Teño ganas de escrivirvos a miña crónica, pero fáltanme a ocasión e, sobre todo, o espírito. O tempo pasa, a segunda cita achégase e eu sigo sen ter claro que tal nos foi na primeira. Quizais se trate diso, de non formarse opinión ningunha, de vivir as cousas como chegan, sen pensalas, sen pasalas pola peneira das experiencias alleas, sen o sabido sabido?

Conditions in Fidel Castro's Cuba were not always as bad as this, although people have been subject to food rationing ever since the US economic embargo was imposed in 1962. What really caused Cubans' living standards to plummet was the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, which had bankrolled the country's inefficient economy as a means of irritating Washington. Since 2000, subsidised Soviet oil has been replaced by subsidised Venezuelan oil, as Havana looks to Hugo Chavez to prop up its tottering economy. China, too, has been providing support in the form of trade credits, technology and investment capital. This change in Cuba's fortunes soon led the regime to reassert its economic supremacy. In 2004, US dollar transactions were banned and a 10% tax imposed on dollar-peso conversions. As for the self-employed Cubans who run restaurants in their homes ("paladares") or rent out rooms to tourists, their numbers have fallen dramatically.

Máis
Na BBC
En Juventud Rebelde e Granma
En El País e El Mundo
En Público
No Globo (16.01.08)