Page 12 - aruba-today-20221128

A12 technology
Monday 28 noveMber 2022
Cuba’s informal market finds new

space on growing internet

By MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) — In the
Telegram group chat, the
messages roll in like waves.
“I need liquid ibuprofen
and acetaminophen,
please,” wrote one user.
“It’s urgent, it’s for my
10-month-old baby.”
Others offer medicine
brought from outside of
Cuba, adding, “Write to
me in a direct message.”
Emoji-speckled lists of- A youth uses his smartphone as he and a friend walk along the
fer antibiotics, pregnancy Malecon seawall in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. Ever-
tests, vitamins, rash creams widening access to the internet is offering a new opportunity
and more. for Cubans looking for hard-to-obtain basic goods: online
The group message, which shopping.
includes 170,000 people, is (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
just one of many that have discuss the informal ex- countries, then reselling
flourished in recent years in change rate, which pro- them for a small profit on-
Cuba alongside an expo- vides more pesos per dol- line. Government authori-
nential increase in internet lar or euro than the official ties are harshly critical of
usage on the communist- bank rate. such “revendedores,” or
governed island. Meanwhile, Cuba’s ver- resellers, especially those
The informal sale of ev- sions of Craigslist — sites who buy products in Cu-
erything from eggs to car such as Revolico, the is- ban stores then sell them
parts – the country’s so- land’s first digital buying- at a higher price.
called black market – is a and-selling tool — advertise In late October, President
time-honored practice in everything from electric bi- Miguel Díaz-Canel called
crisis-stricken Cuba, where cycles brought in from oth- for a crackdown on the
access to the most basic er countries to “capitalist practice, referring to the
items such as milk, chicken, apartments” in Havana’s revendedores as “crimi-
medicine and cleaning wealthy districts. nals, swindlers, riffraff, the
products has always been Many products are sold in lazy and the corrupt.”
limited. The market is tech- pesos, but higher-priced But Leonardo said he and
nically illegal, but the ex- items are often listed in dol- others like him are just try-
tent of illegality, in official lars, with payments either ing to get by.
eyes, can vary by the sort handled in cash or through With the money he’s
of items sold and how they bank transfers outside the earned from his sales,
were obtained. country. Leonardo has been able
Before the internet, such While wealthier Cubans — to buy soap and food, as
exchanges took place or those with families send- well as antibiotics and vita-
“through your contacts, ing money from abroad mins for his elderly parents.
your neighbors, your local — can afford more lavish The rise of the new digital
community,” said Ricardo items, many basic items re- marketplaces speaks to a
Torres, a Cuban and eco- main unaffordable for peo- specific brand of creative
nomics fellow at American ple like Leonardo, a state- resilience that Cubans
University in Washington. employed engineer who have developed during
“But now, through the inter- asked that his real name decades of economic tur-
net, you get to reach out to not be used because he moil. Much of the crisis is a
an entire province.” fears retribution from the result of the U.S. govern-
With shortages and eco- government. ment’s six-decade trade
nomic turmoil at the worst Three months ago, Leon- embargo on the island, but
they’ve been in years, the ardo began buying items critics say it’s also due to
online marketplace “has such as inhalers, antibiot- government mismanage-
exploded,” Torres said. ics and rash creams from ment of the economy and
Bustling WhatsApp groups friends arriving from other reluctance to embrace
the private sector.
So people on the island
tend to be highly resource-
ful, working with what-
ever they have available
to them — think old cars
from the 1950s that still roll
through the streets, thanks
to mechanics using inge-
nuity and spare parts to
address a shortage of new
vehicles.q