• by Leonardo Padura Fuentes
• Wednesday, July 20, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Cuba may be the only country in the world whose citizens have, for half a century now, not been allowed to freely acquire a car or a home. Indeed the very words have a very different connotation on the island, writes Leonardo Padura Fuentes, a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into more than fifteen languages.

In this article, the author writes that the Cuban government, now in the process of "updating its economic model", has decided to relax the controls on buying and selling cars and homes. The announcement of this change still did not include any mention of the sale of new homes or cars (which would be a great deal for a state monopoly) but only the sale of existing ones, subject to various rules and heavy taxes imposed on selling, inheriting, and owning. Five decades later, what is essentially a universal practice is returning to Cuba.

What is significant is that despite the complex system of regulation and oversight, especially regarding real estate, there emerged a black market which a Cuban could navigate only by breaking any number of laws whether out of desperation or sheer recklessness. Yet none of this led to any relief in the extremely tight housing situation, where shortage was perennial and the condition of properties is rapid and unarrested decline. Meanwhile the system benefitted only the most crooked and rash individuals and a vast legion of corrupt bureaucrats.

(*) Leonardo Padura Fuentes is a Cuban writer and journalist whose novels have been translated into more than fifteen languages. His most recent work is The Man Who Loved Dogs, featuring Leon Trotsky and his assassin Ramon Mercader as central characters.

// NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, AND THE UNITED STATES //

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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