Cuba prices 30 over large hen heist | EUROtoday

The newest headlines from our reporters throughout the US despatched straight to your inbox every weekday

Your briefing on the newest headlines from throughout the US

Cuba has charged 30 folks for stealing 133 tonnes of hen and promoting them on the road.

Thieves took the meat, in 1,660 white containers, from a state facility within the capital Havana, and used the sale proceeds to purchase fridges, laptops, televisions and air conditioners, in accordance with a Cuban state TV broadcast.

The crime is a uncommon main heist at a time of meals shortages within the communist-run nation.

The hen had been earmarked for Cuba`s “rationbook” system launched after the late Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution to supply backed staples for all.

Rigoberto Mustelier, director of presidency meals distributor COPMAR, mentioned the amount stolen was the equal of a month`s ration of hen for a medium-sized province at present distribution charges.

The quantity of hen obtainable by way of the rationbook has fallen sharply lately as financial disaster has introduced scarcities of meals, gasoline and medicines.

Many backed merchandise attain the populace days, weeks and even months later than scheduled, leaving individuals who make a median wage of 4,209 pesos a month ($14 on the casual alternate fee) to hunt different methods to make ends meet.

Authorities didn’t say when the hen theft happened, however famous it doubtless occurred between midnight and a couple of am after they detected fluctuations within the temperature of the chilly storage facility.

Video surveillance captured vehicles transporting the hen off website.

The 30 charged included shift bosses and IT staff on the plant, in addition to safety guards and outsiders indirectly affiliated with the corporate, the TV report mentioned.

The suspects, if discovered responsible, might face as many as 20 years in jail.

Crime has elevated alongside financial hardship for the reason that finish of the COVID-19 pandemic, although stories of huge scale thefts like this one are nonetheless a rarity on the Caribbean island.

The thefts come after excessive climate battered the area.

An unusually sturdy chilly entrance slammed Cuba‘s north coast on Tuesday, with white-capped waves flooding streets with seawater, causing scattered power outages and littering the capital Havana with blowing trash and downed branches.

Gusts soared to 62 mph (100 km/h) in western parts of the island as squalls and strong winds advanced south from Florida, which saw similar conditions earlier this week.

Havana residents hunkered down overnight as lights flickered on and off but slowly emerged onto the streets Tuesday morning bundled in jackets and hats as temperatures plunged to as low as 55 F (12 Celsius), unusually chilly for Cuba.

At dawn, the water flowed through some city streets like coastal rivers, moving jellyfish, seaweed and flotsam several blocks landward.

“This really is something new … we’re not used to this sort of chilly,” mentioned Havana resident Jaqueline Dalardes as she strolled alongside town’s Malecon esplanade. “The climate has changed.”