Special Period

Special Period
*Periodo especial*
Special Period; Periodo especial
	Cuban citizens resorting to horse-drawn carriage for transportation (1994)
Country	Cuba
Period	1991–2000
Refugees	Around 30,000
Effect on demographics	Death rate among the elderly increased by 20% from 1982 to 1993; Nutrition fell from 3,052 calories per day in 1989 to 2,099 calories per day in 1993. Other reports indicate even lower figures, 1,863 calories per day.;
Consequences	Maleconazo protests and 1994 Cuban rafter crisis; Continuing United States embargo against Cuba; New economic regulations and rationing; Shift in agriculture to Organopónicos;

The Special Period (Spanish: Período especial), officially the Special Period in the Time of Peace (Período especial en tiempos de paz), was an extended period of economic crisis in Cuba that began in 1991 primarily due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Comecon. The economic depression of the Special Period was at its most severe in the early to mid-1990s. Things improved towards the end of the decade once Hugo Chávez's Venezuela emerged as Cuba's primary trading partner and diplomatic ally, and especially after the year 2000 once Cuba–Russia relations improved under the presidency of Vladimir Putin.

Privations during the Special Period included extreme reductions of rationed foods at state-subsidized prices, severe energy shortages, and the shrinking of an economy overdependent on Soviet imports. The period radically transformed Cuban society and the economy, as it necessitated the introduction of organic agriculture, decreased use of automobiles, and overhauled industry, health, and diet countrywide. People were forced to live without many goods and services that had been available since the beginning of the 20th century.

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