Natalia López Moya – Page 2

Prices for Illegal Satellite Dish Services in Cuba Skyrocket

Satellite dishes give Cubans access to a variety of foreign TV channels. (Sincable)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 30 July 2023 — Inflation continues to take its toll on Cuban pocketbooks. In addition to increases in the cost of transportation and food, the fees families pay to watch foreign television programs via illegal satellite dishes are also going up, doubling in some Cuban neighborhoods to as much as 1,000 pesos a month.

“I can’t afford it so I told the boy who installed the cable to take it out,” says Maritza, a retiree in Central Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood who has been enjoying the service for more than a dozen years thanks to wiring hidden in a fake water pipe leading to her house. The densely populated borough has one of the capital’s highest concentrations of satellite dishes.

“One day I learned the price was suddenly going from 250 pesos, which I had been paying, to 500 pesos.” Maritza complains. “I can’t afford something like that on my 1,400-peso monthly pension.” The service gave her access to variety shows, soap operas and “all the things having to do with Cuba such as the news programs on channel 41 [America TeVe].”

Costs are skyrocketing even more for suppliers whose cables are apt to be cut, stolen and resold on the black market, a growing practice on Havana’s rooftops. To replace their stolen wiring, satellite owners must shell out hard currency or turn to friends and family members overseas willing to use their Visas or Mastercards to buy it from online stores that ship to the island.

In Luyanó, an area in the Tenth of October borough, prices have risen even more. “There are packages that cost 800 pesos a month and others that cost 1,000 depending on the number of channels you choose,” says Dayron, a young man who acts as a broker between local customers and the owner of two powerful satellite dishes. “Everything has gone up and so everything costs us more,” he explains. continue reading

He points out that, in addition to maintenance costs, there are costs for the electricity needed to operate the devices, for DirecTV activation cards and for the cables that deliver the programming to customers. If owners of satellite dishes do not want to be reported to the authorities, government inspectors must also be paid to “turn a blind eye.” And to keep the most politically extreme neighbors from “wagging their tongues,” they are provided the service for free.

Though satellite dishes have been in the censors’ crosshairs for decades, efforts in Havana to root them out them have decreased significantly in recent years. After mass protests on 11 July 2021 (’11J’), however, the Cuban regime redoubled its efforts to crack down on the devices in order to prevent images of anti-government demonstrations from being disseminated.

Police operations aimed at finding the devices became so frequent that, in large areas of the city, satellite dish owners decided to suspend operations and wait for conditions to improve. Little by little, they reconnected customers and brought back their schedule of miniseries, movies, and reality shows.

These antennas are most commonly found amid Central Havana’s crowded streets and densely packed rooming houses. Among the first high-tech devices, they changed the way media was consumed on the island in the 1990s. They were followed by the paquete [’weekly packet’], the USB memory stick and, for nearly the last five years, the mobile phone internet connection.

More recently, however, satellite dishes have faced a new competitor: streaming services such as Netflix. Many Cuban emigrés subscribe to the service overseas and share their access codes with family members on the island. In some cases, the relatives in Cuba have a Fire TV device, or something similar, that allows them to enjoy a wide range of programming options on their televisions.

But connectivity problems, the high cost of web browsing and slow internet speeds limit the possibilities for watching movies or miniseries using these devices. In the poorest neighborhoods, satellite antennas still reign supreme because of their reliability and low cost, a situation that could change with the current rate increases.

“The greatest demand is for programs from Miami from [broadcasters such as] America TeVe, Telemundo, Spanish-language CNN and others that offer miniseries, documentaries and soap operas,” says Dayron. “Most of customers have told us they want to continue with the service even though it will cost more. “They’re already hooked and what they really don’t want, above all, is to go back to watching Cuban television.”

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Families Search for and Capture the Water Lost on the Streets of the Cuban Capital

Sitting on the porch, a couple of young people try to fill some buckets in in front of their building located on Malecón avenue. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 6 July 2023 — Every neighborhood has its secrets, its particular signs and marks. The place where the lowest tap is located is one of those pieces of information that can save a meal, a bath, and even a life. It is in that faucet, sometimes at ground level, where the water arrives first and leaves last. Sometimes it is inside the stairs of a house, other times in the corridor of a tenement and many times, in an old hydrant it runs out of.

In the midst of the profound water supply crisis that Havana is experiencing, where more than 200,000 people are affected by the lack of the precious liquid, knowing the closest point where you can go to fill at least one jug, late at night, or the day when water is finally pumped, is vital knowledge. As in those wide and hot savannas where the animals try to reach the only lake that allows them to cool off and drink, in the Cuban capital a pipe that releases a trickle, when the others are dry, is anyone’s wet dream.

Sitting on the porch this Tuesday afternoon, a couple of young people were trying to fill some buckets outside the ground floor of their building located on Malecón avenue. A pipe, which was once under the sidewalk but has now emerged due to soil erosion and the desperation of the residents, released a small stream. It was all the water that had arrived in days at one of the many tenements overlooking the sea on that street that acts as a border and breakwater.

With patience, for long minutes and hours, the men filled bottles, containers, the jug that they would later place in the refrigerator to quench the thirst of their large family. Right there, too, they took the opportunity to take a bath in front of the gaze of passers-by. No one flinched or was shocked. Finding water in Havana is a meritorious task. Anyone who knows where the lowest faucet in their neighborhood is located has a better chance of rinsing their mouths, washing a baby or making lemonade.

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Private Carriers, Annoyed by the New Attempt To ‘Cap’ Prices in Cuba

According to the Directorate, Havana has “46 passenger transport routes operated by private carriers, with an average distance of approximately seven miles.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 5 June 2023 — The young man extends his hand with a 200 peso bill that the driver grabs, without returning any change. It is the price of a collective taxi on the stretch from the Parque de la Fraternidad to Santiago de las Vegas, in Havana, a distance of a little more than 14 miles. Beginning next Friday, private drivers will be obliged to charge half that for that journey, according to the new maximum prices set by the General Directorate of Provincial Transport.

The new rates arise “from the need to update the prices of the passenger transport service offered by the Non-State Forms of Management,” says the note published on June 5 by the state entity. The initial proposal was “coordinated with the majority of the holders who have a transport operation license, in each of their territories,” it adds.

