Madrid/There is a general consensus among Cubans regarding the provincial media of the ruling party: the majority address information issues with more freedom than the national press, although there are ranges. The Tuner Newspaper 26 would be in an intermediate category, it is not as prone to controlled criticism as Escambraybut he is far from being the faithful Sierra Maestra. However, this Monday he went all out in his reproach to the Government for the attitude maintained in relation to the vaunted “program to correct distortions and re-boost the economy.”
“As Díaz-Canel pointed out in July 2024, the Program had to be made known ‘so that it is truly supported with popular participation and control’. This statement, included in the text itself, contrasts with the reality of an opaque implementation, which until now limited precisely that citizen participation,” reproaches the author of a text that is very critical of the behavior of the authorities and the consequences it has brought.
The author is István Ojeda Bello, three-time winner of the Juan Gualberto Gómez National Award for Digital Journalism (2018, 2019 and 2021), who does not hesitate to criticize the Government for its fear of communicating – and doing it well – the measures that are necessary to get the country out of the deep crisis that is plaguing it.
Ojeda celebrates, first of all, that the now famous program has finally been made public and warns that this now allows citizens to express their opinions on the matter. Considers that there is a work, carried out by economists, of technical analysis with “interconnected” objectives, “specific purposes” and “concrete actions” that should result in macroeconomic stability and that ranges from monetary and fiscal policies to the increase in production and the transformation of the state company.
It is known, he regrets, 18 months after it began to be implemented, therefore, he concludes, this allows us to get an idea of how effective it has been.
However, he warns, this plan has already been in development since it was first stated, at the end of 2023, “when the purpose of ‘correcting distortions and re-boosting the economy’ was included in the official discourse.” It is known, he regrets, 18 months after it began to be implemented, therefore, he concludes, this allows us to get an idea of how effective it has been. His conclusion is, based on the data, that the result is disastrous.
To do this, he makes a brief review well known to the majority of the population, summarizing some data that highlights the serious situation. “The Cuban economy is today 11% smaller than five years ago, with the gross domestic product contracting. Primary activities – agriculture, livestock and mining -, according to the Ministry of Economy and Planning and academic analysis, register a catastrophic drop of 53%,” he quotes. He mentions the collapse of the national energy system, about which there is little left to say, as well as the once glorious sugar industry, which does not meet even half of the planned planting.
Nor does he fail to comment on the poor tourism data, as well as the – increasingly worse – state of exports. “Social deterioration completes this unfavorable picture. Infant mortality increased, 182,506 families were identified in a vulnerable situation and more than 313,000 people remain disconnected from study and work, affecting the objective of ‘consolidating and developing social policies,'” he adds.
According to his account, there are only three aspects that reflect a certain, although also limited, progress. The expansion of the private sector is advancing – although with excessive concentration in the tertiary sector –, inflation has improved – which is increasing but at a slower rate – and there are some financing schemes in foreign currency – but their impact is limited. “The cross-section of the aforementioned analyzes reveals a harsh reality: the setbacks far exceed the advances, despite the meticulous design of the Program,” he emphasizes.
The author of the text adds a previous paragraph to his devastating final conclusions in which he concedes the impact that US economic sanctions have on any plan in the same field that is carried out on the Island, but warns that the Cuban president himself has already recognized that “the country’s current income is insufficient” and it is foreseeable that the famous Plan will have no function other than managing a crisis.
“Meanwhile, the Cuban economy would continue immersed in a contractionary spiral, which increasingly affects the well-being of the population and postpones the development objectives foreseen in the document itself,” adds Ojeda in the prelude to the great final disapproval.
The journalist considers that the opacity of the regime “limits” the ability of economic actors to cooperate with the country’s objectives, hinders accountability and, most seriously, leads the population to wonder why it has taken so long to disclose. The Government faces, in its opinion, a serious dilemma that was already revealed with the case of the Etecsa tariff: there are essential measures to take – under penalty of never getting out of the hole – that are economically painful, but if done the risk of social outbreak is extreme.
Ojeda hopes that the regime has learned from the poor information management it did at that time, when “the credibility of the revolutionary institutionality was undermined, expressed in the unnecessary loneliness of the Cuban Telecommunications Company SA (Etecsa) in the face of a measure that surpassed it in dimensions”; and asks that on this occasion everything be addressed with transparency, debate and exchange of views.
