Direct contact between the country’s leadership, workers and the people constitutes one of the living lessons of the figure of Fidel Castro. With that principle as a premise, Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines (MINEM), Vicente de la O Levy, held a meeting on the afternoon of 24 October with workers and cadres from the oil, energy and mining sectors in Ciego de Ávila.

Alongside the head of MINEM, the exchange was attended by the general director of CUPET, Edrey Rocha González, as well as other sector directors at the central level.

The objective of these meetings responds to a country strategy of evaluation and collective construction for the implementation of the 176 Transformations of the Cuban Economy, with emphasis on objective nine of the Government Programme of the Republic of Cuba, aimed at energy sovereignty and the production and commercialisation of fuels.

In the view of Minister de la O Levy, this moment of exchange — also coinciding with the commemoration of Mining Geologist’s Day — takes place in a context characterised by a complex geopolitical situation, stemming from the imperialist pressure of the Trump administration not only against Cuba, but also against Latin America and the world. It corresponds, then, as he noted, to thinking about how to continue contributing to the nation’s development through efficiency, our own culture, our own style and daily work.

The meeting reaffirmed the sector workers’ commitment to the collective construction of the country’s economic transformations and to the defence of national energy sovereignty.