Contramaestre meets ideal conditions to achieve the economic-productive takeoff needed to turn it into a surplus municipality and thus add social benefits towards a prosperous and sustainable development, as established by the strategic policy of the Cuban nation.
Located in the central-southern eastern part of the country, this is the only municipality in the province of Santiago de Cuba that has two mixed capital companies (Trópical Contramaestre S.A. and BioCubaCafé), a condition that makes it an exporting pole par excellence.
The main resource of the territory is its agricultural patrimony, managed by four large companies led by the agro-industrial company América Libre and the agricultural company Laguna Blanca, the latter with about eight thousand hectares of arable land, a good part of them under irrigation.
However, the economic results do not correspond to these potentialities, which slows down the advance towards higher stages in the quality of life of the population with an eventual take-off of investment in decisive sectors such as agriculture and infrastructure in general.
This has caused the highest authorities of the country and the province to look at the way in which productive, commercial and financial processes are managed in the territory, pointing out the imperative of increasing productive volumes as the first step to get out of inertia.
The next and no less important thing: the orderly marketing of production, control of land use and compliance with the agreed upon crop contracting plans.
And as a logic of any process of this type, the establishment of a fiscal discipline that works like a Swiss watch, capable of paying taxes on time and in the right way to the state’s coffers and thus maintaining the flows that the bank needs to make it operative.
All of the above is possible and the main obstacle in this case is not the U.S. blockade. It is the incompetence, lack of control and lack of commitment that characterizes part of the management structure that is currently managing the economy of Contramaestre.
This panorama is conducive to crimes, illegalities, the diversion of material resources, the non-fulfillment of plans, the much-needed mobilization of financial amounts to the local administration for their subsequent redistribution in essential programs designed for the protection of the people.
On Sunday, January 26, 2025, in a plenary session of the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power, the governor of the province, Manuel Falcón Hernández, once again pointed out that this territory cannot give up on becoming a surplus.
To achieve this, it is necessary to shake off the evil of inoperativeness and lack of creativity, when facing the difficult conditions in which the local economy is processed.
To use the resources at its disposal and to generate more, to create values and to convert to sustainable and regenerative its economy, is the great Contramaestrian challenge and here it is the cadres who decide the most significant part.
