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