[LINK] "A Black Market Finds a Home in the Web’s Back Alleys"

[rfmcdonald]

Markets get everywhere, the New York Times' Marc Lacey writes, even in a cuba that not only represses markets but tries to strictly control the Internet. Craigslist's model clearly works.

These are tough economic times in Cuba, and while the black market has always bustled here it seems particularly intense these days, with enterprising Cubans in a constant search of compatriots who have money to spend.

There are no classified advertisements in the Communist Party newspaper Granma or the other state-run publications that circulate in Cuba. Rather, sales are made through Radio Bemba, which is not a radio station at all but the country’s extensive gossip network, which takes its name from the Spanish word for lip.

Two Cubans in their 20s who left the island for Spain have created a way to make all this secretive selling easier. It is a type of Cuban Craigslist, which allows the small but growing number of Cubans with access to computers and the Internet to buy and sell with less sneaking around.

But the authorities, despite loosening restrictions recently on the sale of computers, have repeatedly blocked access to their Web site, Revolico, whose name means commotion. One of the programmers who created the site (www.revolico.com) said in an e-mail message that he and the co-founder were in a constant scramble to get their site past government censors.

“We chose the name to make an allusion to the disorder that we are trying to organize,” said the programmer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so that his relatives still on the island would not encounter problems with the Cuban authorities.

Although he said that Craigslist was the inspiration for Revolico, the Cuban site is designed to upload more quickly on the island’s sluggish connection speeds. And although some of the categories on the site — cars for sale, computers for sale, boys seeking girls, boys seeking boys, for instance — are identical to those on Craigslist, there are many particularly Cuban exchanges.

Take the person selling his place in the visa line at the Spanish Embassy to someone trying to leave the island. Or the arranged marriages that are offered to help Cubans find a way to another country.

Or all the classic cars, like a 1950 Dodge, a 1956 Chevy or a 1954 Buick, all still running after having been cobbled together with makeshift parts for more than half a century.