According to the Directorate, Havana has “46 passenger transport routes operated by private carriers, with an average distance of approximately 7 miles.” The prices for a short section are set at 45 pesos, the averages at 70 and 100, and the longer routes, such as the one from Guanabo beach to Old Havana, is set at 170.

The new figures represent at least half of what private carriers are currently charging, rates that have not stopped rising since the fuel crisis decreased the availability of transport. Drivers allege difficulties in buying gasoline, high prices for spare parts and a general increase in the cost of living. continue reading

In 2021, the year in which the Ordering Task* began, prices in Cuba suffered a 77.3% increase in the consumer price index (CPI) mainly from transport, which grew by 188%, a fact made public by the National Office of Information and Statistics (Onei). Since then, prices have continued to increase without seeing an end to the rise.

“Neither the State nor the passenger gives anything to the taxi driver,” laments David Pousada in a harsh comment on site of the Provincial Directorate of Transport. “As long as the driver has to buy medicines at 1,000 pesos, a can of oil at 1,500, a package of chicken at 3,000, fuel at 400 per liter and a soft drink in the cafeteria at 150, prices will not go down.”

At the collection points, such as the Parque de la Fraternidad, the news spread on Monday morning among the drivers. “This is the country of the 15 days: nothing is fixed. Now they are capping prices. The inspectors stand on every street corner, they fine us, they take some drivers prisoner to intimidate us, and after two weeks everything goes back to the way it was yesterday,” says Roly, who drives a nine-seater vehicle that makes the route to Playa.

Customers, on the other hand, are torn between hope and doubt. “It relieves me, of course, because if this is true I’m going to spend half of what I’m spending now to go from La Víbora to the Capitolio,” admits a young woman who works in a private restaurant near Central Park. “But other times, when they have announced capped prices, what has happened is that many drivers stay home and won’t go to work for that small amount of money.”

Others, such as Yuniel, 23, ask: “On the route that costs 45, what driver is going to return five pesos to you if you paid with a 50-peso bill?” According to this young man, “it’s not just about prices but also about the lack of paper money, especially small bills, because ATMs can spend days without cash, and the lines to withdraw money are getting longer and longer.”

The authorities warn that “the actions of confrontation and control on the road will be reinforced (…), applying to drivers who are detected in violation of the established prices, Decree 30 of 2021. In the case of those who exercise the activity illegally, it will act with greater rigor by applying Decree 45 of 2021.”

They have also enabled the telephone number 78813110 and the email oap.dg@getrans.cu so that the customers themselves report drivers who violate the new rates to “act on the offender” and ask that the report include “day, time, license plate number of the vehicle and the price charged.”

In addition to Havana, the new prices have reached the center of the Island, where on Monday the local press announced that “the price of 15 pesos per passenger is fixed for combustion tricycles, within the city of Cienfuegos, on the perimeter from any point of the city to the ring road,” and in the case of two-seater motorcycles, “the price is 30 within the mentioned perimeter.

It is expected that in the coming days similar news will be published in the official media of the rest of the country’s cities.

*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” [Tarea Ordenamiento] is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Chicken From the ‘Empire’ Was Delivered for the Cuban Ration Book

Unloading frozen chicken from a truck coming from the United States, in Central Havana, this Tuesday. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, May 10, 2023 — “The missing chicken and rice have arrived for the population. Pending coffee and detergent, blessings.” The message from a neighbor of Central Havana this Wednesday set off a crowd that ran in search of the chicken that had been lost for months. Two hours later there was no more chicken nor trace of a line.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Internal Trade asked the population for calm, assuring that chicken would arrive in all corners of the Island. A week earlier, the authorities revealed that, due to the lack of availability, only medical diets and children up to 13 years old would be entitled to the meat of the bird through the ration book, while those older than that age would receive picadillo and mortadella as a substitute.

Finally, and despite the collapse of chicken imports, the Government rectified the measure and began distribution in Camagüey last Friday, at the rate of one and a half pounds of meat for those under 14 and one pound for those over that age.

It is suspected that the shipment of chicken that arrived on May 5, aboard the refrigerated ship Orange Spirit from New Orleans, was destined for sale in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC), and that the authorities made the decision to distribute it through the ration book in national currency when they realized the growing unrest in the country, expressed on social networks and in the Caimanera protest, last Saturday. continue reading

Just unloaded from the Orange Spirit, the frozen poultry meat, which has become an object of desire for all Cubans since they stopped hoping for pork, was quickly distributed in Havana and dispatched to other cities in the center of the Island, as 14ymedio correspondents were able to verify.

This Tuesday, the trucks distributed the chicken to the butchers of the capital with such unusual efficiency that by the next day it was already available in every shop, as this newspaper could see in a tour of different neighborhoods of the center.

The chicken, from the American brand Tyson, is not one of the most appreciated by the population, because of the dark color it acquires with cooking. But the mere fact of finally being able to buy the expected half pound – at 20 pesos [$.80] – was already a cause for joy for the habaneros.

“You can’t complain, now you have chicken,” joked one neighbor to another who came out with his long-awaited package.

Despite the announcement of the arrival of the shipment of chicken, broadcast with great fanfare in Tribuna de La Habana this Tuesday, some neighbors were not expecting the happy news. “It took people by surprise,” said a retiree from Nuevo Vedado who found out, hours later, that they had supplied his butchery with the long-awaited chicken quarters.

The general director of the Copmar Food Marketing Company, Enrique Plaza Maldestein, said in Tuesday’s Noticerio Estelar that 51 containers of chicken were being unloaded in the port of Havana. The average number of tons of chicken needed to supply the capital’s family basket is 5,300, imported in its entirety.

For the third consecutive month, chicken purchases from the United States, which must be paid in cash due to the embargo restrictions, fell in March due to the lack of foreign exchange in the Central Bank. Imports from Brazil also decreased, another of the most stable suppliers on the Island and for whom there are no such limitations.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Cuban With Dollars Also Eats Badly: Picadillo, Sausages and Mayonnaise Bought From the Outside

Among the first five products of the “Most sold in the last hour” are foods that are very incompatible with a balanced diet. (Screen capture)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 April 2023 — The online sales pages for relatives abroad to buy for their relatives in Cuba have not only proliferated like fungi after the rain but reveal the disorder in the island’s diet.

