The Cuban government accused 30 people of stealing 133 tons of chicken and selling them on the streets, after an unusual robbery in times of food shortages in the country.
The thieves took the meat, in 1,660 white boxes, from a state facility in the capital Havana and used the proceeds from the sale to buy refrigerators, laptops, televisions and air conditioners, according to a broadcast on Cuban state TV on Friday night. -Friday (9).
The chicken was destined for the Cuban “ration book” system introduced after the late Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution to provide subsidized basic foods for all.
Rigoberto Mustelier, director of COPMAR, the government's food distributor, said the amount stolen was equivalent to a month's worth of chicken feed for a medium-sized province, according to current distribution rates.
The amount of chicken available through the ration book has fallen drastically in recent years as the economic crisis has brought shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
Many subsidized products reach the population days, weeks or even months later than scheduled, meaning that people who earn an average salary of 4,209 Cuban pesos per month (US$14 at the informal exchange rate) have to look for other ways to survive .
Authorities did not reveal when the chicken theft occurred, but noted that it likely occurred between midnight and 2 a.m. when they detected fluctuations in the cold storage facility's temperature. The security camera captured trucks transporting the chickens away from the site.
The 30 defendants include shift managers and IT employees at the factory, as well as security guards and outsiders not directly affiliated with the company, according to the TV report.
The suspects, if found guilty, could face up to 20 years in prison.
The crime rate has risen along with economic hardship since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, although reports of large-scale robberies like this are still a rarity on the Caribbean island.
Source: CNN Brasil
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