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Miriam Leiva
HAVANA, August (www.cubanet.org) During Havana's hot summer, moving about
the city is an act of desperation; neither the spotty bus service nor the few
available private transportation providers can cope with the demand. Hampered by
chronic fuel shortages, these rolling entrepreneurs must now contend with a new
drive by the Ministry of ransportation to stamp out "illegalities" in
the field.
Private transportation providers, like much else about Cuba, require an
explanation. They are not taxi drivers. There are some of those, charging in
dollars and out of the question for the vast majority of Cubans. These are
different.
The private providers are just about anyone who has a car. Typically, they
drive 40-, 50-, or even 60-year-old American cars that draw the amazed stares of
tourists as they slowly cruise by, with the driver and two passengers in front,
and four passengers in the rear seat. Some have licenses to carry passengers.
Most don't; these are called "pirates."
Now the Ministry of Transportation (MITRANS) has activated traffic units to "fight
against the illegalities in the transportation sector..." one of which is "enrichment,"
government-speak for using your ingenuity to make a little money which the next
guy is not making, and which therefore will make you a little richer than he is.
Strictly verboten in this Communist paradise.
The MITRANS traffic units will fine anyone operating without a license,
carrying too many passengers, and otherwise contravening the myriad regulations
that are necessary for a rational, functioning transportation system in a city
of two million, such as Havana. Not having that, Habaneros make do.
They have developed a code that allows the pirates to spot potential riders,
and would-be passengers to identify their rides. It may be a discrete hand
signal, or brief eye contact, but all an outsider sees is a car stopping in
front of a pedestrian, a brief bargaining session through the open window,
indistinguishable from any other conversation, and a door that opens to admit
the now former pedestrian.
Still, certain decorum is essential. Recently a woman passenger all too
obviously extended some bills to a driver, who remonstrated: "More
discretion, lady, please. I'm fighting for survival here."
Drivers complain the price of gasoline in the black market is up, and
supplies are scarce. Tires are extremely difficult to get; parts can at least be
fabricated by crafty local mechanics, because they are certainly not available.
Where would you get parts for a 1948 Dodge, or a 1953 Chevy?
Yet they keep going; the need is there.
A Havana bus resembles a very angry, very crowded, rolling beehive. When it
stops in front of a waiting crowd, the driver will announce: "I have room
for two, or three, or four." Seldom more. Those left behind cast a look
about, thinking of spending the 10 to 20 pesos for a private car ride.
Enough of them decide to and the cars in Havana always carry six to seven
people. But in Havana, cars are subject to closer scrutiny by the MITRANS
traffic units. In the provinces, news of traffic accidents invariably report too
many victims for the number of cars involved.
Versión
original en español
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