Some 436,000 Cubans are running or working for private small businesses ..

 In this Oct 11, 2013 photo, a woman tries on a shoe inside the home of a small business owner in Havana, Cuba. Three months from now, authorities will begin enforcing a new law banning the private sale of imported goods. For entrepreneurs who have carved out modestly successful livelihoods after investing their life savings to launch import-dependent businesses, the new measure feels like a big step back.

 In this Oct 11, 2013 photo, shoes for sale are displayed on a shelf inside the home of a small business owner in Havana, Cuba. Some 436,000 Cubans are running or working for private small businesses under President Raul Castro's package of social and economic reforms begun in 2010

 

 In this Oct 11, 2013 photo, a man who sells imported clothing at a fair, reads a copy of Cuba's state newspaper Granma, in Havana, Cuba. Labor Ministry official Jose Barreiro Alfonso recently told Communist Party newspaper Granma that it's necessary to "impose order" in the retail sector, and it will be a crime to "obtain merchandise or other objects for the purpose of resale for profit."

 In this Oct 11, 2013 photo, students shops for shoes inside the home of a small business owner in Havana, Cuba. Three months from now, authorities will begin enforcing a new law banning the private sale of imported goods. For entrepreneurs who have carved out modestly successful livelihoods after investing their life savings to launch import-dependent businesses, the new measure feels like a big step back

In this Oct 14, 2013 photo, Turkish tourists arrive for dinner at the privately owned restaurant, "La Moneda Cubana" in Havana, Cuba. In the 1990s, Cubans were allowed to open private restaurants to ease the pain of a severe economic crisis; when the worst had passed, authorities regulated the eateries practically out of existence until they were revived under the recent reforms.

 

In this Oct 13, 2013 photo, German tourist Thomas David Knock walks through a corridor of a rental house in Havana, Cuba. Some 436,000 Cubans are running or working for private small businesses under President Raul Castro's package of social and economic reforms begun in 2010. Among other things, the government has legalized used car and real estate sales and ended the much-detested exit visa required for decades of all islanders seeking to travel overseas