The crisis does not distinguish species
September 28, 2022
AND
AND
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.
Ambos países dependieron, durante muchos años, de los auxilios recibidos por el Consejo de Ayuda Mutua Económica (CAME). Por tanto, Cuba y Vietnam tuvieron graves recesiones económicas con la disolución de la Unión Soviética. Sin embargo, el socialismo con políticas de mercado representó en Vietnam una mejora significativa en su bienestar económico y social que, de alguna manera, ha significado una pequeña ganancia en materia de derechos sociales y económicos.
En contraste, Cuba sigue atrapada en un modelo que no responde a las necesidades de su población. La resistencia económica obedece a una supuesta pérdida del poder político que tendría la familia Castro, las fuerzas militares y el Partido Comunista, en ese orden. Las reformas, encaminadas a “descentralizar” la producción de alimentos, a “localizar” los sistemas de autosostenimiento y abastecimiento de alimentos son, por un lado, impracticables y, por otro, insostenibles. Son impracticables porque el modelo de excesivo control y burocracia desincentiva a los pequeños productores y a los comercializadores, las mipymes cubanas, que a duras penas han logrado hacerse un pequeño espacio en la economía local, sufrieron el embate de nuevas regulaciones que quedan bajo la jurisdicción de las autoridades locales.
Una de las trabas impuestas incluye restricciones a los cubanos que tengan doble nacionalidad o a los extranjeros que no tengan permiso de residencia permanente. Otra talanquera que atenta contra el incentivo del desarrollo de producción local son los topes y las regulaciones de precios que, en la práctica, hacen muy difícil el sostenimiento y el crecimiento de empresas pequeñas. Súmese a esto las dificultades que tendrían las personas naturales de importar algunos insumos necesarios que deberán pasar, indefectiblemente, por el Estado.
Asimismo, la propuesta de la producción local, privada, cuasifamiliar, de productos agrícolas de primera mano resulta insostenible. Los productos de consumo local, “en jardines y macetas”, no dan para un autoabastecimiento a largo plazo. Según datos oficiales de la ONEI, la tendencia a la baja de la producción agrícola en todos los sectores importantes (azúcar, boniato, yuca, fríjol) viene desde 2019. Es impensable compensar la crisis productiva con las iniciativas locales colectivas, pues supone suplementar un mercado que produce cientos de miles de toneladas de alimentos con los esfuerzos de una población menguante y hambrienta.
La resistencia a la reforma económica no solo ha frenado el desarrollo, sino que ha condenado a millones a una crisis perpetua. La comparación con Vietnam no sugiere un ideal; pero sí evidencia que hay rutas menos dolorosas y más productivas que fomentan espacios de bienestar económico y social que, a su vez, redundan en una victoria pequeña, pero decisiva, en materia de promoción de los derechos humanos.