POLITICS-CUBA: People, Not Castro, Victims of US Embargo

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 1 2000 (IPS) - Cuban authorities brandish studies to prove in local court that the island nation’s 11 million people are the primary victims of the United States-imposed blockade, which has left the Fidel Castro government relatively unscathed.

Evidence of the harm inflicted on the population and the economy made its appearance in the Provincial Court of Havana, Monday, as part of a case in which Cuba is suing the United States government for 121 billion dollars.

The first testimonies in the trial’s oral arguments attempted to show that the nearly 40-year-old trade embargo has failed in its goal to bring down president Castro, but was effective in hurting the nation’s living standards.

According to experts from the government-run import enterprise, Alimport, Washington’s sanctions are responsible for shortages of milk, bread and other foodstuffs, especially since the early 1990s when the island lost its partners from the now-defunct socialist bloc.

As a result of the US-imposed embargo, Cuba must spend millions more dollars annually than most other countries to buy the same quantities of grains, powdered milk, chicken and soy products, according to Alimport.

The government firm spent some 15 to 18 dollars more per tonne of wheat last year -18 million dollars total – because it could not purchase the product from the United States, the world’s leading grain exporter, affirmed Alberto Rios, Alimport’s assistant trade director.

The official stated that Cuba imports a million tonnes of wheat each year, which is used for producing bread and for livestock forage. But because Cuba does not have access to its large neighbour’s market, it is forced to pay higher prices for wheat coming from Argentina, Canada and Europe.

Other food products, such as powdered milk and frozen chicken, have a similar fate, and are sold under ration to the Cuban people.

Igor Montero, another Alimport official, pointed out that in order to buy milk and chicken, the island had to seek suppliers in Canada and in distant areas such as the Latin American Southern Cone and the European Union.

The price differential for these products coming from the United States versus other countries cost the Cuban government an extra 2.5 million dollars for powdered milk and 1.7 million for chicken last year, affirmed Montero.

Havana assures that the difficulties in finding markets where it can buy food worsened over the last decade as the United States implemented the Torricelli Act in 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act in 1996.

The Torricelli law banned branches of US-based companies located in other countries from conducting trade with Cuba, just when the island lost its major suppliers in the collapse of the socialist bloc, which had represented 85 percent of Cuba’s export market.

Then the Helms-Burton Act established sanctions against companies in other countries that acquired or utilised property in Cuba that had previously belonged to the United States, a measure that went into effect just months after the Castro government approved a law creating incentives for foreign investment.

The direct effect of these US laws was rising shipping costs, as any boat that has docked in a Cuban port may not enter the United States for six months. This threat to shipping companies cost Cuba a great deal of income, according to Alimport.

The blockade is another thorn in the context of the crisis that has affected the Cuban economy since 1990, worsening a situation that experts say has primarily hurt the population, creating a sharp decline in living conditions.

Studies indicated that at the worst points of the economic crisis, in 1992 and 1993, there was a notable deterioration in the Cuban population’s nutritional levels, which led to health problems.

>From 1989 to 1993, the calorie intake per capita dropped from 2,845 kcals daily to 1,863, and protein intake fell from 76.5 grams to 46 per day.

Last year, nutrition levels recovered, reaching 2,363 kcals and 59.4 grams of protein per capita per day, but even this is lower than the internationally recommended nutritional allowances.

In the early 1990s, Cuban authorities considerably reduced subsidised milk sales, limiting access to children under age seven and to individuals with special diets due to illness, such as diabetes mellitus.

Bread, which had been inexpensive, was strictly rationed. Agricultural and seafood products alike, meats and processed foods in general grew scarce and began to appear for sale on the underground market.

The situation began to improve with the legalisation of the dollar in 1993, public access to stores sell their products for dollars, and the opening in 1994 of free-trade farmers markets.

But the food supply to be purchased with Cuban pesos continues to lag behind and broad sectors of the population lack the resources to ensure a balanced diet.

Montero stated that, in addition to having to pay more than any other country for certain foods, Cuba suffers because it does not have access to international loans normally available to most nations.

According to the embargo laws, the island may not use the US dollar in its trade transactions, nor is it authorised to maintain dollar accounts in foreign banks.