U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Inc. New York, New York Telephone (917) 453-6726 • E-mail:
[email protected] Internet: http://www.cubatrade.org • Twitter: @CubaCouncil Facebook: www.facebook.com/uscubatradeandeconomiccouncil LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/u-s--cuba-trade-and-economic-council-inc- Miami Herald Miami, Florida 25 August 2021 Cuba’s private-sector law comes with restrictions — and a ban on Cuban American investment By Nora Gámez Torres Customers are served at a private café in Havana. Alejandro Ernesto EFE Prodded by an uprising, a wrecked economy and a worsening pandemic, the Cuban government is allowing the creation of small and medium-sized private businesses for the first time in decades. Still, most sectors will remain in state hands, and Cubans abroad cannot be owners, despite early suggestions to the contrary. Cubans haven’t been able to own a business since 1968, when the Fidel Castro government confiscated the last establishments still in private hands, everything from bodegas to frita stands. Five decades later, most state companies are bankrupt, agricultural and industrial production has plummeted, and widespread shortages of food, medicines and basic goods are the public facade of Cuba’s socialism. “The mere fact that they have done this, knowing how painful that is for some of the people in the Communist Party, is huge,” said John Kavulich, who has been tracking for years changes in Cuba as president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “There are few admissions the Cuban government could make that would better demonstrate the failure of their system than this announcement.” The new laws, published last week on the official government gazette, also set the stage for what experts believe are the first steps towards a veiled privatization effort by reconverting state companies into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that will remain state-owned but are expected to act independently.