14ymedio, Madrid, 7 December 2023 — Cubans themselves have disdained the news of the resolution that came into force this Tuesday regarding the ration book with a devastating argument. “With all due respect, for what they give for the book, more is spent on paper and ink on cancellations and breakdowns,” reacts a reader of Tribuna de La Habana .
The news addresses only the reduction of the time that citizens can spend abroad without unsubscribing from the system. Until now, and since 2021, Cubans who left the country for at least three months had to go to the Consumer Registry Office (Oficoda) to communicate their new situation. Starting this Tuesday, with the rule going into effect immediately, it will be enough to spend two months outside the country to be withdrawn from the system.
The resolution, published in the Extraordinary Gazette of December 5, establishes the system to sign up in the registry, its rules and exceptions, but the only change in real terms is this. Meanwhile, due to the diminished supply of rationed goods that are sold through the document — which has controlled the registration system for the rationing in force on the Island since 1962 — there has been little interest in the change. Most of the reactions that have occurred – for now only on social networks and in the press – have more to do with the poor functioning of the system and its poverty.
“Just because I have traveled does not mean that my family is millionaires nor that I return to my country with a wallet full of euros. Everything is super expensive and I have no resources”
“Something is not working correctly,” explains a 70-year-old retiree in a detailed comment. The 70-year-old woman left the island to visit her grandchildren for five months, after five years without seeing them, “a trip which was made with a lot of sacrifice on the part of my daughter,” she explains. In compliance with the norm, this Havana woman registered before leaving the country and returned to her Office on her return to register again, but was told that she had to spend three months taking advantage of the “pilo
