The Cuban economist Elias Amor Bravo He questioned the “recipes” proposed by the president Miguel Diaz-Canel at the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, to relieve the severe economic crisis that Cuba is going through.
Amor addressed the competence of the Cuban ruler in an article on his blog, titled “In whose hands is the Cuban economy.”
In his speech, Díaz-Canel said that “the main call of this time must be to do more with our own efforts, with our own talent and with our own capabilities and potential, no one else way, because There are no magic steps that can change – from one moment to another – in the short term, the current situation in the country.”.
Confronted with this statement, the economist denied: “What a big lie. Of course there are recipes, and not magical ones, but practical ones, based on economic rationality alien to communist postulates” and he stated that “the Vietnamese are a good example of this.”
Díaz-Canel assured before the Ministerial council that “in different areas there are resources that have not yet been used, it is important to promote popular participation in all processes, therefore, it is also based on the fact that we must have a dialogue, a permanent conversation with our population.”
For the expert, the Cuban regime prefers and says “anything, except to recognize that the rights of the market and private property are the necessary path.”
Amor asked that “instead of giving flexibility, opening spaces and freeing supply and demand, the communist solution involves not removing the noose and tightening it even more,” because the Cuban rulers intend to convince the population that the resources to reduce The crisis may arise “from the savings, energy efficiency and adjustment measures in the economic and social activities adopted to deal with the specific situation we have with the fuel deficit.”
The economist concluded that the Cuban ruling class acted to “give another squeeze to the belt of the regime that has permanently suffocated any sign of economic activity.”
Díaz-Canel this Monday justified the latest measures of his government that, According to him, “they are showing results”Well, we managed to get through that stage, I would say with less damage than what might have existed because of the severity that was shown to us in the last weeks of September.”
About which the economist does not hesitate to warn: “You should see how little he considers the reality around him. No idea”.
As in many other speeches and demonstrations, the Cuban governor said that it is necessary to “enable the production of goods and the offer of services, to produce food,” because “that is the first benefit that must be given for the population with better prices.” “, but his proposal to achieve this focuses on “agroecology techniques, knowing that the efficiency is not the same, but we must do it.”
In this regard, Amor warned: “It is known that the efficiency will be zero, but they insist on hitting an insurmountable wall.”
At another point in the ministerial meeting, Díaz-Canel pointed out that the main source of food for the population “cannot be what is centrally imported in the country to be distributed with a fair or social justice, which sometimes falls into egalitarianism.”
Regarding this statement, the economist asked in his article: “Does this mean that non-central imports will be used? When, under what conditions? Let no one expect any bag -or, attention is once again paid to what is produced locally, from local balance sheets, and to all the others imported into the country, a commitment to an inefficient technical standard that prevents exploitation of increased income and productivity.”
Similarly, he questioned the ruler’s lack of knowledge about the forces that govern an economy when he stated that the business sector “must be able to exploit all the potential that companies have, and that is not always considered.”
Amor explained that Díaz-Canel “specifically said that with the qualified jobs available to them, if the lack of fuel or other factors prevent them from fulfilling their main objective, (companies) must ‘find out how they can make other products and services to the population that we don’t do now.
“By magic, the communist leader wants companies to do the impossible,” said the Cuban economist, who also made a brief reflection on what the president said about MSMEs.
“He also spoke about the development of creation of MSMEs in the state sector. We are small and you see what happens. The more MSMEs believe they are linked to political power, the greater the shadow of doubt about their affiliation and/or relationship with the leadership. It is a bad issue that will harm the entire process of MSMEs,” he said.
Recently, Díaz-Canel justified the creation of MSMEs and considers it “outrageous” that many citizens believe “that MSMEs are the result of a neoliberal policy.”
“Those who accuse us of being neoliberals need to educate themselves a little,” said the president in an appearance at the Round Table to address “the complexity and challenges of the present time for Cuban society.”
Over the years, He continued his criticism of neoliberalismwhile his government’s economic measures created more inequality and crisis in the country.
In a visit to Argentina in 2019, he said that neoliberalism “does not solve the problems of the Latin American people” and makes citizens “more unequal, poorer, less protected and leads them to distrust of politicians.”
The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal He also made an analysis of the recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, and considered it a “crazy” that the Ministry of Economy and Planning, led by Alejandro Gil Fernandez”only gives external ‘phenomena’ (‘lockdown’ and pandemic) the deterioration of the purchasing power of salaries and pensions if it is due to a high level of failure of ‘regulation’.”
“The Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) has direct responsibility for the design and implementation of the ‘regulation’, which represents a brutal ‘compression’ of workers’ wages, causing extreme poverty in Cuba. Any self-criticism?”
