent of its food crops.

As terrible as these storms were, their impact is small when compared to the $93 billion in losses that Cuba has had to endure from the 46-year-old economic blockade imposed by the United States.

Undoubtedly, the bulk of the hurricane recuperation efforts will rest on the revolutionary determination of the Cuban people, but Cuba is not alone. Cuba, the country that has been the shining example of international solidarity around the world, is now getting the same in return.

Many nations have responded generously by donating money, material aid, food and construction brigades. Cuba has so far received 230 offers of help from 71 countries and 12 international organizations worth $17 million. Another 478 independent donations have also been received totaling $51 million.

The one country that did not send aid was the United States. While tiny East Timor was sending Cuba $1 million, the U.S. government offered an insulting $100,000 with the stipulation that the money go to non-government organizations and that they be allowed to send “disaster specialists” to examine the extent of the damage. Cuba turned down the offer down and said if the U.S. government genuinely wished to help, it could lift the blockade and allow Cuba to purchase construction materials.

Cuba, because of socialist planning and organization, has become the world’s preeminent expert on civil hurricane preparedness and recovery. During Ike and Gustav, Cuba evacuated 2.5 million people with only seven deaths. The U.S. government, following its criminal disregard for the health and safety of people affected by Katrina, could learn a lot from Cuba.

In Pinar Del Rio, one of the hardest hit areas in the western region of Cuba, electricity has been mostly restored. Material aid is pouring in, and everywhere one can see a mixture of destruction and rebuilding. The largest amount of aid delivered to Pinar Del Rio has come from Venezuela, including work brigades.

In the town of San Cristóbal, a bus carrying family members of the Cuban Five and the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five brought humanitarian aid to the provincial assembly and were given an assessment of the recuperation process. The Cuban Five are political prisoners in the United States, incarcerated for trying to protect their home country against Miami-based terrorists.

Twenty members of the Venezuelan Misión Ribas brigade assigned to rebuilding a school in San Cristóbal were busy painting and replacing the roof. Teachers explained that it had taken only a couple of days after the storms to restart classes by setting them up in undamaged homes.

In the barrio of Taco Taco, cinder block foundations were rising out of flattened homes. Resident Reynaldo Fuente Soroa explained that, after Hurricane Gustav, construction material arrived quickly and work to rebuild his house had already begun when Hurricane Ike came and knocked it down again. Soroa lost almost everything, but managed to save a newspaper with an article about him and Cuban Five hero René González. The two men fought together in the struggle for the liberation of Angola.

“There is no sense of demoralization here because no matter how many times we are set back we will be supported in every way by the government,” Soroa explained.