Hundreds Line up to Buy Chicken at Havana’s Carlos III Mall
Vicente Morin Aguado
HAVANA TIMES – Saturday awakened with hundreds of people forming a long line on both sides of Calle Seco, leading up to the Carlos III Shopping Plaza. With police surveillance, they were waiting their turn to buy frozen food, mainly chicken pieces at the official price of 1.70 CUC, (=USD) a kilo.
“Many of us were here to wait for the opening since dawn; there are a lot of people, we do not know if we all will be able to buy,” said Julian Lasalle, who added that “although they have limited the sale to 5 kilograms per person in the queue, the demand is a lot. ”
From the balcony of his apartment on the second floor of a building adjacent to the establishment, among the largest in the city, an unidentified lady said: “In the 22 years of existence of this plaza, I never saw so many people waiting for it to open to buy a product.”
Besides the chicken pieces, the chilled food sales area also offered imported Gouda cheese at 8.10 CUC per kilo and small packets of minced meat, which is enough reason to cram the store.
The general comment is that it would be better to return to the rationed sale of the initial decades of the revolution, because this situation with never-ending lines is unsustainable for the majority of the working population.
The scarcity of products contrasts with the building repair going on at Carlos III, which represents significant costs in building materials. People ask shouldn’t they instead invest in purchasing the food products that are missing today.
Havana residents have become accustomed to looking afar at the doors of the commercial establishments that sell in hard currency, the only ones that sell some basic foods outside the rations, although recently limited in the amounts that each customer can buy. If you don’t see a considerable number of people waiting outside, don’t bother, it’s not worth it to come because there will be nothing good inside.
Cuba a Beautiful palace in ruins… just returned from visiting and my eyes saw beauty in place full of Scarcity… it is one darn shame…
Que bruto te has educado por que no te vas para esos lugares que admiras y disfruta esa vida y despues habla
I’m happy to admit to the role US Sanctions have played in the economic turmoil. Will you admit to the role Cuba’s state controlled economy had played?
Experts estimate at 37.2 billion dollars the direct Venezuelan aid to Cuba over the last 18 years. The figure is based on the total amount of oil delievered to Cuba each year, in exchange for professional services of Cubans, mostly doctors. Remittances from the United States add up to about 3 billion in cash each year. So who is to blame for the shortage of food on the island?
It is obvious Olgasintanales that ‘Mary’ is either a political innocent or is a supporter of communist repression – of others, but not herself!
Yes, I know everything has always been managed correctly in Cuba and Venezuela. All there problems are the fault of the evil empire. It has nothing to do with there mismanagement, cronyism and corruption.
In fact if the whole world followed their economic example we would all be poor and hungry together like one big happy family.
This is happening because the Cuban dictatorship is incompetent. The Soviet Union gave to the Cubans a lot of money for 30 years and the Cuban government didn’t even resolve the housing crisis. Instead the dictatorship was building in Granada an airport, just to gain influence in the region and create another problem for USA when Havana was falling apart. Glad that Ronald Reagan sent the marines and sent the “Construction workers” home.
Eric, communism takes various forms. North Korea and Cuba still practice the Stalinist version where capitalism is anathema. Vietnam although a communist one-party state, adopted capitalism more than forty years ago and indeed was criticized by Fidel Castro for doing so. When under Deng, China similarly adopted capitalism and has economically thrived as a consequence. China now has more billionaires than the US.
Although there are many reasons to criticize the US – failure to modernize their Constitution being one (the right to bear sub-machine guns for example), Canada is fortunate in only having one neighbour, the longest undefended border in the world and no physical strife with that neighbour for two hundred years. Compare that with other countries.
Canadians tend to be a touch smug in claiming to be good guys, but Canada denied my Cuban wife a visitors visa five times and now will not issue such visas (TVRs) to Cubans at all!
As for beauty, if you wish to make a fair comparison, visit the world’s first international peace park which straddles the US/Canadian border, being Waterton National Park on the Canadian side and Glacier National Park on the US side.
One of the good things about the US Constitution is the limitation of two four year terms for Presidents. Fortunately that includes Donald J. Trump fairly described as a narcissistic bully.
Enjoy your visit to Cuba.
I am coming to Havana in less than a week. I am so sorry to hear about this situation that happening in Cuba with regards to the rations and how hard it is to obtain any food long lines and everything else. I love Cuba so much I’ve been already three times. First time was in 2010 with a bunch of friends for a week in varadero second time was in Havana for two weeks all by myself. Every time I come I always come with gifts for the Cuban people.
And for the list of communist countries the other user was wrong.
China
Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)
North Korea
Vietnam
Cuba
I am from Canada and I strongly dislike the country of United States of America I have limited all travel to USA after Donald Trump took over and I would rather enjoy my beautiful country compared going across the boarder.
Mary: US and their sanctions??? Are you aware those chickens being sold in Carlos III are from the US? Food and medicine has been excluded from any US trade restrictions for over 20 years. Living in the SE US, I can assure you the US has plenty of chickens to sell to Cuba. Now the Cuban government having money to pay for them is a different story.
So is happening in Honduras and other countries, they hop on beast to escape to America.
Why is this happening?
Thanks to the US and their sanctions. Against Venezuela and Cuba!
Cuba is the present monument to the total failure of a communist ideological form of goverment…..the last two remaining communist regimes….North Korea and Cuba.
After 60 years of failures not even the most basics service works. God chickens the easy bird to farm and reproduce . Nothing works in that island the only thing that works is the repression. It’s repulsive to read in the comments in here how some dated leftist defending the Castro!s regime.