The government transferred the management of five iconic dining venues in Cienfuegos to private operators, following years of closure or deterioration of facilities that the state acknowledged it had been unable to keep operational.
The measure covers the restaurant Covadonga, the ice cream parlors Coppelia and El Cairo, the Club Caribe, the Laguna del Cura, and the Amusement Park, spaces that have been tendered for non-state economic actors to take over their operation with the goal of reopening them before July 26, highlighted a report published on Thursday by the official newspaper 5 de Septiembre.
Eddy Víctor Hernández Cruz, director of the Cienfuegos Business Group of Commerce, explained that the process began with the identification of closed units or those with limited services due to the economic crisis, the energy crisis, and the exodus of workers.
According to the official, the decision was made to call for a public tender to involve private actors engaged in activities related to the management of those establishments.
Although the authorities insisted that it is not a privatization, Hernández stated that "the State will continue to own the property" and will only turn to entrepreneurs "when we cannot," under contracts for cooperative management, consignment, and commission.
On her part, Ana Juvier Chaple, municipal director of Gastronomy, Accommodation, and Recreation, stated that the state-owned enterprise retains its powers and keeps the workers while it recovers the services.
In practice, the decision shifts to small and medium-sized enterprises the necessary investment to rehabilitate deteriorated facilities and the operational risk of their operation, while the ownership of the properties remains in the hands of the State and the contracts continue to be subject to the regulatory framework set by the authorities.
The small and medium-sized enterprise Las Rocas del Sur has taken over the management of the grill at the Covadonga restaurant. Its representative, Maydolis Campos Antón, stated that they will bring back the traditional seafood offerings and cocktails that characterized the establishment.
The Club Caribe is now managed by the small and medium-sized enterprise Somos2CM, whose owner, Aniel Alberto Vilariño Herrera, explained that he moved the business there, which previously operated from his home, with the intention of expanding it.
The transfer of these establishments is part of the 176 economic measures announced by the government in June. Among them is the promotion of non-state management in commerce, gastronomy, and services, as well as the creation of private restaurant chains and the opening to international franchises, in a context where the state itself acknowledges increasing difficulties in sustaining the operation of numerous public businesses.
The case of Cienfuegos is not isolated. A few weeks ago, the corporation Cimex in Sancti Spíritus put 12 commercial locations up for bid that it cannot operate independently.
In November 2025, the Ministry of Domestic Trade put deteriorated premises in Havana out for tender, and in August of that same year, the government handed over state bars in Holguín under the same scheme.
The pattern is repeated throughout the country; the State relinquishes what it cannot manage, and entrepreneurs take on the risk of investing in facilities that centralized planning caused to collapse over decades.
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