Socialist Cuba is facing immense challenges as it struggles to overcome shortages of fuel and other necessities created by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as US economic warfare. In the midst of these challenges, an oil tank at the Matanzas Super Tanker Terminal was struck by lightning on 5 August, igniting a destructive fire which blazed until 13 August when it was finally extinguished. The fire caused the deaths of 16 people, most of them firefighters, and 146 people were hospitalised; billowing smoke reached the capital city Havana more than 100km away. The fire also drastically harmed Cuba’s oil infrastructure. While friends and allies of Cuba have stepped in to assist the recovery, the US government has offered little meaningful support so far – but will issue millions of dollars in new funding for regime change programmes against the socialist state. The situation demands that the international struggle against the US blockade is renewed. WILL JONES reports.
Former US president Donald Trump introduced 243 new coercive measures in an attempt to strangle Cuba’s economy, many introduced at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a parting shot, Trump returned Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism blacklist in January 2021, imposing a raft of unilateral sanctions having the effect of making Cuba ‘high-risk’ for banks and potential investors. While his successor Joe Biden promised to reverse Trump’s sanctions, so far this has not happened. Biden reaffirmed the terrorist sponsor designation in May 2021 and introduced new sanctions against individual Cuban state officials a few weeks later. Despite concessions made in June 2022 to appease Latin American and Caribbean heads of state in the runup to the Summit of the Americas, the blockade has been left intact. In the first 14 months of Biden’s presidency, the blockade caused $6.3bn of damage to the island’s economy in lost income, or $16m per day, according to Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
Trump and Biden’s attacks are designed to compound Cuba’s difficulties in attracting the investment and hard currency it needs to meet its development goals. Cuba has to overcome the hurdles of underdevelopment created by imperialism. The socialist system has made outstanding achievements in human development compared to similar countries, but due to lack of access to capital to invest in improved productivity it is still excessively dependent on imports of food, fuel, medicines and other goods. Before the Trump administration, Cuba set goals of 5% annual GDP growth and investment equivalent to 20% of GDP, necessary to upgrade Cuba’s domestic industry, technology, human capital and infrastructure to improve the country’s productivity and self-sufficiency. This would require attracting foreign capital, since the domestic rate of savings was insufficient. But the slump in trade, tourism and investment caused by Trump and Biden’s sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic has led to conditions in Cuba which resemble the ‘Special Period’ of the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
In the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuba has defied the trends in other countries by prioritising welfare and the production of its own vaccines; life expectancy increased between 2019-2021 by 0.2 years to 79, while in the US it decreased 2.5 years to 76.1. Early years educational enrolment was also maintained at 90% in Cuba, unlike in many Latin American countries where participation fell during the pandemic. But in the same period Cuba’s infant mortality rate increased from 5 to 7.6 per 1,000 live births, and the rate of mothers dying from pregnancy and childbirth difficulties rose from 37.4 to 176.6 out of 100,000 births. Emigration has reached record highs; 178,000 Cubans crossed the US-Mexico border in the 11 months since October 2021, and another 8,000 tried to make it to the US by sea, which is more than the previous highest waves of Cuba-US migration in 1980 (125,000 emigrants) and 1994 (35,000 emigrants) combined.
Sanctions fuel the fire
According to 2017 figures Cuba consumes around 145,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and produces 51,000 bpd. Imports from Venezuela have been vital, but US penalties against oil tankers shipping oil to Cuba and falling oil production in Venezuela due to US sanctions resulted in a drop in imports from around 90,000 bpd in 2015 to as little as 55,300 bpd in 2021. Most of Cuba’s electricity is generated in 13 large oil power plants which are deteriorating due to the difficulty of sourcing parts needed for repairs and maintenance; importing these parts requires access to foreign currency which is scarce due to the US blockade. Combined with other sources including renewables, they generate around 2,000-2,500MW of electricity, but in the summer months when more energy is needed for air conditioning, the demand is now around 3,000MW. Electricity consumption increased following the outbreak of Covid-19 as Cubans spent more time at home, and 56 of Trump’s new sanctions directly targeted Cuba’s energy sector. The blockade restricts Cuba’s ability to upgrade and diversify its energy matrix to meet rising demand, with only 5% of electricity grid demand currently met by alternative energy sources.
Blackouts due to infrastructure failure, in some cases lasting up to 12 hours, are the inevitable result. In addition to lights and fans switching off, food spoils without refrigeration. When Cubans are already exhausted from waking in the early hours of the morning to queue for basic necessities before going to work, blackouts are a further test of endurance. On 19 August, residents of Nuevitas protested for two days against the blackouts, banging pots and pans in the street. There has been no repeat of the violent anti-government protests of 11-12 July 2021, but other protests over blackouts have occurred and will occur. US-financed disinformation campaigns convince some Cubans that the blockade is insignificant and the government is to blame for problems which are overwhelmingly externally imposed.
