English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
A pound of sugar sells for up to 500 pesos in private stores 14ymedio, Havana, 11 October 2024 — Sugar is once again scarce in Cuba. Its distribution in the rationed market has delays of months and has not reached all the provinces. A small amount can be obtained in private stores for up to … Continue reading “The Sugar Crisis in Cuba: Hard To Find, Expensive and Puts ‘MSMEs’ out of Business”
Authorities investigate state-owned companies that pay “millions” to the private sector 14ymedio, Havana, 8 August 2024 — The leaders of Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, aspire to become the elite squad in the government’s crusade against MSMEs. President Miguel Díaz-Canel had asked, during a session in Parliament last month, to liquidate the “excessive payments from the state … Continue reading “In Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, the Order To Combat ‘MSMEs’ Has Been Given”
Diplomarket is suspected of being closed, like others, for tax evasion 14ymedio, Madrid, 10 July 2024 — The Cuban State does not know how much money it fails to receive due to tax evasion, although only until June it had already identified more than 162 million pesos, which, without a doubt, falls short. This Wednesday, the … Continue reading “Cuban Tax Authorities Close 15 ‘MSMEs’ and Punish 323 Self-employed Workers for ‘Irregularities””
The Municipal Assembly proposes forcing companies to lower their prices for their “essential” imported products 14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, May 22, 2024 –Bleeding MSMEs [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises], the only entities on the Island that remain afloat in the unstable Cuban economy, seems to be the new plan of the city of Holguín to … Continue reading “Holguín, Cuba, Increases Tax Pressure on ‘MSMEs’ and Threatens Other Measures”
EFE/14ymedio, Havana, January 23, 2024 — The owners of the MSMEs (micro, small and medium sized enterprises, mipymes in Spanish) are trying to disassociate themselves from their links to the Cuban Government, which the exile community, the opposition and the Cuban population attribute to them. In a press conference on Monday at the headquarters of a food … Continue reading “To Do Business in the United States, Some Cuban ‘MSMEs’ Disassociate Themselves From the Government”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Washington, January 18, 2024 — The United States does not plan for now to allow Cuban Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises [MSMEs] access to the US banking system, a senior State Department official said on Thursday. Eric Jacobstein, deputy undersecretary of Latin American affairs, was questioned in a congressional committee about the … Continue reading “The United States Does Not Plan for Now To Allow Cuban ‘MSMEs’ Access to Its Banking System”
14ymedio, Havana, 25 December 2023 — They started popping up, little by little at the beginning of the year, without all the attendant publicity the official media usually gives to these sorts of places. Establishments that were once state-owned, that closed after languishing for years, have reopened overnight as mipymes (a Spanish acronym for micro, … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2013: MSMEs, the Last Economic Hope for Cuba’s Dying Regime”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 October 2023 — “We can’t even open the balcony door because the house is full of flies,” laments Clara, a resident of 30th Street at the corner of 37th, in the municipality of Playa, in Havana. A few meters from her home, a huge garbage dump has been growing for weeks without the … Continue reading “Cuban Authorities Ask for the Support of ‘MSMEs’ to Collect the Garbage in Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2023 — A labyrinth of obstacles, verifications and absences makes it difficult to buy on the Nihao 53 digital platform, with which the Chinese conglomerate Leke Holding Group hopes to consolidate its presence in Cuba. With the intention of supplying the wholesale market on the Island, the site offers food, furniture, … Continue reading “A Chinese Wholesale Website Offers To Supply Cuban ‘MSMEs’”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 May 2023 — Family man and owner of a cafeteria in Camajuaní (Villa Clara), Alexis González exploded this Tuesday in a direct Facebook broadcast that reached thousands of people. Faced with the shortage, bureaucratic obstacles and harassment by inspectors, he asked the authorities for an answer: “Someone explain to me how long … Continue reading “A Self-Employed Worker Denounces the Government’s Preferential Treatment of ‘MSMEs’ in Cuba”
Iván García, 26 August 2024 — Three years ago, in the summer of 2021, just a month after thousands of Cubans took to the streets to shout for freedom, the grey-haired ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, handpicked by dictator Raúl Castro to run the country, authorised the opening of small and medium-sized businesses on the island. It … Continue reading “The Private Sector in Cuba Up Against the Wall / Iván García”
The Cuban regime needs to reinforce its news media, diminished by emigration 14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — In 2020, when the Communication Law that came into force this month was a remote objective of the Cuban legislature, the 226 young people who graduated this Friday had just entered the Faculty of Communication of the … Continue reading “Cuba’s Record Number of 226 Graduates in Communication Will Revive the ‘Battle of Ideas’”
Among the causes of the momentary exchange rate paralysis are the “disincentives to the growth of imports from the private sector 14ymedio, Madrid, October 11, 2024 — The exchange rate from the peso to the dollar on the informal market has set a record of stability during September and the first days of October. The … Continue reading “After Two Months at 320 Cuban Pesos, the Dollar Begins To Rise on the Informal Market”
The gigantic China Import warehouse opens in Havana, for minimum purchases of 50 dollars and in national currency 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 22 August 2024 — The new China Import store that opened just over a month ago at Manglar and Oquendo, very close to the Cuatro Caminos market in Havana, does not … Continue reading “The ‘Chinese Costco’ Arrives in Cuba and Everything Has Ridiculous Prices”
Audiovisual copies, which have been widespread on the island for more than a decade and de facto permitted by the authorities, were specifically prohibited in the latest provisions against private individuals. 14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 9 September 2024 — The alarm has spread through the shops in Cuba that sell the paquete [the weekly … Continue reading “Police Operations Begin Against Sellers of the ‘Weekly Packet’ in Cuba”
