Police and inspectors seize products and issue eight fines at the 17th and K market.

Inspectors seized digital scales calibrated in units of less than one pound at the intervened stalls./(14ymedio) Police and municipal inspectors confiscated food, hygiene products, digital scales, and carts during an operation carried out on Friday in the area around the 17 and K market, in Havana's El Vedado, against vendors accused of illegal activities. The action, led by the president of the Rampa People's Council, Pedro Lizardo Garcés Escalona, resulted in eight fines totaling 103,800 pesos (USD 4.33), according to 14ymedio. The deployment reached nine points of sale. The operation once again drew criticism in a context of rising violent crime. The Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audits recorded 2,833 crimes in 2025, a 115% increase over the previous year, including 1,536 robberies; Cubalex documented 52 homicides in August, compared to the 37 recorded in July. The inventory included 16 bottles of 900-milliliter oil, 23 packages of detergent, 19 bars of laundry soap, 13 bars of bath soap, coffee, powdered soft drinks, and agricultural products. Among the latter were nearly 20.9 kilograms of potatoes (46 pounds), 23.6 kilograms of red onions (52 pounds), 16.1 kilograms of limes (35.5 pounds), and 59 avocados. The confiscated goods were, according to the authorities, allocated to the Arturo Montory Céspedes and Orlando Pantoja Tamayo schools and to the El Rampeño Family Care System. However, no documents were released to verify those deliveries. Rolando Carpio Crespo questioned the subsequent oversight of the products in a comment on the official post. "The problem now lies in the inventory of products delivered to those institutions, the follow-up and control of them, and their final destination," he wrote. Local merchants denounced that state inspectors demand money or merchandise in exchange for reducing sanctions./ (14ymedio) The doubts have precedents. In September 2025, a state enterprise in Las Tunas lost 250 kilograms of meat products, including about 50 kilos of beef that had been confiscated by the police. The entity's director admitted that the confiscations remained unrefrigerated for hours before reaching their destination. The food was rendered unusable after a 26-hour blackout and was incinerated. The carts had already been the target of another operation in December 2025, when the police removed four such vehicles and imposed ten fines totaling 173,000 pesos (USD 7.21). The action against the vendors prompted questions from users who demanded greater police attention to robberies, assaults, and drug trafficking. "And when will the thieves and muggers be dealt with?" asked José González. Julio César asked that robberies and drug sales be pursued instead of preventing the sale of food. "The government has no food for the people," he wrote. Citizens demanded a greater police presence against violent assaults and wholesale distributors./ (Illustrative image Infobae) Other readers rejected the treatment of the products as stolen merchandise. Yusmaris Fernández Lamoth argued that they had been purchased from suppliers who sell them at high prices: "We are killing each other." Ana Rosa Torres asked that the authorities act against the wholesalers to lower prices. "They are all hitting us with the belt, and with the buckle too," she said. Daniel García Valdés accused the inspectors of appropriating part of the confiscated goods. "Add to that what the inspectors took," he wrote. The complaint coincided with the testimony of an owner of a micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise in Regla, who said in February that officials demanded money or merchandise from him to reduce fines. "Two and even three inspectors come together, and you have to give each one his cut," he recounted. At the end of 2015, another offensive against Havana's street vendors ended with the sale of the confiscated fruits, tubers, and vegetables in state agricultural markets and points of sale of the Youth Army of Labor. Reinier Álvarez extended the complaints to garbage collection, Health services, and Transportation. "And why don't they also go to Comunales to see why the garbage isn't collected every day?" he asked. The criticism was aimed at Garcés, the driving force behind El Rampeño, a project that was supposed to reduce the accumulation of waste in El Vedado with 30 electric tricycles and a solar charging station. The official acknowledged in August that he had failed to meet that goal. That Friday, a verification by 14ymedio found two workers from the project collecting waste with their hands in the park at 19 and M, without brooms or scoops. The fleet had reached about 15 tricycles, half of those announced.