Miguel Díaz-Canel assured that there is a kind of deadlock affecting the Cuban leadersadded to the US embargo on Havana, and which also have to be overcome in order to “move forward”.
“There is a real and objective blockage that is causing us a lot of harm and that we denounce in all scenarios, but there is another that is mental and we have to break to advance in development. These meetings should also break this blockade,” he said during a meeting with Communist Party officials in Pinar del Río, according to Prensa Latina’s official report.
Then, without specifying what constitutes the “mental blockade” that is added to the “blockade” of Washington and to the “internal blockade” strongly criticized by the Cubans, called to produce more food in Pinar del Río and not just tobaccothe territory’s main export product, and whose infrastructure was badly hit by the scourge of Hurricane Ian at the end of September 2022.
According to the ruler, the priority for this is “to use fallow land, to create a greater culture in the use of agroecology and to promote local production systems”, which officials keep repeating without achieving the existing policy that encourages Cubans to do so.
Díaz-Canel and other of his ministers are visiting some of the country’s provinces this week to provide guidance and review programsbut without announcing measures to resolve the grave crisis Cuba is going through, pushing hundreds of thousands to emigrate, depopulating the national geography and making labor scarce.
At the meeting in Pinar del Río, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said that “amidst the complex scenario that the country is experiencing, hard work has been done”.
He assured that “decisions have been made that should contribute to a better 2023, but the results will not come alone, they need everyone’s commitment,” he stressed, since the authorities are doing this so as not to take full responsibility for the catastrophic situation to bear the Cuban economy.
For her part, the first secretary of the local PCC, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, said at the meeting that “to the challenges that face here, as in the whole country, is added the complex recovery process after Hurricane Ian”, which caused enormous destruction in the west of the island, and in Pinar del Río it was more serious.
Likewise, the official said that there is “inadequate use of regulations approved for the economic system”, “lack of dynamism in agriculture to strengthen the sector” and that “greater impact is needed in applying the results of science”. . .
As is customary at these meetings, the province’s commissioner-designate for agriculture, Yoel Hernández, had to make promises to avoid criticism. According to the official report, he said actions were being taken “to identify development areas and bring them into production.”
Finally, Roberto Morales OjedaOrganizing Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC, assures that the authorities “are committed to improving our population in order to improve their quality of life and work to remove anything that gets in the way.”
Oddly enough In the same week, state-owned banks announced the imposition of limits on the amount of money their customers can withdraw and spend on payments using their magnetic cards. This is in the midst of runaway inflation that is causing prices in the country to skyrocket.
Although the report does not refer to any comment on this measure, not even to justify it, this announcement is the opposite of an improvement in the quality of life of Cubans.