Most of the taxis that pass this Thursday through San Lázaro Avenue, in Havana, continue by. A line of passers-by waits with their arms raised at the edge of the sidewalk, unsuccessfully: the vehicles are unoccupied, but they don’t stop.
“Before I used to stop on this corner and in less than five minutes I was gone,” laments a woman who, with a violin case in one hand, tries to attract the attention of taxi drivers. “This is the third time I’ve been late for my rehearsal,” she says anguished.
The maximum price of 15 pesos per section, set by the Government last year as part of the measures of the Ordering Task, is a rate for which few taxi drivers accept to circulate. Most drivers prefer to cover a shorter route or agree with the passenger on a new payment to the final destination.
“Direct taxi, they tell you. And then get ready for the price: I was charged 350 pesos a few days ago from the Bus Terminal to the Bim Bom ice cream parlor, which is on Infanta Street,” protests Carlos, a resident of Centro Habana. , which explains to 14ymedio That amount for a journey of less than two kilometers seems like an abuse.
There is no more than going out to the street to observe the complaints of the Havanans. “20 pesos from Infanta to Galiano?” a man complained as he got out of an old American car that was packed with eight people. “They’re running out, we’re going to have to go out armed to the street to rob you, because this is a robbery,” he continued angrily.
The driver’s assistant, sitting on a precarious wooden bench, did not remain silent. “You better go rob a bank if you can, because when I go to buy malanga for my girl at the farm they charge me 60 pesos a pound, so we can’t continue charging 15 pesos for the section,” he snapped.
Lucía, a clerk in a store located in Old Havana, describes the situation as a disaster. In his case, the journey has quadrupled, going from the 10 pesos he paid to go from 23rd Street, where he lives, to his work, to 40 pesos for the same road. “The car that I take daily pays a trip to the Habana Libre hotel, and they charge me 20 pesos until there,” but at the next corner it loads passengers again to the Parque del Curita for another 20 pesos. “It’s abusive,” ditch.
The inflation that affects all citizens has led these carriers to circumvent the regulations imposed by the Government, which insists that fuel has not increased, ignoring that it is not the only expense faced by drivers.
“The situation is complex and at the same time very simple,” says a private driver to 14ymedio. “I’m not going to talk about the spare parts, I’m just going to say that the MLC (freely convertible currency) is currently at 103 pesos and yesterday I paid 9 for a package of sausages in La Época and 29 for a cheese bar They are 3,914 pesos”, he calculates quickly. “I cannot put a price on the package of sausages that the Government sells me, therefore, it seems to me cheeky that the Government does put a price on my ticket, because my children have to eat,” he says.
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