This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
Last month, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, attempting to tighten the vice on Havana to end its support for Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro. As a result, Cuba launched widespread rationing of staple foods and hygiene products due to shortages triggered by US trade embargos, reported Al Jazeera.
After a month of shortages, Cuban authorities announced Friday the rationed the sale of chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap, and other essential items, “to avoid hoarding and ensure greater access.”
Commerce Minister Betsy Díaz told the Cuban News Agency that rationing would be used to deal with shortages of staple foods. Díaz condemned the Trump administration for triggering the latest crisis developing throughout the country.
“Our mission is to fracture all the measures the US government imposes, and today we are setting priorities,”Diaz said on a state-run media broadcast.
Cuba imports approximately two-thirds of its food and small shortages have been common throughout the years. In recent weeks, many products have been missing from store shelves for days, and long lines have sprung up with many waiting for scarce products like chicken and beans.
Amid the developing economic crisis on the Caribbean island, Cuban youth have flooded onto social media under the hashtag #lacolachallenge (queue challenge) to shed light on the shortage.
https://twitter.com/MaCC60217774/status/1126965948756496384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1126965948756496384&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2019-05-13%2Fcrisis-begins-cuba-beings-widespread-rationing-due-shortages
https://twitter.com/Chawy1348/status/1126842311701401600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1126842311701401600&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2019-05-13%2Fcrisis-begins-cuba-beings-widespread-rationing-due-shortages
#LaColaChallenge: El único reto 100% cubano ha nacido y el desafío es inundar las redes con las largas filas para comprar en la Isla. https://t.co/QAPTWS6hvt pic.twitter.com/9l3SgFApO6
— Yoani Sánchez ?? ?? (@yoanisanchez) May 10, 2019
Many Cubans find themselves standing in line for hours, waiting for products to arrive, a problem the government has blamed on “hoarders.”
“The country’s going through a tough moment. This is the right response. Without this, there’ll be hoarders. I just got out of work and I was able to buy hot dogs,” said Lazara Garcia, a 56-year-old tobacco-factory worker.
Product rationing has already begun in many municipalities across the island, with government-run grocery stores currently limiting bottles of cooking oil.
Cuban officials admitted that a liquidity crunch has hit the country after commercial debt hit $ 1.5 billion with suppliers late last year, as well as the renewed US sanctions, have complicated things for the centrally planned government.
“We depend on imports that come from the United States, and this has meant that we have had to look for alternatives to be able to secure the product in the market,” Díaz told local media.
It seems that an economic crisis is unfolding in Cuba and the dangers are beginning to emerge with food shortages across the country.
So, AOC has taken her communist dog and pony show to Cyber to show us how utopia looks?
“Cuber” JFK
Socialism at its finest.
“Cuba imports approximately two-thirds of its food.”
Their countryside is a wet, frost-free jungle that looks like Gilligan’s Island, and it encroaches upon their abandoned lots.
If they were throwing trash outside the window of huts, under conditions like those, or, it if it went into a cesspit, there would have been something edible growing there.
To HELL with Cuba. They are NOT our friends!!!
“all the measures the US government imposes”
But, it’s inept, to blame all of Cuba’s problems on mismanagement, when you are interfering with their economy.
“Cuban officials admitted that a liquidity crunch has hit the country after commercial debt hit $ 1.5 billion with suppliers late last year…..”
its inept to blame all of Cubas problems on a trade embargo that just started
NEC, communism must die. However, there have been sanctions and trade restrictions against Cuba for decades. And Castro screwed up and planted sugar cane instead of food crops. Sugar it seems is a low profit crop, also.
Bullshit! They could make rum and all kinds of liquor with a very high profit. I would think it is fairly good farmland but like many stupid people, it never occurs to them.
my bad, I thought we had lifted quite a bit of restrictions in the Obama era.
other points (lifted from wikipedia)- ‘The 1998 U.S. State Department report Zenith and Eclipse: A Comparative Look at Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro and Present Day Cuba[58] attributed Cuba’s economic penury not as a result of the embargo, but instead the lack of foreign currency due to the unwillingness of Cuba to liberalize its economy and diversify its export base during the years of abundant Soviet aid. Cuba also amassed substantial debts owed to its Japanese, European, and Latin American trading partners during the years of abundant Soviet aid.
