1 | 21/12/2020 – 18:39 pm (GMT-4)
The opening this Monday of the first dollar store in Batabanó municipality, Mayabeque province, was met with skepticism and outrage by residents of the city in southern Cuba.
With a population of about 25,500, Batabanó has inaugurated one of the establishments that has caused the most controversy among Cubans in recent times.
According to Alejandro Gil Fernández, Minister of Economy and Planning, the municipality is already benefiting from a “revolutionary measure that pursues equality and justice”. But that is not the opinion of many Cubans, who are critical on social media.
“So good! Problem solved, and now more with the pay raise. Ah, yes, it’s in dollars and people don’t get paid or have where to buy them. So…? Isn’t the problem solved?” Facebook user ironically.
For her part, another internet user commented: “The problem I don’t understand is why the stock is always when they only open … Then an eagle crosses the sea … Absolutely neither in MLC nor any currency “Land never has to satisfy the customer. It has been more than proven. What a disrespect from this government, by God!”
While uncertainty and indignation increase among a population fearing 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 currencies.
The eagerness to collect foreign currency is reflected in the proliferation of shops, across the country, where only Cubans who receive dollars from abroad can buy, and who remain more sorted than branches in other currencies.
Last Wednesday, the Caribe retailer announced that it had opened the Minimax Caribe Sandino store in Villa Clara as part of the reorganization of its commercial network with the aim of better serving customers and expanding its product offering. .
Initially, Cuban authorities opened 72 branches in MLC with the aim of collecting foreign currency in light of the crisis the country is experiencing. At the time, they said the country would sell a certain amount of commodities in dollars and other foreign currencies to obtain foreign exchange and further expand those types of sales, but the truth is that there is still a large shortage in the stores in CUC .
Minister Gil Fernández recently assured that dollar stocks are a provisional measure: “It is a temporary measure, adapting to the current context and necessary but not desirable, fulfilling an objective adapted to the moment when the country,” he said.
However, the controversy that the opening of these stores has caused among Cubans is not minor as there are very few people who can access them. On social networks, many have been the ones demanding the closure of dollar stores in the country. Even the strikers of the San Isidro movement included it in their demands.
As an example of this discontent, the case of the jam 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 were crying because they couldn’t buy them went viral.
“It’s a disrespect. I myself, who have two little ones, have to buy the cookies for 6 CUC so they can take advantage of some of their innocence and youth. Disrespect is what they are! Before they had my respect at least Now. they only have my rejection of this miserable government! ”said one of the users before the news of the opening of the dollar store in Batabanó.
Mayabeque, a province of nearly 400 thousand inhabitants, so far had three stores in MLC spread across its territory: ‘La Polaca’ in Bejucal, the ‘Trasval’ outlet in Madruga and the Samurai shop. In addition, there is the electronics store Jaruco, in Güines, in the province, and the La Carolice sales point, also for electronics, in the same municipality.
“Our goal is that there are no shortages, but that is not a scenario that changes overnight,” acknowledged Ana María Ortega Tamayo, CEO of Tiendas Caribe when the first stores in MLC became operational in July.
These institutions have come to emphasize even more the great inequality that exists in the country, where the majority live near poverty and only those who can receive remittances are saved.