Ricardo

Ricardo was trained as an electrical engineer. He has worked for a make-up company. The company is part of Cuba's effort to make Cuban products more competitive in the open market. The Cuban government will enter into joint ventures with outside companies where the Cuban government retains controlling interest. Ricardo said that the problem with this approach has been that the Cuban government itself doesn't necessarily function as a good partner. For example, his make-up company has had some problems when the Cuban government failed to provide capital it was promised as part of the joint venture. So that has led to a number of failed business ventures. Ricardo described the Cuban government as generally short on cash. They will make seemingly arbitrary decisions to withhold cash from a given government joint venture, leading to all kinds of negative repercussions.