Cuban government postpones controversial gas-price hike after widespread criticism
The Cuban government has postponed a controversial gas-price hike that was set to go into effect Thursday and said it would host public discussions around the country about the austerity measures announced this year. It was the latest signal that the communist leadership has taken note of the widespread discontent that the measures have caused.
In a recorded video laden with bureaucratic jargon, Mildrey Granadillo, a vice minister of economy and planning, said on state television Wednesday that the price increases — which would mean regular gas would immediately be five times more expensive for Cubans — will be postponed until further notice. She cited a “cybersecurity incident” linked to a virus coming “from abroad” that has affected electronic sales systems as one of the reasons for the delay.
Granadillo said the decision was made with the goal that “the government’s projections to correct distortions and boost the economy in 2024 will only be implemented if the conditions are right.” But she insisted that what she called “price updates” will be “necessary to promote saving and contain demand.”
The decision also means the government will not immediately start selling gas in dollars, as it had announced. Previously, officials had said that 28 gas stations around the country would sell gasoline only in dollars through electronic payments and bank cards. A gallon of gasoline would cost $4.18, or $1.10 per liter, according to a price chart shown on state television. Average state salaries in Cuba are $15 a month.
Anyone with dollars could buy gas at those stations, the officials said, prompting fears that the government would prioritize supplying fuel to stations selling in foreign currency. Last year, gas shortages forced the few Cubans who own cars to wait hours to fill their tanks. The country’s gasstation network is controlled by CIMEX, one of the companies belonging to the business conglomerate GAESA, which is run by the Cuban military.
Facing intense criticism from the population after announcing cuts in subsidies and steep increases in the price of gasoline and services such as electricity amid a severe economic crisis, Cuban’s handpicked president, Miguel DíazCanel, said the government is not going to rush into implementing the measure until the “right conditions” have been created.
Economists warned the price increase would likely contribute to galloping inflation.
Díaz-Canel had been traveling around the country in January, officially, to check on government economic programs and interact with the public, according to the Communist Party newspaper Granma. But the tour was likely an opportunity to test the reactions to the proposed economic package.
“I know that in the opinion of the public there is a lot of concern with the measures,” Granma quoted Díaz-Canel telling people outside the Communist Party headquarters in Cruces, a town in the central province of Cienfuegos. He blamed “a smear campaign against the measures on the part of the enemy to create confusion and discouragement, especially on social media.”
Last Sunday, during the first Council of Ministers meeting this year, he announced an island-wide “political process” of consultations with members of the party, other political organizations, state workers, students and local communities.
The discussions, he said, will be an opportunity to explain the measures, which he insisted are “necessary,” and get public feedback.
“We can encounter groups, local party cells that do not understand, and we must explain it to them well,” he said.
He also said the public debates will be guided by a recent speech by Gen. Raúl Castro, the ultimate leader of the country, in which he urged government supporters to stay united.
Castro himself called in 2007 for a similar process that the government said it used to craft some of the liberalization measures implemented years later but brought little change in the short term.