In Cuba, Queueing For Hours 'just To Be Able To Eat'

Havana, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Jan, 2022 ) :Cubans are no strangers to queuing for everything from bread to toothpaste, often standing for hours under a blazing sun with no access to a toilet or drinking water, and always with the fear of leaving empty-handed.

It is a daily ordeal Cubans have endured for about 60 years of communist rule, now worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, a steep economic downturn and tightened US sanctions.

"I spent almost all night here just to buy something. It is not easy, it is a big sacrifice just to be able to eat," shopper Edelvis Miranda, 47, told AFP at a market in Havana last week.

The homemaker had taken her place in the queue at about 1:00 am, and finally left around 11 hours later, just before noon.

"It was worth it, because I found everything. Now some rest, and then back to the queue again," she said on her way home with two liters of oil, two packets of chicken, some minced meat and detergent.

Cuba recorded an official inflation rate of 70 percent in 2021, when the economy recovered a modest two percent after an 11-percent drop in 2020, signaling the nation's worst economic crisis in almost three decades.

With government reserves dwindling, food imports -- some $2 billion worth per year before the pandemic struck -- had to be drastically cut back in the country of 11.2 million.

Last May, the government said imports, which normally cover 80 percent of the island's needs, were at their lowest level since 2009.