Former Democratic Congressman Joe García has once again gathered representatives of Cuban small and medium enterprises in Miami. This time, he did so coinciding with the celebration of the Americas Food and Beverage Show and Conference, which took place from September 16 to 18 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
In response to Joe García's invitation, entrepreneurs attended who had valid visas, others who were already in the United States and found out through word of mouth, and invited guests specifically for the event. Although the majority were from Havana, there were also entrepreneurs from Santiago de Cuba and other provinces in the interior of the Island.
A group of seven small and medium-sized entrepreneurs attended the event organized on Tuesday by Joe García, taking advantage of their four-day scholarship granted by meat and pork producers while they were in Miami. This trip was an initiative by businessman Paul Johnson from Focus Cuba, aimed at training Cuban entrepreneurs in various cuts of pork and how to present the products in their stores. He paid for their flight and stay in the United States.
Around the Americas Food, about thirty owners of Cuban Mipymes held meetings with almost fifty suppliers from the United States, Europe, Turkey, or Argentina, interested in exporting meat, powdered milk, rice, eggs, and basic products that are scarce in Cuba and that these small businesses purchase to sell on the Island. Many of them have done business in the past with the Cuban government. Most are American companies that produce chicken.
Unfazed by the criticisms that this type of meeting receives from a segment of the Cuban exile in Miami, Joe García explains to CiberCuba that this is not the first time these small business owners have visited Miami, although this time they do so in a context of greater difficulty, not only because inflation continues to be out of control on the Island and the economic situation is uncertain.
Entrepreneurs land in the midst of the dust raised by the statements of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, encouraging the creation of grassroots committees of the Union of Young Communists and the Communist Party of Cuba in small and medium-sized enterprises (Mipymes). This, as expected, has further inflamed those who oppose providing them with financial support in the United States.
In addition, Mipymes will have to face the "new regulations" announced in Cuba that will affect the private sector of the Island. They are subjected, as the former congressman says, to a crossfire between Miami and Cuba, and neither side makes it easy for them, under the pretext that they are children of the leaders of Castroism, except when the regime begins its raids, confiscations, seizures, and business closures.
However, Joe García is convinced that supporting Cuban Mipymes helps to create civil society on the Island. In his opinion, these entrepreneurs create jobs, pay better wages than the State; they give independence to workers linked to the private sector in Cuba and fill spaces that the Government of Cuba does not have the capacity or the will to fill. Furthermore, he believes that if they do not stay in Miami when attending events like the one he has organized this week, it is because they see business opportunities on the Island.
Around this time last year, Joe García gathered in Miami a group of 70 representatives from Cuban Mipymes. This year, he has resumed the initiative.
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