Cuban capitalism is getting real. Cuban capitalists hope U.S. help will be just as real

[El Presidente]

Cuban capitalism is getting real. Cuban capitalists hope U.S. help will be just as real

 

Courtesy Idian Chavez

This Ain't No Pizzeria: Cuban engineer and private entrepreneur Idián Chávez and his wife Ana unpack industrial equipment this summer for their new toilet paper factory in Havana.

Cuba's communist economy is sinking, but its capitalist entrepreneurs are rising — and the U.S. wants to partner with them before Russia does. Critics, meanwhile, call the Cuban private sector a hoax. WLRN Americas editor Tim Padgett surveys the realities.

Cuban engineer Idián Chávez says he and his employees are putting the finishing touches on the roof of a small factory in the Marianao borough of Havana. When it goes online later this summer, it will produce a good that’s desperately scarce in Cuba today: toilet paper.

But this won’t be one of Cuba’s notoriously inefficient state-run plants. It’s the privately-run venture of Chávez’s company, called FADIAR. It’s a pyme, Cuba's Spanish acronym for a small- and medium-sized private enterprise (pequeña y mediana empresa). And Chávez knows it represents a big new step for Cuba’s fledgling private sector.

“We’re not starting a small restaurant or a hair salon here,” Chávez, who’s 29, told WLRN by WhatsApp from Havana. “This is a manufacturing production line.”

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[NSXCIGAR]

Granted, the Cuban regime has also made things difficult by not clearly spelling out for foreign investors just how freely pymes like Chávez’s can operate. For example, just how much money they’re allowed to make before communist officials say: enough.

So who's ready to invest capital? 

And who's the private party buying pallets of t.p.? Nobody. The government will likely be their only buyer and they'll be dictating the prices. No different than the tobacco farms. 

[JohnnyO]

All pymes are run by government cronies. Don't be fooled into believing that the average local can start up their own business as a pyme. They do these magical press releases around the world stating everything is just wonderful in pyme-landia. Call it creative embelishment, BS or what you like. Ask any local on how to become a pyme and no one knows. The answer is usually: "eso es para ellos". One of the longest running stories about pymes is they are exporting beer from Panama and Mexico. For ya'll experts on import/export please explain to me how this is profitable. John

[PigFish]

News flash. In 2023 communist reinvent toilet paper

🧻 

[NSXCIGAR]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:38 PM, JohnnyO said:

All pymes are run by government cronies.

Shocking. So just a ruse to get the $200k from some fool in Miami. Kiss that money goodbye. 

[JohnnyO]

Well a Harvard case study it isn't. For you Shark Tank fanaticos lets look this over. You have a guy that supposedly is a lawyer at 29 years of age. He has no manufacturing experience but all of the sudden he is an efficient entrepreneur that needs your $200K. Here are your answers:

Cuban: You don't have a patent on this stuff, at any given moment the Chinese will copy your product. So for that reason I'm out.

Lori: I can't market this schpit on QVC. I'm out.

Daymond: Wearing TP is not that fashionable. I'm out

Mr Wonderful: I'll give you 1% of the stake and profits in the company for my investment. Better yet... you know what, I'm out. Besides, you can get it cheaper in Miami.

The story is full of holes. You had to smuggle $200K through the back door to Cuba. Why not send it to China? You bought equipment in China, cause nobody else would sell to you. I hope the installation manual for the machinery is in Spanish. Who's going to do the repairs when it breaks down. Parts? Finally, did anyone tell you there are water and power outages? These are just stories for these mini-businesses to launder money all over the world. You see, there are sanctions on the Cuban government. But if they can get thousands of Juan Q. Publico's to create these phony facades, maybe they can get around the sanctions.  John