SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The prominent Cuban economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondoprofessor at the Pontifical Javeriana University of Cali, Colombia, explained in an analysis published on their social networks that the Government’s failed policies, such as the irrational allocation of resources in the different branches of the economy, have caused the collapse energetic.
Unlike the reason given by the regime for explain the electro-energy debacle (the “blockade”) the data show that in Cuba resources are squandered in non-priority sectors and a smaller part is dedicated to energy, gas and water infrastructure.
To exemplify this, De Miranda stated that between 2021 and 2023 the total of investments was 226,656 million pesos, of which 81,117 million (35.8%) were for real estate activities, hotels and restaurants. Supplies of electricity, gas and water totaled only 20,882 million pesos (9.2% of the total); the non-sugar industry 16.6%; sugar industry 0.4%; agriculture 2.9%; health and social assistance 1.9% and education 1.3%.
On the other hand, between January and June 2024, real estate activities, hotels and restaurants received 37.8% of total investments (43,120 million pesos). Electricity, gas and water received 10.6%; the non-sugar industry 19.5%; sugar 0.5%; agriculture 2.5%; health and social assistance 1.8% and education 1.0%.
“This investment policy clearly goes against the national interest and in a democratic country in which there were balances of power, an investigation would have already been initiated to determine the reasons why the country’s very scarce resources are allocated to a sector in which that occupancy rates are at 25% in 2023, according to data from the ONEI,” said the expert.
With scarce resources, these should be allocated “rationally.” However, on the Island, “they are assigned by a bureaucratic class that believes itself to be the custodian of the property that supposedly belongs to the entire people, but in reality is not.”
It is, as he described, a policy “failedirresponsible and harmful to the interests of society and the nation.”
The energy sector, industry, agriculture and the sugar sector are dying in the country, “as a reliable testimony of the level of destruction caused by decades of voluntarism and disregard for the laws of the economy.”
Last Friday, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) of Cuba reported that the “total disconnection” of the National Electroenergy System (SEN) occurred after the departure of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant.
That day, the Electrical Union (UNE) of Cuba had already announced that the blackouts would simultaneously cover 49% of the national territory during peak hours, after a day in which the generation deficit was even greater (51%).
Quickly, Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the crisis energy of Cuba to the North American embargo: “the intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution of the United States, which makes it difficult to import fuel and other resources necessary for that industry.”
While the regime doubles investment in hotels and restaurantsspending on Education experienced significant reductions, as it decreased by more than 20% and only 1% of the investment was allocated to it.
Meanwhile, in Public health and social care Only 769 million pesos were invested, 1.8% of the total and 23% less compared to what was invested in the first half of 2023.
The amount allocated to the supply of electricity, gas and water; transportation, storage and communications, and agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry, showed little investment in the first half.
