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RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: march 2008 :: RMTnews 27 A CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY At the earlier reception Borrego told the assembled trade unionists and other friends of Cuba that while most people view Cuba in terms of its relationship to the United States in fact the Cuban people themselves “have our eyes and ears open to Europe”. He explained that many of Latin America’s great revolutionaries such as Jose Marti and Simon Bolivar spent time in Europe before returning to take part in revolutionary activity back home. As a close comrade of Che, Borrego has been keen to keep his legacy alive. Che is a much romanticised and iconic figure and a lot has been written about him, including by Borrego himself. However, of all these biographies Borrego quips “they range from awful, to very bad, to bad, to ok”. Borrego says that the problem with most of what has been written about Che is that they only cover one or other aspect of the man’s life. He says that there is preparation underway in Cuba for a more all encompassing biography that will do justice to Che and put his life in perspective. Che was killed in 1967 in Bolivia attempting to use the guerrilla tactics that he had developed and used successfully in Cuba. Borrego says that he wanted to join him but Che believed that mission was too risky so didn’t let him join them. Borrego’s role was to stay and work with the government. It is of course Che the guerrilla fighter – replete with beret – that comes to mind when people think of the man. But Borrego is keen to point out that Che developed ideas on how to manage and develop a socialist economy. Borrego has always been keen to develop these ideas and gained a PHD in economics so that he could equip himself with the intellectual tools for the job. This gave him the necessary grounding to produce the book Che: The Path of Fire, about Che’s work as a member of the Cuban government and his ideas about developing a socialist economy. THE FUTURE FOR CUBA At the press conference assembled journalists were keen to know what is going to happen now Castro has stood down. At the time we didn’t yet know who would be elected to the presidency although it was correctly widely predicted it would be Raul Castro. Borrego gave an interesting insight into Raul Castro, saying that he was a socialist before Fidel was and the areas of government that he has run have always been well managed, and hence successful. If the journalists were going to find some knocking copy, they were going to have to look elsewhere. RMT News was able to ask him about the area that he currently advised the Cuban government on, and about which nobody has asked him all day: transport. “Our transport system collapsed when the Soviet Union fell because most of our equipment was imported from the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia,” Borrego says. He explains that it was a big blow because the Cuban government was embarking on a program to expand the width of the railway tracks at the time and the plan was scuppered. It wasn’t only train travel that suffered either. “Bus travel totally collapsed. In Havana we went from 32,000 journeys a day to 4,000. Freight imports were also greatly reduced,” he says. “But recent years have seen us recover very strongly. We have good quality buses from China. We have made a major investment in improving the railway tracks and our friendly relationship with Venezuela has helped finance this,” explains Borrego. He talks about how the workforce had to be committed to the work to make the necessary advances. “The trade unions are working with us to improve the standard of living in the transport sector for workers as well,” he says. The subject of unions brings Borrego to make his final point. “We have had good relations with unions in many countries over a long time. “International solidarity with RMT means a lot to us,” he says with a smile. REVOLUTIONARY: Cuba's Economic Minister Ernesto Che Guevara with Orlando holds a press conference at his hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay, August 1961