The extrahotel company Palmares S.A. has opened a public tender to lease the management of 13 cafeterias and sales points distributed across various municipalities in Havana, signaling a further collapse of state administration in the gastronomic and commercial sector.
The announcement, published this Saturday by the official newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, includes facilities in Centro Habana, Playa, Marianao, La Habana del Este, Cotorro, and Boyeros, and is aimed at private economic actors interested in operating gastronomic spaces, recreational areas, leisure activities, and retail commerce.
The establishments included are the Venus café (Belascoaín and San Rafael), the Barbosa café (23rd Street corner 21, in Playa), the Cotorro café (101st Street corner 12), and the Naval sales point (Monumental Avenue and Asilo Road, in East Havana), as well as other facilities in the mentioned municipalities.
The deadline for submitting bids is September 30 at 4:00 p.m.
The bidding for Palmares is part of a trend that has accelerated throughout this year: unable to keep its own establishments operational, the government is handing over their management to the private sector while retaining ownership of the properties.
In August, Cienfuegos handed over the management of 47 butcher shops to private operators, which is equivalent to 68% of those existing in the province, many of which had been closed due to a lack of products.
The Municipal Director of Commerce in that city, Yanser Toledo Pérez, candidly acknowledged that "due to the lack of products, the stalls have been closed, but they have not lost their social purpose."
That same month, the Caribe store chain in Villa Clara opened a public tender to award the management of around twenty kiosks and commercial premises in eight municipalities of the central province.
A few days ago, it was announced that the Municipal Commerce Company of Santa Clara is seeking private actors to manage 16 bodegas, offering incentives of up to two years without paying rent.
The Palace of Marriages in Sancti Spíritus, closed for approximately two years due to deterioration, was also awarded through a bidding process to the mipyme Armonía for its rehabilitation and management.
The provincial director of Gastronomy in Cienfuegos, Orelvis González Suárez, acknowledged that the bidding for idle establishments has become "the main management tool" in response to the sector's challenges, a confession that encapsulates the extent of the failure of the state model.
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