Confiscation is not plunder
CIENFUEGOS, Cuba – A Cuban about to return to the island from abroad seems to be moving back with all his worldly possessions.
His bulging baggage — containing large amounts of clothing, household appliances and even electric bicycles — makes him a “different” traveler in most air terminals in the world. At the Customs table in a Cuban airport, he might be tagged as a presumptive smuggler.
Despite the modification in 2012 of a large number of prohibitions, there remain regulations for some products (such as ovens and electric cooking utensils) and limits in the number of allowable articles that will result in the confiscation of the products if the traveler attempts to take them into the island.
I’m talking about the controversial “confiscations,” a practice that causes discomfort among those who often are only trying to ease the living conditions of their relatives in Cuba. In most cases, they criticize the vagueness of the final destination of the confiscated goods.
“I just left a deep fryer as a present for the Customs inspectors,” said Cuban-American Jorge Fernández bitterly, after leaving the Customs room at the airport, where he was told he couldn’t bring the appliance into Cuba.
Like him, many others imagine a distribution of the “booty” among the inspectors after each incoming flight, but that’s not what happens to the confiscated products.
EXECUTORS WITHOUT REWARD
“To us, it’s a problem to confiscate or detain merchandise,” says the legal adviser to the General Customs of the Republic in the central province of Cienfuegos, Mariela Ruiz González, who says her institution receives no reward for enforcing the rules set by other state organisms.
“We enforce the law and find other recipients for the confiscated goods,” she says. “Medicines are sent to Public Health; communications equipment to the Ministry of Communications; weapons and munitions to the Armed Forces or the Ministry of the Interior. In the case of household appliances or miscellaneous items, like clothes or shoes, we turn them over to the Ministry of Domestic Trade’s Wholesale Enterprise.”
“It’s a problem because first we have to deal with the protests of someone who invested money and effort into bringing the article and then we become custodians of merchandise that we must keep in a storage room for 30 days. Then we forward it to a warehouse for confiscated goods and finally we turn it over to the Wholesale Enterprise, without ever receiving any commercial gain.”
The first period of 30 days is “an intermediate stop” to the final destination of the products.
“To the people who do not live permanently in this country, Customs offers a reshipment option. That means that they can take the merchandise back on their return home, but they must pay us a custody fee. That fee is paid after the fifth day. It consists of 3.1 convertible pesos per day [$3.10] after the fifth day, plus 1 percent of the value of the merchandise,” Ruiz González explains.
“Some travelers take advantage of this option, but they’re few,” she adds.
According to Cuban law, when the value of the merchandise exceeds the allowable 1,000 pesos, the passenger may choose what excess goods will be held back.
“If an official selects the item to be impounded, he is violating the traveler’s rights, and the traveler can appeal to a supervisor to demand that his rights be respected,” said the Customs chief in Cienfuegos, Serafín Trujillo Amor.
However, several testimonies indicate that occasionally the inspectors do not make that option clear and even specify what articles must be left behind. Public opinion sees corrupt practices behind that attitude.
“An aunt of mine brought a bicycle for her grandson and was told she should surrender it. She asked the inspectors to take other products, but they refused,” said a Cienfuegos native during a recent radio debate, angry by this type of “suspicious” activity by the Customs officials.
“If at least the bicycle were delivered to a sick child at the Pediatric Hospital, she might have accepted the confiscation in good grace,” the listener said.
‘CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP’
“Household appliances that are confiscated are not sold. Almost all the articles impounded by the Cienfuegos Customs office remain in our warehouses,” said Idolidia López Pérez, deputy director of Universal Enterprises in Cienfuegos, while pointing to a container with hundreds of electric utensils, more than 300 electric irons, DVD players, television sets, microwave ovens, toasters, freezers, rice cookers and even a refrigerator.
“Most of these articles have been here for more than three years, some even ten,” said the company’s director, Ronald Vásquez. “These articles are reserved for the Ministry of Domestic Trade and only an authorization from the minister will permit us to sell it to others,” he said.
In 2013, one permit was issued for only one article, intended for a ministry agency, but the fact that it was issued troubles many citizens.
“If the argument used to confiscate electric appliances is that they draw too much electricity, there is no justification to use them in places that are connected to that same power source,” said Luis Lanza, a resident of the Cruces municipality.
Lanza’s position is echoed by many Cubans, who take to the radio and TV to describe the confiscations as “a change of ownership” or a “hypocritical attitude” on the part of the State.
Apparently, the weight of criticism has reached a critical mass. Unofficial sources say with increasing frequency that the laws on the importation of merchandise will soon be changed, along with the handling of confiscations.
According to officials in Cienfuegos, the minister of Domestic Trade in January visited the local warehouse, inspected the confiscated goods, appraised their condition and said that changes were forthcoming.
“I believe that the measure was postponed because the government wants to be consistent,” says deputy director López Pérez. “Just like last year it established clearer destinations for confiscations made by police departments, they will do the same with confiscations made by Customs, in my opinion,” she predicted.
Many Cubans hope for that transformation, although others lament that the change might include the destruction of confiscated goods, a possibility expressed unofficially and painful to those who only tried to bring comfort to their relatives and friends.
If the domestic sale of articles confiscated by Customs were sufficient and accessible, there might be no debate. But as it stands, the handling of confiscated goods is a waste of time, satisfaction and opportunities.
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The current policy on confiscations made by the national police can be found in: http://referenciajuridica.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/establece-el-consejo-de-estado-modificaciones-a-la-ley-penal-y-ley-de-procedimiento-penal/
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