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The Havana government announced at the end of the week a series of rations that affect staple foods as well as staples. With this package, the Castro regime says it wants to prevent some Cubans stock products at home, while the country is going through a serious economic crisis and the population is facing many shortages.
From now on, a Cuban can not buy as much chicken as he wants from the supermarket. It is the government that will regulate its consumption of meat. Same for the soap. Other products such as rice, beans, eggs or sausages can only be bought with a ration card.
This was announced by the Minister of Commerce Betsy Diaz who blames the responsibility of the Cuban economic difficulties to the new US sanctions under the Trump administration.
But it is above all the decline in Venezuela's aid that affects the Castro Island. The collapse of the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA led to a nearly two-thirds reduction in the supply of subsidized fuel to Cubans.
In recent years, however, Havana had used Venezuelan fuel to produce energy and earn foreign currency. Foreign exchange that the country urgently needs, because Cuba imports almost two-thirds of the food consumed by the population.
It is because of this lack of currency and in the absence of sufficient domestic production that shortages of commodities and staple foods have worsened in recent months.
► See also: Cuba: a complicated first year for Miguel Diaz-Canel