14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 28 September 2023 — The topic of the upcoming hardships starting on October 1st no longer qualifies as a rumor, much less as a “counterrevolutionary lie”, now we know, from the word of those who make decisions, that it is true that there will be new problems with transportation, food distribution and electricity generation. New problems that will add to the already existing ones.
During an hour and a half on Wednesday’s Mesa Redonda [Roundtable] program, the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, along with the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, explained why there will be new difficulties, but failed to mention possible solutions other than “the will to move forward”.
According to Vicente de la O Levy, 99% of the causes that affect us come from the “blockade” and only 1% can be related to the bad work of the government. For Alejandro Gil Fernandez, the solutions will be within socialism.
“If the possibility of changing the system is not addressed, 99% of the causes that prevent the country from functioning normally will prevail”
The present and the future of the country are projected on these two apparently immovable columns. The official propaganda maintains that “the blockade” exists because socialism is being built here in Cuba and the United States does not like that. Therefore, if the possibility of changing the system is not addressed, 99% of the causes that prevent the country from functioning normally will prevail.
It is hard to imagine that everything will get worse after October and it is even harder to detail the consequences that a worsening of the country’s economic situation will bring to the people. For that fantasy called “the ordinary Cuban”.
The parents who rack their brains every day to guarantee a little snack for the children who go to school, those who take care of the elderly or disabled people, those who left their remote municipalities to find something better in the capital, but who do not even have a ration book and every month have to pay the rent; the bricklayer who works on his own and almost always lives far from where he is offered a temporary job; the single mothers, the retired person without family support…. These and the millions of workers who depend on a state salary are already living on the edge and the ministers tell them that they need to be understanding.
To dispel foreboding, Gil assured that this will not be the collapse, and that we will not reach “zero”. He also assured that not one millimeter will be ceded in the commitment to build socialism, but he did not dare to mention any metaphorical unit of measure to indicate how far or how close we are to catastrophe.
Translated by: Dylan Roberts, Isabella Posoli, and Skyler Brotherton-Julien, as part of Spanish 321 (University of Miami)
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