Ration Cuts In Cuba Make for Hungry Comrades

Havana. Smaller bean rations and longer bus lines are among the new hardships hitting Cubans in their already difficult lives as the global economic crisis tightens its grip on the communist island.

“Of course it affects us, but we’re used to suffering,” said 67-year-old Luisa Suarez Suarez.

Signs in all stores explain that bean and pea rations will fall from 850 grams to 567 grams, and that salt rations will be halved.

Cubans — whose average monthly salary is 400 pesos ($17) — can buy a basic bag of groceries, including rice, sugar, oil and eggs, at very low prices with their ration books. But they need to top up supplies on the black market, or in high-priced shops that accept only foreign currency.

The crisis has cut the island’s predicted economic growth from 6 percent to 2.5 percent, and authorities have acknowledged it will hit key areas like tourism, nickel and tobacco exports.

The island will be unable to import all its necessary primary materials, equipment and consumer items this year, and some say it will have to rein in its food and energy costs.

Meanwhile, the brakes have also been applied to a project to renovate public transportation, which began in 2004.

Under a new energy-saving plan introduced this month, air conditioning can be operated for four hours in the afternoon only.

“What international crisis?” one man said. “In Cuba we’ve been in crisis for 50 years. I’m tired of hearing justifications for the problems we always have.”



Agence France-Presse

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