Month: August 2017

But you can ask any owner of these last century jalopies what they have had to invent to keep them rolling. Scarcities engender creativity. Thanks to the talents of the local mechanics, the Fords, Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Chryslers and other brands of 60 or 70 years ago today serve as taxis in the noisy, dirty and dilapidated Cuban capital, which, despite state neglect, resists losing its charm.

More than a few drivers have crafted nicknames for their vehicles. “I call my Ford ‘The UN,’ because it has pieces from at least fifteen countries,” says Sergio, the owner of the car he rents to Reinerio.

“I have two cars and a jeep that I rent as taxis. For the cars, with five seats, I charge 600 Cuban pesos daily from Monday to Saturday, Sunday is for the driver. If he wants to work that day, the profit is his. The jeep, with ten seats, I rent it for one thousand Cuban pesos a day. I only have three drivers, people I trust. They decide how many hours they want to work. The fuel is bought by them,” says Sergio.

Reiner checks the engine, fuel and oil before getting behind the wheel. The interior of the car is upholstered in black with white trim. Glued to the front windshield is an American flag and a plastic crucifix. When he arrives at the Calzada de Diez de Octubre, he begins to pick up passengers. It is time to turn on the audio equipment, almost always with an unbearable reggaeton at full volume.

“I try not to kill myself at work. There are good days and bad days. On average, driving twelve hours a day, I get 600 Cuban pesos of profit. But any botero (literally ’boatman’ as taxi drivers are called), be it the owner of the car or someone who rents it, knows that you have to have a reserve for when the car breaks down or you need to buy tires or spare parts. In my case, those expenses are split half-and-half half with Sergio, the owner,” says Reinerio.

Before becoming a private taxi driver, Reierio drove a ‘guagüita*’ in a state company. His monthly salary was 300 Cuban pesos (less than 14 dollars). “Today, with the money I earn, my family has breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as clothing and personal hygiene. Once a year I rent a week in an all-inclusive hotel in Varadero or one of the cayos. Do you think that’s a luxury? Compadre, that’s the most normal thing in the world in any country where you break your back working,” says Reinerio.

When asked about the new measures that the State intends to implement toward private taxi drivers in Havana, getting them to join transport cooperatives through the incentives of selling the fuel at subsidized prices and spare parts (if any) at a 20 percent discount, Reinerio responds angrily:

“Nine out of ten taxi drivers will not join a cooperative. Man, this government has never been good. This is a way to control you. They are afraid of us. The taxi drivers have been surveyed and most have put their foot down and we will continue to charge the rates we understand. I prefer to buy fuel in the CUPET (state network) and operate the routes and set the prices that I consider convenient. This idea of selling parts at a 20 percent discount is a bad joke. In foreign currency stores parts are sold at prices that are taxed at 300 percent, and unless it’s an emergency, taxi drivers buy the parts and tires from people who bring them from abroad and sell them much more cheaply than the state does.”

Private work has never been looked on favorably by the the Castro brothers’ autocracy. Economic independence, the possibility of saving money and not being affiliated with a union — which is more like a foreman than a union — transforms the man or woman who up to that moment has been obedient, indoctrinated and dependent on a state salary to eat, clothe and entertain themselves, into a free human being.

That autonomy is a worry to the olive -green regime. The majority of the 900 thousand Cubans who were able to be tourists in their own country and the more than 700 thousand who traveled abroad in 2016, and with their efforts paid for a cruise or a stay in Punta Cana, they are private workers.

Of course, it is a myth that they earn money hand over fist. Impossible, with huge taxes and the audits of the police court. But the more than 560 thousand self-employed perceive that they live better by depending on themselves.

Their salaries are triple the state salaries and they do not have to attend the tedious meetings of state workplaces to celebrate the 91st birthday of the late Fidel Castro or sign a pamphlet in support of the dictatorial Constituent Assembly convened by the insufferable Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

“Better that I never work for the State any more. If they want to remove the private taxis, they will have to take off the mask, and not try to make up more stories or camouflage mechanisms whose goal is to control us. The government always looks for a way to fuck us over,” says Reinerio, while maneuvering over the potholes in Calzada de Diez de Octubre.

The dozen taxi drivers consulted for Diario Las Americas suspect that the government intends to put them out of business using as a pretext the illegal purchase of parts and fuel from a state agency and for allegedly violating the rules of private employment, declaring income lower than what they receive.

“This government has not lasted 60 years on a whim. They have good memories and they haven’t forgotten the strike the taxi drivers wanted to hold and our not giving in to their demands,” says Reinerio.

Now, the drivers fear, the regime is coming for them.

Translator’s note: The word for bus in Cuba in guagua (of disputed origin); guagüita is a diminutive of that term.

