SLP, Mexico.- In December, the Government Cuban announced that it would gradually eliminate subsidies for the basic basket distributed through the supply book. This month, only a few products have arrived at Cuban warehouses and rice is sold at a much higher price than it had.
In response to a survey of CubaNet that sought to investigate the food that had arrived at the establishments in each city, the Cubans agreed that only rice and phosphorus had been sold in the majority. Grain is also sold at 130 CUP per pound.
In Cienfuegos, according to one Internet user, they sold two pounds of sugar, two pounds of rice, peas and two boxes of matches.
In Havana, in several wineries, Cubans had to buy rice for 130 pesos per person, spending 260 pesos for the two pounds to which they were entitled.
“Five pounds of rice for a cost of 130 is equivalent to a third of a retiree’s pension, sometimes it makes you want to laugh at how we can be so submissive and enduring. They just push and then ask for resistance, are any of those potbellied Do you know the true meaning of that word? I doubt it, when they have to subsist on a salary of 1,500 and “sleep” without power and cook with firewood, then they can ask us to resist,” wrote one person.
In some points of sale, received rice at 160 pesos per pound. The quantity sold varies, and has ranged from two to five pounds.
“In Central Havana it was 160 in a single point, due to advice, for several wineries and it did not reach everyone,” noted one person. “In Villa Clara they gave 5 pounds per nucleus at 330,” said another.
An Internet user from Sancti Spíritus said that two pounds per person arrived at his winery and were sold for 140 each.
The gradual elimination of subsidies basket basic aims, according to the regime, to redirect subsidies towards people with greater needs. The measure occurs in the midst of the acute economic crisis that is plaguing the country.
In an appearance in December, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero indicated that work is already underway to withdraw subsidies for essential products and warned that this process “It has no reverse gear.”
He clarified, in turn, that the implementation will be progressive and product by product, recognizing, however, the possible social tensions: “An analysis that we concluded is to completely eliminate the subsidy of the basic basket, but the issue is complicated because it does not Only people in vulnerable conditions should be subsidized. For practically the majority of budgeted workers, their salaries would not allow them to cover that difference,” he said.
The official admitted that the measures taken so far have not met citizen expectations. “We are dissatisfied that the necessary progress has not been made,” he said, when presenting the results of the government plan designed a year ago to mitigate economic distortions.
The current panorama, marked by high inflation and widespread shortages, makes access to basic foods such as rice, sugar, eggs and bread, the cost of which far exceeds the population’s average salary, a challenge.
