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Three days before the fifth anniversary of the outbreak on July 11, 2021, the Commerce authorities of Santiago de Cuba announced this Wednesday the distribution of five pounds of rice donated by China, ten ounces of beans, ten ounces of peas, baby food, and the sale of one pound of chicken per person, as reported by the exiled Cuban social communicator in the United States, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada.
The question that immediately arises among the people of Santiago is the same one posed by Mayeta: "Why now?"
The coincidence between the distribution and the proximity of a politically explosive date for the regime fuels the perception that this is a maneuver for social control to alleviate unrest before the fifth anniversary of the largest anti-government protests in Cuba since 1959.
The rice being distributed does not come from domestic production, but from a Chinese donation.
China delivered a total of 90,000 tons of rice to Cuba in 2026, including an emergency package of 60,000 tons approved by Xi Jinping in January, from which a shipment of 15,000 tons arrived at the port of Santiago de Cuba.
That dependence on foreign sources contradicts decades of official proclamations about food self-sufficiency. As Mayeta points out, "there is no announcement of an increase in national production, but rather the distribution of a donation."
The distribution occurs amid an unprecedented food crisis.
The Cuban Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted on June 6, 2026 that, so far this year, no oil, chicken, or yogurt has been distributed through the official ration book, and that children in Havana have gone more than two months without receiving meat or ground beef.
The price of rice in the informal market exceeds 400 Cuban pesos per pound, while the average state salary is around 7,000 pesos per month. The Food Monitor Program estimates that 96.91% of the Cuban population lacks adequate access to food.
The food crisis is compounded by the energy crisis.
Santiago de Cuba recorded up to 20 hours per day without electricity in July 2026, as part of the third massive blackout nationwide of the year, with a generation deficit exceeding 2,100 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW. The scarcity of water and virtually non-existent transportation complete the picture.
In this context, the fifth anniversary of 11J arrives, with a significant number of political prisoners in Cuba and at least 338 people still serving sentences directly related to the protests of 2021, when Díaz-Canel declared, "the order to combat is given" and triggered a massive repression.
Mayeta warns that on July 11, 2021, "it did not occur solely due to a shortage of chicken or rice," but as a result of "a deep accumulation of economic, social, and political grievances."
For this reason, he concludes, "true stability is not built by distributing a pound of chicken on the eve of a symbolic date. It is built when the population can regularly access food, electricity, water, transportation, and opportunities to live with dignity, without relying on exceptional measures or donations from outside."
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