Cuba Is Starving Its People

The island’s latest hunger crisis is made in Havana. Don’t believe the propaganda blaming U.S. sanctions.

By Mary Anastasia O’Grady. Excerpts:

"Cubans are hungrier and more desperate than any time during the revolutionary dictatorship launched in 1959. The online newspaper Diario de Cuba reported on March 7 that the nongovernmental organization Food Monitor Program claims it has evidence of a black market for cat meat. The newspaper said it couldn’t verify the story, but for sure eggs, chicken, fish and beef are rarities, as is basic medication. Food often spoils because of repeated and prolonged electricity outages."

"The regime could reduce the suffering if it wished. The sea around the island is filled with protein but for most Cubans, owning a boat is prohibited. Farmers could feed people but aren’t allowed to market their produce."

"U.S. policy blocks . . . doesn’t stop Havana from buying food from the U.S."

"The problem is a shortage of hard currency. Much of what Cuba is able to get its hands on is spent on bribing the military, secret police and brown-shirts to do their dirty work against civilians. The NGO Cuba Archive says it has documented 79 “deaths and disappearances attributed to the Cuban state in 2023.”"

"The economic pie never grows because it’s controlled by a small number of Communist Party elites. A foreign investor can easily find himself in a Cuban dungeon, as did British citizen Stephen Purvis in 2011. His crime was running a business that regime honchos wanted."

"There are no property rights. A “small business” reform is little more than the parceling out of the state-run companies to Castro friends and family. Those getting fat off Cuban misery include Manuel Marrero, a ruthless enforcer of the totalitarian state rumored to be waiting in the wings to succeed Mr. Díaz-Canel.

Communist Cuba once relied on the Soviet Union and later Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela to pay its bills. Both are now bust, and Cuba has reneged on billions of dollars in loans to more than 20 countries."

See also The Communist Party Has Devastated Cuba: Six decades of orthodox, incompetent Marxist economic policies have impoverished the country. Letter to WSJ.

"Mary Anastasia O’Grady is correct to warn against the Cuban regime’s spin blaming the U.S. embargo for the current situation in the island (“Cuba Is Starving Its People,” Americas, March 25). A country that uses 30% of its land for crop cultivation can’t feed its population, but somehow the U.S. is responsible. Never mind that the Cuban government spends scarce hard currency buying food from the U.S.

This latest crisis is nothing more than the chickens coming home to roost for the Cuban Communist Party, which for more than 65 years has ruled the island ruthlessly. Six decades of orthodox, incompetent Marxist economic policies have devastated the economy and impoverished a country that Leland H. Jenks once called “the richest colony in the world.”

Incapable of satisfying the population’s needs and refusing to implement the necessary reforms, the regime is facing a terminal crisis like the one that brought down communism in Europe. Good riddance. The U.S. better prepare for a double crisis in the Caribbean, as Cuba and Haiti both experience a sorely needed regime change.

Sebastian A. Arcos

Cuban Research Institute"