Dave Sherwood
Jatibonico is an image of life at the end of the 19th century, Jatibonico, the small Cuban city of Cuba (Reuters) -Havana, in the late 19th century, crowded and day and daytime.
The damaged sugar factory of the town – once the largest in the country – stands idle, lacks electricity and fuel.
Progress Agro, a Russian company two years ago, announced that it would import machinery, fertilizer and know-how to revive the mill that once employed 2,000 people.
“When is the Russians coming? This is what everyone is talking about,” said 58 -year -old Carlos Tirado Pino, a small number of mill care workers.
Meanwhile, three bulldozer, just outside the town, cleans an abandoned cane area to prepare for the establishment of a Chinese -financed solar park, which is one of this solar park, which is one of the solar parks of China, which was built by China this year this year.
Cuba needs desperate help. When it was combined with food, fuel and drug lack, harsh hours and US sanctions under the renewed US sanctions under the second Trump administration, dipping tourism and export economy was devastated.
The Reuters review of various places on the ground shows that China has taken a secret step to fill the gap in places where most Russia’s latest promises are gushing, and that it is progressing with a series of critical -timed projects to help Cuba’s economy.
In 2018, Cuba has joined China’s Kemer and Road Initiative, and since then, China has invested in a war in Ukraine in a war in Ukraine, and Russia, Russia’s Cuba, which has been dragged by the crisis and has invested in various strategic infrastructure projects on the island, including Russia.
“Russia’s promises were always greater than performance,” William Leogrande, a professor of Latin American politics at American University, said. He said. “If China is now increasing its help in the light of Cuba’s desperate conditions, this may be a real life line.”
Neither Russian nor Chinese embassies in Havana did not respond to the request for comments.
China offers
The Sun Park Project positions China as a very important partner for Cuba during an almost unprecedented crisis: the country’s national network collapsed only four times last year and left millions of schools and shuttle schools in the dark.
On February 21, Cuba opened a solar park in Cotorro at a ceremony with China’s Ambassador to Havana, Hua Xin and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and praised the project in a statement as “Cooperation from our Brother Republic”.
The subtle pressure of the agreements between Russia and China and China and the allied Cuba remains greatly hidden, which makes it difficult to realize how both countries operate in Cuba, through private companies or through public financing and how the Cuban government can repay them.
Since then, compared to the network operator UNE, it has been at least eight further online, with existing parks, about 400 MW solar fuel energy-day mid-day deficit.
According to official estimates, new projects financed by China are expected to increase this figure above 1,100 MW by the end of the year.
Authorities at the February event announced that China has participated in a project to modernize Cuba’s entire electricity network, in 2025, 55 solar parks and 37 of them until 2028, a total of 2,000 MW-all of them, a great initiative to represent about two-thirds of today’s demand.
Mariel Port of Cuba’s main transport center just west of Havana, according to transport data refused to give their names for this story and two foreign businessmen, the traffic from China began to move in August 2024.
Last year, Shanghai, Tianjin and other leading Chinese ports carried solar panels, steel, tools and pieces. Sources, “Kits”, to ensure that the panels reach the goals of Overland transportation came with fuel, he said.
Tractor trailers with Chinese signs, tractor trailers with Chinese signs to reach very distant places such as Jatibonico are felt in the Cuba countryside.
Last morning, the truck driver Noel Gonzalez, who delivered a lot of gravel filling to the solar park area on the skirts of the city, said that he was both surprised and grateful for Chinese effort.
“The Chinese (workers) come and periodically control every liter of oil, every route we receive.” He said.
Fulton Armstrong, a former national intelligence officer in Latin America, called China’s investments “great benefit”, but warned that the Trump administration would not be enough to overcome the renewed sanctions on the island.
“Havana cannot make a bank to Russia or China, who came with magic pills,” he said. “Only Chinese trade and aid can withdraw the candidate in large quantities – and this does not seem reasonable.”
China’s strategic investments in Cuba coincide with the charges of the US on the nearby Caribbean Island on the charges of “spy bases ,, but Cuba and China rejected allegations.
Russian roulette
Two years ago, Cuba’s economy was still hanging from Covid-19 pandema and US sanctions, while Russia was ready to help.
In May 2023, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reported that the media operated by the Cuba State came to Cuba for the lane cutting ceremony, which pointed to the reopening of the largest steel factory on the island.
Chernyshenko described the re-opening of the mill as “a good example of Russian-Kuba cooperation”.
Reinier Guillén, the facility director of the mill, promised to increase the output of steel bars from the facility to 62,000 metric tons in 2024. However, Russia’s investment did not turn into production.
Cuba’s Statistical Agency Onei reported that the island released only 4,200 metric tons of steel rod in 2024 in April.
On the last week’s morning, the mill was quiet. A well -known pile of smoke was empty and could not see any activity in the plant.
Esperanza Perez, a lifetime local resident working in a small oven in a small oven, with a small oven, without electricity or water, said that the mill was idle for months.
37 -year -old Perez, “Speech is cheap. (Mill) running, we hear the noise, we see the workers, but I have not seen any signs of operating.” He said. “We have not seen any benefit here.”
The Cuban government did not respond to the request for comments about the inconsistency at the output. However, the shortage of fuel and electricity production affected the industry throughout the island and disabled production.
According to a document obtained by Reuters summarizing these agreements, Chernyshenko, one day after the ribbon cutting in the steel factory, appeared with Diaz-Cannel to sign at least eight agreements between Cuba state agencies and Russian state and private companies.
Comprehensive agreements, wheat supply for the construction of bread in Cuba, the opening of a well -stocked “Rusmarket” in Havana, the restoration of the historical architecture in the historical region of the capital artificial intelligence.
Just a few minutes away from Havana, since 1959, there was even a bold plan to rebuild the community of housing beach, which were largely unlimited to foreign capital.
But in a recent visit, most of the houses in Tarara seemed abandoned or abandoned, near the beach, only a small number of renewed and there was no sign of Russian investment.
In the community marina, a single boat covered with slime, swing on the dock, the entrance of the harbor deposits and waters were blocked by stagnant.
Initially, he plans to open Rusmarket, which was celebrated as a foot at the door for Russian vendors and products. In June or July, Russian investors, from Russian automobile pieces to canned trout and children’s toys, the nearby egg store, which plans to open a larger shop, was largely abandoned.
A Russian agreement stopped to shake the 19th century Santo Angel Building in Havana’s historic Plaza Vieja to shake his head to the rich architectural history of Cuba.
Reuters could not communicate with CGC Investments, the Russian company that signed most of the 2023 agreements.
Neither the Russian Embassy nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to the request for comments.
To be sure, some of Russia’s promised aid came. Russian state -backed companies provided cargoes with both wheat and oil sea to the island. And Russia encouraged tourism to the island, such as China, a lump in foreign visitors and a very needed foreign exchange.
In May, two years after the rush of 2023 ads, Chernyshenko from Russia announced the plan to subsidize interest rates for businesses who want to invest $ 1 billion on the island and called Cuba as a “reliable partner”.
“There’s a lot of work to do, we’re going to move forward,” he said to journalists in Moscow.
(Dave Sherwood’s reporting, Mario Fuentes, Marc Frank and Norlys Perez’s additional reporting by Christian Plumb and Michael Learmonth.)
