One of the reasons I wanted to go to Cuba now was to see how it was holding up after the Pandemic and having tourism frozen for almost three years. In general, as the US has focused on itself, I have been very worried about how developing world countries were faring in these difficult times for all.
Cuba depends heavily on the foreign currency it receives through tourism to pay for much needed exports. The Embargo makes international trade very difficult in normal times, since they have a more difficult route using the international banking system and lending money. Instead they have to pay ahead for anything they want with most trade partners, unlike almost any other country. So tourists bring valuable dollars and euros. After Obama loosened the US rules against Cuba in and expanded travel and the ability for Cuban Americans to send money to the country in 2016 leading to a flurry of economic activity, in 2020 Trump locked it down even more.
Also, many Cuban families survive on money from families who live elsewhere and Trump’s changes made getting that money there, much harder. Biden hasn’t done much to loosen anything and even though remittances are allowed again now, Western Union hasn’t opened up services again yet.
Add regular supply chain delays to that mix and unfortunately what I saw was a tougher situation than I have seen in the past. Cubans are guaranteed monthly food rations. They get a per person allotment of rice, beans, cooking oil… at vastly subsidized costs. But as the years go by the allotment includes less and less. We were told over and over again that when chickens are available it means waiting in line for SIX hours. I was told that it was getting better now that things are opening up again, but it was a bit of a shock to see the crowds outside each neighborhood Bodega where residents are assigned to pick up their food.
On the other more bright side, since I was last there in 2015, the private sector continues to grow. Now if you do have foreign currency there is much more Cubans can purchase. This economic change had begun before my last trip there and I had seen lots of little farmers markets and some food carts. But now everyone seems to run a little store selling misc things they can get their hands on out of the fronts of their street level houses. There also are now retail storefronts filled with little booths for people to rent and sell things like shoes and cell phone cases. To most of you it will look like a very feeble economy, but to me it looked quite promising and to be the road to a more open economic system that might be able to flourish if the Embargo is lifted and goods and money are allowed to flow more freely into the country. In the way they have allowed home owners to create B&Bs to rent rooms and restaurants called paladares to sell meals, giving locals ways to bring in money, it does seem that mostly out of desperation the Communist government has been forced to figure out ways to open the system and hopefully spread the wealth a bit and to be able to tax revenue from the growing black market that has popped up. (I add that these topics are very complicated and I am giving you a VERY simplistic view, so please forgive my vast generalizations.)
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