Unemployment, fallout from the crusade against Cuba’s private sector

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Yailey Quesada Ramos, a Havana native and mother of two minors, has been left unemployed. A worker in one of the non-state establishments forced to close due to the regime's crusade against the sector, she wonders how she will manage to support her two children.

"Did the Government take into account the forced unemployment of all the workers at the MSMEs it forced to close? What is the alternative offered by the Government? Which of those Decrees protects those of us who were dependents, legalized with the ONAT (National Tax Administration Office), who now have no way to reinvent their lives to support their respective families?" Quesada Ramos asks.

"A Government whose every Law is aimed directly at the hearts of the humblest cannot be good. There is no way to justify either the 'reordering' or the measures to end 'distortions' when the cost involves unemployment for the vulnerable. Those vulnerable people it promises to protect. The Cuban Government, let it known for once and for all, is the only "distortion" in this country. It is a pity that millions have taken so long to understand this. I can't forgive them," she lashed out.

A messenger at two MSMEs, Dylan Arzuaga now does not know how he'll find another job. His first child is on the way, and he is also supporting his elderly parents, whose retirement checks together do not add up to even 6,000 pesos per month.

"The two MSMEs for which I worked from sunrise to sunset were forced to close, accused of hiding goods that the Government had put price caps on. The truth is that I can't say for sure whether that was true or not because, like many employees, our work involved neither accounting nor storage. Those affected were the employees, the messengers, the drivers, who worked in distribution, to cite three examples," said Arzuaga, 28 years old and a resident of Alamar.

"My wife is six months pregnant. My parents suffer from age-related health ailments. I was raised to be honest and to earning my livelihood by working. And that's what I did: earn my salary honestly, until the Government decided to launch an attack on MSMEs and other private businesses. Where I am supposed to find another job, outside of the state, that allows me to support my family? In Cuba there's not a single factory, there's not a single state industry whose monthly wages allow one to make ends meet, to buy groceries. With their salaries, not even professionals, doctors or teachers, can cope with the situation," Arzuaga stated.

Between August 17 and 23 the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP) decreed the closure of locales and shut down the work projects of more than 360 non-state entities as part of the crusade against the sector. The official newspaper Granma reported that in just one week there had been 58 seizures, 773 forced sales for violations detected, and other administrative actions closing 171 establishments and rescinding 197 licenses.

Judith Navarro Ricardo, a legal specialist with the ONAT, said that bad accounting practices had been detected, such as the inclusion of equipment purchases as direct expenses instead of inventories, which artificially underreports companies' profitability, she said.

Business owners complain that the authorities force them to include an increase of 10% on each sale, plus 1% for local development, 1.5% for payments to the tax account, and 1% for the Cuban Music Copyright Agency (ACDAM), which adds up to 13.5% that the Cuban regime retains on each commercial transaction.

"If the government never cared even about the fate of its state employees and workers, we can be sure it cares even less about the unemployment they have generated in their constant wars against the private sector," says Alejandra Portillo, a Boyeros resident and an accountant for one of the MSMEs included in the list for "violations detected."

Portillo is awaiting a verdict from the authorities that, he believes, "will, undoubtedly, be unfavorable;" that is, it will force the MSME to cease its activities.

"Meanwhile, there are almost twenty of us workers who are ‘interrupted,’ which, in practice is the same as being unemployed. There is no company in the world that does not present some accounting errors. Any accountant or economist or experienced auditor will tell you this. Perfection does not exist, a perfect inventory does not exist. In fact, any audit that reports perfection is much more suspicious. This is a campaign against the private sector seeking the closure, no matter what, of any MSME that is not under the control of the military. Everyone knows this. This is no longer the important question. Rather, the question for the Government is: what will be the fate of the hundreds of Cubans who lost their jobs or remain unemployed?"

Cuba Study Group, an organization made up of Cuban-American businessmen in favor of rapprochement with Havana and U.S. business in Cuba, warned that the rules recently approved by the Cuban regime to increase control over the non-state economy, especially MSMEs, could "represent a dramatic setback for the Cuban economy."

In a statement released at the end of August, the Cuba Study Group pointed out that the new package of rules, "under the pretext of correcting 'distortions' and 'tax evasion' in a 'war economy'... seems destined to hinder the growth of the private sector."

"It seems that, for the government, staying in Cuba is a punishment. Those of us who have not migrated, to our regret, for various reasons, must be punished," said Emma Villaverde, the mother of a minor and resident of Plaza.

"In none of the press publications, nor in any of the Round Table discussions, nor in any of the conclusions of the PCC Plenary, have they mentioned how this would be resolved. or how the workers who were left unemployed after the forced closure of dozens of MSMEs would be compensated. What are the job offers for all those workers? Or is being an entrepreneur, or working for the private sector, indicative of being a counterrevolutionary, or of committing a crime, such that one must be stopped?"

"The truth is that no one, absolutely no one, spoke or is speaking about all of us who are unemployed and without any other options in sight. This is the fate of all those Cubans who, for one reason or another, stay in Cuba and who, above all, want to earn our livings in serious and honest ways," Villaverde said.

"How are we going to believe a government that, despite what it says on the screen (on television), provokes migration, theft, embezzlement, crime and even dissident thinking? Here and now there is only one glaring truth: it is not the US blockade that is causing unemployment," she concluded.

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