14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, 11 December 2023 — It’s Monday and, on the streets of Havana, no one is talking about anything but rice. An article in Cubadebate, a digital state-run news platform, announced that 25,000 tons (more than half a million fifty-kilogram bags) had been offloaded at the Guillermón Moncada port in Santiago de Cuba. The news was met with predictable eagerness despite the fact that Cubadebate reported the rice will not be available in stores for another two weeks.
Cuban broadcaster Canal Caribe also provided images of the delivery. It reported that distribution of the cargo, which will first be shipped to the five eastern provinces, “is also guaranteed for the rest of the country.” The label printed on the bags indicates the rice originated in Uruguay, from where the Eco Bushfire — a cargo ship registered in the Marshall Islands — set sail as 14ymedio was able to confirm through maritime geolocation logs.
With nearly half the month of December gone, many of the country’s bodegas (ration stores) have yet to receive their regular deliveries of rice, a basic staple of the Cuban diet.
Some of those that did manage to get it, like establishments in Havana’s Nuevo Vedado district, were open for business on Sunday, an indication of the level of consumer desperation. Of the list of rationed goods to which Cubans are theoretically entitled, rice is the most in-demand product. Delivery delays hav
