Cuban Blames Food Shortages on End of Soviet Aid, U.S. Pressures

Cuba’s top diplomat in the United States said Tuesday that his nation is suffering food shortages because the Soviet Union can no longer provide aid, and he accused Washington of blocking loans that would enable Havana to buy food elsewhere.

In his first news conference since his arrival here four years ago, Jose Antonio Arbesu, chief of the Cuban interests section, said his government’s relations with Moscow remain “good” despite open criticism by Soviet officials of Cuba’s adherence to orthodox Marxist economic theory.

Arbesu said he could not specify the exact reduction in Soviet aid to Fidel Castro’s government. Before the Soviet Union’s own economic problems restricted the flow, the assistance over the last decade averaged an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion annually.

“There are many, many things they can’t send us,” Arbesu said. “And there are things we have sold them that they can’t send ships for. Discussions about solutions are under way.”

He said U.S. economic pressure has prevented Cuba from obtaining credits that would let it buy food from others to replace Soviet supplies. As part of an economic embargo imposed 30 years ago, Washington routinely bars loans to Cuba by multinational banks and exerts its influence to prevent individual governments from extending credit to Castro’s government. Cuba long ago became ineligible for commercial loans because of its inability to pay past debts.

The news conference, held in the old Cuban embassy that now houses the interests section, was called in response to recent congressional questioning of the safety of a Soviet-designed nuclear power plant under construction on Cuba’s southern coast.

Arbesu rejected as “purely political” testimony before a House subcommittee that the plant is being built in violation of Soviet safety standards. Vladimir Cervera Cruz, a Soviet-educated nuclear safety engineer who recently defected, has said the facility has “so many deficiencies it would be impossible to correct them.”

A State Department official told the subcommittee June 5 that the agency would attempt to arrange a tour of the facility by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official who inspected the plant in 1989. But Arbesu said the Bush Administration has made no request for a new visit to the plant, scheduled to begin operating in 1993.

Arbesu said Cuba is willing to improve its relations with the United States, which severed official ties in 1961, if the economic embargo is lifted first. “We can’t buy an aspirin here, and we can’t sell anything to you,” he said.

He took issue with Bush’s recent offer to upgrade relations, if Cuba permitted free elections and released political prisoners. “There’s a lot of misinformation,” he said. “In Cuba, there are elections.”