Cuba’s socialist revolution is providing even less food in its ration book, which Cubans have depended on for basic food items over the past six decades. Corruption, mismanagement, and the inherent failures of socialism have led to a worsening food crisis, spreading more hunger across an island already barely surviving.
Independent journalist Laura Sarmieto Perez reports in Diario de Cuba:
The ration book in Cuba: from dependence to hunger
Like every month, at the beginning of September Internal Trade Minister Betsy Díaz Velázquez told the Cuban population about the products that would be sold through the “Ration Book.” What she said, however, confirmed the inexorable trend towards the disappearance of rationed groceries.
Rice, sugar, oil, coffee, salt, beans, which used to arrived punctually during the first days of the month at bodegas in Cuba’s neighborhoods, have been distributed with delays in the last year, or simply not distributed at all. The only options left for the population are, in addition to the informal market, agromarkets, MLC stores and MSMEs, where prices are astronomical for those who live on an average salary, or retirees.
“The bodega has nothing,” says Emilia, 66, who receives a pension of 1,528 pesos and spends the day hanging around to see if anything arrives. “The saleswomen sit around all day doing nothing. They receive a monthly salary for working three days a month, which is how long the goods last when they arrive,” adding that not even those workers know when more groceries will arrive. Emilia’s pension is not enough for her to shop outside the state network.
Cubans’ dependence on the ration book is such that reductions and delays in the products expose them to hunger. A report by the Food Monitor Program, presented as part of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council in 2023, states that “one of the main problems faced by the Cuban population is a lack of access to basic goods due to state control over the importation and distribution of food.” In addition, it states that “the Ration Book does not guarantee adequate nutrition.”
A balanced diet should provide necessary nutrients, such as vitamins, proteins, fats and minerals, but rice is the most “consistent” food delivered by the book.
“I live off my pension of 1,600 pesos,” says Ramiro, 71 years old and alone. “On that, I can’t shop at MSMEs,” where a box of eggs can cost over 3,000 pesos. “I buy food at the agricultural market, where it’s cheaper. At the bodega the rice arrives little by little: two pounds today, one at the end of the month, and one the following month. It’s already the middle of the month and only one pound of rice per person has arrived,” he said.
He adds that nothing has arrived at the butcher’s for months, and, as he depends on the ration book, the only thing he has to eat is mapen (a malanga-like food) and avocado. He’s often hungry.
The government’s explanation of the country’s inability to produce food? “The economic crisis and the tightening of the blockade, which have had a significant impact on the decrease in agri-food production due to deficits in financing to acquire supplies, fuels, and fertilizers.”
The Government, however, does not explain why so far this year it has invested 15 times more in hotels, devoid of tourists, than in agriculture, livestock and forestry.
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If the people have no food, let them get help from the “diaspora” or simply eat “continuity.” Nobody cares.