Among the first five products of the “best sellers” on some sites, such as Supermarket 23, Yuppy Market, Alawao and Nercado, the following are repeated: condensed milk, powdered milk (with and without sugar), ground chicken, sausages, and mayonnaise and crackers (a frequent snack for many Cubans). These foods are not very compatible with a balanced diet.

Among the most requested products are also those that can be divided and stretched for several meals. The list is led by chicken or pork sausages, hamburgers and the ground turkey that is used in many homes to make croquettes, along with the instant soft drinks that constitute the main snack that students take to primary schools

While pieces of beef or pork are less in demand, boxes of frozen chicken quarters, entrails and cheap sausages are gone only hours after appearing for sale on those online portals. Vegetable oil is also frequently exhausted, and the supply of fruits, vegetables or greens is small and often sold in cut or frozen format.

Imported goods win, widely, over what is produced on the Island. It is easier to find in those digital markets a can of tuna from Europe than a fresh fish taken from the seas around Cuba. Cheeses, Gouda or cheddar style, also surpass several times the few nationally made dairy products that are marketed. continue reading

All this proves that the problem of malnutrition in Cuba is not only due to the increasingly alarming rates of poverty. When the food and toiletry shops were dollarized almost three years ago, it seemed that, at least those who received remittances from relatives abroad were going to be able to have varied food. This, despite assuming a new social division, very soon turned into a widespread complaint and even one of the reasons for the mass protests of July 11, 2021 (many demonstrations were over the closure of stores in MLC, freely convertible currency).

Just at the beginning of April, the UN World Food Program released a report saying that “the diet of the average Cuban household is poor in micronutrients and not sufficiently healthy or diverse due to the limited and unstable availability of nutritious food, socioeconomic factors and bad eating habits.”

The document, which denounces the responsibility for the Government’s economic decisions such as the so-called Ordering Task* emphasized that the situation was worse for the Cuban who did not receive remittances. However, sales websites for buying from abroad confirm that, as with happiness, money does not guarantee a good diet either.

Roast meat, lobster and shrimp, which have disappeared from the vast majority of Cuban tables, seem to come out of a fantasy novel today, but access to foreign currency does not even make Cubans lean towards the varied foods and fruits that the Island always provides: avocado, sweet potato, yucca, malanga, okra, bananas, mamey, pineapple, mango or any type of citrus: more eloquent evidence of the failure of a system that has lasted for 64 years.

*Translator’s note: Tarea Ordenamiento — The ’Ordering Task’ is a collection of measures that include eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy. Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Fuel Shortage Leaves Havana’s La Rampa Deserted — No Cars, No People

Calle 23 in El Vedado, Havana, was seen to be deserted on Saturday afternoon. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 16 April 2023 – ’Up La Rampa and down La Rampa!’ was the slogan used by all the people who flocked to Calle 23 in El Vedado, Havana at the weekends in order to get to or from the Malecón sea wall, or a cinema or the queue for the Coppelia ice cream parlour. All that activity has now gone, leaving behind a deserted avenue, which, this Saturday at 5.30pm was seen to be empty of cars and pedestrians.

The fuel crisis has significantly transformed the view of what once was the left-hand atrium of Havana’s heart. There are closed cafeterias, restaurants only operating at half throttle and pavements/sidewalks lacking the usual activity of the capital’s residents, provincial visitors who used to come and check out the liveliest area of the city, or tourists keen to check out its bars and cabarets.

“We’re selling very little because there’s hardly anyone on the street”, Yusier laments — a waiter in a nearby private cafeteria which has had to resort to serving only on the terrace in order to keep both salons open. “People aren’t coming here from other areas now because afterwards they don’t have any way of getting back home, with the state that the bus service is in”.

In order to mitigate the fall in demand, the private business has set up a service which delivers pizzas, other foods and cold drinks to customers’ homes. “But it’s not the same as going out for a stroll and then having a meal, it’s a different experience. It’s people that give life to places and right now El Vedado is dead”, concludes Yusier.

The various taxi collectives that use Calle 23 as part of their routes are similarly reduced in service. On Saturday afternoon, three women were waiting on the main corner of El Vedado and Calle G, arms waving to try and flag down an almendron* cab. “I’ve been here an hour and there’s nothing. If I don’t get a cab soon I’m just going to walk it”, one of them told 14ymedio. continue reading

The centre of Calle G is an area of gardens and park benches which up until a few years ago was full of children and adolescents at the weekends. “We’ve moved on from complaining about them to missing them”, admits Maria del Carmen, resident of a three storey building on Avenida de los Presidentes, near to Calle 23. “Before, they wouldn’t let us sleep, and now what keeps us awake is the fact that they aren’t there! Where are they all?”

Maria del Carmen remembers the busy days when the pedestrian walkway down the middle of Calle G was packed from Friday onwards with all of Havana’s different urban tribes. There were rockeros, frikis, emos, góticos, aprendices de vampiros, raperos, mikis, repas** and whatever other groups there might happen to be in the most important city in the country. There were frequent complaints from residents and the police raided the area constantly and imposed fines.

Today, only the memory remains of that carnival of extravagant costumes, guitars, make-up and laughter. Niorvis, 32, worked as a caretaker for a nearby state restaurant which has been under repair for more than five years. “I spent my adolescence between Calle G and La Rampa, so that when I pass by there now it looks like a funeral parlour. All the passion is gone”.

If the fuel of passion is important for filling city squares, bringing people with a common interest together and keeping a group of friends singing until the early hours, it is no less certain that it is hydrocarbons which allow people from all parts of the city to meet up in one place. “The meeting up in Calle G has been snuffed out by police harassment, the number of people leaving the country, and transport problems”, Niorvis surmised.

Whilst he is evoking the past, a solitary bus passes in front of the man’s gaze, somewhat overladen and tilting with an excess of passengers. Dozens of people who are waiting at the Quixote Park bus stop get ready to try and board the vehicle. The bus can barely take on half a dozen before awkwardly heading out into the broad avenue, where only the clattering noise of the dilapidated vehicle can be heard.

