Making Sense of Cuban License Plates

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One of the great pleasures of shipping my BMW motorcycle to Cuba in 1996 was the moment I received my chapa (license plate). Here's how I described it in Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba:

"Margarita Martínez beckoned me into her compact office. She smiled—the first official who had done so—and motioned me to site 'por favor!' The negrita was pretty and slender yet buxom, and her robust breasts so strained her blouse that one of the buttons had failed, revealing a tantalizing cleavage. The furnishings predated the Revolution and the metal filing cabinets were much banged about. Martínez hammered away on a rusty old Royal typewriter. I had neglected to bring a specal 15-peso stamp, however, and she was unable to issue my license. Martínez therefore directed me to a nearby post office, where I handed the postal clerk a dollar bill. The clerk shook her head: 'Moneda nacional!', she said, pointing across the street to a booth run by Cadeca, an acronym for casas de cambio (literally 'house of change').

Martínez smiled as I handed her my hard-won stamp. She puffed out her chest (was she flirting?), attacked her typewriter, and handed me a licensia de circulación, a yellow vehicle registration card containing details of the bike and valid for 30 days from my arrival. Martínez then opened a file drawer and extracted a bright yellow chapa—a metal license plate about five inches by seven. I was now officially moto particular (private motorcycle) HK529 (H for Havana, K for foreign owned or registered). My chapa had cost me 60 cents."

Cuba has a bewildering range of chapa colors. There's logic to each and every one, as each depicts a different usage. Here's how to read them:

Black: foreign diplomatic corp

Blue: a state-owned vehicle for commerical use, such as a taxi or tractor

Brown: lower rank government official

Green (dark): Army

Green (light): Ministry of the Interior. You don't want to mess with this!

Maroon: Rental car

Orange (dark): Foreign business or journalist

Orange (light): Cuban business manager and officials

Red (dark): A company car that can be driven 24/7

Red (light): A company car that can be driven only during business hours

White: High-ranking government official. Don't mess with this either!

Yellow: Private vehicle

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Disclosure: I occasionally accept free or discounted travel when it coincides with my editorial goals. However, my opinion is never for sale. The opinions you see in Cuba & Costa Rica Journal are my unbiased reflection of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Copyright © Christopher P. Baker