1 | 21/12/2020 – 18:39 (GMT-4)
This month’s opening of the first dollar store in Batabanó, Mayabeque province, was greeted with skepticism and outrage by residents of the southern Cuban city.
With a population of about 25,500, Batabanó has inaugurated one of the units that has caused the most controversy among Cubans in recent times.
According to Alejandro Gil Fernández, Minister of Economy and Planning, the municipality already benefits from a “revolutionary measure, which seeks equity and justice”. But this is not the opinion of many Cubans, who have spoken out critically on social networks.
“So good! The problem has been solved even more now with the salary increase. Ah, right, it’s in dollars and people are not paid or have nowhere to buy them. So …? The problem is not solved?” , Asked a Facebook user ironically.
On the other hand, another Internet user commented: “The problem I don’t understand is why the supply is always when they just open … After that, an eagle passes by the sea … Certainly not in MLC, in no currency will the country ever have to satisfy the customer. It is more than proven. What a disrespect to this government, to God! “.
While uncertainty and outrage are growing among a population that fears the arrival of a new year with greater difficulties and a lower quality of life, the Cuban government continues to open stores in so-called freely convertible currency.
The desire to collect foreign currency is reflected in the proliferation of stores, across the country, where only Cubans who receive dollars from abroad can buy and who remain more matched than units in other currencies.
Last Wednesday, the Caribe chain of stores announced that the Minimax Caribe Sandino store was opened in Villa Clara, as part of the reorganization of the commercial network and in order to provide better customer service and expand the product offering. .
Initially, the Cuban authorities opened 72 units in the MLC in order to collect foreign currency in the face of the crisis the country is going through. At the time, they said the country would sell a certain amount of merchandise in dollars and other foreign currencies to get foreign exchange and continue to expand that type of sales, but the truth is that there is still a large amount of CUC stores. supply deficit.
Recently, Minister Gil Fernández assured that dollar stores are a temporary measure: “It is a transitional measure, which adapts to the current context and is necessary, but not desirable, which meets an adjusted goal when the country”. he said.
However, the controversy that the opening of these stores has caused among Cubans is not small, because there are very few who can access them. In social networks, many were the ones who demanded the closure of dollar stores in the country. Even the strikers of the San Isidro Movement included it among their demands.
As an example of this dissatisfaction, the case of the jams that had to be removed from the windows of a dollar store in Guantánamo was widely discussed in networks, after a complaint that many children saw them and cried because they could not buy them, went viral .
“It simply came to our notice then. I myself, who have two little ones, have to buy cookies for 6 CUC, so that they can take advantage of some of their innocence and childhood. Failure is what I am! Before, they at least had my respect. Now they just have my rejection of this miserable government! “, Commented one of the users before the news about the opening of the dollar store in Batabanó.
Mayabeque, a province of almost 400 thousand inhabitants, has so far had three MLC stores distributed throughout its territory: “La Polaca” in Bejucal, the “Trasval” point of sale in Madruga and the Samurai store. In addition, in the province there is the Jaruco electronics store in Güines, and the La Carolice point of sale, also for electronics, in the same municipality.
“Our goal is not to have shortages, but this is not a scenario that changes overnight,” acknowledged Ana María Ortega Tamayo, general manager of Tiendas Caribe when the first stores in MLC started operating in July.
These units have come to underline even more the great inequality that exists in the country, where most remain almost in poverty and only those who can receive remittances are saved.