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Caridad Cristina Álvarez, Grupo Decoro
HAVANA, February (www.cubanet.org) - A highly-publicized series of raids
against a proliferating domestic drug trade has turned up a large number of
self-employed tradesmen who try to cope with Cuba's ongoing economic crisis by
operating outside the rigid, government-controlled economic system.
Inevitably, the thorough searches police have been conducting have exposed
people like Oscar Font, who had set up a small carpentry and upholstery shop at
his home in the Playa municipality of Havana and made a living repairing
furniture. Since any such independent activity is illegal in Cuba, Font's tools
and materials were confiscated.
Similarly, police have confiscated merchandise from street vendors, and
videotapes from the homes of people who rent them to their neighbors for a fee.
The tapes are typically recorded off satellite signals, intercepted by home-made
antennas, which are themselves also illegal.
Reversing long-standing official denials that there could be a drug problem
in the socialist nation, police launched an energetic, island-wide campaign
against drug traffic and consumption starting about the middle of January.
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