Official journalist explodes: What can a retiree buy today for 1,528 pesos?

The Cuban journalist Jesus Alvarez Lopez, radio reporter with 40 years of service in official media such as the Villa Clara network CMHW, exploded this Tuesday with the constant rise in prices experienced by products in Cuba, especially those coming from the countryside.

In a plea for state price control and in defense of “the humble,” the radio reporter used his social networks to give vent to the discomfort that runs through the vast majority of a population who see that their salaries and pensions are not even enough to satisfy their most basic needs for food, transportation or personal hygiene.

“What can a retiree buy today for 1,528 pesos, if even cassava, sweet potato, pumpkin and flour were stripped of their historical humility?”, Álvarez López asked himself in an extensive reflection on prices and salaries in Cuba.

His meditation, which arose in the heat of the protests of a farmer who considered his words on the radio criticizing the high prices of agricultural products unfair, condensed the population's concerns about inflation and the loss of purchasing power of Cuban workers and pensioners. .

“The current disorder encourages them to continue rising,” said the journalist, who described it as “embarrassing” the prices of other foods that do not come from the countryside, such as “bread, pizzas or soft drinks.”

In a veiled criticism of the decentralization policies promoted by the Cuban regime, which seeks to transfer its responsibilities for the well-being of the population to local entities, Álvarez López criticized the initiative of some municipal administration councils to raise the prices of products, which, according to him, causes a contagion effect on other producers and authorities.

“These prices are no more justified when they are approved unanimously, but when you go deeper at the foot of the furrow with real expenses and not always listening to those interested in raising it and never to lower-income consumers who no longer know what to do to be able to feed themselves,” he noted.

In that sense, he also criticized local governments that “price capping as a routine act because no one finds out which ones were approved, they are not adequately disclosed, nor does anyone make an effort to enforce them.”

“People perceive that there is too much talk and little action when she feels deprived every day and many times she cannot find a scale to check the weight of the purchased product or an inspector to transmit the complaint, but respect for consumer rights cannot be just a will, but an obligation because it is enshrined in our legislation,” stated the communicator.

Faced with the unstoppable increase in prices, Álvarez López ended up questioning the government's speech and ability to Miguel Diaz-Canel for put a stop to inflation and increase food production.

“The harsh reality is that every day the wrecks jump and no one puts the brakes on. The call to produce more is false when oil does not even appear to break the earth in time, and softness prevents enforcement of the price cap, which is established by those who produce and not those who speculate,” the official journalist said.

Affected like ordinary Cubans, there are many pro-government journalists who are beginning to break the ranks discipline imposed by the Cuban Communist Party, the only legal one and to whose ideological department the regime's pro-government media are subordinated.

The “correction of distortions” announced by the Díaz-Canel government It continues to float in the regime's propaganda atmosphere, without touching land or translating into a coherent and efficient economic policy.

Neither does the call to exercise a strong hand from the prime minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and his crusade against “laundering” It has proven to be a policy born of economic analysis, nor equipped with appropriate tools to put an end to the corruption that prevails from the Palace to the last redoubt of the so-called “revolutionary power.”

“Fidelity to our historical legacy means defending the humble, and eternal coexistence with these problems that the overwhelmed people have not stopped denouncing for even a single day, links apathy with complicity. "It is time to act with intelligence and energy," concluded the journalist who, on previous occasions, had already been challenged with his criticism of the bread shortage and of combustible.