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However, testimonies from hundreds of Cubans who have been living in Moscow for a few years — people either waiting to legalize their status or to continue their migration to the European Union — paint a picture quite different from the one Raudel imagines. Last year, a group of Russian citizens launched an online campaign to alleviate the suffering of several Cubans stranded on the streets of Moscow.

The pandemic has created an unexpectedly precarious situation for these migrants as well as for the “mules” who come to Russia to buy merchandise to resell on Cuba’s informal market. Some end up living on the streets or in apartments with no heat, conditions which make surviving the harsh Russian winter difficult.

“We, as Moscow residents, appeal to Moscow’s government and the Cuban Consulate in the Russian Federation to provide accommodation at little or no cost in student housing in the Moscow region for fifty Cuban citizens who have been unable to fly home due to pandemic,” the text reads.

“At this time, people are being evicted from their apartments, some have been living on the street for a month,” it adds. “The Cuban embassy does not have financial means to provide housing for its citizens [and this] is an opportunity to safely house these Cubans in student residences.”

Among those stranded are entire families, including minors, who liquidated everything to set forth on this expedition. They were not told, before leaving Cuba, of the strict border controls between this vast country and eastern Europe, of the hard ice they would have to cross to reach the Bering Strait or of the difficulties of learning Russian.

Several cases of human trafficking have been reported in which Cubans were met at International Sheremetyevo Airport, housed for a short time by an extensive network and put on fishing boats which took them across the Bering Strait to Alaska. Some were intercepted en route. Others — no one knows how many — may be resting under the ice in one of the coldest regions on the planet.

The same level of despair can be seen today. “I am selling rubles at 74 Cuban pesos, for your trip to Russia,” reads one posting on several of the island’s digital classifieds sites. Now that Cubans can no longer deposit dollars in their bank accounts, informal moneychangers are fishing in troubled waters. They even offer to convert American currency into thousands and thousands of Russian banknotes.

“Flights from Varadero to Moscow with accommodation, accompaniement and advice included. I am Cuban and can help you get to this great country and guide you on how to stay or continue elsewhere,” says an ad that appears in several Telegram groups. The offer includes room rental for about $ 40 a day, contact with people who supposedly “organize the documents” and legal help.

But before flying to Russia, the island’s residents must first show that they have made a pre-paid reservation to stay at a Covid confinement hotel upon their return. “The money adds up. It’s one more expense,” says a young woman in the same Telegram group. “But it’s the price of freedom. When you are desperate, you go to any length and you somehow find the money, even if there isn’t any, which is the case with me.”

“I’m going to try it because I have nothing to lose,” she adds. “I live with my grandparents and right now there’s nothing to eat at my house. If I don’t go, who will help them?” It should be noted that slave labor and forced prostitution networks are often hide behind posts like these.

“If it’s a choice between having to sleep with the butcher so he’ll sell me some eggs or going to Moscow, I’ll go to Moscow, the young woman writes. “I wasn’t alive during the Special Period but, based on what everyone has told me, it’s not something I want to experience.” So far, she has sold her mobile phone, laptop and a “living room suite” to pay for the trip.

“I prefer Putin’s Russia,” she says, although, like most of those who set out on this journey, she does not speak the language, has little knowledge of the country and does not even have a relative or friend to support her once she gets there.

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On June 10 authorities announced that banks would no longer accept cash deposits in dollars, claiming the government has been unable to use the banknotes it has been accumulating due to international sanctions. Banks will, therefore, only accept deposits and transfers in other currencies as of June 21.

A couple of days later, the vice-president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Francisco Mayobre Lence, said in a TV interview that tourists would no longer be able to change cash dollars. They will need a different currency to pay for expenses or will have to use one of the international credit cards accepted on the island. (The U.S. embargo prohibits the use of cards issued in the United States.)

The state-owned Cuban currency exchange company, Cadeca, has also begun selling pre-paid cards in 200, 500 and 1,000-dollar denominations at its bureaus in resort destinations. Cuban customers can buy them by first presenting a passport, which must be renewed every two years. Dollars are still legal, however, and it is quite possible that travelers will continue introducing them as cash into the country’s economy.

Tourists buy a large number of alternative products and services — from guided tours to private taxi rides to black market cigars — which private entrepreneurs (whose existence only recently became legal) sell them for dollars.

Most of these activities are illegal but the practice is open, widespread and generally tolerated, even though the number of American visitors, who are usually the ones carrying this currency, remain very low.

