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Jos\u00e9 Luis Amate L\u00f3pez hasn\u2019t had a customer in almost two weeks, not counting the scrawny brown kitten that slinks around the bodega where he works in central\u00a0Havana.<\/p>\n
The shelves once laden with goods during his childhood sat nearly empty in late April, with barely anything to offer the 5,000 clients who depend on the state-run store for subsidized food.<\/p>\n
Government ration books\u00a0that once provided for a healthy diet and kept families fully fed for a month are now shrinking.<\/p>\n
As the economy collapses and prices soar, a growing number of\u00a0Cubans find themselves unable to afford alternatives to state-run stores\u00a0and struggle to subsist\u00a0on meager salaries in a socialist country of nearly 10 million where basic goods increasingly are sold in U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Cuban can truly survive on the products from the ration book anymore,\u201d Amate L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Living off air\u2019<\/p>\n
Revolutionary leader\u00a0Fidel Castro\u00a0established the ration book \u2014 \u201cla libreta\u201d\u2014 in the early 1960s. It offered heavily subsidized goods ranging from milk to fish and even cigarettes. Cubans knew their assigned bodega would be stocked with everything they needed by the first of the month.<\/p>\n
The ration book shrank during the \u201cSpecial Period,\u201d when Soviet aid plummeted in the 1990s and deprivation hit Cuba. During that time, Cubans lost an average of 5% to 25% of their body weight, according to one study published in a medical journal, with goods including bread, milk, eggs and chicken in scarce quantities.<\/p>\n
Even so, many Cubans who lived through that period say the current situation is worse.<\/p>\n
Amate L\u00f3pez recalled that his assigned bodega was so full decades ago \u201cyou could barely walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now an empty room with dusty old posters detailing the prices and amounts of nearly two dozen goods no longer available, including yogurt, pasta and bars of soap. Two industrial freezers once packed with meat and chicken serve only to keep Amate L\u00f3pez\u2019s water bottle cold. In April, the only items he had available to sell were rice, sugar and split chickpeas.<\/p>\n
Cuban teens turning 15, a landmark birthday in Latin America, used to receive cake and several cases of beer. Now they only get 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of ground beef. The government recently opted to celebrate those turning 65 by awarding them sardines, a bar of soap and a package of toilet paper. But Amate L\u00f3pez said he doesn\u2019t have those items.<\/p>\n
Havana resident Ana Enamorado, 68, said she only was able to buy split chickpeas and 2 pounds (1 kilogram) of sugar at her assigned bodega in April.<\/p>\n
She struggles to buy the remaining basic goods at small, privately owned stores known as\u00a0\u201cmipymes\u201d\u00a0with her salary and pension totaling some 8,000\u00a0Cuban pesos\u00a0($16) a month.<\/p>\n
A carton of 30 eggs costs roughly 3,000 pesos ($6), 2 pounds of meat hash are nearly 900 pesos ($2) and 1 pound of cornmeal is roughly 200 pesos (50 cents).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s hardly anything in the ration book,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re practically living off air.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her lunches and dinners are a rotation of rice, seasoned ground meat and cornmeal, or sometimes nothing at all. She recalled once upon a time being able to eat pork, lamb, fricassee, fried plantain slices and red beans and rice.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have to cut back, have one meal a day and live on memories,\u201d Enamorado said.<\/p>\n
Subsidizing people in need instead of goods<\/p>\n
Cuba imports up to 80% of the food it consumes, including goods offered at state stores that are increasingly unavailable given a lack of government resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just don\u2019t have the money to do it anymore,\u201d William LeoGrande, a professor at American University who has tracked Cuba for years, said about the government running out of funds. \u201cThings come in an ad hoc way.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeoGrande said the government \u201cbungled\u201d the\u00a02021 merging of two Cuban currencies\u00a0and the resulting inflation has persisted because the state spends far more money than it takes in.<\/p>\n
The government has to stop printing money and balance its budget without drastically cutting social services, a challenge since the bulk of state funds is spent on health, education, social welfare and food imports, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny major cuts in state spending are going to have a profound social impact, which is why they haven\u2019t done it,\u201d LeoGrande said, adding that the government\u2019s investment in tourism is \u201cway higher\u201d than the demand for tourism, which\u00a0has plummeted.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Cuba\u2019s government has talked about subsidizing people in need instead of goods. That would free up money to import fuel, medicine and other items, LeoGrande said.<\/p>\n
But many Cubans still depend on their ration books while the island\u2019s crises deepen as\u00a0severe power outages, petroleum shortages and a\u00a0U.S. energy blockade\u00a0persist.<\/p>\n
Cuban comedians have spoofed the ration book, creating a character named \u201cP\u00e1nfilo\u201d who sings a rhyming chorus in a recent video posted online: \u201cPlace the notebook in a cemetery, because it\u2019s ready to be buried.\u201d<\/p>\n
Struggling to buy basic goods<\/p>\n
On a recent sunny afternoon, L\u00e1zaro Cuesta, 56, stood in line to receive a daily allowance of two small bread rolls for him and his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore it was 80 grams and cost 5 (Cuban) cents. Now it\u2019s 40 grams and costs 75 cents,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the quality is worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuesta works in food preparation and earns 6,000 Cuban pesos ($12) a month. His wife, a retired nurse, receives 4,800 pesos ($10) in monthly pension. They also receive $200 a month from her brother and daughter who live abroad.<\/p>\n
The remittances allow them to eat avocados, eggs and red beans and rice, Cuesta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not for the remittances,\u201d he said as he grabbed his neck with his right hand, \u201chang yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roughly 60% of Cubans on the island receive remittances, but Rosa Rodr\u00edguez, 54, of Havana is not one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is scarce here \u2014 everything \u2014 even that wretched bread they give us,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. She earns 4,000 Cuban pesos ($8) a month, which she said isn\u2019t a bad salary for Cuba, but \u201cno matter how hard you work, it\u2019s simply not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez said the only product she obtained at her assigned bodega in April was a donation of 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) of rice, while she struggles to buy other basic goods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you buy beans, then you can\u2019t buy sugar,\u201d she said, noting that most of her salary is spent on a large carton of eggs. \u201cIf I retire, I die.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Basic #goods #Cuba #increasingly #sold #dollars #economy #crashes #scarce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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