The residents of the Luyanó neighborhood, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre, are more than tired. This July, the only combo products they have been able to buy are oil and detergent. And not even in the same store.
In it melons street trade –infamous for the death of an old man who uncovered a network of thieves last year and for his reputation for persistent corruption–, they had promised sausages and they did not arrive, and there was only enough chicken for about 600 people. “I who have the number 1,800, I don’t even know when the meat will touch me. We will have to wait until July 26 to eat chicken,” Rosa ironized this Thursday, referring to the anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracksone of the dates set for the regime.
Cubans do not overlook the fact that the Government manages the calendar as it pleases, to celebrate some propagandistically relevant day or to avoid “disconformities”. Thus, Rosa’s daughter, Karla, points out how on July 11, the second anniversary of the historic protests in Cuba, and after weeks with a shortage of transportation, buses multiplied in the streets of Havana, to the point that many of them were empty. “Now ten days have passed and there are no taxis. Taking something is a via crucis,” laments the young woman.
The Government cannot hide the difficulties in supplying the population with the basic food basket. The very president of the National Assembly of Popular Power, Esteban Lazo, referred to it Last Tuesdaysaying that the country “does not have the resources to keep up with the level of imports we have” and acknowledging that “practically 100% of the family basket is being imported.”
The shortage leaves scenes on the street, such as barter operations, never seen since the 1990s, during the Special Period
Since last May, without going any further, chicken is no longer dispatched in Guantanamo for those over 13 years oldand protests are frequent both on social networks and in private: “Neither the sausage nor the detergent has arrived at the store that I have to buy, the revolutionary module is increasingly disarmed,” said Yusuan as he left a warehouse in Central Havana, where he arrived bologna, “half pound per person”.
That they distribute the basket as promised by the authorities is little short of a miracle. “They said that they were going to give a bottle of oil, 10 pounds of chicken, two packages of Mexican hash, a package of sausages and one of detergent,” explains Ernesto, a resident of Centro Habana. “Sometimes they sell something else, like on one occasion two cans of condensed milk, but it is a fact that the combos are rarely complete.”
Although Ernesto’s situation is not buoyant, like that of the vast majority of the population, he had to bring him some beans that he got to the left to an old friend with two children who could only buy rice.
Havanans take the picture with humor and, thus, refer to the combos as the “modules of misery” or “five heroes”, due to the number of products offered – chicken, mincemeat, sausages, detergent and oil -, making fun of the five spies who were imprisoned in the United States until their release, as a result of negotiations with then-President Barack Obama.
The scarcity leaves scenes on the street, such as barter operations, never seen since the 1990s, during the Special Period. This Wednesday, in the middle of Havana’s Vedado, two women proclaimed: “Change cheeses, change cheeses!”
Coming from another province, they explained to customers that they exchanged artisanal white cheese for bath soap, which is scarce where they live. It is a product that arouses many complaints in the population due to its rudeness, but it can be found in the informal market at a price between 130 and 150 pesos per bar.
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