When the bus has departed, temperatures rise at the bus stop. “I’m not leaving my house ever again”, says a woman carrying her child in her arms. “You can’t even relax when you do go out because every journey becomes a pain, like this one”, adds someone else. “But, guys, this is all gonna get fixed soon and there’s gonna be so much fuel you’ll even be able to gargle with it”, jokes another.

It’s getting late and the buildings begin to take on a reddish hue. In the whole of avenida 23 the only things that are moving with any dynamism are the forklift trucks and the labourers working on the construction which will be the tallest building in Cuba: the López-Calleja tower, so-named by people in allusion to the magnate of the military consortium Gaesa, who died last year.

A few shop signs begin to light up and La Rampa by night becomes a zone of shadows and silence.

Translator’s notes:

*’Almendron’ is the word used to refer to the classic American cars, generally in use as taxis, and in particular as shared, fixed-route taxis. The word comes from “almond” in reference to the shape of these ’ancient’ vehicles.

**This link (if your browser is able to convert it to English) describes in detail the various ’tribes’ and the sources and meanings of their names.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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Forty-two Dollars for a Two-mile Taxi Ride in Havana

"Lamentablemente tenemos una alta demanda y poca disponibilidad de vehículos por falta de combustible". (EFE) — ‘Sadly we have high demand and very little availability of vehicles because of the lack of fuel.” (EFE)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 17 April 2023 — The fuel crisis in Cuba is far from over and is reflected not only in the empty city streets but also in the unpayable prices of private transport.

“Unfortunately we have a high demand and little availability of vehicles due to lack of fuel,” said a highly respected agency representative in Havana this Sunday, excusing the cost. “We have only been able to locate one driver who can do the service but he charges 1,000 pesos [$42].

Maria, who lives in Nuevo Vedado, had called them. She had just been granted the United States visa for family reunification on behalf of her son and needed a ride early this Monday from her home to the Manuel Fajardo hospital, where she would collect the results of the medical check-up necessary for the consular interview at the embassy. A trip of less than two miles.

“I’ve been using them for months because a friend recommended them to me. They gave her a consular appointment a day after the passage of Hurricane Ian, when the city was full of branches and several blocked streets,” the woman explains to this newspaper to demonstrate the seriousness of the company.

This Sunday morning, she was informed that the service would cost 600 pesos [$25], which she accepted. “But the hours passed and they didn’t send me the make of the car and the name of the driver, as they always do,” María continues, “so I contacted them again in the afternoon.” It was then that they told her that the price would be a thousand pesos. “All that in the same municipality of Plaza de la Revolución; that is, that price for a very short stretch, because the rest of the road was going to be done on foot.” She had to say yes, although the price had almost doubled in a few hours, “because I couldn’t walk with my passport early in the morning given the lack of security.” continue reading

Another consequence of the gasoline shortage is being suffered by messaging platforms, such as Mandao. An employee of this company tells 14ymedio that at the moment only those who have a bicycle or an electric motorcycle are working on delivery. The young man, who has a bicycle, explains that his daily services have multiplied: “Before we were the least valued because at the pace of a pedal everything goes a little slower, and many businesses did not want us to take care of their deliveries. But now that there is no gasoline they have realized that our fuel is human, and we don’t have to buy it at gas stations.”

Of course, the law of supply and demand is not forgiving and, thus, the bicitaxis have also raised their costs. “All prices go up,” complained a customer who refused a service on Monday. “In that, the revolution is advancing.”

On Friday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel tried to offer explanations for the lack of fuel but, as on other occasions, he only pointed to scapegoats. “The countries that have certain commitments with us to supply us with gasoline from the agreements we have are also experiencing a complex energy situation,” he said in a meeting in Santa Clara with provincial leaders of the Party.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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‘Even Tourists Are Stranded on the Road Because There Is No Fuel in Cuba’

Traffic jam at Santa Ana and Boyeros of taxis waiting to get gasoline. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 10 April 2023 — Marta and Manuel, two Spaniards who arrived in Havana this Good Friday on the Air Europa flight, pass through the door of the José Martí international airport and come across a dark esplanade full of people holding signs with the name of a tourist. The taxi stand is empty. The lack of fuel has hit the strategic tourism sector, and the Madrid couple spends two hours waiting for a vehicle to take them to Old Havana.

“This is not how tourism can be recovered,” says the employee who manages the taxi stand. The man calls again and again on his mobile phone to the possible taxi drivers who relieve the long line that has been formed after the arrival of the European flight. But the answer he receives is almost the same: “I don’t have fuel.” After half an hour, a yellow Citröen arrives in front of the line of desperate travelers. “This is my last trip because what I have left of gasoline is not enough for another,” he says.

Several tourists hurry to get on the buses that will take them to Varadero and other resorts. “We are making the trips to leave the customers in the hotels but we have had to cut the excursions,” explains a driver who begins to read a list of British surnames to confirm the travelers he will take in his vehicle. “For almost a month we have only had fuel for transfers to and from the airport,” he emphasizes.

On the other side of the street, in the shadows, the drivers of several private vehicles load luggage into trunks and shout among themselves the coordinates to find fuel. “The Santa Catalina gas station has none; neither does Boyeros and Ayestarán although they told me that they saw a tank unloading an hour ago at the one on G and 25.” continue reading

The information, more valuable for filling the tank of the vehicle than the money itself, has created networks of solidarity among drivers who, in addition to spreading the word about where the supply has arrived, help each other in the lines in front of the gas station, which can last for days. “We are four taxi drivers and we take turns in line. The station that had fuel last week doesn’t have it anymore. We wouldn’t have a life if we had to be in line all the time,” explains a young man who rents a cab from the Taxi-Cuba Company.

“The tourists who arrive don’t know this, and some rent a car to go to the provinces; then they get stranded on the road because they can’t fill the tank,” the driver tells 14ymedio. “At first, passenger cars had priority, but if there is no gasoline, it doesn’t matter if you have priority. If there isn’t any there isn’t, and they can’t invent it.”

Marta and Manuel managed, after a long wait, to get into a vehicle on the way to a private rental house in the historic center of Havana. “Can we meet tomorrow for an excursion to the Zapata Swamp?” they inquired of the taxi driver. The payment proposal, an interesting amount of euros, would have been absolutely irresistible a few months ago, but the driver declines. “I can’t, this is the last gasoline I have left. Tomorrow I have to take care of getting more, and that will take me all day or all week.”

