The Carnaval de Santiago de Cuba, which officially kicked off this Thursday and will continue until Saturday, is one of the most important and anticipated popular festivals in the country. However, with beer priced at 240 pesos, pork snacks at 200 pesos, and pizza at 120 pesos, many will find themselves excluded from enjoying the so-called "Rumbón Mayor" due to the high prices.
A Santiago resident, who prefers to remain anonymous, told CiberCuba that with his professional salary (around 7,000 pesos), after buying some food, he is left with approximately 1,500 pesos at the end of the month, barely enough to enjoy a day of carnival.
"I've worked it out: my wife and I will go out for a day, have a couple of beers each, eat 'something', take a walk for a while, and then head home," said the person who works as an economist at a company.
The complainant sent a gallery of images showing that the price of beer ranges between 200 and 240 pesos, fried chicken costs 400 pesos, malt is priced at 300 pesos, and canned juices are around 250 pesos. Cheese pizzas are priced at 120 pesos, while the traditional snack with pork (bread with lechón) costs 200 pesos, although it was also noted that this last item can be found for 250 pesos.
The young man said that he took a stroll this Thursday along Céspedes Avenue, in the carnival area of Sueño, and found it normal that there was plenty of food and drink, particularly in both cases, but very few people were consuming them.
"In recent years, it has been this way: traditionally, there are more people celebrating at night; however, there have always been those consuming during the day. The truth is, we barely manage to survive, let alone think about eating or drinking. Of course, there are always some who can, but for those of us living on a salary, we only go out one day."
The Rumbón Mayor, regarded as the largest popular festival in Santiago de Cuba, is taking place this year amidst rampant inflation, with the city besieged by various diseases and constant blackouts that offer no respite.
However, for several years now, the local government has entrusted the sale of food and beverages to private entities, which impose prices that are far beyond the means of the average Cuban.
In 2023, the young Yasmani Castro Caballero criticized the prices at the Santiago de Cuba carnival on Facebook, where a pork snack was selling for a hundred pesos and a beer for 250; as if we were in Dubai, he ironized.
A pizza cost 80 pesos, Castro noted, admitting he felt excited while strolling down the bustling Céspedes Avenue, realizing there was everything one could find - just like in Marianao - until he encountered the prices and then thought he was walking through the wealthy emirate of Dubai.
"The Céspedes Avenue was empty compared to previous years. Most of the kiosks were privately owned, there was no uniformity in prices, and not far away were the state-run entities, whose products were not very affordable for the entire population," lamented another Cuban on social media.
Félix Font described the 2023 Santiago de Cuba carnival as "the worst in history" and criticized not only the high prices of food offerings but also the poor organization of the festivities.
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