Private Cafes Near the Airport Closed

Private Cafes Near the Airport Closed / 14ymedio
Posted on August 16, 2014

14YMedio – Half a dozen privately-owned snack cars and restaurants
across from Jose Marti International Airport Terminal 2 were ordered to
cease operations despite meeting all the tax, commercial and health
requirements imposed by law.

The measure affects the large number of people who come to this terminal
to drop off or pick up their family members who travel between the
United States and Cuba. In the airport there are two state-run snack
bars which, in the opinion of the visitors, lack the variety and quality
offered by private facilities.

According to statements to 14ymedio from several of the owners of the
closed premises, officials showed up three months ago who imposed the
closure measure without giving any explanation Some of the snack bars
and restaurants had been open for more than three years and the owners
had invested heavily, especially in furniture and kitchen facilities.
José G., one of the self-employed, said that after much paperwork and
appeals it appears they will allows them to reopen, but in another place
at the back of an alley with very little commercial visibility and
difficult access, since the street is not paved.

"They say right here, between our doors and they street, they will erect
a separating wall," says José, who has also complained for years, that
"they haven't even wanted to build a sidewalk for pedestrians. I don't
know if it's hatred or envy, but the truth is that they're trying to
strangle us."

At the end of 2013, Cuba 444,109 people were registered as self-employed
in Cuba, mostly in food services, passenger transport, renting rooms,
and in the production and sale of household items.

The self-employed complain about high taxes, lack of a wholesale market,
the inability to independently import and export, and the excessive
controls and restrictions placed on them by the inspectors.

Source: Private Cafes Near the Airport Closed / 14ymedio | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/private-cafes-near-the-airport-closed-14ymedio/