HAVANA – Authorities in the Cuban capital will crack down on people who transport cargoes or people without a license, a measure that includes seizing the offenders’ vehicles if they are caught a second time, the official press reported on Wednesday.
Officials announced that “the implementation of restrictive measures and confronting illegalities” will be a priority for officials and the authorities, according to a communique.
Control of those activities will be strengthened after Cuban President Raul Castro last year reopened the possibility of licensing private individuals to provide transportation services nine years after that measure was suspended.
Among the violations that Havana authorities will punish are “authorizing, permitting or providing a cargo or passenger transport service without possessing the proper operating license” and using means of transport not registered with the required license.
In addition, authorities will crack down on the unauthorized use for personal gain of vehicles assigned to agencies and organizations.
The transportation licenses were implemented in 1996, during the so-called “special period,” that is, the deep economic crisis into which the communist-run island sank after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the European socialist bloc.
Transportation was one of the sectors most heavily affected by that crisis, but the provision of new licenses for individuals was suspended in October 1999.
The communist government for the past three years has been developing a $2 billion investment plan to revitalize transport services to attempt to improve one of Cuba’s main deficiencies. EFE
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