The consequence was increasing strain in the Cuban economy as it sought to adjust itself to the new situation. This era of hardship was dubbed 'the Special Period', its particular features being:
• Cuban income dropped by nearly 50 per cent between 1989 and 1992.
• In that same period, Cuba's annual supply of oil from Russia dropped from 13 million tons to under 2 million.
• In a desperate bid to save energy, power supplies to homes and factories were cut and there was a return to horse-drawn vehicles and bicycles as the main means of transport.
Subsidiary companies
Businesses that operate separately in particular areas, often under a different name, but ultimately under the control of a parent company.
Marxism Relating to the ideas of Karl Marx, a German revolutionary, who had advanced the notion that human society developed historically as a continuous series of class struggles between those who possessed economic and political power and those who did not. He taught that the culmination of this dialectical process would be the crushing victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie.
Varela Project A Catholic organization calling for political and religious freedom in Cuba.
• The fuel shortage seriously handicapped the production of nickel, one of Cuba's main exports after sugar and tobacco; output fell from 47,000 tons to 29,000 between 1990 and 1994.
• Cuban commerce was further damaged by the USA's extension of its trade embargo to include US subsidiary companies operating in other countries.
• Strict rationing was introduced to cope with food shortages and people were discouraged from eating meat; locally grown rice, beans and fruit became the standard fare.
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