Letter to The New York Times

This letter was not accepted for publication:

Dear Editor:

 

I refer to the editorial Lift the Cuban Embargo, by THE EDITORIAL BOARD, published on December 12, 2013.

The system implemented by the Castros has been a failure for more than 50 years. And it is not the embargo; the infrastructure for agricultural and industrial production has been badly damaged. Rigid centralization is the main obstacle, not allowing the private sector to function as the economy engine, with the result that the production of rice, meat, milk and other food stuff is very low, forcing a dependence on imports, when there are vast extensions of fertile land idle or underutilized.

“Another unfavorable aspect which continues to affect the Cuban economy, according to the Agency of the UN for the region, is that the importation of food such as rice, soybean, raw materials, meat and milk powder, among others, did not diminish, and at the end of 2013, it will be around 2 billion dollars.”

Source; Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Rolando Cartaya, December 12, 2013.

Predictions of improvements in the future are wishful thinking, as they have been in the past.

In my opinion, in 2014, the earring economy will continue, always hanging from the economies of other peoples, mainly of what Maduro takes away from Venezuela’s resources. 

They will continue with the tall tale of the embargo, when the truth is that the nations that could sell them all they need don’t do it because the Cuban government can not be trusted. Everyone knows that they pay late, piecemeal or never.

Sincerely,

Gonzalo Fernández 

Note: "The gift of Maduro to Cuba in 2012 was 12 billion dollars; we are paying it with inflation, and will also pay it with higher gasoline price in the future," said Venezuelan Congresswoman Maria Corina Machado.