The last eight years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, have been a time of belt-tightening and suffering. But the consensus is that the problem is a national one, which all Cubans need to work on together to solve. His modest office is on the second floor of a crumbling mansion on Avenida Cinco. Carriazo himself is gracious and welcoming. We lost 85 per cent of our foreign trade with the breakdown of the Soviet Union,' he tells me.
Supplies vary regionally.
Meat is rare and in some areas comes only once or twice a year. The Americans were refusing to trade with us, we desperately needed stable economic relations and that's what the Soviets offered. With their huge market they could take everything we could produce. But it was not just an economic decision, it was a political, military and strategic decision too. When the Soviets pulled the plug the Cuban economy went into free fall.