Cuba laments collapse of iconic sugar industry

For hundreds of years, sugar was the mainstay of the Cuban economy. It was not just the island's main export but also the cornerstone of another national industry, rum.

Older Cubans remember when the island was essentially built on the backs of families like Mr Guzmán's.

Today, though, he readily admits he has never seen the sugar industry as broken and depressed as it is now - not even when the Soviet Union's lucrative sugar quotas dried up after the Cold War.