Reuters/Havana

Cubans are upset over decrees by the communist government shuttering private 3D movie theatres and banning the private sale of imported clothing in a land where venues to screen films are scarce and well-made, stylish clothing is hard to come by at affordable prices.

Discontent over the crackdown runs so deep that even Granma, the usually conformist Communist Party daily, ran a long article last week recognising the “broad social debate” - an unmistakable sign of the government’s sensitivity to the issue.

The newspaper backed the government’s measures on the grounds the would-be entrepreneurs were unlicensed, and it insisted that the “non-state” sector, authorised over the past few years, must abide by the law.

Even so, urgent meetings to discuss the closures are being held at the highest levels of government on the Caribbean island, according to several cultural officials who asked not to be identified.

So far there is no indication the authorities will back down. Still, the very acknowledgement of the controversy highlights the growing pressure on the government for meaningful economic reform.

“The Cuban government misfired, not only by sidelining the interests of consumers, but also in underestimating the growing political clout of the emerging private entrepreneurs,” said Richard Feinberg, a senior fellow of the Washington-based Brookings Institution and author of a recent study on “Emerging Entrepreneurs” in Cuba.

President Raul Castro, who replaced his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, has introduced a series of free-market reforms aimed at reducing the financially strapped state’s enormous burden of running 80% of the economy.

The debate within the regime over how to deal with the discontent over the unlicensed businesses suggests deeper divisions still exist between orthodox bureaucrats and pro-market reformers.

Some analysts say that raises questions about the government’s commitment to opening up the economy.

At the same time, it suggests the Cuban government can no longer turn a deaf ear to a restive public. “We are now witnessing high drama in Havana, as the government struggles to find its way,” Feinberg said.

Taking advantage of a loosening of regulations on small businesses under Raul Castro, hundreds of Cubans have borrowed money or invested their savings in 3D projectors and screens, goggles and even popcorn makers to open mainly home-based theatres.

One of them is Jardiel Gonzalez, a popular comedian who rented an abandoned, 100-seat movie theatre from the government, installed a 200 inch-wide screen and turned it into what he said was a successful business.

“I didn’t leave my house for three days after they shut it down,” he said. “Packing up here was a little depressing, because it took a tremendous sacrifice to open,” Gonzalez said, as he looked at his now darkened and silent theatre.

Cinema, as with most culture in Cuba, is controlled and heavily subsidised by the government. The crisis that followed the demise in the early 1990s of the Soviet Union, the island’s former benefactor, led to the closures of most theatres countrywide as austerity measures sapped funding.