English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The dollar went on a wild run in June, climbing from 600 to 700 pesos before falling back to 660 this Friday. 14ymedio, Madrid, June 26, 2026 / The informal foreign currency market is going through turbulent times. Just three days ago, the dollar hit 700 Cuban pesos [CUP], crossing a new psychological threshold and … Continue reading “Confusion in Cuba Over the Yo-Yo Effect in the Dollar Exchange Rate”
Those who receive remittances are celebrating the rise, but prices have also increased significantly, and people on the street are noticing. 14ymedio, Havana, June 3, 2026 — The day Laritza had been waiting for has arrived. For weeks, this retired Havana resident has been holding on to the 100 dollars she received from relatives abroad, … Continue reading “The Dollar Reaches a Record 600 Cuban Pesos on the Informal Currency Market”
Eggs imported from Brazil are priced in dollars in San José de las Lajas and sold in minutes. 14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, San José de Las Lajas (Mayabeque)/ The white lights of the La Época market in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, illuminate the rows of eggs stacked on the counter. Arriving customers observe and … Continue reading ““I Don’t Know Where People Get the Dollars, But They’re Buying Them in Bulk””
“Absolutely all” those inspected by ONAT “underreported,” the provincial newspaper explains. 14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2025 — A total of 365,600,000 pesos (more than $925,000 at the informal exchange rate) are owed by taxpayers in Sancti Spíritus, if the figures presented Monday by the Sancti Spiritus newspaper Escambray are accurate. The official newspaper doesn’t state … Continue reading “Tax Evasion Debt in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba Exceeds 300 Million Pesos”
The solution to reducing this gap is not to rethink the effectiveness of the Ordinance, but to avoid the “concentration of wealth in a few hands,” he said. 14ymedio, Havana, 19 July 2025 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged this Friday that the dollarization of the island’s economy has led to a “widening” of the … Continue reading “Cuban President Díaz-Canel Acknowledges That Dollarization in Cuba Has Increased ‘Social Inequality’”
They warn that the currency will reach or even exceed 400 pesos. 14ymedio, Madrid, June 9, 2025 — The calm that parallel exchange rates have experienced in Cuba over the past year seems to be coming to an end. So believes the Cuban Currency and Finance Observatory (OMFi), which shared on Monday its monthly report … Continue reading “Experts Predict a ‘Busier’ June for the Dollar Exchange Rate in Cuba”
“They give you MLC and they keep the real money, the hard money,” said the first baseman, who ‘defected’ in Canada 14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2025 — Payments in dollars received by Cuban players in Japan cannot be transferred to an account in Cuba without being transformed into MLC (freely convertible currency). This was the … Continue reading “General Guillermo García’s Baseball-Playing Grandson Denounces the Complications of Sending Dollars to Cuba”
The authorities expect there to be 50 new Alma Caribe stores, which will supply businesses and the population 14ymedio, Rosa Pascual / José Lassa, Madrid / Havana, 6 February 2025 — Three women sat down this Wednesday on the State’s Round Table program to give more details on television about a thorny issue for Cubans: … Continue reading “The Cuban State Extends Its Business Network in Dollars With Mercalhabana and Alma Caribe”
The state communications monopoly has millions of pesos in cash but needs foreign currency to modernize 14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 14 January 2025 — The Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa) is trapped in a paradox. While it lacks foreign currency to invest in its deteriorated infrastructure, the monopoly has been fined for not using its … Continue reading “Etecsa Will Start Charging for Some Services in Dollars Inside Cuba”
The president of the state monopoly paints a bleak picture of the deterioration of its facilities 14ymedio, Havana, 19 January 2025 — Despite the precariousness of the facilities, mobile telephony and internet access are essential services for millions of customers in Cuba. However, according to an assessment made by its directors, the state monopoly Etecsa … Continue reading “Cuba’s State Telecommunications Monopoly, Etecsa, Blames Foreign Websites That ‘Clone’ Its Offers for Its Shortage of Dollars”
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero admits that the foreign exchange market mostly operates irregularly 14ymedio/EFE, Madrid, 18 December 2024 (delayed translation) — Prime Minister Manuel Marrero acknowledged on Wednesday that citizens have lost confidence in the Cuban state banking system. In his speech before the National Assembly of People’s Power, he said that the government … Continue reading “Cuba Announces a New Exchange Rate for the Dollar That Varies ‘With Supply and Demand’”
Prime Minister Marrero asked that the Government have control over the foreign currency and be the one to put it “in function of the well-being of the population” 14ymedio, Madrid, 8 January 2024 — Cuba’s Prime Minister put on paper on Tuesday the government plan that in recent days has everyone talking on the street, … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime Is Dollarizing the Economy To Capture ‘The Foreign Currency That Is Currently Being Moved Illegally’”
The move is a sign that “dollarization” of the economy — something Prime Minister Manuel Marrero has spoken about— is going ahead along with the end of the MLC 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 3 January 2024 — The new 3rd and 70th Supermarket, which opened on Tuesday on the ground floor of the … Continue reading “Cuban Government Opens a High-End Supermarket that Only Accepts Dollars in Cash or Card”
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Rosalía (Villa Clara province), 23 November 2024 — To plant peanuts, without which Villa Clara’s famous turrones* would not exist, three things are needed: experience, technique and luck. Braulio, a 62-year-old farmer from the Rosalía sugar workers’ town in Camajuaní, certainly has the first two. The third is harder to come … Continue reading “In Villa Clara, Cuba, With Hard Work and an Excellent Peanut Harvest, Braulio Barely Made 675 Dollars”
Another 25,000 guajiros make up the rest of the peasant “body,” subject to the vagaries of the informal market. 14ymedio, Havana, 16 November 2024 — With a cartoon of a dollar bill decorated with elements of the Cuban peso, the Escambray newspaper denounced, this Saturday, that the campesinos of Sancti Spíritus are forced to buy … Continue reading “Dollars in Hand, an Elite of 40 Producers Monopolizes Agricultural Inputs in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba”