Underground sale of DVD players thrives

Underground sale of DVD players thrives

HAVANA, March 3 (Leonel Pérez Belette / www.cubanet.org) - DVD players
are the latest hot item in Cuba's underground economy.

The players, typically brought into the island by Cubans returning from
work assignment in Venezuela, sell for between 340 and 600 dollars.
Ironically, they are offered for sale by private parties right outside
the government-operated "dollar stores," shops in which merchandise
ranging from food to household electronic equipment is available but
only in hard currencies. The government runs these stores as a source of
foreign exchange.

One woman offering a player for sale outside the dollar store at 70
Street in the tony Miramar district of Havana said the equipment
belonged to a physician who needed the extra income. She explained the
median salary for a physician in Cuba is a little over 20 dollars a month.

The lucrative trade in players benefits physicians, musicians, and
others who are sent to Venezuela as part of a cooperative agreement
between the governments of Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. There are
reportedly thousands of Cubans assigned to various duties in Venezuela.

Many Cubans resent what they call outrageous prices for the machines,
which they say are only made possible by the fact that DVD players are
not available for sale otherwise. The government has never explained the
reason why DVD and other video equipment is not sold, and critics
attribute the measure to the scarcity of energy or simply to censorship.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/mar06/07e1.htm