Cuban-American visitors to the island can be also be relied upon to carry cash remittances into the country which they would have previously sent from overseas. Those dollars will end up on the black market, where ’mules ’and would-be emigres are eager to acquire them, though at the moment the only destination to which anyone is allowed to travel is Russia.

While many people began waiting in line outside banks at dawn on the day after the government’s announcement, there was no indication of a huge rush to unload the currency.

“Why should I keep this money if I won’t be able to use it after this date?” asked a young man waiting outside the entrance to branch bank on June 11. He was one of many who were there to hand over their savings in an operation reminiscent of the so-called houses of gold and silver.

In the 1980s people exchanged their jewelry and precious gemstones at these government-run stores in exchange for vouchers which they could use to buy clothing, footwear and home appliances.

Last Thursday there was also a run on euros in Miami, which were already in short supply in many of the city’s branch banks. They saw a stampede of Cuban immigrants eagerly buying euro coins to send to their relatives on the island. However, many Cubans there remain cautious. The euro is not experiencing the meteoric rise that was predicted on the first day, nor are dollars flying out of peoples’ hands. Instead, most are waiting to experience firsthand the tangible absence of a currency that has ruled their lives for so long.

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Romero, who insisted on the importance of protecting the vulnerable, asked the population to work to take advantage of the 63 measures approved for the agricultural sector. The key measure of this economic package was the liberalization of the sale of surplus beef and milk for those producers who had contributed the mandatory quota to the State. However, in the province only 1% of those who raise cattle meet the conditions.

The local newspaper Escambray indicated that “more than 80 farmers, private or state” could market their products and the number could grow “discreetly.” In Sancti Spíritus there are 2,900 landless farmers who graze animals, precisely one of the requirements to be authorized to dispose of their own livestock.

The governor pointed out one of the few things that is going smoothly: fines. According to Romero, around “7,000 control-of-retail-price actions have been imposed and 1,197 fines have been applied,” at all kinds of points of sale, from state markets to the self-employed, and including foreign currency stores.

These types of economic sanctions are also complemented by administrative ones, such as the withdrawal of licenses, confiscation of products, forced sale and, when necessary, a criminal complaint. Romero stressed the importance of being rigorous with control and punitive measures.

Barely a day had passed since the press reported on the dismantling of a network of “60 home warehouses” dedicated to “illicit economic activity” with more than 1,050 complaints made, especially in the capital and the municipalities of Trinidad, Cabaiguán and Jatibonico.

In addition, the police dismantled 19 illegal factories producing all kinds of products. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, 36,462 boxes of cigarettes and 7,828 toiletries were seized in this operation.

The data for the first quarter have been bad not only in Sancti Spíritus. A few days ago it was learned that local companies in Ciego de Ávila lost more than 53 million pesos until April.

Some of the most catastrophic figures in food were in the fall in the trade of pork and sausages, which only reached 22.3% of the forecasts, and eggs, which reached just 16.7%. The commercial sector lost 28 million pesos and food services 24 million pesos.

In this province the alarms had already gone off when the Ceballos Agroindustrial Company, a former jewel in the State’s crown and the main industry in the territory, closed January with red numbers.

*Translator’s note:  The ‘Ordering Task’ [Tarea ordenamiento] which is a collection of measures that includes eliminating the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso as the only national currency, raising prices, raising salaries (but not as much as prices), opening stores that take payment only in hard currency which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards, and others. 

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Last Friday, the first vice president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), Francisco Mayobre Lence, explained on television that travelers who arrive on the island after June 21 will not be able, like nationals, to exchange dollars in cash, and so must arrive with a different currency to cover their expenses or use an international card accepted in the Cuba (the embargo does not allow the use of cards issued in the United States).

The new product could solve some of these problems, but it is to be expected that other problems will occur. The measure has not been well received by Cubans residing in the country, who speculate, in social networks and the official press, about the difficulties that this may have for tourists.

“So, does the tourist who comes with dollars after June 20 have to eat them? Can’t he buy these cards? Will the tourist be forced to come to Cuba with a currency other than the USD?” asks a Cubadebate reader to which another responds: “Cuban inventions. Apparently they forgot that there is competition in the Caribbean.”

Some users fail to imagine tourists lining at a Cadeca and believe it is very possible that a black market for dollars will continue to circulate. Meanwhile, others ask insistently if, since the use of the cards is not limited to the personwho acquired them, anyone will be able to use them, a doubt that reveals the aspiration of many to get one of these products by any means.

Last Thursday the government announced by surprise that it would stop accepting cash in US dollars. Yesterday, the General Customs of the Republic issued a statement clarifying that this also affects the payment of customs duties and services for items imported at the border, which can only be paid in currencies other than the United States or by card.

