Activist threatened with fines while working as a self-employed worker

At 8:30am on November 8, 2020, activist and self-employed worker Gisela Padin Perera was selling cookies when the Vice Minister of Economy of Pinar del Rio Province arrived with an agent of the Department of State Security (DSE). They told her that she could not sell the cookies at the price she was selling them for. The state agents stated that she must sell them at the price established in the regulation. Mrs. Padin explained to them that there was no official price in any law at the time, but they responded by saying that there was going to be a restructuring of the prices and that limits were going to be established, that this had been discussed at a round table but that they had not put it into effect. The Vice President called the integral inspectors who told her that she was committing a violation and that she had to be fined. She explained that she was not the self.employed vendor and that the vendors around her had the same price but she was the only one being questioned. Upon hearing these arguments, the officials decided to leave. The victim believes that these attacks were directed only at her allegedly because of her activist activities.