Daughter of Trofin Creator Criticizes Díaz-Canel: "Living in Cuba Today Is a Luxury, Surviving Is Increasingly Difficult"

Elizabeth González Aznar, the daughter of the creator of the anti-anemic supplement Trofin, has publicly addressed President Miguel Díaz-Canel, highlighting the severe economic and social crisis gripping Cuba. Through a social media post, she underscored the alarming rise in food prices and the lack of basic necessities such as food and medicine.

“Mr. President, allow me to inform you about the current food prices in Cuba: a bag of 7 loaves of bread at 200 CUP, a 1kg bag of rice at 750 CUP, 1 liter of oil at 1,000 CUP, beans between 350-400 CUP per pound, a 1kg bag of sugar at 700 CUP, tomatoes at 50 CUP per pound, chicken at 350 CUP per pound, ground beef at 300 CUP per pound, and eggs at 100 CUP each,” she wrote. González sarcastically noted, “And everything is just crazy. Meanwhile, the basic basket remains in an invisible state,” denouncing the ongoing inconsistencies in food sales via the ration book.

She also criticized the lack of response from authorities, stating that she has sent complaints to the government of Havana, the Ministry of Domestic Trade (MINCIN), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), and the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) without receiving any solutions.

González detailed her family's struggle to make ends meet: “In my house, there are four of us: two adults, an elderly person, and a middle school child. My father and son have lunch and dinner at home; we, the adults, eat when we can. That means 1 pound of rice daily at 300 CUP per pound. How much is that per month? Between 9000 and 10000 CUP. From where, Mr. President? And that’s just rice, which we know isn’t the only necessity. Feeding ourselves is not optional; it’s a basic need and increasingly hard to achieve.”

She further addressed the issue of medicine access: “My father has hypertension and my son is asthmatic. Their medications are not available in pharmacies, or at least we can’t get them because it’s impossible. So, we have to buy them on the street. From where?” she asked, pointing to the exorbitant prices of medicines in the informal market, practically the only way to obtain drugs in Cuba today.

The energy crisis was also part of her message: “Now there's no gas again, and power outages are frequent. How does a working Cuban cook when they get home?”

The scientist’s daughter concluded with a plea for real explanations and solutions from the authorities: “The rhetoric can’t remain futuristic, and even less triumphalist, no. To reach tomorrow, we need to survive today. How? Could you or any official appear on the Round Table program and explain to us, not the causes of this disaster, because we know them, but how we are going to keep surviving? We need it. Our survival resources are depleting.”

Her post echoes the sentiments of many Cubans facing increasingly challenging days in a country where, according to her, "living is a luxury, and surviving is more difficult by the day."

González recently reignited the debate over inequality in Cuba after the INDER awarded cars to athletes loyal to the regime, while key figures in science and health remain overlooked. In a Facebook post, González highlighted the plight of her father, Dr. Raúl González Hernández, a 79-year-old Cuban scientist and creator of Trofin, a supplement used in the country for over three decades.

On another occasion, González revealed that her father has been forced to beg for medication for his family, and despite the seriousness of her allegations, she expressed no fear of reprisal, believing that institutional indifference towards him has been evident since his retirement.