Cuba forced into rationing as US sanctions and Venezuela crisis bite
Source: Guardian
Commerce minister announces limits on purchases of staples such as chicken, eggs, rice, beans and soap
Fri 10 May 2019 22.06 EDT
The Cuban government has announced that it is launching widespread rationing of chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap and other basic products in the face of a grave economic crisis.
Betsy Díaz Velázquez, the commerce minister, told the state-run Cuban News Agency that various forms of rationing would be employed in order to deal with shortages of staple foods. She blamed the hardening of the US trade embargo by the Trump administration.
Economists give equal or greater blame to a plunge in aid from Venezuela, where the collapse of the state-run oil company has led to a nearly two-thirds cut in shipments of subsidised fuel that Cuba used for power and to earn hard currency on the open market.
“We’re calling for calm,” Díaz said, adding that Cubans should feel reassured that at least cooking oil would be in ample supply. “It’s not a product that will be absent from the market in any way.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/11/cuba-forced-into-rationing-as-us-sanctions-and-venezuela-crisis-bite
= new reply since forum marked as read
t-rump need to keep monies for himself and steal majority of the USA's money, then lose it.
Cuba will be ok. Venezuela, no, and they have not been for many years. Putin told t-rump to leave them alone.
sad.
....the opposition?
Moved fwd the election? Check
The original electoral date was scheduled for December 2018 but was subsequently pulled ahead to 22 April before being pushed back to 20 May.
Disqualified or arrested the opposition? Check
The majority of popular leaders of the MUD and other members of the opposition could not apply for the elections because of administrative and legal procedures and were disqualified from participating in the presidential elections by the government.
Vote buying? Check
Reports of vote buying were also prevalent during the presidential campaigning. Venezuelans suffering from hunger were pressured to vote for Maduro, with the government bribing potential supporters with food. Maduro promised rewards for citizens who scanned their Carnet de la Patria at the voting booth, which would allow the government to monitor the political party of their citizens and whether or not they had voted.
Creepy Carnet de la Patria? Check
A digital ID based on China's Social Credit System. The card allows the government to monitor citizen behavior such as voting history.
Medical care and voter fraud? Check
Mission Barrio Adentro was a program established by Chávez to bring medical care to poor neighborhoods; it was staffed by Cubans that were sent to Venezuela in exchange for petroleum. The New York Times interviewed sixteen Cuban medical professionals in 2019 who had worked for Barrio Adentro prior to the election; all sixteen revealed that they were required to participate in voting fraud. Some of the Cubans said that "command centers" for elections were placed near clinics to facilitate "dispatching doctors to pressure residents". Some tactics reported by the Cubans were unrelated to their profession: they were given counterfeit cards to vote even though they were not eligible voters, they witnessed vote tampering when officials opening ballot boxes and destroyed ballots, and they were told to instruct easily manipulated elderly patients in how to vote.
Bad conduct? Check
The electoral conduct has been described as being fraudulent, with the call for an election by the pro-government Constituent National Assembly being declared unconstitutional in the first place, especially when the body moved the election date ahead from December to April. The National Electoral Council (CNE), which is charged with overseeing elections in Venezuela, is also controlled by Maduro sympathizers. The Venezuelan government has also been accused of excluding opposition candidates, handpicking candidates, voter intimidation, vote buying, and offering food to those who vote for President Maduro. No recognized electoral observers were reported to be present for the elections.
International condemnation? Check
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein noted that his office had concerns that reports of extrajudicial killings cast doubts on fairness, stating "this context does not in any way fulfill minimal conditions for free and credible elections".
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a document stating that the process did not meet international standards, that the CNE electoral body was biased and that the "hurried announcement ... has seriously affected the warranty of the universal vote for the new voters and Venezuelans abroad", concluding that the election would not meet "the minimal conditions needed for the realization of free, fair and reliable elections in Venezuela".
The governments of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, the United States and Uruguay directly criticized the electoral process in various ways, condemning the disqualification and imprisonment of MUD individuals, the lack of advanced notice for the election date and the bias of electoral bodies, describing such actions by the Venezuelan government antidemocratic. Remaining member governments representing countries from the Lima Group, including Brazil, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, and Saint Lucia, denounced the elections in a joint statement through declarations made by the organization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Venezuelan_presidential_election
