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FEATUREFriday 2 February 2018
Castro freezes Cuban private sector, throws future in doubt
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ A worker calculates the day’s sales at a private souvenir shop in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Jan. country where the average
Associated Press salary still hovers around
HAVANA (AP) — Two years 31, 2018. $25 a month.
after taking office, Presi- A first sign of trouble came
dent Raul Castro widened Associated Press in July, when Castro told
the niche for private enter- the National Assembly
prise in Cuba’s state-dom- “We’ve already been this years and growth last year said they and relatives who that “crimes have been
inated economy. Capital- committed.” “There’s in-
ism came pouring in. way several times before,” was 1.6 percent, meaning backed them from over- formation on cases where
Slowly at first, then gain- the same person has two,
ing speed, spare rooms for economist and Commu- the economy has remained seas were canceling plans three, four, even five res-
rent became rental homes, taurants. And not in one
which became boutique nist Party member Esteban essentially flat for two years. to invest in new or expand- province, but in several.
hotels. Backyard cafes be- Someone who’s traveled
came elegant restaurants Morales wrote on his blog U.S. tourism, a bright spot, ed businesses. In 2010, the more than 30 times to dif-
and bustling nightclubs, ferent countries,” Castro
backed with millions in cap- last week. “Many of us think is dropping in the wake of Cuban government began said. “Where did he get the
ital from the prosperous Cu- money? How did he make
ban diaspora in Miami, Lat- that these measures aren’t new U.S. restrictions. allowing 201 types of self- it?” Castro told assembly
in America and Spain. Eng- members that self-employ-
lish tutors started citywide just to organize private en- The number of self-em- employment, from child’s ment would remain part of
private after-school pro- the economic picture, but
grams. And the booming terprise better, as they’ve ployed Cubans has grown party clown to real-estate “there’s been a heavy dose
private economy reached of superficiality and an ex-
into the Communist-led said, but to restrict it. Self- from 157,000 in 2010, the agent. It started issuing li- cess of enthusiasm and
bureaucracy — paying off desire to advance faster
inspectors, buying stolen employment generates year of Castro’s reforms, to censes for other categories than we’re really capable
state goods and recruiting of.” A month later, licenses
talented employees with jobs that the state can’t. 567,000 at the start of last — like restaurant and bed- were frozen. Over the fall,
salaries dwarfing those in about six successful private
the public sector. That’s something that year, roughly 12 percent of and-breakfast — that were restaurants were closed
Eight years later, on the after police raids. No infor-
verge of leaving office, hasn’t been taken advan- the workforce. approved by Castro’s pre- mation has been released
Castro has thrown the about the seizures but such
brakes on private enter- tage of before, and would “Self-employed workers decessor and brother Fidel operations typically occur
prise in Cuba again, warn- in cases where officials sus-
ing of the rapid pace of be very smart to do.” aren’t asking for neoliberal- during Cuba’s post-Soviet pect serious crimes like drug
change and criminal activ- use, money laundering and
ity. The decision has raised The freeze has led to a ism or political change, just crisis in the 1990s, then fro- large-scale buying of sto-
fundamental questions len goods. The government
about the nation’s eco- slowdown in private invest- that they let us work,” said zen again for years. has also gone on the offen-
nomic path.The Cuban sive against pervasive tax
government proclaimed ment in Cuba at a time of Camilo Condis, a 32-year- Some categories of self- evasion, pressuring foreign-
in August that it was put- owned employers to report
ting a temporary halt on economic fragility and un- old industrial engineer who employment became ve- their Cuban employees’
new licenses for bed-and- incomes, and conducting
breakfasts, restaurants and certainty. The flow of sub- rents out an apartment hicles for small businesses government assessments
other businesses until it of taxes on property sales
could issue new regulations sidized oil from Venezuela and has a license to work in with dozens of employees. instead of depending on
to control illegality. Entre- buyers and sellers to report
preneurs whispered about is dropping as its economy a restaurant. Their owners’ conspicuous prices, a notorious source
new regulations coming in of tax evasion.
a month, maybe two. But collapses. In 2016 Cuba Entrepreneurs interviewed consumption became a Vice President Marino Mu-
summer stretched into fall, rillo, the man who oversees
fall into the new year, and had its first recession in 20 by The Associated Press source of social tension in a Cuba’s economic reforms,
six months later, Cuba’s told the assembly in De-
private economy remains A private manicurist, who is part of a cooperative, services a client in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, cember that Cubans would
frozen. The state-run econ- Jan. 31, 2018. no longer be able to hold
omy responsible for 70 per- more than one self-em-
cent to 80 percent of GDP Associated Press ployment license, mean-
is stagnant. A once-prom- ing Condis, for example,
ising worker-owned coop- could no longer rent out
erative sector has shown an apartment and work in
little recent growth. Cu- a restaurant. “There’s great
bans are increasingly won- uncertainly,” economist
dering when the private Omar Everleny Perez said.
economy will be allowed “They announced that
to grow again, and, more there’d be a new law, but
broadly, how their govern- it hasn’t come out and no
ment intends to deliver on one dares to start a new
promises of a sustainable, enterprise without knowing
prosperous socialist system. what it will say.”q
