AREQUIPA, Peru – The Castro regime acknowledged this weekend in its official press that it sells donations made by governments and international organizations to Cubans affected in Guantanamo after the passage of Hurricane Oscar last October.
“From the aid received by the country, 10,287 mattresses arrived in the province for those affected by Hurricane Oscar, in the municipalities of San Antonio del Sur, Imías, Baracoa and Maisí, which are sold through the domestic retail network” , informs the state newspaper we will win.
The mattresses are sold to the most affected cases with the authorization of the Municipal Defense Councils, the report states.
The regime tries to clean up its image in the sales process through what it describes as a “bonus” of 50% of the value of the items and 100% coverage of 501 of them destined for social assistance.
Mattress prices range between 735 and 1,865 pesos depending on their characteristics. Of the total donations, the regime’s Defense Council decided to deliver 4,326 to the municipality of San Antonio del Sur, the territory most affected by the floods.
“The provincial Government of Popular Power and the Municipal Administration Councils remain in the process of evaluating and selling the mattresses to the most affected cases due to Hurricane Oscar and the donation to those most in need,” highlights the official media in what represents an ambiguous distinction between victims.
On Sunday, October 20, Hurricane Oscar, then category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, made landfall in Baracoa, in the province of Guantánamo, with winds of 130 kilometers per hour.
The intense rains and major floods in the municipalities of Baracoa, Imías, Maisí and San Antonio del Sur, left eight dead and two missing, in addition to more than 11,000 homes affected, according to data from Cuban authorities.
Disasters in Cuba: harvest for the regime
A former officer of the Revolutionary Armed Forces consulted by CubaNet He assured that times of disaster in Cuba were “harvest moments for the State Reserve.” According to the source, a good part of the donations that arrived during an emergency were first confiscated by officials of the State Reserve, even anticipating the normal customs processes in ports and airports, and ignoring the hierarchy of the Civil Defense in this type of situation. , although with its consent as part of the Army.
For example, when Hurricane Matthew hit in October 2016, many of the high-quality mattresses donated by Italy were used to complete the furniture in some hotels run by the military or were given “by assignment” to senior officers, while the Victims had to pay between 300 and 1,000 pesos for some mats to use.
“The wrapping of the Italian mattresses was put on them, they were sealed as new (…), and those were the ones that were sent to the victims,” stated the source.
The residents of Imías and San Antonio “have been and continue to be alone. They charge the little that the Government has given them, at half price but they charge it. Those are people that they have lost everythingFurthermore, what they are given are donation products that the Government has received, that is, it has not cost them anything. “How is it possible that they charge them?” said a young activist on condition of anonymity in order to continue supporting the victims.
Another source of the same project consulted by CubaNet He also reported that several residents in the towns complained about the abandonment by the authorities and the sale of donated products.