The Matanzas fire could hardly have occurred at a worse time. Matanzas is Cuba’s only super tanker terminal, with a capacity of 2.4 million barrels and through which most oil is imported. Four of its eight oil storage tanks were destroyed by the fire. This will exacerbate problems of fuel supplies for the electricity grid, and makes the task of rebuilding the port more urgent.
True friends
Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia and Venezuela promptly offered help to combat the fire. Mexico and Venezuela sent 25 flights to Cuba contributing 127 specialists, 45,000 litres of fire-retardant foam and other assistance. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has sent PDVSA state oil company experts to work with Cuban authorities in redesigning and reconstructing the terminal. In September, two oil tankers, one with 300,000 barrels and the other with 700,000 barrels of Russian fuel oil, went to Cuba. Western sanctions on Russia which have closed existing markets meant additional lower cost oil is available for Cuba.
The United States announced that it was offering technical advice to the Cuban government as the inferno raged. Cuba and its supporters have always called for the lifting of the blockade as the single greatest assistance that the US government could render, yet there is no sign of progress. Biden’s administration called in July for applications to USAID for awards amounting to $6.25m for projects to ‘promote peaceful, nonviolent democratic change in Cuba’. Such programmes have provided over $1bn to foreign agents and propaganda campaigns since the mid-1990s. Combined with the blockade, this is a two-pronged attack designed to topple the socialist state.
Balancing act
In response to the urgent need to acquire hard currency and attract foreign investment, the Cuban state has taken unprecedented steps. On 14 August it announced that foreign ownership in wholesale and retail enterprises would be legalised. This is an attempt to use foreign companies and capital to urgently get goods and services into the country, which are blocked due to sanctions. While the reforms allow wholesale businesses to be 100% foreign owned, in retail only joint ventures with the Cuban state are permitted, in which foreign investors are expected to pre-finance the project, giving Cuban industry access to capital, new techniques and equipment. Certain types of products in the wholesale trade are prioritised: raw materials, inputs, equipment, and other goods necessary for the development of national industry; as well as food, cleaning materials and parts required for the installation of renewable electricity generation. It is a measure which is designed to solve immediate problems without relinquishing the socialist principles at the core of society.
For now there will be no competition involved and companies with an existing presence in Cuba will receive priority. Ana Teresita González Fraga, Minister of Foreign Trade, affirmed that the Cuban state will maintain a monopoly on foreign trade, referring to the central report to the 8th Party Congress of the PCC in which Army General Raul Castro described ‘the socialist principle of the state monopoly over foreign trade’ as a ‘limit we cannot exceed, because the consequences would be irreversible’. In addition, on 23 August the Cuban state re-legalised the sale and purchase of US dollars, reviving a policy that was last used during the Special Period. This is designed to undermine informal black-market exchanges and bring in hard currency. The rate offered, 120 Cuban pesos (CUP) for 1 USD, is approximately the same as that on the black market and is accessed through government-run currency exchange offices.
For Cuba’s economy to recover, it needs trade and investment as well as material aid. If this is to come without strings attached, without the need for additional concessions to foreign capital or to informal market forces which could weaken the dominance of socialist planning, widespread international solidarity actions are needed. The priority for forces within the US is to fight the ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ designation which Biden continues to uphold. A petition organised by CODEPINK calling for the designation to be dropped has been signed by over 10,000 individuals and 30 organisations. Elsewhere, solidarity actions must be organised against the banks and financial institutions which illegally block commerce and donations to Cuba. Tell the banks to unblock Cuba!
Cuba Vive News
#1c4Cuba campaign gains momentum
The 1c4Cuba campaign launched by Rock around the Blockade and others on 26 July now involves dozens of participating organisations from six countries: Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. The campaign has continued to expose and challenge banks that attempt to delay or block transactions which they suspect may involve Cuba. Donations intended to assist Cuba following the Matanzas fire were blocked by British banks including HSBC and NatWest. HSBC acknowledged openly in a letter that ‘the UK doesn’t have any sanctions against Cuba, but we need to adhere to regulations in all territories where we operate’. Statements such as this exemplify the illegal, extraterritorial application of the US blockade to third countries. Complaints against the banks have resulted in hundreds of pounds of compensation. The complaints are now being pursued with financial regulators in Britain and other countries. The goal is to put pressure on the banks and financial regulators to put a stop to the illegal compliance with the blockade – its success is dependent on mass participation internationally.
Join the campaign: on the 17th of each month, schedule international transactions with the reference ‘CUBA’ and if your bank blocks or delays the transaction, get in touch with the participating organisation in your country so they can support you to launch a complaint against the bank. Find the full instructions at www.1c4cuba.eu
Cuba votes on new Family Code
As we go to press, Cubans are voting in a referendum to approve or reject a new Family Code, one of the most progressive worldwide. In addition to enhancing the rights of children and mothers, the new code includes a definition of the family which would legalise same-sex marriage in Cuba. The document has been prepared through debate and consultation in which 6.4 million Cubans participated, an example of socialist democracy. Opposition to the Family Code has been organised through churches in Cuba.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 290 October/November 2022
