Cuba’s National Television News (NTV), a Communist Party-controlled broadcast, claimed in a report that “neo-liberal” countries such as the United States and Spain are suffering severe food shortages and engaging in forced labor at meat processing facilities, prompting outrage and a social media challenge from those abroad.
As the outlet CiberCuba noted on Monday, Cubans residing in the countries the report mentioned began flooding social media outlets with photos of well-stocked supermarkets and their full residential refrigerators to combat the misinformation the Cuban government disseminated.
The NTV report in question focused on the high demand at food banks in the two countries, omitting the fact that the food banks actually had enough food to distribute to those waiting on the long lines in question. The report appeared to blur the line between food banks and supermarkets, as Cuban markets tend to resemble food banks more than a traditional American supermarket. For decades, Cubans on the island have been forced to spend hours on food lines, waiting to use their ration cards to purchase small amounts of food that is often sub-par, expired, or barely edible.
In contrast to this reality, Cuban government reporter Irma Shelton told her audience, “In countries where the great corporations are privatized, the situation is grave. In those nations, there are also long lines of people seeking food.”
“The lines, or queues as they say in other countries, at the doors of community kitchens, the requests for food help … the skyrocketing demand at food banks in the last week: this is the visible reality of the economic horizon” of Spain and the United States, Shelton claimed, to an anchor who declared, “In the United States, millions of people are struggling through a difficult situation… the interminable car lines at food delivery places.”
Shelton made the claim that, because many food banks are doing drive-through food pickup to minimize contact and abide by social distancing regulations, “There is not just a divide between rich and poor, but between those who have a car and can get on the interminable food lines, and others who do not even have that possibility.” In Cuba, car ownership is significantly less common than in the United States, as Cuba does not manufacture cars nor has it allowed mass importing for decades, resulting in most cars on the island being worn-down models from before the communist revolution.
The report also omitted that many food banks in America are doing deliveries of basic food goods, meaning the drive-through is not the exclusive form of access for the needy.
Another part of the segment blared a chyron reading “FORCED TO WORK” alongside the allegation that meat processing plants in the United States are enslaving people to keep supply chains flowing. Shelton also hints at potential racism in this forced labor, claiming that “in Texas, the majority of meat processing employees are Latino.”
“Where neo-liberalism rules, you have to work even if you are sick,” the anchor of the news program declared.
Despite being a report attempting to depict widespread hunger in America, video footage from the United States showed food bank employees pushing supermarket shopping carts full of fresh ingredients. The report did not make the allegation that the food banks are struggling to obtain food, only that they are seeing extremely high demand due to the nearly nationwide ban on small businesses in America.
The report appeared to be discussing warnings from America’s largest meat processors that shortages may soon occur due to problems in the supply chain, caused by the ban on small businesses and growing numbers of Chinese coronavirus cases.
“In small communities around the country where we employ over 100,000 hard-working men and women, we’re being forced to shutter our doors. This means one thing – the food supply chain is vulnerable,” the chairman of Tyson Foods, John Tyson, said last month. The Cuban news report appeared to portray warnings of potential shortages as actual shortages, however, omitting that America still produces enough meat to fuel soaring exports of meat to China.
Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue predicted that potential issues with meat supply chains would result in a week to ten days.
Multiple reports in Cuban exile media note that the communist misinformation report was largely met with scorn online. Some reported that their relatives on the island called them, panicked, that they may not have access to food in the United States or Spain. In response, some have started the Irma Challenge, which consists of posting photos of plentiful food at supermarkets or in refrigerators at home.
Cuban exile news outlets have also highlighted the dire state of markets and communist distribution programs in Cuba.
“On the island, the only available meat is sausages, ground beef, and chicken, and to attain them Cubans have to get on long lines as early as midnight, face brawls, and the danger of infection [of coronavirus] in the crowds,” the Spain-based Diario de Cuba noted. The outlet added that, by the communist regime’s admission, over 261,000 people on the island did not have access to government-rationed chicken.
Diario de Cuba and Cubanet, an online outlet that publishes dissident journalists, have posted various videos of the crowds on food lines in Cuba. While some wear thin, non-medical sanitary masks, many do not, and few follow social distancing protocol. Tensions and uncertainty about food have led to disputes and even fistfights on these ration lines.
Diario de Cuba also exposed the sad state of food care packages for the elderly, which the regime claims to distribute to those over the age of 65. Featuring carrots and various root vegetables, the packs appear muddy, featuring vegetables covered in mold and clearly inedible. The newspaper indicated that the vegetables probably rotted in their plastic bags while left outside for hours as local Party cadres attempted to organize distribution.
At press time, Cuba has documented 1,783 cases of Chinese coronavirus and 77 deaths. The Castro regime initially responded to global lockdowns by advertising tourism on the island, inviting those whose vacations were canceled elsewhere to come to Cuba. In schools, the Party demanded families send their children to school with soap and water, both of which the island has suffered chronic shortages of for years. After a nationwide public uproar, Cuba slowly began promoting social distancing measures.
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