On each trip the ‘mules’ make a profit of 200 dollars after investing 1,000 in the purchase of clothes
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní/Cancún, 26 October 2024 — Daniela’s passport is a record of her visits to Venezuela, Serbia and Russia. This particular “silk road” – she has worked as “mule” on and off for years – now leads to México, a country that only opened its doors to her after an arduous, convoluted process. Two friends — Illiana and Lucía — accompanied her on a Viva Aerobús flight. When they got to Cancún, they were met by Ramiro, a 62-year-old Mexican who took them to a hostel whose name could not have been more ominous: La Cubana.
The name is no coincidence. Nor is the swarm of taxi drivers who harass newly arrived passengers at Terminal 2 of the Cancún airport. They are on the lookout for Cubans who have come here come to shop.
“Bus to downtown Cancún for only 150 pesos,” someone shouts. “We’ll take you to the hotel in a new Mercedes,” another adds. The onslaught is incessant and the network of businesses surrounding the airport – lodging, transportation and food – is still growing. Cubans who come here to shop do so because they can. And the Mexicans know it.
In fact, the first thing Daniela had to prove to the Mexican embassy in Havana was that she was financially solvent. The process is cumbersome and scheduling an appointment usually takes awhile. She was lucky, however. Or at least she thinks so. She signed up in late November 2023 and did not hear back until September 6, when she got an email with the date and time of her interview.
“I don’t even remember signing up,” she now says. She had deleted the file from her mental datebook. Assembling the required documents was also a challenge. The bank statement, title to her house and photos arrived on September 12, just in time.
Daniela’s trip can be described in three significant numbers: 290 dollars, the cost of her flight; 23, the weight in kilograms that she was allowed to bring onto the plane; and 10, the capacity (also in kilograms) of her handbag. For a trip like this it is essential to know these figures. And you must have a clear plan so as to avoid unforeseen circumstances.
A three-night stay in a shared room with private bath at La Cubana cost them 500 Mexican pesos per person, or about twenty-five U.S. dollars. They contacted Ramiro several days before arriving after seeing an ad on Facebook. He turned out to be a good host, which they could tell from their first first meal, consisting of rice, pork and salad. But like everything in Cancún, kindness comes at a price. The meal cost Daniela and her friends an additional 120 pesos, plus 5 pesos for coffee and 20 pesos for a bottle of mineral water in the room’s fridge.
With no time to spare, the three women set out to explore the shops in the immediate vicinity of the hostel. These amounted to a handful of shops with little room to spare or regard for aesthetics, scattered along Uxmal Street. However, this is where you can find everything that Cuba lacks. With the air conditioning turned up to full blast, each shop contains mountains of clothing, equipment and household items.
The merchandise is cheap, perhaps even attractive, but rarely of good quality. But the Cubans are here to find good deals. They say hello, ask questions, get to know the vendors and drive a hard bargain. They leave loaded with bags full of sweaters, jeans, underwear, socks, handbags and tennis shoes. Everything is counterfeit but so what?
After living under Castro rule for nearly seventy years, Cubans are hard to impress, though Mexico often can. “We got into a car at Plaza of the Americas,” says Daniela. “The driver told us his name was Yamil. He said he could get us work and Mexican residency.” The women took it as a joke and laughed hysterically. They got out at a shoe store run by a Cuban who told them they had risked their lives by accepting a ride from that “friendly driver.”
“It turns out he was a very influential narco-trafficker in Cancún,” says Daniela. “We would never have imagined we were talking to someone like that.”
Mexican merchants have refined their sales strategies for “hooking” Cuban buyers. One is to play reggaeton at full volume, which lends a certain liveliness to their stores and attracts customers. Prices vary and, if a mule is naive, she or he will take the bait before finding the best value for the money.
In just one afternoon, Daniela and her cohorts added to their inventory eight pairs of Crocs at $3.70 a pair; five pairs of Nike tennis shoes ($6.50); ten hair dyes ($1.30) and three men’s shorts ($3.10). The Crocs are not Crocs and the Nikes are not Nikes but in Cuba they can be sold as such.
Browsing through the shops in Cancún, they came across a business called El Cubano. It is run, of course, by a Cuban determined to honor certain tenets of his island. He is expected to play loud music and to know how to get things done. Elier was born in Güira de Melena, a town in Artemisa province, and emigrated to Cancún two years ago. His store now carries items he picked up in Belize.
“All you need to cross the Mexican border into Belize is a permit. From there, you can send your purchases to Cancún through an agency. It only takes 24 hours,” says Elier, a goldmine of tricks the mules can use. The Cuban emigré had no idea what life was like in Mexico but thought staying here was a good idea. Other Cubans have followed suit. “This could be called Little Havana, like in Miami,” he jokes.
“With their suitcases packed with goods they plan to sell in Cuba – now a wasteland after the nationwide blackout – Daniela, Iliana and Lucía returned to Havana. A forty-minute flight might seem short but the stress makes it feel long and overwhelming. At any moment, using any pretext, Cuban customs officials could confiscate their cargo.
“Sometimes they bully you. Other times they extort you or open your suitcases,” complains Daniela. Once the three women get past the “sharks” at the airport, each item in the suitcases must be inventoried, priced and advertised. To figure out the retail price of each article, Daniela used to multiply by three. For example, a pair of pants that cost $10 in Cancún could be sold for $30 in Cuba. But now, Daniela laments, the profit margin is lower. She now only multiplies by two. The pair of pants that used to go for $30 now drops to $20 – 6,500 pesos at the informal exchange rate. On the other hand, they sell faster.
After selling what she brought back from Cancún, Daniela grossed 1,220 dollars. From that, she had to subtract $610 for the cost of the merchandise, $290 for the cost of the flight, $50 for local transportation in Mexico and $25 for lodging. Though that left her with only $220 to spare, she is satisfied. “I think $200 in profit is enough,” she says.
There is no shortage of customers. Some think they can use what they buy. Others will resell every item they acquire. Daniela may be just one link in a retail chain whose limits no one can fathom.
Daniela may be just one link in a retail chain the extent of which no one can fathom.
The Achilles heel of this business is that no one is willing to pay full price. Everything is purchased in installments and the process can sometimes take a month or more. “This is the life of a mule,” Daniela grumbles, “The money comes in drop by drop.”
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