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href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuban-National-Assembly-to-Carry-Out-Fidels-Last-Wish-20161227-0019.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuban-National-Assembly-to-Carry-Out-Fidels-Last-Wish-20161227-0019.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Cuban National Assembly to Carry Out
Fidel's Last Wish</h1>
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<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">December
27, 2016<br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">Cuban
President Raul Castro opened the National Assembly in
Havana Tuesday, where the country’s economy and how to
pay lasting tribute to revolutionary leader Fidel
Castro were on top of the agenda. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">The
assembly is set to approve legislation that will carry
out Fidel’s final dying wish that will forbid the use
of his name and image from streets, statues, parks,
government institutions and public places. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raul had earlier said to Cuban mourners
earlier in the month that his brother did not want any
public recognition because “Fidel was always against
the cult of personality until his dying days.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">The
plenary session started with a tribute to Fidel
through an audio-visual display showing some of the
late leader's most memorable moment while he was in
the National Assembly. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The Assembly is due to vote on Cuba’s
state budget for 2017 and presented the economic
results from 2016. Cuba’s Economy Minister Ricardo
Cabrisas said that the country’s economy had a
downturn of 0.9 percent, in part due to economic
troubles in oil exporter Venezuela - one of the
island’s key trading partners. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">Despite
decades of a strangling U.S. economic blockade that
sucked US$4.7 billion over the last year and US$753.7
billion over the last six decades from the island
nation, projections for 2017 appeared to be positive.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span
id="docs-internal-guid-3748993d-41c2-03ba-59d8-d20f3f6848ce">“For
2017, we expect growth of 2 percent in gross domestic
product following a contraction of 0.9 percent in
2016,” Cabrisas told Cuban media, expecting growth
from the country’s tourist and sugar industries. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">The country’s economy was previously measured
to have grown at an average of 2.3 percent each year
between 2011 and 2014 and 4 percent in 2015, only to
have a downturn in the second half of 2016 amid problems
in Venezuela and a drop in global commodities prices.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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