New report reveals deplorable state of social rights in Cuba: repression, food and health crisis

The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) denounced this Monday “The great fiction” that, according to him, the Government orchestrated around the social gains induced by the revolution, through a last report in which the health and food crisis is singled out as the two main problems which the population had to face.

“For a long time, it was established that Cubans had to live without political rights because they had a series of social rights which allowed them a decent life. Life has shown us that we have neither political freedoms nor social rights ”, OCDH Executive Director Alejandro González Raga said.

The paradox, he pointed out, is that “A third of the Cuban population lives at the expense of remittances sent by Cubans who fled this social paradise. This illustrates the great fiction that Cuba is a paradise for social rights “González Raga underlined this during the presentation in Madrid of the latest OCDH report on the state of social rights on the island.

According to the study, 60% of Cubans surveyed consider that the food crisis is the biggest of their problems, followed by the health situation, with 59%, while 29% believe that these are the economic consequences caused by the policies of the Ministry of the Economy.

The report “reflects the failure of the Cuban regime in the field of social rights”, underlined the director of strategy of the OCDH, Yaxys Cires. “This has not only failed politically and economically, but also to guarantee Cubans a minimum of subsistence or a decent standard of living”, he said.

The embargo would not appear until eleven o’clock on the list of problems and it is among the elderly that it is most seen to be the cause of the shortage and the worsening of fundamental rights , such as access to running water, electricity and the health system.

From the OCDH, they pointed to the peculiarities of the Cuban system as the main responsible for the “failure”, as well as the management of government officials. “Most of the cabinet members should have resigned, what they did was further impoverish and make the situation of Cubans even more difficult,” Cires said.

A structural problem, he explained, since “people cannot develop in an economy where entrepreneurship and economic freedom prevail”, in which “an excessive, broad and paternalistic state, which has arguably left very little room for private initiative ”; and management, which represent the task of controlling and “ineffective” measures against the coronavirus.

THE FIGURES

One of the questions asked of the 1,141 people who took part in the survey carried out between June and July of this year concerned working conditions in the tourism sector, with 55% of Cubans believe that there is “discrimination of some kind”, while 72% cite “political ideas” as the main reason for these distinctions.

70% think that hiring in this sector should be done directly between the company and the worker, 56% agree that the state should not keep a percentage of their salary, while 54% consider that there is more political and ideological control in this sector.

In this sense, 57% Among those who participated in the study, denounce that despite being members of the single union, they are not defended in the best way against labor injustices.

In contrast, 71% of families live on less than $ 3.8 a day. In an average household in Cuba, three members, each of them survives on less than $ 1.28 a day, putting millions of Cubans below the poverty line, by World Bank standards.

40% say they have difficulty buying basic products and seven in ten Cubans suffer from a “severe or moderate economic crisis” at home. 80% have suffered power cuts in the past three months and 82% say they do not have a permanent drinking water service.

73% of those questioned think that the adult population and the elderly would be those who would experience the worst during this latest crisis; followed by those who receive remittances from abroad, 55% consider it so; the unemployed, 51%; and those who are self-employed, 22%.

SITUATION OF DETAINEES DURING THE DEMONSTRATIONS

Cires argued that the recent protests last July in various parts of the island put an end to the “propaganda idea that Cuba is a paradise of social rights”, as it occupied a prominent place in those claims. who came to demonstrate. . .

“While it is true that there was a strong political demand among the demonstrators, who called for freedoms, they clearly called for a change of regime, also the demand for social rights, the denunciation of hunger, low income, power cuts, ”counted Cires. .

“The Cuban regime is a regime which impoverishes, but also which represses”, said Cires, who recalled the situation of some prominent opponents such as José Daniel Ferrer, who “is still in prison at the moment”, after being arrested again last month for joining the protests.

In the case of the recent arrest of Cuban activist and leader of the opposition group Dames en Blanc, Berta Soler, González Raga has indicated in statements to Europa Press that she is part of the government’s strategy of “repression” against the opposition.

“They detained her, took her to a detention center and then took her home. It is a recurring behavior of the government, they always try to intimidate, to restrict, to attract attention, to threaten, it is part of the government’s repression program, ”he said.

González Raga also underlined the “alarming” situation faced by protesters in Cuban prisons, “peaceful citizens”, who without having yet been “sanctioned” are locked up with common law prisoners, who often serve sentences for blood crimes “

“There is an unknown number of people, it is a fact that we do not know for sure what number it is, arrested, and we do not know exactly how many will be punished, but we do. We know that the government is pushing for groups of these people to go abroad and in fact some have left. “, denounced.

“It’s worrying, there are very young boys who are currently in prison with common criminals, people with blood crimes, they have mixed them up, people who have not even been punished. “, explained González Raga, who also criticized the” severe “punishments, up to twelve years in prison, incurred by inmates during the protests.

The full report:

(with EP information)

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