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FROM
CUBA
Underground sale of DVD players thrives
HAVANA, March 3 (Leonel Pérez Belette
/ www.cubanet.org) - DVD players are the
latest hot item in Cuba's underground economy.
The players, typically brought into the
island by Cubans returning from work assignment
in Venezuela, sell for between 340 and 600
dollars. Ironically, they are offered for
sale by private parties right outside the
government-operated "dollar stores,"
shops in which merchandise ranging from
food to household electronic equipment is
available but only in hard currencies. The
government runs these stores as a source
of foreign exchange.
One woman offering a player for sale outside
the dollar store at 70 Street in the tony
Miramar district of Havana said the equipment
belonged to a physician who needed the extra
income. She explained the median salary
for a physician in Cuba is a little over
20 dollars a month.
The lucrative trade in players benefits
physicians, musicians, and others who are
sent to Venezuela as part of a cooperative
agreement between the governments of Hugo
Chávez and Fidel Castro. There are
reportedly thousands of Cubans assigned
to various duties in Venezuela.
Many Cubans resent what they call outrageous
prices for the machines, which they say
are only made possible by the fact that
DVD players are not available for sale otherwise.
The government has never explained the reason
why DVD and other video equipment is not
sold, and critics attribute the measure
to the scarcity of energy or simply to censorship.
Versión
original en español
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