Cuban Government Clamps Down on “Illegal” Collective Taxis
Planted in key points of the city, the inspectors seek to identify the drivers who transport passengers without a permit.
By Juan Diego Rodríguez (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – In Havana, a game of hide-and-seek between private taxi drivers and inspectors has been unleashed in recent days. The former, for the most part without permission to transport passengers, flee from the authorities using all kinds of tricks. If they are stopped and don’t have a license or taxi signage, the fine can amount to 12,000 pesos; or even, in the worst case, their license plate can be taken away.
Interviewed by 14ymedio, Rolando, the driver of a 1950s US car that operates as a collective taxi in the capital, says he is nervous despite the fact that he has his papers in order. “It’s incredible the number of inspectors and police officers there are, planted in any corner, waiting for an unfortunate person to pass without permission,” he says.
According to the 56-year-old Habanero, the routes that the boteros [taxi drivers] take to travel from La Víbora or La Palma to El Vedado have been among the most monitored this week, and the drivers, “who are not fools,” have been more careful. “On the corner of the Habana Libre, at 23 and L, where the taxi stand is located and where cars leave for La Víbora, the drivers are letting off passengers but not picking them up. The inspectors are hidden where they turn, on 23rd Street,” explains Rolando. The same thing happens, he says, at the other end of the route, at the Plaza Roja.
This is just one of the tricks that the boteros use to mock the authorities. “The other day I took a car to go to El Vedado that had only one free seat. As soon as I got on, the driver turned off the avenue and began to go through the back streets where no one was around. At first I thought, as sometimes happens, that the driver was running an errand, but he rejoined the route at Infanta and San Lázaro. Then I realized that he was running away from the police,” says Liudmila, a frequent passenger on this route.
“It seems that they are going after the boteros without papers, because something similar happened to my aunt on Tuesday. She was in a taxi when an officer stopped the car and began to question the driver, who said that everyone there was a relative. My aunt had a good scare, because they didn’t know what to answer, but they did know the name of the driver, who had told them beforehand precisely in case they stopped him,” she says.
Both Rolando and Liudmila agree that in recent years “many private cars have appeared that function as clandestine taxis.” According to Rolando, the poor condition of state transport, in a city as populated as Havana, gives the botero a very profitable business. “Diesel, which is what the buses use, is scarce and very expensive. Gasoline, on the other hand, is easier to get. I myself have gone around looking for it, and I always know what places are open and what time I have to go so I don’t have to wait in line,” he explains.
“As they know they don’t have much competition,” Liudmila reflects, “the drivers have raised prices, and to go from one municipality to another can cost from 2,000 or 2,500 to 3,000 pesos. It’s abusive, but if you don’t have your own car, you have to ride with them,” she complains.
Rolando also doesn’t like the boteros without papers being able to do the same job as him without having to pay taxes. “If they don’t do the paperwork, they earn more, because they don’t have to leave a slice for taxes or licenses. That’s why many prefer to operate like this, for free,” he says. However, he does not think the authorities “should be so hard on the taxi drivers,” because everyone is “trying to make a living in a country without fuel or resources to repair the cars. In the end they should be helping us rather than putting obstacles in our way, because we are the ones who are keeping people moving,” he emphasizes.
This is not the first time that the Havana authorities have begun raids against the boteros. In the summer of 2023, the provincial government tried to cap the prices of the routes, to which the taxi drivers responded discreetly but effectively: they stopped transporting passengers.
On the other hand, the increase in vigilance is in line with the war waged by the regime against private businesses and self employed workers, whom it blames for inflation and, consequently, for much of the ongoing economic crisis. This same Tuesday, in Sancti Spíritus, the authorities dismantled – with a huge provincial operation – several private stalls in front of the Camilo Cienfuegos provincial hospital. According to the sellers’ posts on social networks, the premises had been authorized by the government.
This came one day after the Official Gazette published a whole battery of new laws on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that increase tax control over them. According to government figures, the tax evasion of private businesses amounts to some 50 billion pesos (around $156 million USD) per year.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.