Cargando...The streets of Havana and many other cities across the country have become crowded with electric tricycles, most of them privately operated, filling the gap left by the fuel shortages affecting state-run transportation. Many workers now rely on them to get to their jobs, although the cost keeps rising and is increasingly bordering on abusive.
There are many factors behind the fare increases charged by tricycle drivers. Today, however, we want to focus on one in particular: the so-called passenger managers, a supposedly legal designation that is affecting not only fares but also the very dynamics and standards of coexistence in our society.
The well-known buquenques have now shifted their sphere of activity. Whereas they once shouted out destinations and helped fill cars, trucks, and other vehicles near terminals and busy taxi stands, they now do the same for tricycles. The fines or fees they charge drivers for this service ultimately end up being paid by the passengers.
Moreover, there have been numerous reports of physical aggression and extortion against drivers who refuse to “play along” and pay the required fee. Defying them at an improvised pickup point by taking passengers without paying can lead, as unfortunate examples have already shown, to harassment and even personal threats. They do not act alone either; they often operate in groups of two to five people, behaving as though they were kings of a public and social space.
It is true that, amid so many problems and complications still awaiting solutions, this may seem like just another issue. But it is not a minor one. Perhaps inspectors from the Ministry of Transportation, the so-called blues, could better organize these pickup points, and the public would surely welcome that.
“They operate like a mafia and feel untouchable. I prefer to pick up passengers without being part of any stand because they demand more money every day. Besides, none of them pays taxes, nor are they self-employed or anything of the sort,” commented a driver who provides service along Monte Street.
I know there are as many stories as there are tricycles on the road today. The warning is simple: let us not allow the grass to grow so tall that it later requires a brush cutter, when a well-aimed machete could have solved the problem from the start.
Acerca del autor
Máster en Ciencias de la Comunicación. Director del Periódico Trabajadores desde el 1 de julio del 2024. Editor-jefe de la Redacción Deportiva desde 2007. Ha participado en coberturas periodísticas de Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, Juegos Panamericanos, Juegos Olímpicos, Copa Intercontinental de Béisbol, Clásico Mundial de Béisbol, Campeonatos Mundiales de Judo, entre otras. Profesor del Instituto Internacional de Periodismo José Martí, en La Habana, Cuba.
