A Cuban entrepreneur reported being fined by inspectors in Chaparra, Las Tunas, after stepping away from his small business for a few minutes to fetch medication for his grandfather, an elderly disabled man who, as he explained, relies on his family for care.
“Was it so difficult for them to wait 10 minutes?” questioned Boris Luis, owner of a confectionery business in the municipality of Jesús Menéndez, as he recounted what happened on his Facebook profile.
According to his testimony, that morning he received a call informing him that some medications intended for his grandfather had arrived at the municipal terminal. His grandfather cannot walk and shows significant physical and mental deterioration.
Boris temporarily left the establishment in the care of his mother and another relative and went out to pick them up.
It was during that absence that two inspectors arrived at the business and verified that the people present there were not listed as legal holders of the activity.
The entrepreneur assured that his mother tried to explain the situation to them and even offered to show them their sick grandfather to prove that it wasn't an excuse.
Far from reconsidering the penalty, he stated, the inspectors increased the amount of the fine and warned that they could raise it even further.
Boris called from the terminal and asked them to wait no more than ten minutes for his return, but he assured that the officials refused and left the place before he could arrive.
"Today, for stepping out of my business for just 20 minutes due to a life or death situation, I was harshly and insensitively fined," he reported.
The entrepreneur also questioned why such rigor was applied against his small business while, in his view, there are "significant illegalities" in the municipality that the inspectors do not address with the same severity.
He also asserted that one of the officials was using his establishment to explain to the other "how to act."
Boris announced that he will file a formal complaint "at all levels" regarding what happened.
Las Tunas, under a strong campaign of inspections
The complaint comes just weeks after an intense enforcement campaign against private businesses in Las Tunas.
In August, authorities conducted 570 inspections of self-employed workers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and non-agricultural cooperatives in the province. The operation concluded with 22 establishments closed, eight licenses revoked, and fines exceeding 1.2 million pesos.
Only in the city of Las Tunas, another operation had accumulated more than 4,000 inspections and 2,000 fines, in addition to hundreds of irregularities reported by the authorities.
The campaign is part of a tightening of controls over the private sector that has spread to other provinces. In Matanzas, for instance, the authorities recently reported 46 closed establishments after detecting more than 1,800 violations.
The penalties are also implemented under a performance-based payment system for inspectors and fine collectors, announced by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero in December 2024. The government then justified the mechanism as a way to improve the low salaries of these workers.
The system has raised questions. In April, a complaint brought to light the acknowledgment from inspectors who stated they needed to return with "results", while other recent cases have sparked criticism due to the severity of fines imposed on small businesses.
For Boris, what happened poses a risk specifically to ventures with fewer resources.
"I hope this is an isolated case because, if it isn't, small businesses like ours, which don't have extra resources to spare, are doomed to fail," he concluded.
The case recalls that of the young barber Elián González Fajardo, known as "Eliobarber GF", who reported in August that inspectors imposed a fine of 16,000 pesos on him in Cauto Cristo, Granma, for not presenting invoices for razors and talcum powder that he explained he received from family abroad to work.
The entrepreneur then stated that the inspectors' demands threatened the continuity of the business that supports his family and questioned why a previous inspection had not detected any irregularities. "I feel that many young people like me work in fear because of the heavy fines imposed on us," he lamented.
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