A tetrapack a quarter-kilo of fried tomato sauce for 630 pesos, smaller packages of mayonnaise for 280, a package of cookies for 380, a 100-gram bag of chips for 150 pesos… All imported and at unaffordable prices for the average Cuban is the new offer of establishments Sylvainwhich used to sell sweets and bread and, on a vague day at the end of the year, went from being state-owned to ending up in private hands.
Or at least, in part. His store on Zanja and Belascoaín, in Centro Habana, located on the ground floor of the famous building known as Super Cake –for the pastry shop it housed before 1959–, is divided into two, according to an employee who told 14ymedio: one state and one private.
In the first, the only thing for sale is garlic paste and the occasional spice for seasoning, but it is closed. “It’s empty because we don’t have materials or products to work with,” explained the worker, who, like other women, is working in the private area “to guarantee us a job while supplies arrive on the other side.”
In the private sector, “there is everything”, as the neighbors marvel, “but we cannot afford it”. Even powdered milk: at 1,800 pesos per kilogram
In the private sector, “there is everything”, as the neighbors marvel, “but we cannot afford it”. Even powdered milk: at 1,800 pesos per kilogram.
The Sylvain store on San Rafael Boulevard, in the same Havana municipality, has also been “privatized,” which offers similar imported and expensive products as Super Cake, and the San Lázaro y Hospital store, which if it sold food before, now offers office supplies, as well as the Belascoaín branch between Monte and Campanario.
The case of the Sylvain chain is not unique, and it is part of a list that has been growing for months: that of state establishments that become rented by individuals overnight, without any kind of notice.
The same thing happened in the so-called Mercadito Ideal de 23 y C, in El Vedado, whose outdoor area is occupied by a private stall where the items are, according to the visitors, “for the elements.” Namely: umbrellas at 2,300 pesos, soda bottles at 350 pesos or shopping bags at 850.
Another example is the Coppelita ice cream parlor within the Hola, Ola, reopened last Julywhich a few months later accumulated various complaints online due to the high prices of ice cream –170 pesos for two scoops–, the turbidity of having “reemployed” state workers and the scarcity of products to sell.
“How do they give that place, in a privileged area, just fixed up, to people who have nothing, who offer nothing?” asked some onlookers who hung around the place.
But if there is a place that has passed to a private owner and offers a service with stratospheric costs, it is the Wedding Palace of El Vedado. Located at 25th and N, in an old mansion from the beginning of the 20th century that fell into disrepair little by little, a couple could get married there just by paying a 5-peso stamp.
Now, and after a slight remodeling that, according to the neighbors, was carried out by a foreigner to whom they “gave” the business, the place is called FashionHavana Bridessells itself as “the Italian atelier of Havana” and deals with the following, according to information sent to its clients: “We are dedicated to the rental of wedding dresses and men’s suits, the organization and coordination of the entire wedding, venue management, we also offer micro-wedding services in private residences, photography and photoshooting around the city, make-up and hairdressing, beauty services catering, buffets, wedding cakes, management of alliances in jewelry stores, among other options”.
The firm’s offers range from an “economic line”, which consists of a wedding dress between 8,000 and 10,000 pesos and the “lady” dress included, to a “luxury” line: a wedding dress for 70,000 CUP and , “free”, an “Italian” suit for the groom, from the Carlo Pignatelli brand, the tornadoda dress, that of the bridesmaids and the ladies and gentlemen, make-up and hairstyle service at home, the bouquet with imported flowers and a garter belt.
In addition, the company offers a hairdressing service for 4,000 pesos and bouquet with five imported roses for 5,000, prices that are equivalent to the monthly salary of a state worker.
“They are privatizing the country little by little and silently,” lamented a client who left the place in terror after asking about prices. “What worries me is that they are the ones keeping things for themselves. Nothing is said in the state media or on television.”
Last week’s meeting between Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Kremlin adviser Boris Titov confirms this trend that has been seen on the street for months. The meeting showed not only that Cuba wants to take its relationship with Russia to “a higher moment”, as declared by the president of the Islandbut that it consists of being guided by Moscow in a future opening.
As revealed by the Russian media –in no case by the Cuban officials–, both parties agreed to the creation of a center to transform Cuba’s economy “from the private company”. This means, for voices in exile such as the Cuba Siglo XXI think tank, the imminent transition from a “model with a state-owned economy” to the “scheme russian mobster of market”, in which the old Soviet oligarchic elite took control of numerous companies.
Actually, there are rules on the Island that regulate the bidding for the rental of state premises by individuals, but the truth is that the official press, always given to propagating any trifle that suits the regime, has not given them publicity.
The Official Gazette of April 21, 2022Specifically, it establishes the procedure in detail. Among its articles, there is the one that indicates which principles should govern the tender: transparency (“the knowledge of the actions and decisions of the tender that the participants have for an effective social and popular control”), equality (“that the participants have equal rights and opportunities”), publicity (“that the different actions and decisions of the bidding procedure are public”), concurrence (“all those who meet the general conditions that are established have the right to participate in the bidding”), competition (” the possibility of participating in the process is guaranteed to all potential bidders, without being able to introduce limitations that have no technical, legal or economic basis”) and “efficiency and reasonableness” (“the most convenient offer for the public interest must be selected “).
“How do they give that place, in a privileged area, recently fixed up, to people who have nothing, who offer nothing?” some onlookers wondered at the time.
The process, in any case, requires the “existence of establishments that are decided to lease, working or closed” and that “the Council of the Municipal Administration or the Governor, as appropriate, make the call for the start of the bidding process for the lease of the establishment”, as indicated in May an official portal. Everything can take a minimum of 15 business days.
Curiously, the day after the publication of that Gazette, and without the public tender and the name of its owner being known to date, reopened Fressin the Plaza de Carlos III, as a restaurant and store in Cuban pesos.
Three days after the publication in this newspaper of that news and of numerous complaints in networks for the high prices of the premises, the establishment was closed “due to technical problems”, and the company’s premises in Playa, a restaurant with home delivery, also suspended activities.
“They held an emergency meeting here in Carlos III because of the criticism on social networks, and starting tomorrow they can only sell processed food,” some workers then explained to 14ymedio, who collected the testimony of several clients during those days.
The general opinion was summed up in the following: “I have nothing against the private, but the problem is not that it is particular, but that it was impudent. Why some yes and others not?”.
The questions remain unanswered. Last August, the newspaper Sierra Maestra public a list of state premises that went out to tender in Santiago de Cuba, the destination of which is unknown. Some of them were Soditos, the state-owned cafeterias spread over various neighborhoods that sold everything from ice cream to condoms, including bread, tea, juices and soft drinks, with great success among the population.
Just a few weeks ago, the website of Havana Radio echoed the bidding for three other properties by Heritage Management: Obispo 328, O’Reilly 107 and Obrapía 107. All of them, historical buildings located in Old Havana.
The call to apply for the first, however, expired on November 24, 2022. The second expires on February 5 and corresponds to the establishment where the Sargadelos store, a Spanish firm from Galicia that disassociated itself from that project on the Island about five years ago. Finally, the term of the third call ends on February 8.
To find out all these details –property, conditions, dates–, necessary to opt for the tender, you have to follow the intricacies of several clicks, something far from the “transparency” and “publicity” that the law establishes.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
