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Food in Cuba - El oro rojo (Red Gold)


Food in Cuba - El oro rojo (Red Gold)
Food in Cuba - El oro rojo (Red Gold)

Most Cubans have not eaten beef regularly for years. It is not because they are vegetarians, far from it. Cubans are rather true carnivores. We will tell you why Cubans almost never eat beef.


Before the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the island had 6 million heads of cattle, while today it is estimated that there are just over 4 million, distributed among 6,390 state entities and cooperatives and 242,000 individual owners, according to figures reflected in the official press.


But these animals all de facto belong to the state, because even individual owners cannot slaughter livestock without permission.


In the early years of the revolution, the government attributed the nascent reduction in cattle numbers to the sabotage of its internal opponents. Livestock protection had become a national priority.


To prevent the extinction of this animal in the country, on May 17, 1962, a ban on the slaughter of livestock was announced. At that time, it was planned to save the wealth of our livestock in the hope of being able to produce much more meat in the future.

Since then, it has been forbidden to slaughter cows without the corresponding authorization from the government. Therefore, anyone who illegally trades, transports, buys or consumes this meat will incur a legal sanction, which can be fines or prison sentences.


Illegal sacrifice was declared a crime in 1979, in the first Penal Code of the Revolution. In 1987, that of horses was included.


During the economic crisis known as the Special Period, which began in the 1990s, the slaughter of large livestock was the most frequent crime in Cuban courts.


There was no food and the beef turned into a kind of red gold. The peasants came to tie the cows to the railway tracks or release them on the national road, because in this way the animal had officially died in an accident and they could profit from the meat.


The phenomenon created criminal networks that diversified into the black market and persist today.


The severity of penalties for the slaughter of large livestock was increased in 1999 with the amendment of Article 240.1 of the Penal Code, which is still in force.


This is broken down into four offences linked to the unauthorised slaughter of this type of livestock:

▪︎Anyone who sells, transports or processes meat from illegally slaughtered livestock will be punished by a deprivation of liberty of three to eight years.

▪︎Anyone who acquires meat from illegally slaughtered livestock may be sentenced to a term of deprivation of liberty of three months to one year or a fine of one hundred to three hundred pesos, or both. ▪︎Anyone who illegally supplies meat to food processing, production, trade or sales centers may be imprisoned for two to five years. ▪︎Anyone who, without informing the authorities, euthanizes a large livestock victim of an accident, may be fined from 100 to 300 pesos.

Yet the crime has thrived with impunity for decades, despite numerous campaigns to eradicate it.


On the island, there is still a network of slaughterers, butchers and vendors who make enough money selling beef, $3 to $4 per kilo, on the black market, since it is often the only option.


Since its inception, the old supply book gave Cubans a half-pound of beef every nine days.


Then the cycle lengthened to once every fortnight, then once a month, until it silently disappeared from the subsidized Cuban menu.

Only people with specific medical regimes are given meat from lean cows that can no longer produce milk and are then slaughtered.


Unfortunately, thousands of livestock also die every year due to poor government management of drought and general food shortages. This situation therefore has a very negative impact directly on dairy products, which we are also increasingly lacking.


Our country's beef also has the worst reputation in terms of quality. The meat sold is said to be extremely tough, sometimes even inedible. A simple grilled Cuban beef steak is therefore doomed to failure in advance.


It is always advisable then to put the piece of beef in a pressure cooker and make sure it is tender, then make wonders like Ropa Vieja or Vaca frita.


Recently, there has been an exponential growth in beef imports from countries such as Chile and Brazil, thanks to treaties and the approval of licenses with several companies in these countries.


However, this meat is mainly intended to supply hotels that welcome international tourists, leaving little quantity of this product in foreign currency collection stores (CUC or MLC).


On average, beef in these places costs $9 per kilo. Ground beef may be more affordable, but it is also understandably in high demand and rarely available then.


This is the other reason why beef is not consumed in Cuba, the shortage of the product and the high prices to access it.


Cubans jokingly call the refrigerated meat section of this chain of hard-currency stores the meat museum, where you look and don't touch.


As indeed, the possibility of finding a good piece of beef has culturally become a real luxury or privilege for a few.


And it is that in Cuba you can not always eat what you want, but rather what you find, much less beef, unless you meet a reliable neighbor who discreetly offers you a few metros de tela roja (meters of red fabric) that is to say a few tempting kilos of beef, which have popularly become the red gold of Cuba.


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