Shortages in Cuba - A Deliberate Strategy?

Shortages in Cuba: A Deliberate Strategy? / Jeovany Vega
Posted on October 21, 2015

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 19 October 2015 — In Cuba the shortage of goods,
including basic staples, has been a continuous phenomenon in all retail
chains for decades, so repetitive that it seems incorporated into the
very genome of the regime, and has become one of the hallmarks of the
laziness, inefficiency, and mediocrity of the economic and military
dictatorship of the Castros.

Many alternative websites inside and outside of the island have warned
about the phenomenon so constantly that, given its magnitude, even the
official press has had no option but to recognize the severity of the
problem on more than one occasion. It is not news to anyone that the
official voices blame this disaster on the American embargo—which they
have inexorably called a "blockade" even though right in front of their
noses are windows adorned with goods coming from all four points of the
compass.

Thousands of times we have been victims of the onerous consequences of
living under an autocracy that exercises its monopoly over the entire
national network of commerce. This unnatural and comfortable position
has allowed inept and lazy despots to flaunt their irresponsibility by
gambling with the most pressing needs of my people, and we have
witnessed over and over how they raise prices without explanation, or
how many times they leave a particular product on the shelves for years
because due to its poor quality the only way to get rid of it is to
force its sale.

But what is happening today in Cuba seems to be different and I suspect
that this time something more is being arranged behind the scenes.
During the past year we have witnessed a worsening of this phenomenon to
an unexplainable extent, and we have seen a greater shortage than usual,
perhaps the most acute and long-lasting since 1994. All Cubans have
observed this in their own place of residence, and have also learned
that the situation is the same, if not worse, in other locations.

Especially in recent months the shortages have been so apparent and
widespread, have gained such intensity throughout the entire country,
and have been so prolonged that it makes one suspect that this is not
just another cyclical crisis of scarcities in supply—recognized even by
the deaf-mute State newspaper Granma—but this time we could be facing a
crude tactical maneuver to achieve a specific short-term goal. This is
something happening against the tide, during times in which there should
be relative improvement, given the winds that have blown since last
December 17 (the day the United States and Cuba announced the resumption
of relations). But from the thinking and actions of the olive-green
clique, they seem not to perceive it like that, and everything indicates
that they have preferred to reset the sails according to their unhealthy
inclination of maintaining control at all costs.

A very simple fact demonstrates the profound contradiction: in
accordance with the license granted by Congress, Cuba imported $710
million in food directly from the United States in 2008, but in 2013, in
contrast, it imported only $348 million, and in the first half of 2015
it decreased even more, buying only $119 million. So they consolidated
this decline at the same time as they were advancing the secret
negotiations with the US government during 2014, and then,
paradoxically, intensified it after the proposed bilateral thaw was made
public.

So the questions arise: Could it be that our military autocracy is
convinced of the imminent fall of its strategic ally in Caracas at the
next elections and is preparing us now in order to minimize the
inevitable impact that the suspension of the Venezuelan subsidy will
cause? Or maybe the assertion of US Congressman Rodney Davis is coming
true, about the impending monetary unification in less than a month, and
the Cuban government finds it necessary, for some mysterious reason, to
have a record of minimal wares then available for sale?

Or maybe it's all merely a tactic designed to maximize the psychological
perception of improvement when the clique unveils its next opening,
while freeing for sale all the merchandise that today is deliberately
hidden, in order to "prove" that this systemic shortage always was,
indeed, the fault of the "Yankee criminal blockade" and no one else?

Maybe they don't want to give us any breathing room in case the
elections of 2016 do not produce a Democrat successor to guarantee the
continuity of the process initiated by Obama. Or they're just afraid to
risk that we would demand some changes in the rules of the game too
quickly for Raul Castro's taste (he is addicted to "changes" without
haste and with many delays), or that we would too quickly sniff the
aroma of the proposals from the North that ultimately they are not
willing to allow.

Maybe it's one or all of these reasons. But aside from all the
speculation one thing is without doubt: the Cuban dictatorship's short-
and medium-term plans include none that even remotely contemplate any
real improvement in our standard of living, much less any effective
opening to commerce that would in any way empower the Cuban people; and
to accomplish them, there is nothing like promoting this perpetual
shortage, which after all has demonstrated its undeniable effectiveness
in dividing the attention of the masses and preventing them from
focusing on uncomfortable issues. No one doubts that the evil intentions
on Havana's Mt. Olympus are more than sufficient to devise such a
mean-spirited strategy .

Translated by Tomás A.

Source: Shortages in Cuba: A Deliberate Strategy? / Jeovany Vega |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/shortages-in-cuba-a-deliberate-strategy-jeovany-vega/