Let’s call the owner Antonio, a man with a strong build and decades of experience in the precarious world of private sector employment. “In the 1970s,” he explains, “I was a manager at a state-owned restaurant. Later, I was in the handicraft ’business,’ selling leather sandals in Cathedral Square. After that, I was had a stall in a privately-run farmer’s market. Then, when self-employment became legal in 1993, I opened a cafe. I have lived long enough to know how the state works. They give you rope but, just at the right time, they grab the other end of it and you get screwed.”

For Antonio, Cuba is not a normal country. “Ideally, there would be a well-supplied wholesale market and taxes would be reasonable. But that’s not the case. ONAT (the National Office of Tax Administration) lets you sell beef, fish and shellfish. But where are people supposed to get it? The retail price of a kilogram of beef is 12 CUC and getting shrimp or lobster from a state-run establishment is impossible. A big portion of a private food service’s inventory is purchased under the table, usually from state-owned companies or tourist resorts. I don’t see anything wrong with them trying to get their house in order. But in order to set everything straight, the government first has to accept that, by not creating wholesale markets, it hasn’t met its obligations,” he says.

He pauses to give instructions to his employees: “Hey, this juice is watery. When you season the meat, don’t be stingy. Why is the rice and beans dish taking so long?” Drinking coffee from an aluminum mug, he continues:

“The problem is that these people (the regime) have lied so many times that when they presumably do tell the truth, they lack credibility. I don’t believe that this restructuring of self-employment is being done in good faith. As long as taxes are high, people who make more than 20,000 (Cuban) pesos a month (about $750 USD) will be subject to a 50% tax rate, businesses will keep two sets of books and income will be underreported. As as long as there is scarcity and food is hard to get, there will be schemes to get it. That’s not going to stop anybody. The government has never wanted people to make money. That’s why there are so many controls and restrictions,” he says.

The new measures, which temporarily put a halt to licenses for the most profitable private businesses, has set off alarm bells among the island’s private sector businesspeople. The decree was published in the Official Gazette on August 5 but passed on July 18 at the closing session of the National Assembly.

José, an architect who offers interior design services to owners of private businesses, believes, “The government has always treated private business owners as though they were criminal suspects. The Cuban state is programmed to direct and control its citizens’ lives, all the way from their salaries, recreation and housing to what they eat. Don’t forget that many of the bigwigs who launched the Revolutionary Offensive of 1968, closed private-sector farmers’ markets in the 1980s and decelerated self-employment in the 1990s, still govern the country. A guy with money is more likely to have his own opinions and not rely on the state to feed his family. In the end it boils down to an ideological conflict, especially when they hear American presidents expressing support for private business. They see us as Trojan horses who will strangle the socialist system.”

The economist Omar Everleny believes that the government should come up with a list of unauthorized jobs and should favor professionals who could also open businesses, which would add value to the private sector.

Diana, a former ONAT official, says, “It’s the government, with its inconsistent policies, that is encouraging rule bending and illegality. Their only concern is how to collect the most money while punishing those they think violate their precepts. They forget that in any social contract there are rights and responsibilities. They demand their rights but ignore their responsibilities.”

Carlos, a sociologist, believes, “Almost 60 years of revolutionary government have shown that, the more things are prohibited, the more the door opens to clandestine businesses. In 2011, they ordered the closure of 3D cinemas and private clothing stores. These businesses continue to operate but do so illegally. In fact, by the time the regime decided to legalize self-employment, some businesses had been operating illegally for years.”

Yosvany, a professor of political science, believes, “Cuba’s aging leaders carry intransigence in their DNA. If one segment of the population starts to make money, no matter how small that segment is, they see it as a threat to the power they’ve held since 1959. In China and Vietnam the communist party shrewdly allied themselves with entrepreneurs and the new rich. But in Cuba they view them as public enemies.”

Oscar, the owner of a rental property, says, “The government has exaggerated the success of private businesses. Of the 201 authorized jobs, they stopped issuing licenses to about twenty. But if these business are up and running, and their owners know how to manage well, they can make a profit. That’s not the case with button stampers, palm tree trimmers and other jobs where they make just enough to survive.”

The widespread perception among several private sector workers interviewed by Martí Noticias is that the new rules of the game as drafted by the government will halt the advancement of private initiative on the island.

The military dictatorship has never hidden its disdain for so-called cuentapropismo.* That is why it prohibits the accumulation of capital and resorts to decrees to hinder private enterprises from prospering.

If anyone did not understand this, it was because they refused to do so.

*Translator’s note: A term unique to Cuba that was coined by the government to avoid using a more generic and politically fraught term like self-employment.