Cuban taxi drivers no longer have the luxury of passing by and leaving someone at arm’s length. “Now they do stop, but they charge more,” complains a user who has come to pay 100 pesos for a journey of just one kilometer. The issue of discord has once again appeared on the front pages of the official press. With the usual triumphalist air, the authorities say that the problems with private transport are beginning to be controlled after the Provincial Inspection Directorate imposed fines of up to 8,000 pesos on Tuesday for excessive charges.
The man counts in amazement 14ymedio that a taxi driver recently charged him 50 pesos. “That’s an exception” because most set the journey of a couple of blocks to 100 pesos, said the young man, who always asks drivers the cost before getting on, “just in case.”
The report, published in Havana Tribune and Cubadebate, exhibits vehicle registration of the alleged offenders and accumulates in a few hours dozens of comments that demand similar investigations be carried out in other parts of the Cuban capital.
A note published in the Portal of the Citizen of Havana points out that “irritates” the population of the capital the fact that “unscrupulous people” take advantage of the fuel crisis to raise the cost of transportation “violating the provisions of the law.” According to the statement, the Inspections Directorate carried out several controls in the sector that revealed the abusive charges and there were solutions: fines for all carriers.
“Another thing that is happening is that before there were almendrones, old taxis, that passed by and did not stop you, but now I see them as desperate and they stop you”
The Government proposed in January 2021 to establish maximum rates for private carriers on the main routes in Havana, up to 35 pesos depending on the distance. The following year, the Directorate of Transportation announced that I would update the sheets based on maintenance costs, but most drivers do not comply with the set prices and are guided more by market demand. The constant complaints from users have led the authorities to take “action” to avoid these “nonconformities”.
In an inspection carried out on Rancho Boyeros and Tulipán avenues, in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, the Directorate found that a carrier charged 200 pesos for a route between Havana and Santiago de Las Vegas.
In Cotorro, a driver charged 150 pesos for a section between the municipality and the Parque del Curita, in Centro Habana. In this same town, a carrier was also detected who demanded 100 pesos to take passengers to the crossing of the Virgen del Camino, in San Miguel del Padrón.
Cuba has been facing a fuel crisis since last March, when imports fell and the sale of gasoline at service stations had to be further rationed. It is normal for costs to rise in prices during crises, but private carriers have taken advantage, multiplying the old rates by 20. “They charged my sister 2,000 pesos to take her son to an operation to the hospital and return, and another 2,000 for her return. Imagine!” a Havana resident complains indignantly.
On the days of greatest scarcity, this newspaper confirmed with several testimonies the ordeal that families suffered to get a taxi, at an exorbitant price of 1,000 pesos for three kilometers in Nuevo Vedado.
“Another thing that is happening is that before there were almendrones, old taxis, that went by and didn’t stop you, but now I see them as desperate and they stop you,” says a resident of Key West. The man believes that the change comes as much from the low availability of fuel, as from a lower influx of tourists willing to pay gold prices. What is not taken away from them, he adds, is their bad temper. “They always seem upset.”
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