Rationing in Cuba

Rationing in Cuba describes a system of distribution of food, in Cuba under the name liberta de Abastecimiento ( " reference book " ), or even short liberta is known. This system determines the reference quantities for each person as well as the frequency of allocation.

Overview

The vast majority of Cuban families depend for their grocery shopping on the liberta - distribution system, which was established on 12 March 1962. This system determines the quantity and how often certain things may be purchased per person.

Most of these products are so -called bodegas, distributed through local shops, which specialize in the distribution of these rationed goods. For meat, poultry or fish, this corresponding butchers are ( Carnicería ).

Some other industrial products can be obtained from the liberta, such as Tobacco products, fuel for stove ( petroleum, fuel oil, alcohol, kerosene or charcoal - depending on the particular cooking facilities of the receiver), light bulbs and other household needs.

The products that are included in the liberta system vary, depending on age and gender. How to obtain, for example, children under seven years of a liter of milk per day, as well as elderly, ill or pregnant women. Even people over 65 are entitled to receive other allocations. For special fare, a medical certificate must be presented attesting to the health problems and indicates which products are therefore needed.

A government agency that OFICODA ( oficina de control de productos alimentarios - Office for the Supervision of food products ), which was created specifically for this task, the liberta distributed annually to all residents in the form of a small booklet. This booklet contains pages where the exact number and ages of those persons is, belonging to a nuclear family. A booklet is normally assigned to a nuclear family, just as hints of possible diets. You can purchase these goods only in the bodegas responsible for the respective residential area. When moving so the data in the liberta must first be rewritten in OFICODA office.

Goods over the liberta system are offered at subsidized prices. These are since their introduction remained more or less stable, with even the average wage of a worker has hardly changed since. There is a page that is listed on the vendor from which products were in what quantity relative for each month. The Libreta must be presented with any relevant purchase.

At its launch, the rationing system was not limited to food, but there were also industrial products available about it. There were a booklet with coupons for tearing for relating to industrial products. This was mainly clothing, footwear and household goods, as well as toys for children. It usually three different toys per child per year were approved, usually before or during the 6th January, Epiphany: - were offered ( in Cuba Día de los Reyes Day of the Kings ). After the disintegration of the Soviet bloc in 1989, began in Cuba the Special Period ( Periodo especial) and industrial products were no longer sold on this system. Today, for example, are distributed fabric for sewing clothing and readymade garments over this supply system.

Special laws regulate the functioning of this system. There are pronounced penalties for its misuse. The most common irregularities are agreements with the sellers that these incomplete Enter the products supplied, or not in the ration book, or weigh incorrectly, etc. The Cubans can be held criminally responsible if they do not immediately report the OFICODA changes in the composition of the family.

Standard rations

The following table illustrates the standard rations, as they are distributed over the liberta. The amounts given are per person per month. Even a hint about the subsidized prices are given. The packages vary from year to year, so that the numbers can access data from 2000 provide based, only a rough idea:

Meat products, where available, are sold separately. There is a two- week intervals, are sold in the most alternately different products. Fish, beef, ground beef (usually mixed with soya), chicken, sausage and ham fall into this category. Quantities and prices vary according to meat products: beef: a half pounds per person chicken: a pound per person; each every two weeks.

It must be said that very often some goods are not available or delayed their delivery. For example, if in a month no beans available, the missing amount will be added to the rule to the following month amount. But this is not always the case. Particularly in the case of beef it comes to such delays.

Since many goods are often not available in the bodega, form regularly long lines should arrive these goods more or less random but. Accordingly, long often takes a purchase. That is why some people with special needs, such as Pensioners or pregnant women a priority.

Justification of government

According to the Cuban government, this method ensures the minimum supply each resident with food regardless of social or economic status, and has announced plans for its expiry. Specific dates for this, however, were not mentioned. It is also stressed that the liberta is not the only way for Cubans to purchase these products. You, as well as other goods, are also still available in free markets ( mercados libres ) or parallel markets ( mercados paralelos ) and of course in the many shops that sell the goods for convertible peso. It must be noted that the price on the rationing book are about twenty times lower than on the open market. Furthermore, it is stressed that the humanitarian aid that Cuba receives from other countries, are distributed fairly and reasonably in this way. According to the official attitude of this system is not desirable, but inevitable and just.

The Cuban government acknowledges that over the liberta distributed rations are not sufficient to provide an adequate livelihood. The government asserts, moreover, that no political influence was on the reference quantities, so every citizen, regardless of his political opinion or his legal status, receives the same amount of goods.

Criticism

Critics both the justice and the purpose of this method in question. At the same time they emphasize shortcomings, such as historical acceptance of the delivery frequency and the volumes of the products available. They argued that it creates deep economic differences within the Cuban people by being divided into two parts: in foreign exchange owners who can not afford the higher prices in the foreign exchange shops or the mercados libres and those where this is not possible.

The Cuban government is also accused of using this system to exert influence on the Cubans: the system of distribution of goods for most Cuban families the easiest, if not the only way to secure a minimum, poor standard of living ( salaries are usually paid in Cuban pesos). This will give the government the power to intimidate or punish, as they fear would have to be excluded from the supply via liberta dissidents.

Furthermore, the critics believe that humanitarian aid will not be so, as claimed by the government, distributed through that system. They also emphasize the fact that the system was established by the Cuban government in 1962, as a temporary response to a crisis, but already since 45 years, there has.

In the Cuban people, the criticism against the liberta has manifested with the help of choteo in popular everyday language turns of Cuban Spanish.

Punish

The penalties for violations of food law are partly violently to Western standards. For example, a person under Cuban law get for killing a cow a higher prison sentence than for the killing of a human being:

• For killing a cow prison are provided by Cuban criminal law up to 10 years.
• Transported or sold one who illegally slaughtered meat of a cow can be punished with imprisonment between three and eight years.
• Anyone offering pirated beef in a restaurant or at work, the risk of two to five years in prison
• The purchase of such beef may be held by imprisonment between three months and one year, or a heavy fine.

The authorities have to seize the law, all property of each player on the black market trade in bovine animals.