The risks of investing in Cuba

Before investing in Cuba, it is better to think twice. The risk foreign and local investors are large, according to Jorge Manzanilla Perez, president of the Commission of Foreign Trade Mexico-Cuba.

Manzanilla said Tuesday that the regime desperate to get financing and technology to get its economy from the deep crisis that is, originated in the island guarantees necessary for investors are not given.

He explained, for example, that the power on the island responds to generational interests and is being shared between those promoting change and those who resist.

"Lack long time for the actual conditions are, for the moment the Cuban government is seeking funding, so the recommendation is to be cautious , " he stressed the businessman, in an interview with the newspaper La Verdad, Yucatan.

Manzanilla Perez warned that conditions have changed with the new law in force in the island foreign investment, but "not enough".

It is necessary to distinguish the difference between what is investment and trade. Manzanilla clarified that although this new investment law "is somewhat flexible" regarding the above, the Government's interests remain attract investment in order to lessen the effects imposed by the current crisis of its ally and benefactor Venezuela.

Cuba and Mexico for decades presumed a historical relationship held even when countries in the region distanced themselvesafter the departure of the island of the OAS in the 1960s.

However, relations cooled a decade ago and were retaken in recent years.

Bureaucracy

Asked about the opening between Havana and Washington, the businessman said he has been given in a context that includes a group of internal measures in favor of private enterprise. However, he cautioned that are limited.

For example, he said, a Cuban can now sell your home, but a resident child abroad can not inherit.

At the same time, he explained that while Cubans can buy homes in Mexico, a Mexican or any other foreigner can not have private property in Cuba.

And if that were not enough, this entrepreneur alluded to the difficulties that are presented to foreign investors of legal and bureaucratic.

"Cuba is a dynamic of order up to 360 days credit for every purchase you make, which is negotiable because there will be companies that can negotiate three months, six months, but Cuba is seeking funding for 360 days , " he said.

"That is, that the products sold in the first month, you will pay until the thirteenth month, and this would lead us to have Cuba with 12 months of merchandise that would not be paying , " he said.