According to the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter seven, Verse 16) Jesus of Nazareth, dismayed by the influence of false prophets on many unsuspecting people, eager for certainties and simple solutions, warned them that "by their fruits you will know them" in reference to those "who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
To judge, one must go beyond words so that only actions weigh on the balance of justice. Moreover, one's verdict must hinge on the final result of the actions, the fruit, without focusing on their purposes; because, as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux stated: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."
"Good" intentions such as Castroism's, which is always willing, supposedly, to alleviate the inflation that is plaguing the island, but with as much fury as the ten plagues that destroyed Egypt.
A few months ago a worked-up Díaz-Canel, with that cheap and empty bravado so common in cowards, told the Council of Ministers that inflation "cannot be allowed" in Cuba, and that "the Revolution was not carried out for that."
Much more recently, Minister of Finance and Prices Vladimir Regueiro referred to inflation and the deficit as "important challenges for the national economy" and priorities of his administration.
As far back as 2021, the former Economy Minister Alejandro Gil said of inflation that "fighting it is the most important task of the Cuban Government for next year." And he spoke, as the entire Government continues to do today, of "progress in the process of macroeconomic stabilization, the restoration of the role of the Cuban peso as the center of the financial system, and the rational setting of the prices of products and services, especially those most sensitive for the population."
Language like this, full of good intentions and apparent concern about the inflation problem, fill the ICRT and Granma newspaper archives, because, although diabolical, the Castroists are not fools; they know that the inflation that they continue to sadistically spread to keep their system alive is a curse that spreads war, hunger, plague and death - the four horsemen of the Apocalypse - in this impious nation that worshipped the false prophet of the Sierra Maestra.
But beyond that thick toxic slime with which they try - and sometimes manage - to win the sympathies of an increasingly skeptical populations, the Government's actions are clear as far as inflation is concerned:
- They raise taxes when economic activity is almost non-existent.
- They decrease "subsidies" (a direct delivery system) just when food is most expensive and scarcest.
- They withdraw tax incentives for the creation of MSMEs, although there are ridiculously few of them.
- They stubbornly insist on monopolizing foreign trade, causing bottlenecks that make imports more expensive.
- They raise the wages of some workers at the cost of driving those of the rest down.
- They increase public spending by printing huge amounts of money.
- The raise prices for basic goods and services in consumption and production.
- They keep the peso overvalued by promoting imports.
- They invest little, and badly, in sectors unrelated domestic consumption.
Although there has been a lot of hot air about how important and urgent ending inflation is, the reality is that they haven't taken a single measure really aimed at lowering prices' Contrary to what their "good" intentions express, each of their economic policies has been one more brick on the road to the inflationary hell they are subjecting us to.
We should judge Castroism based on the 40% inflation rate during 2023 (if we believe the official statistics), or the more than 1,000% accumulated inflation since the Ordering Task began (if we follow more serious calculations), not on its supposed intentions. And far less should a dictatorship be measured by the same yardstick as elected governments. The incentives of an elected government impel it to serve the people, while the incentives of a dictatorship impel it to control the people; sometimes, even through hunger and impoverishment.
Inconceivably, however, there are still gullible people, and/or malicious and useful fools out there who, despite the abundant evidence right in front of them, continue to imagine that ending inflation is a priority, or even a goal, of the demons emerging from the abysses of the Communist Party of Cuba. They do not understand those who think that Castroism is not interested in what is best for the people, but only in what is most expedient to stay in power and profit off it. Whoever has any doubts, let him look at their works; by their fruits you will know them.