Once again, Las Tunas has chosen center Antonio Guiteras to represent them in the 2025-2026 Cuban sugar season, which, in their case, is set to begin next January.

As in the past, the upcoming season will unfold in a context fraught with tension. Some of the strongest tensions stem from the sustained and criminal blockade of Cuba by the United States, while others are internal in nature and are already being addressed.
Despite this, managers and workers welcomed the task with firm determination and a willingness to do everything in their power to achieve results in line with the real possibilities of each day.

That is the attitude. Don't put off until later what you can do now. In other words, make the most of every respite provided by the availability of fuel and electricity, two of the main factors that caused so much damage in the previous harvest, to the point of reducing the productive capacity of the giant of Las Tunas to a minimum. Along the same lines, we should include the tandem, responsible for a notable amount of time lost due to breakdowns.

From this perspective, the initial phase of the battle for more effective results is already underway. This involves repairs to the industry and the equipment used for cutting, harvesting, and transporting the cane.

“This is a very crucial stage and we need to win it, do our best, because what happens here will determine the subsequent performance of the industrial machinery during the production process and, consequently, production,” said Rafael Pantaleón Quevedo, general manager of the Antonio Guiteras sugar company.

In his opinion, these are not major repairs, but rather the planned work is just the tip of the iceberg of the remodeling that this huge mass of iron, which has been in operation for 113 years and has not been replaced or undergone major repairs for decades, desperately needs.

Aware of this reality, the workers at the “Coloso tunero” are taking on the task by self-supplying sheet metal and angle iron from the dismantling of tanks and inactive steel structures, while negotiating with the Mexico, Brazil, and Amancio Rodríguez plants for chains for the tandem drag drivers—a critical route—and refractory bricks and slabs that will be used in the preparation of the boilers.

All this, plus the joint effort of technicians, specialists, mechanics, tinsmiths, and other members of the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR in Spanish) in favor of saving various materials, recovering and manufacturing spare parts, and timely maintenance of equipment, suggest solutions that will allow the factory to face, a short harvest season with a lower sugar plan than the previous campaign.

This is how things stand as the refurbishment of the legendary sugar mill progresses favorably, except in the area of tippers and mills, where activities related to Technical Standard 52 have gone beyond the scheduled time.

It only remains to point out that although the country's difficult economic situation, resulting from multiple causes, has cornered Cuba's most productive sugar mill, it is not a dead end. This is what its workforce is trying to do, seeking alternatives such as those now being put into play.