Private Businesses: The Necessary Evil for Cuba’s Leaders

By Francisco Acevedo

HAVANA TIMES – Talking about private companies in Cuba was a taboo subject for decades because it was diametrically opposed to the essence of communism, where the State regulated everything and could satisfy the needs of the population.

Not even the Soviet Union with all its natural resources truly achieved that, but on this side of the world, we lived subsidized by them, who preferred to have a little less for their people in order to maintain a red bastion in the face of the United States.

The fall of the Socialist Bloc changed everything, and when Cuba had to start fending for itself, it became evident that this economic system was not viable.

Nevertheless, it took decades for the appearance of private businesses, the current Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), to be tolerated, thanks to which the country stays afloat, and I dare say even postpones a social explosion.

Yes, because for months now, the Government of our dear Miguel Diaz-Canel hasn’t been selling a package of chicken to the population in the so-called modules that are distributed monthly, and they keep coming more and more reduced.

If originally, they included floorcloths, razors, deodorant, and soap, they have recently been reduced to a small package of sausages, two tubes of mincemeat, a bottle of oil, and two packets of detergent, and in some months, some of these products have also been missing.

How does the Cuban population survive? By paying for the chicken imported by the MSMEs at very high prices because apparently, the last vestige of shame left to the Communist Party of Cuba is selling at a big markup.

As I have said on other occasions, the majority of MSMEs are simple resellers, who mainly buy in the United States at low prices and then stick it to the average Cuban, who now without the protection given by the State have no choice but to shell out large sums to get something to eat.

Note that I don’t say eat well, just eat, because on the street, a package of chicken costs 1500 pesos, which is almost a third of the current average salary in Cuba, but it’s barely enough for a small family to have two meals. That is, spending their entire salary only on this product doesn’t go beyond eight meals when in a month there should be 60 meals.

Don’t try to do the math because in this country, mathematics has never been an exact science when it comes to food.

The truth is that thanks to these businesses, Cubans have chicken because they also manage to bypass the blockade of the United States, by apparently not being part of the repressive apparatus, but let no one forget that the taxes they pay go into the pockets of the regime.

For a dictatorship to remain in power, it is very important to associate with local economic power, and in that, the Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega is a clear example because unlike his counterparts in Cuba and Venezuela, he did not expropriate companies but absorbed them.

With the experience of his predecessors (in this second assault on power), he realized that it made no sense to arrive in a Nicaragua already capitalist, unlike his first presidential term in the 1980s, with the mistaken procedure of confronting local businesspeople.

If Venezuela, which had a solid economy (let’s not even talk about Cuba), is unable to guarantee the basics to the majority of its population, it made no sense to take on the responsibility of producing bread or planning internal transportation because it was clear that it is impossible to accomplish such in a dictatorship.

That’s why it’s considered the smartest move to merge with economic power and actors with business skills. The strong hand of the Nicaraguan leader is not so much for the ruling class unless there is a frontal confrontation with his discourse, something that the business sector is not very interested in either, more focused on making their profits and maintaining certain freedom to carry out their contracts.

In the case of Cuba, MSMEs also take great care not to get into trouble with the Ministry of the Interior, the Armed Forces, or State Security, and they play with the chain, but never with the monkey.

This reality shows that in some way, it is the blockade itself that keeps the dictatorship afloat, although its stated objective is completely the opposite, because, as has been said for many years, it is the greatest justification for all their botched policies.

This week it was officially said that powdered milk was guaranteed only for children up to two years old. If it had been only up to seven years old, it was outrageous; if now they are incapable of guaranteeing even that, I don’t know where we are headed. This is an item that MSMEs do not boost as much as chicken; I suppose it’s because of prices because there is everything in the US market.

With depressed cattle production, the blame lies with the cows, which cannot supply fresh milk to the Cuban population, and only three provinces can meet their projections, as acknowledged by the authorities on the National Television News.

The next minute it was said that the goal is to demand more from producers, who are always the weak link in the chain. The blame is on the cows or the farmers, not on those who should guarantee the transportation of milk from one place to another (because they self-appropriated that right), and since there is little fuel, they cannot assume the distribution or organize their own inventories.

What does it matter to a mother that there is a great effort to solve this problem that we have been dragging for decades, in which experts were never lacking, but milk was.

The true MSME should be the one that ensures that milk reaches the child from the cow, but it is easier to resell imported powdered milk than to deal with all the daily obstacles and problems of this convoluted system.

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