Raúl Castro interrupts the National Assembly with shouts

The former Cuban president and still dictator of Cuba, Raúl Castro, interrupted the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) shouting to ask the deputies for “an applause” for the Minister of Industry Eloy Álvarez Martínez.

After Álvarez Martínez read the accountability report of the Ministry of Industries (MINDUS) to the deputies of the X Legislature, the former ruler interrupted the president of the ANPP, Esteban Lazo.

“Lazo, Lazo,” he said. Then he stood up and stated that the MINDUS “has contributed a lot to the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), and that we also had to give some strong nudges, even this minister deserves an applause from this Assembly,” said the 92-year-old without justifying the reason for his enthusiasm.

“And stand up!”, he ordered, after which the deputies stood up from their seats and applauded Álvarez Martínez for an extended period.

In his report, the Minister of Industries discussed the crisis on the island, and like any other, he resorted to the “increase in the cost of imported inputs and limitations in international logistics” to justify the lack of foreign currency income in the economy, which “affects the industry and society,” he said.

Addressing the implementation of the economic and social strategy, he reported that the industrial framework of the activities governed by the body is made up of 19,880 actors, which include 587 state enterprises, 727 small and medium-sized enterprises (mipymes) and non-agricultural cooperatives, 18,281 self-employed workers, and 285 creators of the Cuban Fund of Cultural Goods.

The total reported national commercial production is 23 million 956 thousand pesos, of which 82% correspond to the socialist state enterprise and 18% to non-state management forms.

The reported imports are 587 million dollars, among which are a part of raw materials.

Its structure is being evaluated “to identify, with the installed technologies, which we can assume and which require projects of science, innovation, and development, as well as investments that allow increasing the industry’s participation in the substitution of imports,” he pointed out.

Álvarez Martínez recalled that in February 2020, the comprehensive policy for automation in Cuba was approved, and from 2021 to 2023, the legal norms for its implementation were issued.

Castro’s appearances are very sporadic at his 92 years of age, but in September he was seen appearing twice amid the severe crisis the country is going through and recently he did so in the Military Exercise Baraguá.

He now reappears in the ANPP, where the regime announced strong measures such as the price hike in all basic services: electricity, water, gas, and transportation; and the elimination of the Supply Booklet considered one of the “historical achievements” of the Revolution.