From a restaurant mixing take-away cocktails to a cosmetics company delivering home-made products by bicycle, Cuba's entrepreneurs - no strangers to hardship - are coping with the coronavirus shutdown in innovative ways.
In Havana's colonial district, mixing restored historic buildings and urban decay, the once-thronging streets are empty of tourists and scrawled “closed” signs are on the doors of many shops. Some also transport single passengers despite their lack of transport licenses, as buses and Havana's vintage Chevrolet taxis are grounded.Though the government has not provided statistics on the size of the economic contraction wrought by the pandemic, it has forced some changes in policy.
Cuba's state owns and operates the lion's share of the economy, while the non-state sector, excluding agriculture, is composed mainly of small private businesses and cooperatives, artisans, taxi drivers and tradesmen. Diaz estimated 250,000 people in the private sector - most of them linked to the tourist sector - had lost most if not all of their income since March.
Organic cosmetics company Corpus, which offered massages and facials, was hard hit when the pandemic forced the government to impose social distancing measures and there was no way to import products. Even toothpaste and shampoo became scarce.
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