Two Cuban women were detained in recent days by the police for the illegal sale of disposable diapers in Havana, according to reports on social networks.
The women were apprehended when they were selling the packages of diapers a 500 y 800 CUPnear the Línea y L store, in Vedado, where they had bought them, according to the information about the fact, disseminated in the profile of Facebook by Pedro Lizardo Garcés Escalona -president of the Rampa Popular Council-, and replicated by the local newspaper Havana Tribune.
“Unscrupulous mothers, accompanied by elements of dubious social conduct, using young children as a shield, even days old, have tried to monopolize and have succeeded on many occasions,” said the publication, which reported that children are used ” as a shield” before the police.
The event occurred after the distribution in that market of the populous Havana neighborhood of the culeros corresponding to the second and third stage.
The women were transferred to the Zapata and C police unit, in Vedado, and so far no further details have been provided about the incident.
Several mothers commented that due to the hoarding of diapers by people from other municipalities, they have not reached the product on many occasions.
“We are not against them coming from other municipalities, but sometimes you see the same faces at 23 and 6, Galerías Paseo and en Línea y L, and the mothers around us, some of them have found it impossible to buy because of this attitude they have taken some,” declared one.
Last year, the Cuban government included products in high demand such as disposable diapers and wet wipes in the list of regulated items for retail sale in stores in national currency (CUP).
As announced at the time, the measure sought avoid hoardingresale and speculation of basic necessities for mothers of young children.
In the midst of the current economic crisis, Cuban women suffer from a lack of diapers for their babies and must wait for them to be sold in state stores to stock up.
Many mothers have paid excessive prices for disposables in a context of water shortages and a lack of cleaning products that prevent the proper sanitation of cloth diapers.
In the stores where they are sold, the huge riots and chaos unleashed to reach the culeros has led the police to disperse mothers using pepper spray.
