Maisί, Guantánamo.—On Saturday, October 15, José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, called on residents to continue working to recuperate coffee farms, the most widely grown crop in the municipality, 4,940 hectares of which were affected to different degrees by hurricane Matthew.
Speaking with a group of local producers, the member of the Party Political Bureau called on campesinos and their families to join efforts to support recovery works being undertaken across different provinces, in order to reestablish plantations and crops as soon as possible.
Machado Ventura, who also visited the farm run by the Youth Work Brigade located in Lavadero, Maisí, highlighted the need for mass mobilizations in order to quickly recover areas, given the amount of work to do, plus the severity of damage to coffee farms caused by the hurricane.
Accompanied by Denny Legrá Azahares and Nancy Acosta Hernández, president and vice president of the Provincial Defense Council, respectively, Machado Ventura arrived in the municipality of Imías, where he was informed of the main damages caused by Hurricane Matthew and progress being made in recovery efforts.
Zenia Lores Méndez, acting president of the Municipal Defense Council, reported that 39 of the 46 schools affected by the hurricane have been reopened since October 12, while 98.6% of electricity services have been reestablished and mules are being used to replace broken-down trucks to transport goods to remote communities.
She also reported that the territory's 14 aqueducts are fully operational, while work at the local sawmill, whose roof was destroyed, has also recommenced. Meanwhile efforts continue to recover plantain farms, located in Yacabo Abajo, and over 19,000 cubic meters of debris left in the wake of Hurricane Matthew has been cleared so far, she noted.
According to sources at the Primada Visión local television center in Baracoa, José Ramón Machado Ventura spoke with cacao producers from Paso de Cuba; staff at the Experimental Forestation Research Station, the Coffee and Cacao Processing Center; and those affiliated with other related entities. The PCC Central Committee Second Secretary also viewed the damage caused by the hurricane to the bridge over the Toa River.
