The private sector is growing and struggling to gain a foothold in Cuba amid one of the worst crises in its history, which has exacerbated social tensions like never before. In a country that established the state economic monopoly in the 1960s and nationalized more than 50,000 small private businesses, ranging from wineries and bars to architectural firms, nearly a million people work in the non-state sector, which employs 34% of the labor force and is in short supply 14% of GDP. After more than a decade of waiting, private micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with legal personality and a maximum of 100 employees were admitted in September 2021, opening a new scenario in the country. More than 6,000 have been approved, one in four of them from the construction sector, but there are still numerous restrictions that hamper the operation and development of these companies and the work of new entrepreneurs who are increasingly demanding their rights and deepening reforms.
An example of the obstacles and contradictions of the current opening is the situation of architects and engineers, who are still prohibited from practicing their profession privately and cannot set up MSMEs to carry out projects, which has led to an unprecedented trade union lawsuit in Cuba . More than 700 professionals in the sector have signed several letters addressed to the highest levels of government, demanding their right to independently carry out an activity they consider vital to save Havana and other Cuban cities from their increasing decay – according to officials Data in As of 2021, 37% of the 3,946,000 homes that make up Cuba’s housing fund were in poor condition or regular. In socialist countries like China or Vietnam, the problem has long been solved and architects can work freely, they emphasize. But in Cuba, in 2023, that is not possible.
“This is inconsistency and nonsense. An absurd situation has arisen since more than 25% of the authorized private companies are active in construction. All construction activities in the private sector have been authorised, except for the first and crucial one: the project to be built. This favors professional interventions and jeopardizes the quality of the work carried out at a time when many buildings in Cuba are in poor condition and the growing private sector increasingly requires the remodeling and construction of premises to set up new businesses or to rehabilitate old houses ‘ agree renowned architects Abel Tablada and Orlando Inclán, both signers of the letters.
37% of homes in Cuba are in good or bad condition, like these buildings in central Havana photographed in late January. Yander Zamora
The ban on the exercise of independent work for architects, engineers and other professionals, contained in Decree 49 of August 2021, is motivated by the theses defended at the last Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, held in April of the same year, the last, held under the direction of Raúl Castro. The former Cuban President then criticized the demands of the experts in his main report as follows: “It seems that selfishness, greed and the desire for higher revenues are encouraging some to want to start a privatization process that would sweep away the essences of more than socialist society built up over six decades”. Along the way, he said, “the national education and public health systems would also be dismantled in a short time, both free and with universal access for all Cubans.”
In the various meetings that the architects have since held with high-ranking officials from the Ministries of Construction and Economy and Planning, they have actively and passively defended that “it’s not about privatizing a service because since then the state hasn’t even offered it.” The large state project companies only deal with large works, not with refurbishments and small private constructions, ”explains the architect Universo García. In the same vein, his colleague José Antonio Choy points out that the union is not proposing “privatization” but that professionals in the sector can contribute to the best architectural and urban planning solutions for the good of the country. “The issue of whether or not independent work is allowed for Cuban architects goes beyond a work measure. It goes beyond the sphere of society and its culture, since a government that does not allow the exercise and freedom of expression of architecture, debate and its confrontation limits the important role that architecture and the city play in the quality of life of its citizens . “
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe to
In his opinion, shared by the more than 700 professionals who have joined the call, the approval of independent work would serve to “elevate the quality of architecture and cities, which is currently characterized by the mediocre or even worse architectural and urban Production is threatened, which threatens the built heritage of the country.” In response to the union’s urgent letters and requests to the authorities to correct and end the ban, the Minister of Construction (MICONS), René Mesa, initially responded with the argument that they “at the moment” assessed that it was not “advisable” to allow the practice of a new professional activity”.
Following the architects’ complaints of a lack of replies, several deputy ministers of the sector then openly expressed their concern at another meeting about opening up this space, as it could trigger a ‘domino effect’ in other professions and a possible brain drain from the state sector to the private sector. . As a compromise solution, MICONS then proposed the creation of some MSMEs with experimental state architecture, of which only one could be created more than a year later.
Numerous buildings in Cuba are about to collapse and urgently need to be saved. Like the ones in the picture. Yander Zamora
Abel Tablada, who worked for years as a researcher in Belgium and as a teacher in Singapore, from where he made numerous trips to Vietnam with his students, sums up his dismay very vividly: “I imagined how ashamed I would be if I would have to tell one of my Vietnamese friends that in 2023 we Cuban architects are demanding the right to practice independently. Perhaps a French or Canadian architect familiar with our reality could understand our situation by assuming that we live in a centralized socialist state. But a Vietnamese wouldn’t understand that, because even if you live in a country with a one-party system and few political freedoms, you have a lot more economic freedoms on the other hand. You can’t explain that to him, he assures: “That we, who helped his country so much five decades ago, are now with such a legislative backlog in the economic and construction sectors. I would not understand that the authorities responsible for the development of the country should postpone a discussion, the outcome of which is known on the basis of the rights claimed.”
possible exodus
Regarding the possible brain drain of architects and engineers to the private sector, “the situation is just as paradoxical, or even more paradoxical,” says sociologist Carlos García Pleyán, “considering that architecture faculties graduate more than 200 architects a year, and half of them leave the country in search of better opportunities.” With this “unnecessary ban,” he suggests, “architects lose (their ability to perform professionally), citizens (the necessary structural assistance), entrepreneurs (the quality and functionality of their facilities) , the city (the essential attention to its built heritage) and loses the country (with the exodus of professionals)”.
Interior view of Café Azúcar, one of the newly designed private shops on Plaza Vieja in the historic center of Havana. Yander Zamora
Last week, the union’s demands were heard again by senior government leaders during the ninth congress of the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba (UNAICC). But nothing for now. Pleyán notes that while the architects’ case is “particularly unfortunate” and highlights the government’s fears and contradictions in the face of the reform process, it is just one example of the many official restrictions that continue to impede the development and operation of the private Sector. , which is more necessary than ever in these moments of crisis.
The lack of funding and credit, the high taxes, the excessive bureaucracy that insanely slows down and complicates any administration, or the lack of an official foreign exchange market that allows new entrepreneurs to acquire the currencies they need to import, and closing the loop of their business are some of the obstacles entrepreneurs face. Oniel Díaz from the consulting firm Auge, which has advised more than a hundred MSMEs on their start-up process, thinks that while the opening process cannot be reversed, the worst thing is the ups and downs and “the hesitation of the authorities” who don’t even stick to that what they have required by law” and a loss of credibility and time that is worth its weight in gold. Díaz has even raised the need to create an association of private Cuban businessmen who can channel the concerns of the sector and fight for their legitimate rights. The answer: Siberian silence.
All this, according to Pleyán, “shows the narrow limits of any update of a system that identifies socialism with the state, even in blatant contradiction with the most recently approved programmatic documents, as well as the enormous difficulties of dialogue between the authorities and civil society. Although the approaches are sometimes heard, no real debate is opened in which the two parties argue. This sociologist considers that “under the heavy cloak of continuity there are still great difficulties in developing and adapting to new national contexts”. Choy says that since nothing is resolved at the moment and the work cannot be done, he now devotes himself to drawing and has made a series he has dubbed The Art of Waiting. In January 2023, in the midst of a galloping crisis that has plagued the country, Cuba is doing just that.
Havana I Station, a work by José Antonio Choy.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits