Category: Yaxys Cires

Why Do Remittances to Cubans Only Provide Subsistence?

People waiting in line to get their remittances / Ernesto Mastrascusa / EFE

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yaxis Cires, Madrid, 20 May 2024 — Last summer 27% of Cuban households received some sort of remittance from relatives living abroad according to a 2023 report* by the Madrid-based Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH). This is a significant reduction compared to the previous two years (34% and 37%, respectively) and is presumably due to efforts by many families to help their relatives get out of Cuba by any means possible. Another factor for the decline could be a certain level of donor fatigue after decades of not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Faced with daily challenges such as power outages, shortages of food, medicine and transportation as well as the lack of basic freedoms, many Cubans rely on aid from abroad just to get by. This is especially true for retirees, whose monthly pensions are worth less than a carton of 30 eggs or a kilogram of powdered milk. But nothing is easy on the island, which many on the international left portray as the model of social rights.

According to the aforementioned study, 41% of those who receive remittances said they do not have enough to survive. Another 34% said that, while they do have enough, they cannot afford any extras. It is difficult to escape the reality of poverty that today affects 88% of households and that causes at least 78% of Cubas to sacrifice one or two meals a day.

In quite a few countries, remittances have helped energize national economies. For example, many Colombians and Mexicans living abroad invest a portion of their income in their native countries, whether that be in small businesses, real estate or their children’s educations. Why is it that, in Cuba, remittances only provide subsistence?

The answer can be found in the disastrous Cuban economy, the lack of freedom, the absence of legal protections, and the state’s dominant role in the economy. A combination of problems endemic to a system that does not work, is poorly managed and is led by a regime with an almost overwhelming distrust of the Cuban exile community, whose money it likes but whose success it fears.

Meanwhile, as the Cuban regime wavers between “not wanting to” and “not knowing how to,” people pay an enormous human cost. An overwhelming hijacking of millions who are subjected to constant pointless demands via state media for sacrifice and reminders that they live in “paradise.”

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*Editor’s note: The article’s author is director of political strategy for the OCDH.

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Cuba in the Face of Growing Poverty

Poverty data has worsened very visibly in the last three years. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yaxys Cires, Madrid, 26 October 2023 — Some 28 months after the historic protests of 11 July 2021 in Cuba, with demands regarding political and social rights, the Island’s authorities continue to show no will to carry out the urgent changes that the country needs and that Cubans demand. The immobility of the regime in the face of serious problems, the accumulated crises and circumstantial factors have aggravated the situation of poverty and exclusion for the vast majority of the people.

According to the VI Report on the State of Social Rights in Cuba, considering total household income, 88% of Cubans live in extreme poverty and 62% of those consulted said they have problems buying the most essential things to survive.  Due to lack of money or scarcity, 78% said that they had skipped a daily meal, only 5% had obtained medicines from official pharmacies and 15% took expired medicines.

78% said that, due to lack of money or scarcity, they had skipped a daily meal, only 5% had obtained medicines in official pharmacies and 15% took expired medicines

It is evident that none of these figures have to do with the paradise that Cuban propaganda has sold for decades and that some Latin American leaders present to their fellow citizens as the model to imitate.

Is the unbearable Cuban situation the product of internal or external causes? Without a doubt, the main ones are internal, related, among others, to deficiencies specific to the communist system and the priorities of the Government.

It is very difficult to generate acceptable levels of decent living standards without economic freedom. With few nuances, the Cuban system continues clinging to the Stalinist scheme, with the State as the majority operator of the economy. The Communist Party, which the Constitution considers “the highest leading political force of society,” establishes that it will not allow “the concentration of wealth” (without it appearing that this norm affects its leaders). continue reading

These outdated formulas, which have never given good results anywhere in the world, prohibit – for example – the individual exercise of professions such as law or architecture, put absurd limits on how much money an entrepreneur can withdraw from a bank (currently the equivalent of 20 dollars a day), restricts farmers from owning land, directly or indirectly controls the wholesale market and import activity, and does not allow a Cuban exile to buy property in their native country.

But the problem is also one of priorities. Official data on investment (state, foreign, etc.) in the first half of 2023 reflect the predominance of activities articulated around the tourism sector, which is controlled by the military. This is the case of the items “business, real estate and rental services” (25%) and “hotels and restaurants” (5.6%), obviously focused on foreign currency.

In contrast, the total national agricultural investment was only 2.6%, in a country in which the main social concern is the serious food crisis

In contrast, the total national agricultural investment was only 2, 6%, in a country where the main social concern is the serious food crisis. The absence of civil and political liberties does not allow Cubans to criticize the many absurd things they see or to disapprove in democratic elections of those responsible for the disaster.

The Cuban people are talented and hardworking, but political repression, impoverishment and lack of future have driven millions of people into exile. It is time for power to begin the political, economic and social changes that the country needs, opening its hand to everyone who wishes to contribute to their own nation. As it was not when the Soviet Union existed, today it will not be its allies of Russian oligarchic capitalism who will get Cuba out of the quagmire. Neither will Venezuelan or Mexican oil.

The best thing about each country is its own people and a real openness to their talent.

Editor’s Note: The author is director of strategies of the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, based in Madrid.

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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.