Rumors are circulating among taxi drivers that fuel problems will be solved on the 18th. In March, the British agency Reuters announced the shipment of oil from Venezuela that was going to be the largest in memory in a long time. The Nolan oil tanker, Panamanian-flagged and sanctioned by the United States, was in the Venezuelan port of San José loading 1.53 million barrels (400,000 barrels of oil and 1.13 of diesel), destined for Cuba.

Although the ship was supposed to arrive at the end of March, the shortage, visible at the Island’s gas stations, suggests that it arrived late or that the unloading has been slow. Radar positioned the Nolan for the last time off the coast of western Africa, but that was 111 days ago, and the sanctioned tankers travel with the transponder turned off to hide their location. The Venezuelan government opponent María Corina Machado said last week that the oil tanker was in the port of Antilla, in Holguín, according to a satellite application.

But the effects of the lack of fuel are not only noticed by tourists and Cubans who want to fill their tank. The blackouts are already back, and national television announced that a “complex” day is expected this Monday. Yesterday, Sunday, the deficit reached 368 megawatts (MW) at around 20:20, coinciding with peak time. Although the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) assures that “this weekend it managed to meet the demand,” many Cubans have complained about more than three hours without power in different parts of the Island.

“Last night there was a blackout here from 10:27 pm until a little more than 1 am. I couldn’t rest well, and today we face the day to day to see how to survive,” lamented a woman from Cienfuegos. “I have just seen the list, and during the day there should be no problem, but in Remedios there is a deficit from 9 to 3 in the afternoon,” added another.

For today, UNE predicts a deficit of 200 MW, but 550 MW is expected to be missing at the peak. In its statement, the electricity monopoly speaks of a shortage in the distribution because of “failures and lack of maintenance,” correcting the information provided on television, which said that the lack of availability is due to “problems” in the distribution of fuel, which has not yet arrived.

“They don’t have oil because they don’t buy it, and they don’t pay for what they buy. Period.” says a user when reading the forecast for the day.

Meanwhile, the recovery work of the Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas thermoelectric plant continues after the accident that cost the lives of two people this Friday and injured two more when they were trapped by the collapse of a 23-foot high wall while cleaning the soot in the chimney of the plant. La Guiteras is the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, but last year it was out of service for more days than it produced energy.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Between the Ballot and the Ticket To Leave the Island, Cubans Prefer To Emigrate

On Infanta Street this Wednesday, a young man in a ration store looked at one of the many official posters which, in these last weeks, promote a united vote for the parliamentary candidates.(14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 23 March 2023 — To vote or not to vote in the elections for Cuba’s Parliament, on March 26, is a dilemma in the face of which many Cubans have already taken sides. The economic crisis, lack of hope and little confidence in state institutions favor abstention in a country where not attending the polls is considered a political statement and can involve reprisals.

Among those who are overcoming fear and say that they will not vote are retirees whose pensions don’t go far enough, young people who have not known anything but scarcity since they were born and potential migrants who set their sights outside the Island. The dissatisfaction and mistrust that lay beneath the surface of Cuban society could materialize in an increase in abstentions this coming Sunday.

On Infanta Street this Wednesday, a young man in a ration store looked at one of the many official posters that in recent weeks promote a united vote for the parliamentary candidates. The colorful advertising stands out in the store, which has only a couple of products on display. On the counter, a small blackboard announces that allocation of cigarettes and cigars for the month of January are now being sold.

“I don’t even plan to go out that day, and I’m going to close the windows so they don’t bother me to go vote,” clarified another young woman who arrived at the bodega (ration store) to ask about the arrival of salt. “Two years ago I turned 16 and am on the electoral roll, but I’m not interested. I didn’t go to vote for the Family Code [in September 2022], and I’m not going to go this time either,” she says bluntly. continue reading

The reason borders more on indifference than on rebellion. “It’s not going to change anything if I go or not,” she tells 14ymedio. “My mother has been attending all those processes for 40 years and what does she have now? Nothing. A half-collapsed house, four old rags to wear and some children who only think about leaving this country as soon as they can.”

While she is speaking, an old woman arrives but doesn’t join the conversation. She makes a gesture of denial when she hears the young woman’s words. It is in the elderly where the official propaganda of the united vote and the attendance at the polls as a sign of support for the system penetrates with greater depth. They are the ones who are most afraid of change or have spent more years of their lives supporting the Government.

Maurín, 21, lives in the Havana neighborhood of San Pedro in the municipality of El Cotorro. In front of the door of his house extends a street that years ago lost some of its asphalt. Garbage accumulates on the nearby corner, while the line for the only kiosk that sells food in the area almost reaches his window. “How am I going to go to vote if they haven’t even fixed the basics?” the young man asks, indignant.

With an engineer father and a nurse mother, Maurín questions the role of the delegates of the National Assembly of People’s Power in his neighborhood and the ability of parliamentarians to improve the lives of citizens. “In San Pedro we have been demanding [from the delegates] for years and years in the Accountability meetings that they fix our streets, improve the quality of the bread and open new stores to buy food, but none of that has been resolved.”

Disbelief has taken over many of the residents in the area, a phenomenon that is repeated throughout the country. To try to arouse enthusiasm in recent weeks, the Cuban ruling party has launched a campaign that includes meetings with voters, an avalanche of advertising in the national media, the reduction of annoying blackouts, and agricultural fairs to sell food at prices a little cheaper than in private markets.

However, the ideological offensive does not seem to be bearing fruit among a population that is tired of so many daily difficulties. For Maritza, 64, until recently employed by a branch of the Ministry of Culture, it is striking how people in the streets no longer hide that they will not vote on Sunday.

The Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel seems to fear a growth in abstention, which for decades remained below 10% but has experienced a significant increase in recent years. In last November’s municipal elections it reached an all-time high with 30% of voters absent. For the ruling party, attendance is measured as a sign of support for the system and the Communist Party.