According to critics, one of the major problems with the embargo is that the United States is the only major country that has such an embargo against Cuba in place. Cuba still receives tourists and trade from other countries making the embargo appear both illegitimate and pointless.”
its is an interesting read: ht tps://web.archive.org/web/20060922050213/http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/14776.htm
And the beauty of socilism, if they grow gardens it belongs to the government
I don’t know why rank-n-file Americans buy into the whole “failed socialism” propaganda crap.
Ironically, these centrally-planned economies that are experiencing trouble (Venezuela, Iran, NK, Cuba) are being attacked by a rogue, central-planned economy that is part oligarchy, part banker/corporate rule and part MIC rule.
We literally have international, private bankers (Federal Reserve) skimming a percentage of all US “government” business. You do get that, right? We have the pentagon and and MIC that are asset stripping and overtly robbing our country of uncounted trillions. You do get that, right? We have a revolving door between government and the industries that government regulates. You do understand that, right?
While I’m not a fan of *any* kind of big government, maybe we should just leave these countries alone ….?
isnt that what a trade embargo is? leaving them alone?
the rest of the world still trades with Cuba. shouldn’t that be enough to buoy their economy?
good read- ht tps://web.archive.org/web/20060922050213/http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/14776.htm
Cuba needs to just admit socialism does not work. They need to have a free market economy. The island is lush and an easy place to grow food.
It is a beautiful place and Cubans are fun and friendly.
The plus side to these shortages is this: their women do not turn into obese hags like they do in the US.
Women need to be calorie starved to keep them looking good. Women always look best after a period of rationing and hard work.
socialists have always known that it does not work
or, it does work- for destruction
And while I’m in the neighborhood….the Globalists and Israel want to go to war against Iran, using our military. Minor damage to parked tankers is blamed on Iran. Two minor pipeline attacks in the middle of Saudi Arabia are blamed on Iran. Iran could have easily attacked pipelines right on the coast, but chose to attack all the way in the middle of the country? So we are to believe that Iran wants the US to wipe it off the face of the earth and only does minor damage to provoke the world. Gulf of Tonkin, anyone?
EXACTLY! This whole story is bullshit! Another false flag agent provacatuer pile of steaming crap. Get out and talk the millenials into signing on with the military asap, don’t let a good FF go to waste! I bet you won’t see the jevv’s signing up.
If I had time I’d fo this myself.
Remember those commercials–
“This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.”
Someone needs to do one –
“This is your country. This is your country on socislism”.
Show the U.S. and the flag, maybe full grocery store and humming cities. Then show Cuba, Argintina, France, Venezulia, etc and empty shelves and long lines, failing infrastructure, etc
Many Cubans find themselves standing in line for hours, waiting for products to arrive, a problem the government has blamed on “hoarders.”“The country’s going through a tough moment. This is the right response. Without this, there’ll be hoarders. I just got out of work and I was able to buy hot dogs ... ”.
Sounds like an exemplary excuse. But really, it’s BS.
If one saves and prepares, then one can be labeled as a hoarder . This is what will happen in the US eventually.
Let them eat their zoo animals just like the Vennies did.
Buy American. Buy locally. Buy from people you know.
People, like the Amish, who disconnect from the system, rely on their own industry, work hard, educate their children themselves, have strong religious convictions, are entirely or practically entirely composed of one race and a unifying religion, can survive better than a multi-cultural, multi-religious and secular society, of multiple races and hundreds of different ethnicities (often at odds with each other), all of them dependent upon various outside resources, welfare, and the whims of global chess players.
.
This article is misleading. Cuba’s economy has been this way since 1959 when the Castro brothers took over. They turned everything upside down by adopting the Soviet version of socialism and the economy is still soviet-style to this day. They’ve had everything rationed since 1959 and NOT because of the US trade embargo. It’s always been the Castro brothers INTERNAL EMBARGO that has caused all of the problems on that island. When my wife and I were dating she told me stories about what she and her family went through with all of Castro’s BS. Sanctions on the Castro regime are nothing new. the only 2 things propping up the Cuban economy are tourism and the oil they receive from Venezuela which is less now than it was previously. If they lose that one subsidy it will collapse. I celebrated when Fidel passed away and Raul will be next. Although they have a different president now, the Castro family is still the real power in Cuba. Take out that family and the regime is history.
