EFE/14ymedio, Havana, January 23, 2024 — The owners of the MSMEs (micro, small and medium sized enterprises, mipymes in Spanish) are trying to disassociate themselves from their links to the Cuban Government, which the exile community, the opposition and the Cuban population attribute to them. In a press conference on Monday at the headquarters of a food production and import company in Havana, some of these new entrepreneurs asked the U.S. for the same ability to engage in business that the private sectors of other countries have, which are also sanctioned by the U.S. State Department.
The press conference followed a speech in the U.S. Congress Western Hemisphere subcommittee hearing in which the Republican María Elvira Salazarse, born in Cuba, spoke about the Cuban private sector.
The representative from Florida said that many owners of the MSMEs, which now exceed 10,000, are actually people linked to the Government of the Island, which she defined as “the Hamas of the continent.”
Oniel Hernández, co-founder of the consulting firm Auge, asserted that Salazar’s speech was an “attempt to tie the hands of the Administration” of Democratic President Joe Biden
Oniel Hernández, co-founder of the consulting firm Auge, said that Salazar’s speech was an “attempt to tie the hands of the Administration” of Democratic President Joe Biden in his policy towards Cuba and assured that the private companies on the Island “are real.”
“It is impossible for a sector where 1.6 million people are employed to be fully linked to the Government or the leaders of the Communist Party,” he defended.
Eric Jacobstein, deputy undersecretary in the Office of Latin American Affairs of the State Department, also spoke at the hearing, saying that Washington does not plan for now
