HAVANA, Cuba. – In its July 15th edition the newspaper Granma collected the results of two days of inspections throughout the country to non-state economic actors, especially MSMEs, with the aim of evaluating compliance with the Price cap on six basic products.
A total of 4,332 fines were imposed for violating these price caps. In addition, 354 forced sales of products were carried out – 187 in Havana―, 53 sales authorizations were withdrawn from the same number of establishments, and 21 products were confiscated.
Regardless of the harm that fines and other sanctions cause to the owners of the entities, there is almost a consensus that forced sales constitute a matter of the utmost seriousness.
The disappearance of some of the products whose prices were capped was expected by many specialists, and the regime was also aware of it. This has always happened every time the Government caps the prices of products that until then were marketed according to the price. supply and demand. It is therefore reasonable to assume that these forced sales were the result of inspection bodies snooping inside the entities, with a view to making certain products not intended for sale available to consumers, perhaps without the intention of hiding them permanently.
The truth is that this is a violation of the privacy of a private business, which is like violating the home of any other person. A situation that could lead to acts of violence, especially considering the unethical behavior of many of the inspectors that the authorities have chosen for such tasks.
The Constitution of the Republicin its article 49, establishes that “the home is inviolable. One cannot enter another’s home without the permission of the person who inhabits it, except by express order of the competent authority, with the legal formalities and for a reason previously defined in the law.”
It is not unreasonable to imagine that many of the current inspections carried out on MSMEs, in the midst of the belligerent atmosphere on the part of the Government, are carried out without the legal formalities prescribed by the Constitution. In this way, the search for “hidden products” within the entities would be violating the Constitution that the regime itself drafted.
From now on, when all – or a good part – of the non-state actors have adapted their sales prices to the ceiling imposed by the authorities, it is foreseeable that the work of the inspectors – and even of many consumers, since Castroism also advocates popular price control – will focus on the search for the supposed products hidden inside the entities. Hence, public opinion must be alert to the misdeeds that the regime may commit in this regard.
It is actually difficult to agree with the Prime Minister’s statements. Manuel Marrero in the sense that the latest measures taken regarding the operation of MSMEs – fines, seizures, forced sales of products, and the upcoming creation of a government institute to control their operation – are not a crusade against this type of economic actor.
In any case, it will be the responsibility of the ruling elite, as a consequence of the repressive work of the regime and its unconditional supporters, if the MSMEs disappear or lose the efficiency they have shown up to now in supplying a market to which Castroism has only been able to provide scarcity.
OPINION ARTICLE
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