Multidisciplinary teams of inspectors are patrolling the markets and businesses of Camagüey as part of a price control operation that will last until September 15, according to Radio Cadena Agramonte and shared on Facebook Radio Camagüey. The stated goal is to curb the exorbitant prices of essential products such as oil, chicken, and ground meat, although the public receives the measure with deep skepticism.
Agramonte specified that "the goal is not to close businesses, but to regulate prices and ensure mandatory electronic payments, although violations have been detected in essential goods and resistance has been noted, such as closing doors in front of inspectors." This resistance is one of the most reported patterns: businesses that lower their shutters as soon as inspectors arrive and resume their practices as soon as they leave.
A netizen described it this way: "In Palomino, oil costs 3,600 pesos and up, of course, while inspections are ongoing they aren't available, and many MIPYMEs are closed until it's over; it’s always the same and nothing changes." Another pointed out that establishments on Cuba Street do not accept electronic payments or do so only up to 1,000 pesos: "it can't be a marathon; it has to be systematic and daily."
The background has a direct regulatory precedent. The Resolution 150/2026 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, signed by Minister Vladimir Regueiro Ale on June 20, eliminated price caps on retail sales of cut-up chicken, edible oils, powdered milk, pasta, and sausages. Since then, the price of oil has surged from about 1,500 pesos in April to over 4,000 pesos in August, with peaks reaching as high as 7,000 pesos in some areas.
This increase hits the most vulnerable particularly hard. Cadena Agramonte warned that "the population, especially retirees, faces a distressing reality: a single bottle of oil can cost more than the minimum wage." That minimum wage was set at 3,210 pesos per month last June. A citizen illustrated this with a concrete question: "Let's see if tomorrow the oil that will be offered to retirees at 2,150 pesos can be paid through a transfer."
Others point to the ineffectiveness of the sanctions if there are no long-term strategies: "The problem is not just issuing fines or confiscating," wrote a user. Similar operations in other provinces yielded equally questioned results: in Guantánamo, 29 fines totaling 198,360 pesos were imposed, and four businesses were closed due to recidivism; in Las Tunas, the operation accumulated over 4,000 inspections and 24 individuals were identified for price gouging.
The Camagüey inspectors themselves acknowledge that "prevention and economic awareness are necessary" and promise regular follow-ups. The public, however, does not hide its frustration: "Where are the results of the inspections if prices keep rising?"
And indeed —as specialists have pointed out— regulating or capping prices, a long-standing strategy of the regime to "put out the fires" of popular discontent, has proven to be an utterly ineffective measure as it does not address the underlying problem of increasing the production and availability of the necessary goods.
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