“In the line at the bank I heard two employees who were talking and saying that they were not going to vote on Sunday. For me it is unprecedented that in a state work center people talk so openly in frank defiance of the system,” she tells this newspaper. “Before, that was unthinkable, and it shows that between fear and defiance, many are choosing defiance.”

Cuban dissidents have also raised the tone in the calls for abstention as the electoral date approaches and, for the first time in a long time, they have agreed on the “I don’t vote” premise, which has been joined by activists of various political stripes.

In Santa Clara, Ignacio, 47 years old and self-employed, has also decided to abstain. “The deputies will not solve any problem because they are the gears of this machine but not its essence. They are mostly a group of puppets without voice or vote because everything in Cuba has always been planned in that manual of ’continuity’,” he says.

Ignacio recognizes that others will go to the polls but says their attendance is not exactly because of a belief that the National Assembly will help improve life on the Island. “One of the saddest things is the political apathy of these people and the hopelessness that leads them to vote or take any decision dictated by the Government, such as voting for everyone,” he emphasizes.

Others, such as Jorge, a 23-year-old university student and resident of Camajuaní, Villa Clara, recognizes that he will go to vote on March 26 because he feels that attendance is “practically mandatory.” He does not want to stand out publicly and prefers to avoid teacher retaliation that could result from not going.

However, he recognizes that no candidate for parliament represents him “because the politics they defend has nothing to do” with his way of thinking. “The election process will solve absolutely nothing. All leaders follow the same ideology and do not change anything once they are elected,” he concludes with skepticism.

There are also those who seem impervious to the official campaign for the March 26 elections and say they are not even aware that voting will take place. “I don’t care about that; I just want to survive every day and wait for my sister to find me a sponsor to go to the United States,” acknowledges 19-year-old Jean Marcos. “The only place I’m going to go is to the airport when I have my flight.”

Jean Marcos’ friends share his position. Given the choice between the ballot or the ticket, they all seem to opt for something that gets them out of Cuba as soon as possible.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Banco Central de Cuba Made in China

Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the notices say: “Made in China.” (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 March 2023 — One day there appeared a significant number of ATMs around Tulipán Street, in the Havana neighborhood of Nuevo Vedado. The nearby market of the Youth Labor Army, which attracts not only local residents but also buyers from other municipalities due to its lower prices and the availability of wholesale purchases, made them necessary.

In addition to Tulipán Street itself, there were more ATMs on the ground floor of the Ministry of Transport and in the Metropolitan Bank on Conill Street, and still more at a Cadeca, an exchange house, which in its time changed the now non-existent Cuban convertible pesos.

All these machines were deteriorating, broken down and, therefore, disappearing, without the authorities doing anything to replace them. To such an extent that the neighbors of Nuevo Vedado have to travel to other neighborhoods such as El Vedado, Centro Habana or even Old Havana to withdraw cash.

These days, people have been surprised to see signs announcing the reinstallation of ATMs on Tulipán Street. Along with the name, the Central Bank of Cuba, the papers say: “Made in China.” People do not know, because the end of the work has not been announced, when these machines will be ready, but, for the moment, they smile suspiciously at the paper sign.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Infanta Street in Havana, Where all the Miseries of Cuba Come Together

“There is no other option, to fill the tank you have to get cooked over slow heat,” complains a driver who, at the stroke of noon, had already been in line for two hours.

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 March 2023 — The sun itches, although the Lenten winds blow over Havana and ruffle the hair of passers-by. Inside a vehicle, in the long line to buy fuel at the corner of Infanta and San Rafael this Friday, the temperature is similar to what is experienced in the purgatory of May, or even a high that’s reached in the hell of August. “There is no other option, in order to fill the tank you have to get cooked over low heat,” laments a driver who at the stroke of noon had already been in line for two hours .

The cars almost touch. There’s a garish red Lada that a few years ago would have targeted its owner as a vice-minister or colonel; a tricycle to transport goods; several modern Citroëns that seem older than any almendrón* from the last century and even a taxi that demands 30 dollars to shuttle travelers who have recently arrived at the José Martí airport to the city. It doesn’t matter the year of manufacture, the state of the body, or the pedigree of the driver. They are all scorching equally under the sun.

“I no longer go around in circles. I come directly to gas stations on the main avenues, which are the best supplied ones,” the driver of a Russian-made Moskvitch with nickel-plated wheels, interior air conditioning and other amenities, though manufactured, as he admits, “in times of the CAME [Council for Mutual Economic Assistance], so it was not designed for savings,” he laments. The owner perceives the fuel supply in the city as a “see saw”: “One day they tell you that there is no problem and you can fill the tank, and the next you can only add a certain number of liters.” continue reading

It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs

In addition, several lines converge at the gas station at the popular corner of Centro Habana. The place has a small store that sells frozen products, across from it there is a property belonging to the Rápido chain, an attempt by the Cuban regime to emulate the reviled, by official discourse, McDonald’s and Subway, but it ended up capsizing due to the lack of raw materials and inflation and joined the network of regulated trade. When the day begins, in this nodal point of Centro Habana it is difficult to know who is there for a package of frozen chicken, a bag of detergent or a liter of gasoline.

The avenue, named in honor of Princess María Luisa Fernanda, youngest daughter of King Ferdinand VII and sister of Isabel II of Spain, is lacking in monarchy and has a surplus of misery. It’s common for people to come to blows when the line slows down or when an employee yells that they’re out of diesel or hot dogs. That’s when, in one of the most “royal” of Havana streets, people take off their flip-flops, shout obscenities and seem to be ready for anything. Then the March winds blow and everyone goes home.

*Translator’s note: Almendrón, from the ‘almond shape’ of the vehicles, is a term that refers to mid-20th century American cars, still plying the streets of Cuba, primarily as shared taxis for Cuban customers, and as ‘nostalgic’ tours for foreigners.

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A Pound of Sugar Approaches 200 pesos ($8.30) on the Informal Cuban Market

Sign in window: “We buy sugar.” A private business buys sugar from customers to make their chocolates. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 26 February 2023 — Rice and sugar seem to have launched a competition in Cuba to see which increases the most in price on the informal market. While rice already exceeds 200 pesos ($8.30) a pound in several areas of the Island, sugar, once the national emblem, is on its heels and also sells for around that number and, in some provinces, even exceeds it.

