🧵1/ Cuba’s hunger crisis started in 1959 when the Castro communist regime seized farms through Agrarian Reform. Land was confiscated, private agriculture dismantled, and food production centralized. Farmers no longer decided what to grow or sell. The regime did. When power controls food, food becomes control.
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In 1962 the dictatorship introduced the ration book system because shortages had already begun. That booklet limited how much basic food each person could buy. It stayed in use for decades and still exists in reduced form today. Scarcity was not temporary. It became the structure of survival.
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Children were affected early. For many years the system guaranteed milk only until about age 7. After that, access depended on connections or foreign currency. Nutrition was not based on need. It was based on status inside the system.
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Food laws were strict and punishable. Killing a cow without state permission could bring years in prison because livestock legally belonged to the state. Beef became one of the most restricted foods in the country. A farmer could raise cattle and still be jailed for eating it.
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Cubans were also restricted from producing or obtaining food on their own. Fishing was limited, private food sales were tightly controlled, and street vendors often had products confiscated. Many Cubans have witnessed police or military seizing food directly from sellers in markets or on sidewalks.
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The system extended beyond food. For years citizens were barred from entering tourist hotels or stores reserved for foreigners with hard currency. Two economies existed side by side. One had abundance. The other had ration lines.
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Today Cuba still imports roughly 70 to 80 percent of its food despite fertile land and a tropical climate. That dependence did not start recently. It is the long result of centralized control replacing private production. What happened in Cuba shows what happens when a communist dictatorship monopolizes food. Shortages become permanent and hunger becomes leverage.
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