The crisis does not distinguish species
September 28, 2022
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n last September 25, the vote was carried out
vote to endorse the new “Family Code”. As has been mentioned in various press releases, including some of the publications that have been made on the Food Monitor Program portal, this family code includes some new provisions that are quite innovative in terms of recognizing various types of family and, in addition , recognizes socio-affective relationships that include same-sex couples, which allows the establishment of relationships between family members in the second degree of consanguinity, despite having custody disputes, and determines the co-responsibility of food among the different members who have purchasing power to meet this need.
At first glance, both the content of the new code and its submission to a popular referendum give the impression of a renewal of the so-called "popular democracy", a product of the Revolution, although it is not, however, as had already been noted in editions previous acknowledgments of the situation of many family nuclei that are not made up in the manner of the traditional family, is a de jure Recognition, of a de facto situation already established for a long time.
These "advances" in terms of legal recognition of part of the population in Cuba do not solve the most crucial problem of family composition. Despite recognition of people in vulnerable conditions: minors, the elderly, people with disabilities, etc., to whom sections are dedicated, there is no effective provision in terms of assistance.Despite including the word "disability" 92 times in the new Code, as well as including the word "food" 92 times, for practical purposes, this code recognizes the inability of the guardianship of the State to provide a service that from the beginning of the Revolution was one of the greatest flags of the Regime: nobody goes hungry in Cuba.
And it is that the situation of food insecurity does not give up. The rise in the price of the dollar on the international currency market, which is due, among other things, to the increase in interest rates proposed by the United States Federal Reserve, _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ya has a strong impact on the chicken and flour market for Cuban households that translates into price inflation.The exchange rate exceeded the indicators of the Special Period, reaching 150 Cuban pesos (CUP) per dollar, affecting the exchange rate of the MLC and the Euro, which is dizzyingly close to 200 CUP in both cases.Despite the fact that there are apparently favorable provisions for Cuban families, what the new Family Code actually manifests is the State's inability to provide the right to food. In a more or less direct way, the State transfers the problem of food to society, but it still does not grant the openings and freedoms necessary to be able to guide a free market or mixed economy that has the necessary conditions to be sustainable.
It is worth saying that the State has begun to have new measures so that small and medium-sized companies in the non-state sector (euphemism to say private) can produce and export some staple foods. Thinking about the future, the regime is looking to create the conditions so that these companies can compete on an equal footing with State exporting companies. In reality, as CubaNet reported last month, it is a reconversion of established companies, most of them state-owned, and the implementation of a cumbersome process for private companies, which surely will not have the possibility of participating on equal terms. conditions due to the procedures to which they must be submitted.
And the endorsement of the Code comes with sinister omens. Material responsibilities are transferred when the capacity of the State will face the greatest tensions to its diminished power. Already with an approval of 66%, its own supply remains in the hands of society. In the middle of the cyclone season, Ian is approaching the western part of the island, already with "lethal for people" winds and with the certainty that it will make landfall near the capital, according to the report of theNational Hurricane Center from United States. According to this analysis, floods, landslides and heavy rains are expected in this part of Cuba. It will be necessary to add, then, to the power cuts, difficulties for the terrestrial supply, of drinking water and other essential services for the Cuban society. This, without counting the forecast of material damage and the potential loss of life, human and animal, that hurricane winds can bring.
This symptom of trying to resolve material situations through legal means is a sign of the weakening of the State and, eventually, it could be the door for more demonstrations in the remainder of 2022.
Credito: Margarita Fresco
En un video publicado por Diario de Cuba se relata la historia de Nereida Padilla Escalante, damnificada del ciclón Sandy. En su caso particular, la viuda recibe 1 070 CUP de pensión y no tiene quien le ayude. Vive en una casa hecha con palos y bolsas. A duras penas tiene para comer. El caso de Nereida es uno de muchos de los casos de alimentación de población adulta mayor que no cuentan con el apoyo del Estado para tener un medio de subsistencia digno.
La crisis alimentaria no solo afecta la producción y distribución de alimentos en la Isla. A ella se suman las andanadas de represión del gobierno cubano sobre la ciudadanía.
Un informe presentado en diciembre de 2023 por Cubalex indica que, solo en ese mes, se reportaron 357 eventos de represión en la Isla. En el Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, hubo 70 cortes selectivos de internet y teléfono móvil a personas que el régimen considera “elementos peligrosos”. En el mismo mes, el gobierno publicó una lista quienes engloba como “terroristas”, tanto fuera como dentro del país. Muchos de los nombres incluidos en ese documento oficial son personas opositoras, activistas y periodistas independientes. Vale recordar que la mayoría de estos medios independientes hacen sus reportajes bajo los acosos y persecuciones del gobierno cubano.
Los hechos de inseguridad alimentaria no son, simplemente, hechos materiales causados por la situación de embargo a la Isla. Son hechos que pudieran ser contrarrestados desde una arista de liberalización política y económica. Cuba cuenta con los recursos físicos y geográficos para el desarrollo de un ecosistema alimentario bastante decente, siempre y cuando el aparato estatal no acapare toda la cadena de valor de la mayoría de los productos. Esto es, una “soberanía alimentaria popular” resignificada: que la ciudadanía pueda decidir qué producir, cómo producir, cuánto cobrar por sus productos y qué comer sin el entrometimiento del Estado, que lo único que ha hecho es agravar la situación de toda la población.
A manera de coda, un video en Instagram, subido por @emmanuelrincon_, en consonancia con la tendencia mundial de publicar qué se desayuna en diferentes países, muestra la situación de Cuba en una experiencia particular: una cubana publicó un desayuno y la atacaron en los comentarios por tener tomate y sal. Si esto no es muestra de una crisis generalizada, no sé qué pueda serlo.
Hay una luz, tenue, intermitente, que escasamente brilla con suficiente fulgor para que la comunidad internacional ponga sus ojos ante la situación de crisis en Cuba. El último gran resplandor fue el 11J, con el alto precio de la libertad de muchos jóvenes.
Hago aquí la invitación a seguir a los medios independientes cubanos a los que les rendimos un homenaje mensualmente por medio del Radar Alimentario de Food Monitor Program.