From our Bureau of Socialist Social Justice with some assistance from our Bureau of YoYo and Remittance Side Effects
Cubans are finding a way of surviving the current collapse of their economy by creating a thriving black market. Of course, the only way anyone can buy and sell in a black market is to have access to plenty of cash. And who has cash to spare in Cuba? And who can afford sky-high prices, such as 14,000 pesos ($586) for a 10kg cylinder of propane?
Only Cubans who receive remittances from the diaspora or from visiting YoYos can afford to take advantage of this black market. So, add this to the list of side-effects of diaspora cash flow which keep Castro, Inc. in power and create further injustices on the island.
Loosely translated from Diario de Cuba
The resale of liquefied gas is one of the most lucrative businesses on the black market in Santiago de Cuba, with a new 10-kilogram cylinder selling for between 10,000 and 14,000 pesos, a figure that challenges the State’s “price policy” and could get worse in the run-up to Christmas and the end of the year.
The energy collapse, combined with lack of control and scarcity, is causing domestic fuel prices to skyrocket, increasing hoarding and spreading uncertainty among low-income families.
“Even the most peaceful people are losing their balance,” says Lázaro, an engineer living in the Abel Santamaría neighborhood. “The priority is not for families who barely have enough to cook with, but for those who can pay the abusive prices of smuggling,” he explained.
Dalia, another resident of that community, points out that “the difficult thing is not spending days and early mornings, with blackouts and rain, waiting for your turn to come, but rather putting up with those who have the duty to solve the problems profiting from the needs of the people.”
With the current prices of drinks and food, restaurants pay for the gas they need to keep the business going, “an option forbidden to single mothers who have to cook in the smoke of wood stoves,” criticizes Maria Elena.
In her opinion, “queues and being rushed” are the only option for families who suffer the negligence and the helpless situation in which the Government leaves them, with empty pockets and inventing every day to see “how and with what to cook to appease hunger and for the children to take something to school.”
After a month without distribution, and in an absurd attempt to get it back on track, the City Council decided to make four to five lists at each gas station, supposedly to “protect” the rights of workers, people with disabilities and social cases, among others.
However, the result has been catastrophic. According to Damaris, “in Barracones they have distributed six times and they have only taken the first 300 numbers from the blessed organized queue of the Government.”
“As in Trocha and Los Cargrejitos people are in charge, the delegate and the head of the Sector (of the Police) gave authority to a supposed handsome man, who had his bullet stolen. Out of rage he tore up the list and a mess was created, accompanied by a blackout. The scandal was received by the clerk when she shouted that she would close the point due to lack of electricity,” she added.
Leonardo, a retiree whose checkbook is not enough to deal with the informal market, says he feels “ashamed to see the elderly, and even pregnant women, setting up pots full of soot in the street, in doorways, under trees and even inside apartments” to be able to cook.
“Here the trafficking covers all options, from a full cylinder to renting empty cylinders and buying the right to ration sales,” explains Raudel, a resident of La Risueña, who has been waiting for eight days because he cannot pay the 600 pesos that the messenger charges for standing in line at dawn, during power outages and in torrential rain.
continue reading HERE in Spanish