Cuban Street Traders Pay Off Officials to Survive

Street traders in Cuba operate on the margins of an overwhelmingly state-run economy, and because their survival depends on government permits, they are easy targets for extortion.

A new class of self-employed called “cuentapropistas” was allowed to emerge in the early 1990s, as the Cuban government struggled to cope with the collapse of Soviet economic support. They fill various economic niches, including street trading, which are governed by strict regulations designed to restrict the growth of business activity.

Yulio Elizarde is a fairly typical “cuentapropista”, pushing a barrow of fruit and vegetables through the streets of Havana to sell to passers-by.

Elizardo has been in business since 2010, but says that in the last six months, he has fallen victim to sustained extortion by state inspectors, who take between 50 and 100 pesos from him every week in “fines”. At between two and four US dollars, that might not seem much, but the average Cuban earns only around 400 pesos in a month.

The officials told Elizarde they were required to meet a monthly quota for the fines they imposed.

“They told me that if I accepted the fines without complaint, they would protect me from harassment by other inspectors,” he said.

He complied, as he saw it as the best option if he wanted to carry on trading unhindered.

Another handcart trader, Eliecer Montoya, regrets accepting his unholy arrangement with corrupt inspectors.

“I quickly realised I’d made a mistake – I have all my work documentation in order, and I pay my taxes on time,” he said. “There was no reason for me to accede to blackmail and maintain these parasites through the sweat of my brow.”

He realises he cannot go back on the deal.

“I’ve argued as hard as I can, but they still come and impose fines. They tell me that if I have a problem with that, I can complain wherever I like, as no one will believe I haven’t committed some infraction,” he said.

Montoya is particularly opposed to a regulation banning “cuentapropista” traders from staying in the same place for longer than 45 minutes, and also forbidding any form of cover or awning for their carts.

“It’s outrageous that you have to push a metal cart around all day long under the intense tropical sun, without any kind of covering to provide protection,” he said. “Too many hours in the sun, and your products deteriorate.”

Lawyer Armando González says officials who extort money are committing a criminal offence.

“In this case, the inspectors are guilty of bribery. This crime is aggravated when they break their own operational rules in return for a gift,” he said. “The courts could punish these inspectors with four to six years in jail.”

At the same time, González said, extortion is a “difficult criminal offence to prove, and there are a lot of loopholes”.

He added, “Cuentapropistas can [also] be charged with complicity… in the crime of bribery, as they have offered money in exchange for ignoring illegal activities.”

Paradoxically, neither Elizarde nor Montoya hold their inspectors wholly to blame for extorting cash from them – they recognise that in the Cuban economy, everyone needs ways of earning some extra cash.

Corruption is endemic across Cuba’s public sector, and senior officials talk about it openly. President Raul Castro has described corruption as one of the “main enemies” facing the socialist system. At the end of September, the state media gave wide coverage to a meeting on “instruments for controlling and preventing administrative corruption”.