In a Camaguey workshop there is no rest for the sewing machines, nor for the hands that operate them. And it is that for many of its employees, the equation is simple: the higher the production, the higher the income.
“I am doing very well financially. The salary that I earn has nothing to do with what I earned before, ”explains one of her employees.
Now the products or services that the Cuban regime is unable to offer are available in many private businesses or the so-called mypimes. These are small and medium-sized private companies that were authorized in 2021, and of which there are already more than 8,000 throughout the island.
Former Democratic congressman Joe Garcia asserts that under this new business condition “before you were a hoarder. Now you are a businessman and you have a ship full of food… But it is also a very positive thing for Cuba and its people”.
A reality that apparently moves away from the centralized economic model defended for decades by the Castro government that many see as a return to the starting point: capitalist Cuba. And others disagree.
“Cuba is not a capitalist country. Cuba is not heading towards capitalism and the mypimes created by the regime are not the prelude to the capitalist system either,” warns the economist, Elias Amor.
But how do they work? Some, such as the case of a mypime in Holguín that operates a laundry, rented premises from the government. In Granma, another group of entrepreneurs rented a bar-cafeteria. And in Guantánamo, five Cubans created their own construction materials production company .
Many of these companies received a permit to import the raw material they need, which is why containers are leaving Miami for Havana.
“The Obama measures that Trump maintained and that Biden has supported consist precisely in empowering civil society, and what we are seeing is that the embargo does not apply to your cousin in Havana, to your brother-in-law, who lives in Santiago” says Joe Garcia.
Cubans residing in South Florida have joined this type of private business. “And they are doing business with their relative, with the partners who did business in Cuba,” confirms Joe García.
However, a large sector of exile considers that this is oxygen for the dictatorship and a way to circumvent the sanctions.
“The regime has in the mypimes a mechanism to alleviate a serious situation that has been caused by the fault of the regime itself and in the end, it will be verified that the communist regime does not want to give up power,” considers the economist Elias Amor.
An investigation by the ADN portal ensures that several figures who are part of the government’s inner circle are owners of MSMEs and maintain links with state companies.
“The authorization to import into Cuba is given by the government, so make no mistake,” the economist lashed out.
According to ADN, they operate from Florida, Canada or Panama and among their business modalities are, for example, electronic commerce to Cuba for the benefit of entities such as Flora and Fauna.
There will be some who are leaders of Cuba. There will be some whose parents are communists. But they are a minority”, highlights the former Democratic congressman, Joe García. “Five months ago a pound of chicken in Havana was a dollar and a bit on the street… Not now, why? Because everyone has started to bring American chicken that is cheap.
Many have shown in networks that products that were missing from the state commercial network are now seen in private markets, but also at unaffordable prices for the majority.
