Cuban entrepreneurs respond to Trump election

HAVANA — For about four years, Liber Hernandez and his brother have been growing sprigs of hierbabuena, the mint in many of the Cuban mojitos that tourists drink in hotels, restaurants and bars.

They started their business in the courtyard of their home and, as the operation grew after President Obama announced plans to normalize relations with Cuba, they expanded on about 2 acres of land their family used on a farm near Bejucal on the outskirts of Havana.

The growth wasn’t fast, Hernandez said. The U.S. embargo and some travel restrictions remain. But they now have 35 clients that include hotels, private restaurants and state-owned bars.

Hernandez, 32, says if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on threats to roll back Obama’s measures if the country doesn't improve its human rights and democracy, it will hurt not only his business but also the country’s people.

Who are the future leaders of communist Cuba?

Less money in Cuba's economy could depress national consumption and lead to other problems. Foreign capital may not arrive. Supplies could be harder to find. And the embargo could keep the country isolated.

“That didn’t work for the U.S.,” Hernandez said. “It would be more of the same. It would mean to go back to the past 50 years and to entrench again. The solution is opening up.”

Like Hernandez, many of Cuba's cuentapropistas — self-employed workers and small business owners that played a bigger role in the island's economy since 2010 — fear that if Trump makes good on campaign promises, it will hurt Cuba's businesses, economy and people.

Hernandez, like many in Cuba, want Trump to end the U.S. embargo to help the country become more democratic.

“When there’s no embargo any longer, there won’t be any reasons to not have Internet, to not travel and one thing will lead to the next,” he said.

Hernandez also wants reforms in his country as well.

He attributes his business' slow growth to the fact that he's had to wait for months for the bureaucracy’s approval to use 33 acres of state-owned land for 10 years. Without more land, his mint business can’t grow.

He would like more freedom.

“I think there needs to be a little bit more of democracy so that the markets open up to benefit small and bigger businesses,” he said.

He also wants to elect the people who rule the country directly and allow another party to compete. He wants many of the good things of a free market that will help increase production, without the bad elements that can lead to worker exploitation.

The solution, he said, could be a hybrid system in Cuba.

In Parque Central, a tourist area in Old Havana where taxis offer classic, colorful cars or horse-drawn coaches, Regis de la Maza said he doesn’t believe Trump will follow through with the threats to undo Obama's policies. He thinks Trump is a businessman and will take that into account in his approach to Cuba.

“This is a mine that hasn’t been touched,” he said of the business opportunities that Cuba offers to U.S. businessmen.

Trump's campaign promises were made to satisfy Cuban-American Republicans who oppose the normalization of relations until the Communist government makes reforms, said de la Maza, 44, as he stood near his yellow 1950 Chevrolet.

If Trump is serious, things could get worse in Cuba.

“I think we would be back to the ’90s, to the special period,” de la Maza said. “Companies that want to invest here may not.”

But Gilberto Rodriguez, waiting near his orange 1952 Chevrolet that he uses as a taxi for tourists, said most visitors to Cuba are Canadians or Europeans. If U.S. tourism drops, he doesn't believe his business will be affected. The solution to Cuba’s problems, he said, is not in the hands of a U.S. president.

“When I open the fridge at home, Trump isn’t inside,” he said.

Jose Antonio Perez owns a paladar, or private restaurant, a few minutes away in Old Havana. He said tourism would be hurt if Trump reverses Obama's efforts to loosen restrictions, but the impact on the business he's owned since 1995 would not be great.

“We don’t have such a dependency in Cuba yet,” he said.

Customers, including those from the U.S., increased to Perez's La Moneda Cubana after Obama’s announcement. But he already was doing well in his restaurant.

As the island nation mourns the death of Castro, Perez said he doesn’t consider himself a communist. But he respects Castro, who is featured prominently on a wall in his three-table restaurant.

“He did many good things,” he said.