Warning: You may feel some things are surrealistic, improbable, or absurd but all is true. Remember, Cuba is under the control of a totalitarian state with the only objective of keeping the power at any cost. This report will show you the actual situation in Cuba, that one that the state propaganda tries to deny.
Politic
The G77 + China summit begins in Havana. As always expected, many pats on the back for the totalitarian government of Cuba (the president of Brazil, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, will sign “cooperation” agreements), many criticisms of US imperialism, and absolute silence on Russian or Chinese imperialism.
There are also reports that independent journalists are besieged without being allowed to leave their homes by State Security to prevent them from covering the Summit.
Economy
In Cuba, there is a lack of doctors and even so, agreements are made to send them to other countries. In this sense, Mexico will extend the contract to receive doctors from Cuba for one year. They receive less than a third of what they are paid to the Cuban government for their services. The remaining money is not known on what it is spent because the Cuban state is not very transparent with its finances.
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Dr. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, professor emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, analyzes data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) to understand and explain the Cuban economic reality.
In a recent interview he assured that all indicators show a deterioration in 2019-2023 and several indicate that this crisis is worse than that of the 1990s.
I also declare that inflation is one of the most harmful problems because it affects the population with fewer resources. He feels that the rise in prices has been caused mainly by the drastic reduction in supply, which in turn is a consequence of several factors, internal and external. The first is the drop in the physical production of food and other essential goods; The second is the reduction of food imports.
I do not hesitate to point out as a third factor the monetary order (the unification of the currency and the exchange rate), which was carried out at the worst possible moment and was not preceded by the necessary structural reforms that China and Vietnam successfully carried out. He also stressed that it was poorly designed because a very low exchange rate of the Cuban peso (CUP) was set compared to the dollar (USD), the euro (EUR) and other currencies. First, 24 CUP for 1 USD, but soon in the informal market it was exchanged at 100 for 1 (2022); So the Government increased the official rate to 110 to 1 and in August 2023 the rate in the informal market reached 255 to 1.
You can see more of their in-depth analysis here:
https://eltoque.com/actual-crisis-economica-cubana-un-retorno-a-los-noventa
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According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), in 2022 it exported goods worth 2170 million dollars but imported goods worth 9833 million dollars CIF value (cost of merchandise, insurance and freight). That means a deficit of 7535 million in the trade balance of goods.
If we add to these exports of goods the export of legal services, such as the 878 million dollars obtained from tourism; 125 million dollars for ETECSA's telecommunications services, and 13 million dollars for "leisure, cultural and sports" services, which also results in a total trade deficit of 4349 million dollars.
How could this deficit be financed and imports paid?
The regime claims that the deficit is basically financed by the "export of human health and social care services", which, eliminating euphemisms, means exploitation of Cuban doctors. The professional activity of these doctors in 2022 represented 4882 million dollars (80%, or more, of the salaries paid for them).
Furthermore, doctors have their passports seized, they are confined in controlled areas, they are monitored all the time, and they are not allowed to be accompanied by their spouses and children.
The communist regime's second source of foreign currency, due to its monetary amount, to finance the trade deficit and pay for imports is the sentimental exploitation of family ties between Cubans residing on the Island and those "outside" so that the latter send foreign currency to Cuba. It is estimated that in 2022 they sent about 1.5 billion dollars.
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The value of 1 dollar is 245 Cuban pesos (CUP). Now the Cuba minimum pension is around 6.16 USD, the minimum wage is 8.57 USD, and the average salary is 17.14 dollars; all amounts are on a monthly basis.
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On Monday, September 11, Cubans experienced an episode of blackouts not seen since last April, after the power generation deficit reported by the state-owned Unión Eléctrica (UNE) amounted to almost 1,000MW, around a third of the national production in normal circumstances.
The situation was justified by the breakdown that occurred at the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant in Matanzas. But in addition to the Matanzas plant, according to the official note, unit 6 of the Mariel thermoelectric plant was "out of service due to low fuel levels".
In its official note on Wednesday, the Electrical Union reported the Mariel unit in operation but reported that the country would have blackouts due to a generation deficit of 680MW during peak hours.
In recent weeks, the UNE has recognized a shortage of fuel to produce energy, but about fuel oil and diesel. However, oil exports from Venezuela to Cuba in August increased, adding 65,000 barrels per day (bpd) of shipments of crude oil, fuel oil, gasoline and diesel, 12,000 more than the 53,000 bpd in July, although below the 75,000 in June.
Likewise, Cuba recently received fuel shipments from Mexico and Brazil, as well as Russia. And no official entity has reported a decrease in Cuban oil production. So, where did the oil that was missing from the Mariel thermoelectric plant go? It seems that, as always, there is something they are not telling us.
Social
Lack of medicines, high cost of food, and political repression are the constant in Cuba. When this fact changes I will report it.
The biomedical industry is one of the only ones that receives the necessary financing and priority for its development. This has allowed it to achieve a relevant number of results in the form of vaccines or treatments that are later presented as political achievements of the Cuban totalitarian regime.
Although some results are discarded to prioritize imports of lower price and quality and others have not yet received international validation, the majority represent a positive impact on the country. Both on a social level with treatments for patients in a health system where medicines are in short supply, and on an economic level for the country due to exports.
Currently, 104 clinical trials are being carried out in Cuba that cover areas such as cancer, Covid-19, infections, medical equipment, etc. If they have positive results, they could result in relief for patients with many chronic or high-impact diseases in Cuban society.
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The inmates have been without water for five days in the Agüica prison, in Matanzas, after a turbine apparently broke, as reported last September 12, Roxana García Pedraza, wife of political prisoner César Adriám Delgado Correa. Complaints of this type are relatively frequent on platforms such as Facebook and independent media.
Final notes
This is all for today Cuba: Inside View, thanks for reading, and remember that you can check the other reports here:
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