The agency has asked Cubans to take steps to avoid acting out and comply with regulations without giving up import rights.

Cubans and economists debate the reasons for this decision by the authorities, arguing that they have huge amounts of dollars in cash stuck in banks because they are not able to operate internationally with them. The foreign currency stores, which increasingly provide more goods, even basic goods, to Cubans and, at the same time, are more scarce every day, lack products due to the impossibility of buying with all the cash they collect, due to the US sanctions, which prevent them from moving the money, argues the Government.

Critics doubt this argument and offer other hypotheses, together or in combination, ranging from an attempt to pressure the Biden government to relax sanctions through pressure from families who send remittances, to money laundering through a desperate attempt to get hold of as much US currency they can collect, in record time.

Another theory suggests that it is a matter of curbing the rise in the price of the dollar in the informal market. Exchange houses sell dollars at a rate of 1 x 24 Cuban pesos, while in illegal networks the rate has reached 70.

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Adorned with enormous portraits of America’s founding fathers, the most recent dollar bills have recently earned the nickname cabezón (or big head) to distinguish them from earlier denominations, whose central images were smaller. It joins a long list of nicknames for the dollar that includes greens, fulas* and enemy currency.

Though the European Union’s currency is now the leading candidate to replace the U.S. dollar, it is viewed with suspicion here. “People are just not as familiar with the euro. It’s a different size. Some of its bills don’t even fit in my wallet,” complains Papito. “We need a crash course to be able to tell real euros from fake ones,” he jokes.

It is not just informal money changers who are having problems. “There are a lot of home delivery apps that require payment before the customer knows the total purchase price in pesos or dollars, even if the person is paying cash in a foreign currency. Will they now have to redesign the app?” asks Yunieski, a messenger who works for one of those services.

“With dollars, at least people knew that if the little old man on the bill was wrinkled and half bald, it was a hundred dollars. If he had a beard, then it was fifty. But with these European monuments, who knows? We all have to start studying,” he notes ironically.

Even so, Yunieski prefers the euro over the soon-to-be defunct convertible peso. I won’t accept tips in chavitos,” he says, “because it means spending long hours in line at a bank to exchange them. But I’ll take any euros, pounds sterling or yen that customers want to give me.”

For months it has been almost impossible to buy foreign currency of any kind from the island’s banks. A young man, who prefers to remain anonymous, reported that one day he saw a bank teller stuffing three large bundles of euros and dollars into a cash drawer. He asked her why he could not exchange his Cuban pesos for some of the banknotes. Without flinching, she responded, “They’re not available.” Undeterred, the young man asked her when the bank would be selling dollars and euros. “You can buy them on the street,” she advised him.

After the government imposed tight controls on foreign exchange operations, some banks began doing a brisk business selling freely convertible currency (MLC) “under the table.”

So claims a 28-year-old computer programmer who has an account at Havana’s Banco Metropolitano, which allows him to receive foreign currency transfers that he can then access with a debit card to make purchases at MLC stores.

He reports that he contacted the branch bank where he has his foreign currency account. He was told that, for a percentage of the total transfer amount, an employee could let him know when there are enough euros in the till or the vault for him to make a withdrawal.

Meanwhile, if an ordinary customer were to go to the bank and ask to withdraw 100 euros from his account, he would receive the same reply: “Unfortunately, we do not have that amount on hand.”

The official press reported that banks will extend their weekend hours to make sure account holders have time to make cash deposits in U.S. dollars. Banco Metropolitano will be open on Friday and Saturday from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm; on Sunday from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. Banco de Crédito y Comercio and Banco Popular de Ahorro will be open on Friday from 8 am to 3 pm; on Saturday from 8 am to 11 am, and on Sunday from 8 am to 12 pm.

*Translator’s note: In Cuba, the word “fula” is otherwise used to describe someone who is troublesome or cannot be trusted.

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“People screamed to high heaven so they had to walk back the decision,” a young man told 14ymedio on Wednesday. He was applying for a new passport at the DIIE office on 17th and J streets in Havana’s El Vedado neighborhood, the sole office accepting applications for special circumstances during the shutdown. “People here were as mad as hell.”

“They were telling us this through the metal gates because they were closed. They said they were only issuing passports to travelers who had already bought a ticket and were in the process of reuniting with family in the United States. The rest of us there that day couldn’t submit an application,” the young man added.

A Cuban passport is valid for six years but must be renewed twice in that period. The document is among the most expensive of its kind in the world. It costs 2,500 pesos ($100) and must be renewed every two years at a cost of 500 pesos.

