Many Private Merchants Close Amid Cuba Government Offensive

Inspectors confiscate the merchandise or fine sellers who do not put price labels on their products.

By Mercedes Garcia (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – With December came a new wave of persecutions of self-employed sellers throughout Cuba. The so-called “national exercise against crime and illegalities,” which the official press defends as “necessary” and “timely,” has not only put in check the self-employed, who have had to close their shops or pay fines, but also the families of the Island, who at the end of the year have run out of places to buy food.

“This week I went out to buy some items to repair my burner and some oil-based paint, but I had to go around the city a lot because all the private shops for these items were closed,” Roberto, a resident of Sancti Spíritus, tells 14ymedio. “The few vendors I was able to talk to told me that there’s a state offensive going on against the private sector. Apparently, there are many inspectors visiting the private businesses one by one.”

According to Roberto, the witch hunt has already fined several owners, many of them for “nonsense.” “They gave a saleswoman a 5,000-peso fine because the wind had blown off a price tag, and it was on the ground. Another, whose product did not show the price anywhere, was fined 80,000 pesos,” he says.

After giving up buying the tools he needed, Roberto decided to go to the place where he usually buys oil-based paint. “I arrived, and the saleswoman, who knows me, opened her eyes wide and pointed to three inspectors who were in the store. One was looking at the list to see if the prices were right and two others were verifying that the QR codes to pay were functional. She made signs that she had paint but couldn’t sell it,” he explains.

He wasn’t doing well in the search for food either. “I went to the Kilo 12 market and the stalls were also closed. Some people there told me that a cart had stopped with bags of coal at 1,100 pesos, and the authorities had confiscated all the merchandise,” says Roberto, who adds: “All the other stalls closed out of fear.”

Stories like these continue to circulate on the streets of the city, Roberto admits. “They also told me that a man who was selling a pot of chili for 70 pesos was fined 7,000 pesos because it is not the agreed price for that product. There are even some inspectors from Havana who have been brought in for this control exercise.”

Frustrated with the impossibility of finding what he was looking for, Roberto decided to try his luck for the last time before returning home empty-handed. “I finally found some cucumbers in a place that, at first glance, seemed to be closed. All the people were scattered throughout the street and when someone arrived he would discreetly ask who was the last in line. They kept going in one by one,” he said.

Roberto recognizes that food prices are high, but doubts that a “wave of fines left and right” is the solution. On the contrary, he reflects, the authorities are pushing sellers into smuggling when they also depend on the prices demanded by their suppliers. “As a result, almost everyone has closed because they are afraid of being fined. They say that until the wave of inspectors passes, they will not reopen.”

The case of Sancti Spíritus has been repeated throughout the country since the control began last Monday. According to images released on social networks, in a market in Santiago de Cuba, inspectors confiscated the products of some sellers, which provoked complaints from other self-employed and customers. “They are struggling and have small children,” someone is heard screaming in the recording while some police officers and others in civilian clothes grapple with the sellers who try to prevent them from confiscating a wheelbarrow.

The government of Havana has also left on its social networks the traces of the inspection of forklift drivers and small vendors. “In the tour of the Palatine Council, the marketing of agricultural products with no visible price is detected,” warns the publication, which announces a fine of 5,000 pesos for the infraction and another 2,000 for “not presenting commercial authorization.”

In Camagüey, an article published this Thursday by the official press says that this December the control is carried out with greater emphasis because “confronting abusive prices” is a State priority. According to the data published by Adelante, in November 3,402 inspections were carried out that resulted in 2,783 fines totalling more than 8 million pesos. “These coordinated actions were implemented last July with an amount that exceeds 39 million, including November,” the newspaper concludes.

Despite the obvious discontent of the self-employed and the customers, who have suddenly seen the shops where they usually buy closed, the Government has defended the measure, which will last until Saturday, December 7. “It is a comprehensive exercise, with participation and popular control, which strengthens the unity of our people and is oriented above all to confront manifestations of corruption,” Miguel Díaz-Canel said last Monday, when he gave the starting point to the army of inspectors.

However, the president acknowledged that the problems identified by the “exercise” cannot be “confronted in one day, in two, in a week, in a certain time,” something evident if we take into account that the Regime has launched similar offensives in past months – the last of them this summer – without result

This December, Cubans will once again desist from the holidays, the roasted piglet and the traditional family reunion at the end of the year. Instead, they will have the concern of looking for what to eat if, due to state “control,” “the platforms are stripped.”

Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.

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