“I sell 17 pounds of sugar at 180 pesos if you buy them all; if you only want a part then it’s 190,” reads an ad published in a sales group on Facebook that in a few hours accumulated dozens of comments. “It’s in Central Havana and I don’t have home service,” said the informal merchant, who shortly after updated the information with a brief message: “Sold, and I don’t have any more.”

In the previous harvest, the production of Cuban sugar mills barely reached 480,000 tons of sugar out of the 911,000 that were planned, a failure to meet the target that caused a deficit of 60,000 tons for national consumption and seriously affected exports.

Given the disastrous numbers, the product has been even more restricted in the ration stores in recent months. “They only sold me one pound, and they say that this month it’s not my turn anymore,” a lamented a retiree this Friday, noting that she buys her basic normal basket in a place on Conill Street, in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución. continue reading

“During the Special Period (the crisis of the 90s) at least there was no shortage of sugar,” said the woman. “Many people survived those years thanks to sugar water, so now the situation is worse because we don’t even have that.” Comparisons between the current economic difficulties that the Island is going through and those suffered after the collapse of the Soviet Union are frequent.

“In my house we permanently had a bowl with sugar on the table so that everyone who came to visit us could eat a few tablespoons to be able to continue on their way,” recalls Evaristo, a resident of the neighborhood of El Cerro who this week bought “ten pounds of sugar at 170 pesos” and considers himself “lucky” because “you can’t find it now at that price.”

Recently, the Ministry of Internal Trade recognized that the delivery of sugar from the rationed market will depend on the existing availability in the country. The first results of the 2022-2023 harvest indicate that production will again be down in the dumps and far from the goal of 455,198 tons.

There is also no shortage of those who see in the product deficit a possibility of doing business by importing substitutes. “I sell 500 grams of aspartame, a sweetener that sweetens more than sugar. It is ideal for businesses that prepare sweets. The bag costs 60 dollars. I only accept this currency,” reads a very popular classifieds portal.

Others, given the price similarities between some foods, propose a barter. “I will trade five pounds of rice for three pounds of white sugar,” suggests someone in another Facebook group where the exchange of goods has gained space. The galloping loss of value of the Cuban peso makes many prefer to offer their merchandise in exchange for other foods rather than receive the national currency.

Inside people’s homes consumption is cut, coffee is taken more bitter, and fruit desserts in syrup are scarce. “Now I can’t even think of offering you anything sweet when you visit. The little sugar we have left is for the family’s consumption. There is not one more spoonful for anyone,” says Evaristo, who was born in 1959, when Cuban sugar mills achieved more than 5 million tons of sugar.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Gang Assaults Bus in Ciego de Avila and Steals Luggage

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 2 February 2023 — Their modus operandi is always the same. After hiding in the bushes, the thieves wait for the bus to stop at the train tracks, jump out, open the baggage compartment and make off with some of the luggage. The railway crossing in the town of Quesada, in Ciego de Avila province, is a dangerous place for travelers and the problem is not a new one.

At about 7:10 Wednesday night, a Transtur bus was en route from Camaguey to Havana when assailants pounced on the bus after the driver had stopped at a railroad crossing. “There were about six of them. They were like ninjas,” read a Facebook post from Ridier Leyva Tamayo, one of the passengers whose luggage was stolen.

After watching what was happening from the window, Leyva got off the bus but was unable to recover his belongings. “I fell behind and they threw rocks at me. I had to go back,” he says. The police were called but officers refused to take action, arguing that they could not leave the vehicle unprotected.

The incident is almost a carbon copy of one that Claudia, a 23-year old resident of Camaguey, and her boyfriend experienced in July after they decided to visit family in Havana. “It was at night and the whole area was very dark,” she tells 14ymedio. “I remember I was in a window seat right above the baggage compartment when the bus stopped.”

Claudia observed four individuals with covered faces emerge from the bushes at the same railroad crossing in Quesada. “They moved quickly, like they had done it many times before. In a few seconds they opened the hatch and took out two large suitcases and a carrying case.” continue reading

“That was six months ago. If it’s still happening, it’s because [the police] haven’t assigned anyone to guard the area in spite of complaints,” she says. Though she was not among those who lost their belongings, she recalls that on the same Transtur bus there was a couple who were going to Havana to catch an overseas flight. “They lost all the luggage they were carrying for that trip,” she adds.

According to Claudia, the driver said this happens frequently. He tried keep the stop as short as possible but described how once he stopped very briefly only to later be pulled over by police and fined for it.

She believes the thieves are still operating the same way at the same location because, she says, “There are no repurcussions. The police are there for other reasons. They’re there to make sure that the driver is not selling milk on the black market, or that some farmer is not earning a little money selling his products on the side of the road, not to catch these criminals.”

Numerous individuals have left comments under Leyva Tamayo’s social media post, complaining about police misconduct. “I think inaction by the police is the reason crime keeps increasing. They’re not under any real pressure. I called them about a robbery and they showed up an hour later, after it was all over,” complains Onaldo Paján.

“What it is is robbery and no one is doing anything about. Every day it gets worse,” writes Maidelyn Cruz, who suggests avoiding travel at night. Not only do you have to be an artist to avoid all the potholes in Central Highway, she claims, but “the ’ninjas’ have gotten stronger.”

She refers to the thieves as ninjas because of their stealth and speed. They also frequently rob trains, stealing merchandise and passengers’ belongings from freight cars. “They have keys to everything. A locked door is no problem for them,” warns an employee of Ferrocarriles de Cuba, a man who has worked in the rail transportation sector for a quarter of a century.

“They look for interprovincial buses to attack at railroad crossings. They also watch us when we stop to switch train tracks or when we’re waiting for another train to go by. We have no life. They’re just as willing to steal cement as sugar. On passenger trains, people sleep with their briefcases strapped to their feet or arms.”

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San Lazaro, a Havana Street that Wears Rouge and Has Cracked Balconies

Like every year around this time, it is a matter of dressing up the street so that the high-ranking figures of the government who walk through it get a different impression. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 25 January 2023 — “They are applying rouge to San Lázaro street again,” lamented a neighbor from Centro Habana this Tuesday morning. The facades of the long avenue are being painted so that, on the night of January 27, it will house the official March of the Torches, with the presence of Miguel Díaz-Canel.

