Cuba's small businesses threatened
Entrepreneurs have carved out modestly successful livelihoods after investing their life savings to launch import-dependent businesses.
But in three months, it could all be over as authorities plan to begin enforcing a new law banning the private sale of imported goods.
Some 436,000 Cubans are running or working for private small businesses under President Raul Castro's package of social and economic reforms begun in 2010.
In the 1990s, Cubans were allowed to open private restaurants to ease the pain of a severe economic crisis; when the worst had passed, authorities regulated the eateries practically out of existence until they were revived under the recent reforms.
Labor Ministry official Jose Barreiro Alfonso recently told Communist Party newspaper Granma that it's necessary to "impose order" in the retail sector, and it will be a crime to "obtain merchandise or other objects for the purpose of resale for profit."
Three months from now, authorities will begin enforcing a new law banning the private sale of imported goods.
For entrepreneurs who have carved out modestly successful livelihoods after investing their life savings to launch import-dependent businesses, the new measure feels like a big step back.
Some 436,000 Cubans are running or working for private small businesses under President Raul Castro's package of social and economic reforms begun in 2010.
Among other things, the government has legalized used car and real estate sales and ended the much-detested exit visa required for decades of all islanders seeking to travel overseas.
Three months from now, authorities will begin enforcing a new law banning the private sale of imported goods.
For entrepreneurs who have carved out modestly successful livelihoods after investing their life savings to launch import-dependent businesses, the new measure feels like a big step back.