Cuba shuts down private cinemas and video-game salons

3 November 2013 Last updated at 03:20 GMT

Cuba shuts down private cinemas and video-game salons

Cuba has ordered the immediate closure of dozens of privately-run
cinemas and video-game salons.

The government said they were never authorised, and that it needed to
bring "order" to the management of independent businesses.

The Communist island recently relaxed restrictions on the private sector.

But some Cuban entrepreneurs had used restaurant and other types of
business licences to operate backroom movie and entertainment parlours.

"Cinematic exhibition (including 3D rooms) and computer games will cease
immediately in whatever kind of private business activity," read a
government announcement in the state-run newspaper Granma.

It warned of decisive action against any violations of the law, and
defended its decision to instil "discipline" in the private sector,
adding that this was not "a step backward".

"Quite the contrary, we will continue to decidedly advance in the
updating of our economic model."

'Huge blow'

President Raul Castro, who replaced his brother Fidel in 2008, has
relaxed some economic restrictions on the set-up of private businesses
in the communist island, where the state still employs 79% of the five
million-strong labour force.

He opened up retail services to "self employment" in the form of nearly
200 licensed activities such as seamstresses, taxis and small restaurants.

But some residents had used these categories to operate cinema and
video-game parlours.

The closure is a huge blow to those entrepreneurial Cubans who invested
heavily, especially in 3D cinemas, importing equipment at considerable
cost from abroad, says the BBC correspondent in Havana, Sarah Rainsford.

She adds that many 3D cinemas she tried to visit since the government
announcement had been locked up and closed for business.

There had been hints this crackdown was coming. Cuban Culture Ministry
officials talked of the "banality" and "frivolity" of films on offer,
mostly produced in America, and out of line, they complained, with the
cultural policy of the revolution.

Still, our correspondent adds, the hope was that the booming sector
would be regulated, not closed down.

"The cinemas and games rooms were keeping us off the street, and out of
trouble," Miguel, a young Cuban, told our correspondent. "Now where are
we supposed to go?"

Another young Cuban, Yosvany, said: "I think a lot of people won't agree
with this ban. 3D cinema was something new and popular."

Correspondents say private cinemas had become a popular alternative to
poorly-maintained, state-run movie theatres that shy away from showing
Hollywood and other mainstream films.

According to government figures, more than 400,000 people in Cuba are
self-employed, of whom around 100,000 work as employees of small businesses.

Source: "BBC News - Cuba shuts down private cinemas and video-game
salons" - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24790569