In the face of what will happen on Friday, brigades of builders have erected scaffolding, hauled paint and begun to brush on a wall without cracks or on a balcony about to collapse. As every year around this time, it is a matter of dressing up the street so that the high-ranking figures of the government who walk through it on the eve of José Martí’s birth get an impression that is very different from reality.

“I came to eat at this little tavern but it is difficult to go in because they have erected scaffolding on the door, the drops of paint fall on the clothes of the passersby,” a young woman who has seen several of “these retouching processes” explained to 14ymedio that it won’t last long “because they use poor quality paint and they don’t do it very carefully either.” The colors are also very limited, so far, a poor palette of blues and pinks. continue reading

“I came to eat at this little tavern, but it is difficult to enter because they have put a scaffolding on the door, the drops of paint fall on the clothes of the passersby”

“It is outrageous how they are plastering the corners of the balconies that have partially detached from the buildings and then they paint them, everything is a coverup of reality, where it can be seen, but, of course, not a coat of paint or a spoonful of cement inside.”

The painting of the facades is only an advance. Before Friday, the street will be filled with a strong security operation that traditionally begins up to two days before the March at El Vedado and Centro Habana, neighborhoods where the University of Havana is located, the venue for the event that will begin around 8:30 p.m.

In recent years, the country has mourned various tragedies in the days leading up to this celebration. A tornado caused great destruction in areas of the capital in 2019, leaving eight dead, 200 injured, and more than a thousand homes destroyed. In 2020, the collapse of a balcony caused the death of three girls in Old Havana, although the government did not suspend the official act despite requests from citizens.

Looking ahead to what will happen on Friday, brigades of builders have erected scaffolding, hauled paint and begun to paint. (14ymedio)

In 2021 it was suspended due to the pandemic, and last year it became a display of the regime’s political muscle after the popular protests of July 11, 2021.

The first March of the Torches was organized on January 27, 1953 as a tribute to José Martí on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Although Fulgencio Batista’s government did not grant permission to carry it out, the students marched without the police intervening.

After 1959, the pilgrimage became a governmental act in which the ruling party participated, with the presence of the greatest leaders of the Communist Party, the University Student Federation and representatives of other political organizations of the regime.

Many young university students attend due more to pressure than conviction, although it is very common for them to make an appearance for a few minutes and then end up escaping through the streets where the caravan goes through.

Translated by Norma Whiting
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Alquizar, Cuba, Feels Abandoned Since the End of the Year, With No Coffee, Sugar or Oil at the Ration Store

A ‘Bodega’ (Ration Store) in Alquízar, in the Cuban province of Artemisa. (The Artemisian)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 February 2023 — “Before, here people could use lard to cook, but there is almost no one who raises animals and to make matters worse, since last year they have not sold oil through the bodega [ration store],” complains Liubis Torriente, 32, a resident of the municipality of Alquízar, in the province of Artemisa. “Nor has sugar or rationed coffee arrived, we are about to have to eat red earth.”

In the Liubis bodega, nestled in the center of the small city to the southwest of the Cuban capital, the employee spends her days sitting idly by waiting for the products that do not arrive. “I’m tired of everyone coming and venting their discomfort on me because no merchandise has arrived, but it’s not my fault,” the woman told 14ymedio, on condition of anonymity.

“Here they have forgotten us, we do not have the importance of Havana and nor do we have the emergencies of those affected by hurricane [Ian] in Pinar del Río, so we are in no man’s land, we do not matter,” says Liubis. “My sister lives in Havana, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, near the Council of State, and they did sell sugar there,” she says.

The shortage situation fundamentally affects those who live in the urban areas of Alquízar. “At least the farmer who has a piece of land can solve some food with his crops, his laying hens or his cows, but those of us who have a house here in the town don’t even have that,” says this mother of two children at primary school. continue reading

And the three missing products can hardly be produced for self-consumption. “We stocked up on the fat we needed for day-to-day life with the pigs we had, but more than three years ago I stopped farming because we couldn’t get food for the animals anymore,” explains Arturo, a farmer who lives in the town of Pulido, on the outskirts of the urban center.

“Without the pork fat, we are completely dependent on the oil from the bodega or the one we buy off the shelf [in the informal market].” Arturo’s family has been eating “plantain fufú” — fried mashed plaintain — for weeks, he says. “There isn’t even enough fat to fry a little onion and what my wife has done is put the chicken skin in the pan so she can cook with it.”

The vegetable oil that is sold by as a part of the ‘standard basket’ in the ration store is mostly imported or soybean oil, which is refined and bottled on the Island. The rationed coffee and sugar come from national production, which is mostly state-owned, and the marketing of both products constitutes an official monopoly.

“When there is a lack of sugar or coffee, you have to deal one way or another with the black market or with the stores [that only take payment] in MLC [freely convertible currency]”, emphasizes Arturo. “You can use some honey to sweeten, and stretch the coffee by adding roasted peas, but sooner or later you have to end up buying them in hard currency.”

“Before, any house you entered here they would offer you a little cup of Hola coffee, the kind that comes from the bodega. If you were lucky, you would have a Cubita or Arriero colada bought in the mall, but now when people manage to have coffee it’s Bustelo or La Llave that their Miami family sent themor they bought it from a mule, very expensive, by the way.”

The lack of sugar especially outrages the residents of Alquízar, a region that in the past also made cash with typical sweets such as guava bars that were sold on the side of the roads. Now, in the absence of the ingredient, all the private production of sweets, fruit smoothies and preserves has come to a standstill.

According to Leticia Ojeda, commercial director of the Food Group of the Ministry of Internal Commerce, at the end of last year, with the plummeting of the harvest, it was decided to protect the “regulated [rationed] family basket” and social consumption destined for the Education and Health sectors, but the Alquizareñas wineries do not seem to be included among those prioritized.

In mid-January, Ojeda pointed out that four provinces had not been able to finish the distribution in some of their municipalities. He mentioned Artemisa, Matanzas, Pinar del Río and Havana, whose sugar deliveries in February were only 60% guaranteed, up until then. An announcement that makes the residents of Alquízar fear that it will be weeks before the empty bodegas have those products again.

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