If you look at the history, the Cuban revolution was initially a nationalist revolution against US crime family dominance and the dictator, Batista.
Once victorious, they quickly realised they were broke. They first approached the US to negotiate new trade terms, but the US, acting on the anger of the crime families having their assets seized, rebuffed Cuba.
Cuba then turned in desperation to the open hand offered by the Soviet Union. And thus Cuba became a proxy pawn in the Cold War. Cuba mainlined Soviet subsidies within the Comecon system, which meant they traded sugar for free everything else (food, oil etc.).
This meant they never developed an economy that could survive without subsidies. When that collapsed in the early 1990s, Cuba starved. They then went on to the p#ssy tourism circuit under the Europeans and Canadians. By the 2000s the Venezuelans came along and offered free oil and gas. And so did the drug cartels, who co-opted the Castro brothers in their global drug and sex trafficking networks, all overseen by the CIA. Cuba will be fine as long as it keeps the networks going and the p#ssy flowing.
Been there 8 times spent a good bit of time there. Love the place and the people are fantastic. They say “it is a failed experiment”
It is what happens when everyone make the same pathetic pay. The doctor makes the same as a taxi driver and stuff is not just given to you. You must use a ration book to buy things and have a few pesos to go with it. There is no guarantee that eggs, rice, beans or whatever will be available when you can use your ration coupon for that item.
No one has any incentive to do anymore than they absolutely have to to get by. You are not going to make more pesos by working harder or extra. Their infrastructure is a mess, things don’t work are broken down and in a state of extreme dis-repair.
They have beautiful beaches and a lot going for them but their form of government is dragging them down. They were one of the richest countries before communism or socialism.
They have a climate and soil that would allow them to be a net exporter of many food items if only given the opportunity.
Sounds like a future boat”flotilla” heading for America like Venezuela. Kind of convenient huh? Nobody at the top knows anything about capitalist ways to run an economy. Same as Maduro.
It’s estimated that the Castro’s are worth $800 million by Forbes. FYI, it is illegal for a Cuban to have a family garden as he might grow more than he/she needs and become a Capitalist and sell a few tomatoes/yams/beans for profit.
SW,
You are kidding us right?
You don’t know who is for rationing in your community. Ive said this before but I will say it again. Some town council member or sheriff or mayor or some other local public official will call a town meeting and they will tell everyone that everyone is gonna bring all their supplies and resources to a public meeting spot or church or town square to be redistributed. They will have snitches to tell officials who has stockpiles. They will be visited by the sheriff or police and forced to hand over everything. This will all be sold as we are all in this together everyone should willingly contribute to the greater good and they will say things like do the right thing and wwjd. my recommendation is don’t keep all your shit in one spot. Diversify like investing. Have many places and stashes. You don’t wanna have to stand your ground on the authorities terms when you can just let one stash go and have them think they got all your stuff and they will go away. Yes it sucks to lose anything but you will live another day. Most importantly never mention your plans. Never leave any stockpiles where they can be seen by any contractors working in your house. Dont do things that show you are a self reliant person to neighbors. They will come over and want help and might become a problem when you decide your not helping them. No NRA or gun stickers on the car it says you have weapons and ammunition. No military bdus.
I know the name of the biggest hoarder. Castro.
You nationalized and hoarded once-productive industries and national resources.
You are a rich country, the envy of a US, which expected Manifest Destiny to extend into the Caribbean, which they called the Golden Circle of agriculture.
I know the name of the biggest hoarder. Castro.
You nationalized and hoarded once-productive industries and national resources.
You are a rich country, the envy of a US, which expected Manifest Destiny to extend into the Caribbean, which they called the Golden Circle of agriculture.
“I know the name of the biggest hoarder. (((Castro))).”
“Some call it Communism- I call it Judaism-
Rabbi Stephen Samuel Weiss, New York, 1935