One of the most efficient
tools that the Castro regime
has to control the local
population is the 'Libreta de Racionamiento'
(Ration Book).
Without it, Cubans cannot buy any food or toiletries for
them and their families.
Each time that Castro wants to assemble 1,000,000
Cubans to march for whatever stupid reason
he has in mind at the time, and to hear his never ending speeches, Cubans are told to report to their place of employment, or schools if they are students.
Cubans are reminded that if they are not at the agreed
point of assembly to be picked up and transported
to wherever the 'maximum leader' wants them to be,
they will lose their job and also their Ration Card.
Without it, Cubans cannot legally buy any food for their
families and will have to risk jail by buying food in the
black market, or live from whatever their neighbors
can afford to give them, from their own meager ratios.
This is the infamous internal embargo that Castro has maintained since the beginning of his regime.
Even when the USSR was dumping billions of dollars
annually in Cuba, the internal embargo was kept in place.
If the United States lifts its embargo, Castro
will keep the internal embargo against the Cuban people in place.
Without it, his regime cannot subsist.
Castro knows that when people have to get up at 4 AM to get in line for hours to buy food for their children, they don't have the
time or the mind to plan a meaningful opposition to his regime.
But the Ration Card is only one of the many tools of terror and control that Castro uses to maintain the Cuban people enslaved.
He also has at his disposal: The 'Brigades of fast Response' -
That are called into action to hit people with chains and
batons if they try to protest. The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) - neighborhood groups on every block that
spy on their neighbors keeping track of who goes in and out of every house.
And Revolutionary ' Laws' created by Castro to make
sure that no one can question his judgment or authority, also, as
if that was not enough, Castro has the second largest army of this
Hemisphere to make sure that Cubans are kept in check.