The Havana Interior Commerce Real Estate Company has announced a bidding process for state-owned properties on its website. This initiative is touted by the government as a method to "ensure transparency and participation" in commercial management.
However, the move comes amid official acknowledgments that the State is unable to maintain and rejuvenate its extensive network of facilities, which are now in disrepair, inactive, or unable to provide basic services.
This bidding window will be open for just ten business days, concluding on November 28. Interested parties must submit complete and sealed project proposals at the central office located in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality or at the territorial offices in Marianao, La Lisa, and Cotorro.
Applicants are required to present personal information, a budget, the project's name, and a proposal for construction if renovations or property transformations are involved.
The application guidelines, known as competition documents, are only available for physical review at these locations, showcasing the bureaucracy inherent to state processes, which often discourage rather than encourage participation.
Behind the administrative jargon, the bidding call includes an extensive list of venues that the State can no longer manage.
This includes small units like the tiny Los Veteranos in Marianao, which is just over five square meters, as well as larger spaces like the Siboney cafeteria in Cotorro, boasting more than 215 square meters.
Also included are former public service venues—such as butcher shops, cafes, self-service stores, and taverns—all now transferred to a survival market where the state administration seeks to offload responsibilities without acknowledging decades of poor management.
A Covert and Compelled Privatization
This current bidding is not an isolated incident but part of a trend where the Cuban State, instead of openly admitting its economic collapse, transfers the operation of public venues to private hands under temporary contracts, lacking stable guarantees, in a market that scarcely promises to recoup investments.
In June this year, the Heritage Management Company S.A., associated with the Office of the Historian of Havana, offered spaces along the Malecón as a "unique opportunity" for entrepreneurs.
The call was met with widespread skepticism, sparking accusations of improvisation, urban neglect, and suspicions that private individuals were being used as free maintenance labor while the State shirks its responsibilities.
This discontent did not arise by chance.
Since the Office of the Historian lost its financial autonomy and became dependent on GAESA—a military conglomerate that controls between 40% and 70% of the currency-related economy without public audit capabilities—the urban development model contributing to the rehabilitation of the Historic Center vanished.
With fewer resources allocated to conservation and infrastructure, the city deteriorates, while private ventures are called upon to sustain it under adverse conditions and with little legal assurance.
State Admits Its Inabilities
Bidding processes have traversed various state institutions: from the EGREM in Santiago de Cuba to gastronomic spaces at Antonio Maceo International Airport.
This is in addition to the 300 state gastronomic establishments announced for bidding in 2022.
At that time, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, the Minister of Interior Commerce, publicly acknowledged what each new call confirms today: the State cannot manage its own commerce, and units operating with greater autonomy or concessions perform better.
While the government portrays it as a "necessary change," the reality is more stark: the deterioration of public services has forced the State to relinquish spaces it can no longer manage, leaving the duty to sustain what it has destroyed to private entities.
Instead of a comprehensive urban and commercial development policy, what emerges is a fragmented, impromptu privatization with few guarantees, where economic survival becomes the responsibility of the citizens.
The new bidding process in Havana is set against this backdrop of urgency and abdication masquerading as opportunity.
For those aspiring to manage these venues, the question will not only be about how much to invest but also about how much risk they are willing to take in an economy where the State reserves the right to fail, and the citizen, the obligation to repair what no longer works.
Understanding Havana's Property Bidding Process
What is the purpose of Havana's property bidding process?
The process aims to allow private entities to manage state-owned properties that the government can no longer sustain, under the guise of ensuring transparency and participation in commerce management.
What challenges do applicants face in the bidding process?
Applicants face bureaucratic hurdles, as competition documents are only available for physical review, and they must submit detailed proposals within a short timeframe, all while considering the risks in an unstable economic environment.
How does the State benefit from transferring property management to private entities?
By transferring management, the State shifts the responsibility and costs of maintaining and operating these properties to private entities, effectively offloading its own management failures without admitting its economic collapse.