The need to renew or apply for a new passport has been growing in the past year due to pandemic-related closures of several DIIE offices. The suspension of commercial flights and restrictions on entry from other countries have grounded many Cuban travelers, especially the “mules” who import merchandise for the underground market.

“This measure made absolutely no sense. To get a special exemption, they expected you to bring an airline ticket you had already bought. But how am I supposed to get a ticket if my passport is expired and I need to get a new one?” asks another applicant upon learning that the office on Castillejo Street in Central Havana was open again.

Last Friday officials in Havana imposed a new series of restrictive measures they are calling “the final offensive against the pandemic.” Among them are a ban on entering or leaving the city without authorization from provincial or national authorities, which is only granted for reasons related to work.

On Tuesday Cuba set a new daily record of 1,537 Covid-19 cases, surpassing the previous record of 1,470 infections on Sunday. Since March of last year the country has had 161,997 cases and 1,118 deaths from the virus, twelve of them in the last twenty-four hours.

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In the dismantling of the criminal network of home warehouses, the police seized “agricultural products, fruits, corn, rice, meat,” and a “considerable numbers of toiletry, cleaning and hardware articles.”

In the 187 operations carried out, official seized 534,007 pounds of onions, 22,554 of tomatoes, 17,844 of rice, 2,872 of chili, 2,426 of beans, 1,814 of potatoes, 1,100 of sweet potatoes and 1,290 pounds of beef and pork. Also seized were 36,462 boxes of cigarettes and 7,828 of toiletries.

The police told Escambray that the “confrontation” they is carrying out aims to “restrict all transgressive behaviors” and crimes that affect the economy of the country and of citizens.

During the first five months of the year they also imposed 278 fines on state and private workers, who are mainly engaged in commerce, food service and the sale of agricultural products. The total amount of these penalties, established in Decree 30 that sets the pricing policy, exceeds 900,500 pesos.

At the beginning of September last year, a Cabaiguán resident was sentenced to ten months in prison for illicit economic activity within a network that sold essential items on digital platforms.

A few days later, sources from the Ministry of the Interior of Sancti Spíritus denounced on Cuban Television another illegal network dedicated to the repackaging and sale of powdered milk. Four people were arrested in the police operation, including three officials from the state dairy company Río Zaza.

In the last year in official media, with unusual frequency, the Government has published criminal acts related to the crisis in the country. In addition, it does not miss the opportunity to hold coleros* and resellers responsible for the worsening of the shortage and to issue warnings to other informal traders.

*Translator’s note: From the word “cola,” for “line,” coleros are people paid by others to stand in line for them.

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Despite technical difficulties, which prevented the presence of several members in the presentation, diversity prevailed in the composition of the Council, which “does not pretend to represent everyone, but is open to the participation of social, cultural and political actors, who want to place within the same basket of initiatives a set of actions, proposals and concerted ideas for democratic change.”

The advisor to the Council’s Foreign Relations Secretariat, Ernesto Gutiérrez Tamargo, specified that the initiative is an open entity that wants everyone to be part of its structures.

Gutiérrez explained that “there is a hierarchical organization because someone has to take charge of the organization.” The first people to make the list are there for “merit, experience, work time and the ability to devote themselves to the fight for freedom, democracy and human rights in Cuba.” He added that many more people have been spoken to and that some have chosen to “stay in second place.”

In Gutierrez Tamargo’s opinion, the recent European Parliament resolution on human rights and the political situation in Cuba “gave legitimacy to the Cuban opposition” to serve as an interlocutor with organizations and even governments of other countries.

The Council for the Democratic Transition is chaired by José Daniel Ferrer (Patriotic Union of Cuba) and among the nine vice presidents are Manuel Cuesta (Progressive Arch/Cuba En Plural) and Félix Navarro (Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy Party)

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The consular section of Cuba in Mexico City echoed the new measures through its social networks, explaining that, for island residents, packages “may be purchased through national travel agencies, before travel abroad, or reserved from abroad through the tour operators that market the destination Cuba.”

Durán justified the new measures due to the number of cases “in many countries with which we have relations.” The official did not specify, but Cubans mostly use the airports of Ciego de Ávila and Varadero to travel to Russia, as a final destination or to connect to other destinations, due to the limitation on flights that the Government implemented since the beginning of the year to stop the outbreak of Covid-19.

By this same route, hundreds of nationals return to the island, many of them — popularly known as ’mules’ — dedicated to the business of importing merchandise to resell in the informal market.

