Cuba: High prices, lines and shortages

IWTW ‘Explore’ is about highlighting different trends around the world and presenting audiences with both sides of the story in order to facilitate a better understanding of world issues and decision making in the spheres of the economy, society, environment, technology and politics.

What is it about?

In Cuba, the socialist project begun by revolutionary hero and former president Fidel Castro is teetering on the verge of failure. The nation is sinking deeper into crisis, with many people’s daily lives marred by shortages of food, medicine and electricity.

Cuba has been subject to sanctions for decades. Despite recent attempts at reform, the country is increasingly isolated and economically dependent. A currency reform enacted in 2021 is also causing major problems, with inflation soaring and prices skyrocketing. Food is scarce, and lines in front of the few state-run stores are getting longer and longer.

Poverty is on the rise. Even the famous ingenuity of the Cuban people is reaching its limits as they try to cope with the day-to-day effects of the crisis. Images of bygone revolutionaries are fading in the streets the capital, Havana, and all over the island. Official voices continue to broadcast the state’s ideology, but ordinary people are losing hope that things will improve.

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Full episode (by DW documentaries)

IWTW note: The opinions in the video don’t necessarily represent those of IWTW. The goal of IWTW ‘Explore’ is to inform its audience about interesting developments around the world through a selection of short and long documentaries. IWTW considers those documentaries to be great starting points for further discussion. I strive to update the selection of content should ‘better’ documentaries emerge over time.

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