At 4 p.m. Fidel Castro met Joelmir Beting and me in his office on the third floor of the Palace of the Revolution. The comandante led us through the halls to a suite of rooms where his coordination and support team works. He introduced us to nearly the entire group, explaining the responsibilities of each. The Brazilian journalist asked about imports of oil, the main raw material for the island’s energy system.
“We generate a part of our electricity from bagasse during the sugarcane harvest season,” Fidel answered. “All the sugar mills are run on sugarcane bagasse. Our country produces 20 million tons of bagasse — the equivalent of more than four million tons of oil. We use all of the bagasse. We have five factories that make wood from bagasse, and several factories use it to make paper. We aren’t going to produce alcohol to fuel cars for recreational purposes. We use molasses as an animal feed and in the production of proteins. In addition, it’s the raw material for making rum and domestic and industrial alcohol.”
“What about must?” TV commentator Bandeirantes asked.
‘It’s being used a lot for animal feed. The must is washed, dried in the sun, and given to the animals. Ten factories are producing feed from molasses. Up to 50 percent protein is obtained through a special fermentation process. It is used as poultry, hog, and cattle feed. We trade a ton of this animal feed to East Germany for a ton of powdered milk.”
“I’ve heard that because of an environmental protection law, every automobile in the United States will use yucca alcohol as fuel starting in 1986,” Joelmir Beting said, “and it’ll cost 45 cents a liter. Brazil would be in a position to ship alcohol to US ports at 30 cents a liter, but the legislation of that country keeps it out, defending local industry. Brazil produces 2,500 liters of alcohol from every hectare of sugarcane — enough to meet a car’s needs for a year.”
Fidel said, “Just imagine how many hectares of sugarcane are needed for so many cars! It’s sad to think that all that land is used to feed cars instead of people.”
Joelmir Beting explained, “It takes four million hectares of sugarcane to produce 10 billion liters of alcohol a year; this means a saving of $600 million a year for the country.”
“Cuba produces more than eight million tons of sugar a year in an area of 1.8 million hectares. We want to extend that area by 200,000 hectares.”
“Brazil imports wheat,” Joelmir said. “It’s spending $1.2 billion a year — twice as much as it saves by producing alcohol — on wheat. If Brazil planted a million hectares of wheat, we’d save more than we’re saving now by planting four million hectares of sugarcane for producing alcohol. A policy promoting the planting of wheat — which we don’t have — would be more profitable than the policy of producing alcohol. Unfortunately, fuel for machines is more important to the Brazilian government than energy for people.”
“Here in Cuba, we invest first in human energy.”
Later on, Fidel explained, “We’re building 157 new facilities in the field of public health. We have more than 20,000 medical students. Every year, more than 5,500 young people chosen on the basis of vocational aptitude and school record enter medical school.”
The commander-in-chief invited us to enter a small lounge beside his office. Two people were working there surrounded by IBM minicomputers. These memory banks of the Cuban government contain duly computed data, including the names of the country’s 500 best doctors, by specialty. At Fidel’s request, the compañero operating the machines touched the keys. The information appeared in different colors: Havana now has a population of 1,902,173. The Cuban capital has 7,856 doctors, 10,481 nurses, and 11,136 health technicians; it has a doctor for every 242 inhabitants and a nurse for every 181. There are 20,403 doctors in the country as a whole, for a population of 9,952,699. There are 1,880 pediatricians — one for every 1,500 children.
After leaving the computer room, Fidel Castro invited us to go into a room where all the ministers in the economic field were meeting. He introduced us and exchanged some information on the preparations for the third five-year plan. It was almost 6 p.m. when we left the Palace of the Revolution. In a few minutes, the comandante was due to attend a solemn celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II in the Soviet embassy’s new building.
That same night at 10:30, Fidel Castro met us again in his office. Joelmir Beting would have to leave Cuba the next morning, and it was his last chance for talking during this trip. Eight ministers in the economic field and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, vice-president of the Council of State, were also there. Next to the wall facing a rectangular meeting table was a blackboard and chalk that our host placed at the disposal of the Brazilian journalist. In preparation for this talk Joelmir Beting had read Fidel Castro’s most recent interviews on the Third World’s — especially Latin America’s — foreign debt, including the interview given to the Mexican daily Excelsior, in which the Cuban leader had stated that the debt was unpayable.
“The political solution to the foreign debt,” the journalist, who is a specialist on economic matters, said, “requires changes in US and European bank legislation, changes in the creditor bloc. The participation of parliaments is vital. This is why,” he told the group, “Fidel should send his suggestions to the parliaments. Cuba should issue a document on the foreign debt. The problem won’t be solved unless there are government-to-government negotiations, not government-to-creditor-bank negotiations. At present the understanding is between Brasília and Wall Street, not Brasília and Washington. In this way, the US government washes its hands of the matter and takes part only through the International Monetary Fund [IMF], which is really a bank treasurer. The IMF should be a government-to-government forum. The dollar has stopped being a reference currency and has become a means for intervening in world economic relations. In fact, the dollar is counterfeit currency because it isn’t backed by the US economy; it isn’t backed by the US GNP. It’s as if the United States were buying the world with counterfeit money. It’s an unheard-of situation in capitalism. The last person to challenge this situation was General de Gaulle, and nothing came of it.”
Fidel put his cup of tea down on the saucer and said, “Latin America borrowed devalued dollars and now has to repay its debt with dollars that are worth more.”
“That’s financial piracy, to put it mildly,” Joelmir said. “The proposal of a new economic order should link trade with the debt — something that the big seven of the capitalist world now meeting in Bonn won’t accept. The Third World must be protected from the monopoly the rich countries hold on technology. Brazil has just passed market reserve laws in the field of data processing.”
“What does that mean?” Fidel asked.
“That no foreign industry may build minicomputer or personal computer factories in Brazil. They have to be set up with national capital.”
“When was that?”
“Last September.”
“Why was it done?”
“To protect technological innovations and the domestic market for national industries.”
The Brazilian guest wrote the number 12 on the blackboard and added, “Brazil has to pay $12 billion in interest this year. Half of that could be turned into capital, as ‘new money,’ and only the other half sent. Instead of paying it all, it should turn this capitalization into risk capital for the multinationals. For instance, an automobile plant is going to be opened in Brazil. Instead of making a direct investment, the corporation is using a part of the capitalized interest. So, as soon as General Motors opens its automobile plant in Brazil, a part of the Brazilian debt is transferred to GM.”
“The money that Brazil should pay isn’t paid. It’s used as a transnational