The psychologist and communicator Manuel Calviño called for a time regulation for street vendors in Cuba, stating that their activity from the early hours of the morning until night constitutes a form of noise pollution that affects the quality of life of the neighbors.
The proposal emerged in their program "Vale la pena", broadcast by Cubavisión under the title "Let's see who makes the most noise".
The catalyst was a letter that a citizen left at the door of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and that Calviño read on the air. In it, the sender described their block as "the loudest in the country": the baker whistling at six in the morning, a car horn at six-thirty, a chain of vendors shouting “potatoes, coconut pie, gold buying, and mattress repair,” joined by cars blaring music at full volume. And well into the early morning, night owls shouting until two or three.
"I say that street vendors, with all due respect, and I understand that it's their job and they need to make sales, etc. But they don't need to start at six in the morning; they don't even need to start at seven, or seven-thirty, or eight-thirty—the market opens at that time, not before. And they also shouldn't be shouting about their products at ten at night; there needs to be control over this," Calviño stated on the program.
The communicator clarified that his complaint does not question the existence of street vendors - an activity that the National Assembly formalized in June with vendor licenses and a simplified tax regime - but rather the lack of control over their hours and the acoustic impact they generate.
Calviño supported her argument with data from the magazine Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, published by the provincial delegation of SIDMA in Villa Clara, which indicates that 50% of citizen complaints in that province are related to noise. The identified sources range from music equipment in residences to state recreational centers, mechanical workshops, carpentries, and generators.
The problem is neither new nor exclusive to Havana.
The noise in Sancti Spíritus has worsened since 2022, with speakers, engines, and music often exceeding legal limits.
In June, residents of Nuevo Vedado reported the unbearable noise from a generator operated by ETECSA, which runs continuously in a neighborhood that receives barely two hours of electricity per day.
Calviño pointed out that Cuba has legislation to regulate noise pollution - Law 81 on the Environment, the Cuban Standard NC 26:2012, and Decree Law 200/1999 - but its enforcement is practically nonexistent.
"There are laws that regulate all these things; however, they are not enforced, and since they are not upheld, they are even less followed," he said. Regarding the police, he was straightforward: "They rarely intervene when there's noise."
Beyond the impact on physical and mental health, the communicator framed the issue as a failure of coexistence: "There is a fundamental problem of respect, of consideration for others, of respect for others' rights, and of avoiding noise invasion in shared public spaces."
A segment of the program published on Facebook by Cubavisión garnered over 31,000 views, reflecting the topic's resonance with the Cuban audience.
Calviño closed the episode with a warning that sums up her stance: "The difficult part is realizing when one is the source of the noise. Believe me, it's worth it."
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