A seller of jewelry and kitchenware at a small stand just below the bridge at Avenida 100 and Boyeros, Eliany Hidalgo is thinking of renting another space near her home. She has to invest her profits, already meager in recent times due to the severe economic crisis that is affecting ordinary Cubans, to get to her stand and back, "because the boteros (private taxi drivers) have more than doubled their prices in just one year."
The current rate charged by non-state drivers from Curita Park to Avenida 100 comes to 200 pesos "during normal hours; during rush hour, or at night, it may cost you more. Spending 400 pesos a day just on transport, there's no way to way to make money, even if I sell everything," complained Hidalgo, who lives in the San Leopoldo district and is a mother of two.
"If you rely on state transport, you'll never get anywhere. You can be at a stop for two to three hours. And when night falls, a magic carpet is more likely to appear than a bus," says Boris Estrada, an employee at a state company in Marianao, with a monthly salary of 4,600 pesos.
"In the event of an emergency, or if I don't want to wait three hours at a stop after my workday, I have to fork over 250 pesos, the boteros' current rate on the La Ceguera-Parque Fraternidad route. If I don't have that money to get to work, I have to be at the stop at 5:00 in the morning, at the latest, and pray that the bus doesn't let me down," added Estrada. "The higher-ups are merciless, and don't care that the State's transportation services are getting worse every day, leaving the people at the mercy of the boteros' supply and demand."
At the beginning of March the General Director of Transport in Havana, Yunier de la Rosa Hernández, cited "a complex situation in the capital," adding that " the Provincial Transport Company has 252 vehicles available out of its 561 , as 309 are not running." According to the official, the system barely "offers a service with at least one bus, which causes waiting times of up to three hours on the main routes, and four on the feeders, always prioritizing the times with the greatest demand."
Referring to non-state drivers, he said that "approximately 4,400 self-employed workers with a Transport Operation License are operating in Havana," and stressed that "none of the prices established by Resolution 132, approved by the provincial governor of Popular Power in Havana, are being complied with." Faced with what they call "a speculative increase in the amounts paid by the population for the private transport of passengers," he said, "we are already working on a new price proposal, a process that was carried out with the drivers themselves, to achieve a balance based on their overhead and what the population can afford."
"But that 'new price proposal' still has not appeared, nor did they mention the very serious fuel shortage that remains and that, as always, the main people affected are us, the boteros," says Mateo Cárdenas, who covers one of the routes with the highest demand, Habana Vieja-La Lisa, for which he charges, depending on the schedule, between 250 and 300 pesos.
"No one takes into account, in the first place, that practically all the demand for transport is being met by private parties, because the State does not have buses, or a taxi service, and they want people to believe that they're going to solve a decades-old situation with electric tricycles," Cárdenas said. "We must also remind those people that the transport problem did not arise yesterday, it has been around for decades."
"Secondly, and here I speak to the people: we, the boteros, are also paying for food and medicine at the same prices as you. Does anyone seriously believe that with the maximum prices imposed by the State, 75 and 100 pesos per trip, we're going to be able to deal with the increase in the cost of living that the same State has imposed on us all, equally, without distinguishing between professions?"
At the end of last April, the General Directorate of Provincial Transport in Havana issued a statement in which it stressed that "Resolution 240/2020 established the maximum prices to be charged by private drivers from Havana. This resolution has been in force since June 9, 2023."
The statement also stated that the provincial agency is "intensifying control actions on the road to ensure that drivers are not violating the prices established in Decree 30 of 2021. " For the pertinent complaints regarding violations of these rates, the entity cited a hotline for users to report drivers, indicating the day, time, vehicle registration number and price charged.
Havanans' perception, however, is that they are at the mercy of supply and demand, and that this is part of a battle between the authorities and non-state drivers that has lasted for almost five years, with the people, in the long run, always paying the price.
"The war between the people and the boteros is the government's fault. They fail to mention that, due to how dangerous the streets are, people prefer to travel by car and not spend three hours at a stop," says José Antonio Carvajal, a botero who covers the Centro Habana-Cotorro route.
"Why don't they mention that the Government has not event been able to guarantee urban transport with its gacelas (vans) and that, at night, those same gacelas, charge the same rates as us. Everyone is trying to survive in this country, and I don't blame the people, even though they could denounce me tomorrow, because I'm clear about one thing: none of us are responsible for the disaster this Government has created," says Carvajal.
On condition of anonymity, a worker at the Provincial Transportation Directorate confirmed that the situation "is not going to be resolved in the short or medium term, because it is not only about the fuel shortage, but also about spare parts and the low wages that state drivers are not willing to work for."
"Everything has come together, and, with the 13 tricycle lines that are operating in five municipalities, located in areas of high demand, it will not be possible to solve the crisis. Therefore, the battle between the population and private drivers will remain a pressing issue. Finally, neither complaints, nor fines on drivers that are reported, nor confiscating their licenses, will be of any use. "