By IANS
Havana : Cuban leader Fidel Castro has warned that the squandering of fuel and other resources is threatening Cuba's viability and sovereignty.
"Those who forget that the country has the sacred obligation to fight to the last drop of blood and must spend on raw materials and defensive resources against a permanently vigilant enemy can compromise the independence and life of Cuba," the octogenarian leader said in an article titled "Self-Critique of Cuba" published in the official press Wednesday, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
"We can't play around with this!" Castro said in the latest of a series of "Reflections of the Commander in Chief" he has written since the end of March as he continues to recuperate from an unspecified gastrointestinal ailment that forced him last July to name younger brother Raul Castro as acting president.
The Cuban leader railed against "those who use gasoline left and right with our current fleet of vehicles" and those who "forget that the prices of food are going up sharply".
"We're squandering billions of dollars in fuel. Not only for (everyday needs), which is normal, but also because we need to change tens of thousands of old Soviet engines" in state-owned vehicles, he said.
Castro was referring to the process of substituting these engines – "from a period when there was gasoline to spare" – for "very fuel-efficient" Chinese motors, although he added, "this programme has been delayed".
Castro noted in the article that Cuba needs "serious, courageous and responsible administrators".