Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990 TAG: 9004110627
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOHN M. McCLINTOCK THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: HAVANA LENGTH: Long
Five darkly clad men - known in the neighborhood as "the bank robbers" - scaled the single-story structure and broke through the roof.
Once inside the building, which housed a market, they quickly gathered their valuable loot: Coffee, meat, vegetables and bags of flour.
"If there is going to be another revolution in this country, it's not going to be over democracy or Castro but a chicken breast," whispered a 48-year-old housewife, standing outside the same market Friday.
The woman was among 75 people who had waited 2 1/2 hours at the market in hopes of buying a piece of meat.
While President Fidel Castro has been railing against the U.S.-sponsored TV Marti's attempts to beam television shows to Havana, his 31-year-old revolution is facing a much deeper threat, that of an increasingly outraged population unable to get enough to eat or buy.
Moreover, as Castro noted in recent speeches, the lot of the consumer is going to get worse, not better, as Marxist-Leninist Cuba confronts the capitalist conversions of Eastern bloc trading partners, principally East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania.
"I can foresee a social explosion," a diplomat from an Eastern bloc country said. "Castro is out of touch with what is going on. People are tired of the `revolution.' They want decent food and VCRs."
Indeed, he said, TV Marti and the threat of a Panama-style U.S. invasion were being used by the regime "to create a warlike atmosphere" that calls for sacrifice and increasing state surveillance of a grumbling population.
Fortunately for Castro, he said, TV Marti came along at the right time. "It was easily jammed and it permitted him to say, with justification, that Bush is forcing us to take defensive measures and you the people will have to suffer more."
Even so, the level of discontent is rising. People who were unwilling to speak to foreigners last year are now openly complaining about their hardships, a practice that could get them arrested.
Most still hold Castro in high regard for ridding the country of a corrupt U.S.-backed dictator and generally improving the lot of the people.
"I blame mismanagement," a young professional whose father is a Communist Party official said. "If Fidel knew what was going on, he'd straighten it out. When it takes hours just to buy beans or when there is no meat or bread, we don't blame the U.S. We blame the bureaucrats."
He also criticized obvious divisions between those in the ruling elite and the rest of the population.
"The other day, I saw a well-fed general in a fancy car kissing his girlfriend," he said. "How much is he sacrificing?"
Top military officers and many other members of the 70,000-man Communist Party have access to special stores stocked with goods unavailable in the regular markets.
Government officials admit there are chronic shortages but contend that Cuba's average calorie intake is that of a developed country. Most protein is from fish, milk, eggs, cheese and beans.
"It may not be the most appetizing diet, but it is a healthy one," said Dr. Eugenio Balari, president of the Cuban Institute of Study and Orientation of the Internal Demand, a state think tank that advises the government.
Still, Balari said, the government has embarked on an "urgent" plan to increase food production in the next three to five years, particularly of pork, poultry, beef, milk and cereals.
However, the plan does not include other consumer goods, he said.
Balari said the government had built the prototype of a small car - the Montuno - but the plastic-body vehicle would not be for sale to the public. Private ownership of new cars is limited to specific job categories. The only cars available to the public are 1950s American cars.
"We have different aims in our society," said Jose Fernandez, a non-voting member of the ruling Politburo and the chief military commander during the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
"You go to any other Latin country and you will see starving children. You will see beggars, disease and illiteracy. Here we have conquered those things, despite being a small island, despite being blockaded by our powerful neighbor to the north.
"Cuba is not going to be another Romania. We may not be perfect, but we are not out of touch with our people."
Although Fernandez stresses a lack of starvation, Cubans are clearly not happy with the food supply. In the past year, the government has started stationing armed policemen at the markets.
The lines of increasingly angry customers are infiltrated by government spies or members of the local Committee in Defense of the Revolution, neighborhood watch groups that keep an eye out for deviant behavior.
Reporters attempting to talk with customers suddenly found themselves questioned by a middle-aged man asking what they were doing.
"We have plenty to eat here," said one such man, who identified himself as Armando Galicia del Toro. "If it wasn't for the American blockade, we would have a lot more."
As he approached, the 50 people waiting in line appeared to freeze. Later, reporters were refused entrance to the market.
"You have to understand that we are now rationed to the point of absurdity," a 53-year-old professional man said.
"For example, each person is allowed 12 ounces of meat every 12 days. Many days you wait hours in the line only to discover they are out of meat. When I went the other day, there was one egg."
Another person recalled seeing an elderly woman robbed of her valuable meat purchase as she walked out the door of a market.
"This guy belted her in the chops and ran off with the meat," the witness said.
A 48-year-old meat manager at a government market on the outskirts of Havana said he had been waiting for his pork order for several days.
"There is virtually no beef available, and most of the poultry I have seen is imported," said the manager, who would not identify himself.
"I spend most of my time cleaning the empty refrigerated meat cases. This is not a job for a serious man. I fear the worst. I don't know how much longer the people can take it. They are like robots, or their eyes are filled with hatred."
by CNB