Cuba Inside View #12
Warning: Cuba is under the control of a totalitarian state with the only objective of keeping the power at any cost. This report will show you the actual situation in Cuba, that one that the state propaganda tries to deny.
Politic
Police and state security agents attempted to violate diplomatic immunity to remove journalist Camila Acosta and her husband from a car at the United States Embassy to prevent them from attending the July 4th commemoration.
https://x.com/CubanetNoticias/status/1940793929299120242
Economy
According to a Cubadebate report that uses statistics from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the average monthly salary in Cuba's state and budgeted sectors stood at 6,506.5 pesos.
The salary issue in Cuba is complicated, and working with averages is dangerous, especially in a scenario where a few earn hundreds of thousands of pesos in profits and the majority earn salaries lower than the 5,840.5 pesos average in the budgeted sector.
Another aspect that highlights inequality is when analyzing the average monthly salary by province. The backwardness of the main eastern provinces, a region historically marginalized economically, is particularly striking. The provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, and Guantánamo accounted for 26.3% of the total salary fund, despite having 32.7% of the total workforce.
It's also ironic that the electricity, gas, and water supply industries, which offer the worst service nationwide, are the ones with the highest average wages at 12,141.7 pesos. The imbalance is enormous, and if you ask the customers of these services, it's unjustified.
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The Cuban government has obtained forgiveness of €375 million in debt with Spain. It achieved this through a medium and long term Debt Conversion Program. This debt dates back to the 1980s.
What does the agreement entail?
Cuba will invest this amount (converted into Cuban pesos) in environmental and local development projects on the island. This allows the government to pay its debt in local currency, not in scarce foreign currency, and to use this money for the benefit of the nation.
The funds will be administered by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID), which will oversee the projects in Cuba.
It is not a lump sum payment. The 375 million (the equivalent in Cuban pesos) will be disbursed gradually until 2040 (15 years)8. This ensures continuity.
Although it is hard to believe that 25 million annually (on average) will be enough for structural changes in Cuba, the real impact is the relief of the financial pressure exerted by the debt on the Caribbean nation. It is undoubtedly a gesture by Spain, which, realizing that it will never recover this balance, has decided to push for at least the amount in Cuban pesos to be used to promote green reforms.
The most doubtful aspect is the viability of the projects to be implemented and to secure the necessary resources solely with Cuban pesos in a time when almost everything is imported.
The value of 1 dollar is 385 Cuban pesos (CUP). Now the Cuba minimum pension is around 3.94 USD, the minimum wage is 5.45 USD, and the average salary is 16.03 dollars; all amounts are on a monthly basis.
Social
Lack of medicines, high cost of food, and political repression are the constant in Cuba. When this fact changes I will report it.
A journalist from the pro-government newspaper Escambray warns in a report:
“What we've been living for some time is not life… all creativity has a limit, and all resistance, even if it remains, is diminished.”
This indirectly alludes to the hackneyed phrase of creative resistance hurled at the people from the highest echelons of the Cuban Communist Party. As if problems could be solved with harangues and slogans.
https://x.com/mjorgec1994/status/1941558462263197744
Final notes
This is all for today Cuba: Inside View, thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check the other reports here:
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