HAVANA, Cuba.- In the recently concluded session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), the private sector was singled out, once again, as an enemy of the people. This time the attack was directed at private carriers, on which, from time to time, accusations of profit, abusive prices and illegal commissions rain down.
However, this “public enemy” moves no less than 30% of the total mass of passengers, paying for fuel, repairs and replacement of tires or other accessories that can only be purchased in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC). ), or on the black market at stratospheric prices. No deputy spoke about these details, since the important thing was to outline a culprit to try to divert public attention from state inefficiency.
“We must put more pressure on private carriers,” someone emphasized at one of the ANPP meetings, where paradoxically it was also recognized that many carriers have canceled their operating license due to instability in the fuel supply. That could be one of the causes, but we should also add the old problem, aggravated in recent years, of not being able to balance the lottery with the ticket, especially if the first is translated into depreciated Cuban pesos, and the second in dollars or euro.
When the representatives of the ANPP refer to the abusive prices imposed by the boatmen, they do so by comparing these sums with the miserable wages that the State pays its workers. They do not take into account that private sector rates rise along with the inflation created by external factors, certainly, but triggered by an Ordinance Task that liquidated the already limited purchasing power of the national currency.
A few days before closing the year, with the park of urban and interprovincial buses less than half, the private sector is taking care of covering a demand that has not stopped growing. The prices are high and not everyone can afford them; but it is the only moderately stable offer in a country where the same State that does not provide or solve problems, persecutes and punishes those who do.
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