At the same time, the virulence of the third wave of Covid in Cuba does not cease, and Durán himself acknowledged that May, with 35,701 patients positive for the coronavirus, was “the worst month of the epidemic in the national territory, since in March of last year when the first three infections with Sars-CoV-2 were reported.”

After setting a record last Tuesday, with 1,537 positives registered on that day, the latest official report from the Ministry of Public Health shows, this Thursday, 1,418 new cases and 5 deaths. There is a total of 163,415 cases and 1,123 deaths.

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The Temporary Working Group, the agency handling the public health emergency, announced that motorcycles would only be allowed to carry paying passengers during the hours public transport in operating. They are considering whether or not to allow motorcyclists, with or without commercial licenses, to transport family members with whom they are living.

Authorities say the decision is intended to “alleviate the transportation needs” for city residents.

“As in times past, motorcyclists are still doing the rounds and avoiding the traffic police by operating mainly in areas outside the city center, like Santa Maria, Boniato and Caney,” reports one young man who works in construction in the city.

“Thanks to the motorcycles a lot of us are able to get around because public transport only runs for a few hours a day and you have to fight for your life to use it,” he adds.

As of May 26, public transport may operate for six hours a day, from 5 A.M to 8 A.M and from 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. Only vehicles which are distributing essential goods, transporting flour, or being used by Public Health personel for administrative functions may operate outside those hours.

On Saturday, Santiago de Cuba reported 180 new cases of Covid, putting it behind Havana at 422 cases and Matanzas at 192, on a day that saw a record 1,470 new infections. On that same day there were 12 deaths due to complications associated with the infection for a total of 1,087 deaths from Covid-19 on the island.

The Public Health Ministry announced on Sunday that it has recorded 157,708 positive Covid test results since March 2020. Since early May, new daily infections of SARS-CoV-2 have averaged more than a thousand, with 1,198 cases in June so far.

On Sunday, Cuba, with a population of 11.2 million, reached a Covid case rate of 152 per 100,000 inhabitants according to the Spanish news agency EFE.

Controlled trials of the two of the five vaccines developed in Cuba, Abdala and Sovereign 02, are being conducted in high-risk areas of the country.

Both pharmaceuticals are in the final phase of clinical trials, which determine the efficacy of a potential vaccine. They have not yet received emergency use authorization from the country’s regulatory agency but authorities are hoping to obtain it this month once the results of the clinical trials are known. If one or both are shown to be effective, a massive vaccination campaign will begin.

Cuba is not part of the COVAX project, a vaccine program created by the World Health Organization which allows low and medium-income countries to acquire vaccines they have not been able buy on the world market.

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After the journalist’s arrest, his family and the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press (Iclep) denounced that he was missing. Once released, Suárez said on his social networks that he was transferred to the police station at 7th and 62nd in Havana’s Playa municipality.

The journalist’s family told 14ymedio that they were looking for him at the police stations closest to his home, in the Siboney district, and did not get information on his whereabouts. Iclep recalled that Suárez “has been besieged lately for his work” and for denouncing “the repressive forces for their methods of torturing independent activists and journalists.”

On the other hand, Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, director of the Delibera digital platform, remains under arrest since June 15, first at the Zapata y C station, in El Vedado, and later in Villa Marista, according to family members and activists.

Valle Roca, a day before his arrest, published on the Delibera YouTube channel, a video of the tossing out of leaflets at the central corner of Zanja and Galiano, in Centro Habana, on the occasion of the celebration of Antonio Maceo’s birthday.

This Thursday, Eralidis Frometa, a human rights activist and wife of the independent journalist, denounced that several agents searched the house they share.

Also still remaining in pridon is the independent reporter Esteban Rodríguez, who was transferred from the Guanajay maximum security prison to a hospital in Havana on Tuesday, where he was admitted after testing positive for Covid-19.

Rodríguez, a journalist for ADN Cuba, was one of those arrested on April 30 in the peaceful demonstration on Obispo Street, in which Mary Karla Ares, a contributor to the community media outlet Amanecer Habanero, was also arrested. The reporter was able to return home under “home confinement” and denounced that, during the 27 days she spent in prison, she was the victim of “long hours of interrogation” and “psychological torture.”

Likewise, the CiberCuba activist and reporter Iliana Hernández has been besieged at her house by the police and State Security agents for about 70 days. In addition to being forbidden to go out, they have also cut off her mobile data internet service.

In the month of May alone, the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights documented more than 900 violent actions, something that, they denounce, confirms a “broader and more personalized repression” against civil society with the aim of “silencing all dissent.”

After the increase in repression by the regime in the first five months of the year, some activists and organizations consider that the country is experiencing “a new version of the Black Spring” of 2003.

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