HAVANA, January 16 (Silvio Herrera, AFPCP) – The police confiscated 20
pedicabs here, alleging their drivers did not have licenses to transport
passengers.
Alexander Álvarez González, one of the drivers whose pedicabs
were confiscated, said that when he was stopped, he was not transporting
passengers. Yet, he says, in the arresting documents police wrote down that he
was "transporting passengers without a license."
Álvarez voiced a complaint common to many. "In Havana, people
are forced into illegallity, because they will not issue the licenses to
transport passengers. We have solicited the permit and we don’t get an
answer. We are willing to pay the taxes but the local government doesn’t
want to solve the problem."
In the municipal offices in Old Havana that would issue the permits,
officials inform applicants that "there will be no more operating licenses
for pedicab transport."
Some of the present license-holders say there are only 45 pedicab licenses
in Old Havana and that Eusebio Leal, the Historian of the City of Havana, and a
powerful official here, doesn’t want any more issued.
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