Two years after taking office, President Raul Castro widened the niche for private enterprise in Cuba’s state-dominated economy. And the booming private economy reached into the Communist-led bureaucracy — paying off inspectors, buying stolen state goods and recruiting talented employees with salaries dwarfing those in the public sector. But summer stretched into fall, fall into the new year, and six months later, Cuba’s private economy remains frozen. “Many of us think that these measures aren’t just to organize private enterprise better, as they’ve said, but to restrict it. Over the fall, about six successful private restaurants were closed after police raids.

Source: Egypt Independent February 01, 2018 04:52 UTC