How Cuba’s sugar industry has been ground into dust
Al JazeeraAmid tough US sanctions, fewer than two dozen of the nation’s sugar refineries were operational this season. Cienfuegos, Cuba – “Without sugar, there’s no country,” the old Cuban saying goes. But “this is the first year that Cuba doesn’t plan to export more sugar than it consumes”. Economic tailspin Eusebio Leal, the late historian of Havana, once said that after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, “the first imperialist attack against Cuba was to eliminate the sugar quota”. In the last six years alone, sugar production has fallen from more than 1.5 million tonnes a year to less than half a million tonnes, amid tougher sanctions on Cuba imposed by the administration of former US President Donald Trump and kept in place by current President Joe Biden.
History of this topic
Havana stirs to life without tourists and amid scarcity
Al JazeeraDiscover Related
)
