In the queue at the Cadeca in San José de las Lajas, people just want to collect their meagre pensions in pesos and no one is interested in the new floating dollar exchange rate.
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque). 28 December 2025 — In San José de las Lajas, the new floating dollar exchange rate does not feel like a change, but rather like a number – 410 pesos – that is alien to the real life of the population.
In front of the municipality’s Cadeca [currency exchange], the morning is progressing slowly, with the sun beating down on the pavement and a line where almost no one talks about currency, even though the signs and figures are there for all to see.
Gisela arrived early to collect her mother’s pension. With the recent change in the exchange rate, she wondered if there would be longer lines and if the collection of checks would be separated from foreign currency exchange transactions. She asked the guard at the door and the answer was simple: everyone waiting is there for their retirement. The last to arrive is an elderly man in worn clothes, unhurried and with no intention of exchanging dollars.
“As far as I’m concerned, the government can set the dollar at whatever price it wants,” says the retiree, adjusting his cap emblazoned with the letters USA. “With my pension of 4,000 pesos, the most I can hope for is to eat for a week,” he explains, referring to a payment that is not even equivalent to $10, according to the official exchange rate. “Everything is more expensive on the street,” the man says, without raising his voice.
The assistant pokes his head out from time to time and asks the usual question: “Is there anyone here to exchange currency?” No one responds. All morning, no one has stopped in front of the doorway with the intention of selling dollars. “They want to compete with the informal market, but they’re not doing that well either,” says Gisela, leaning against the wall. Her experience is not theoretical. “I signed up in February to buy $60 through the digital queue, and I’m still waiting. So it’s obvious that you have to sort out your dollars on the street.”
In San José de las Lajas, as in much of the country, you only need to open Facebook or Telegram to see that informal trading continues unabated. Ads appear one after another, rates change several times a day, and transactions are carried out without paperwork or blackboards. “If my brother sends me a few dollars, I’m not going to sell them to the government at a lower price than what others are offering me,” says Gisela. “You don’t have to be an economist,” she points out. For her, the new rate is just another chapter in a series of broken promises, too similar to those of the Tarea Ordenamiento (Ordering Task*).
“To make matters worse, we now have tremendous confusion because many businesses are using an intermediate exchange rate, between the one published by El Toque and the one used by the government, which means that now you have to do a lot of mental calculations to be able to pay directly with dollars or when selling them,” the woman tells 14ymedio.
The line of pensioners moves slowly. There are no faces of relief, no optimistic comments. The weariness of those who live counting every penny is pervasive. Mario, a retired agricultural engineer, observes the board with irony. “This is a joke,” complains the man who spent most of his professional life in a Cuba “where the dollar was prohibited or frowned upon.” It was in the early 2000s that he first came into contact with the US currency, during a time when he worked in Venezuela and managed to save some money.
Mario doesn’t believe the measure announced by the Central Bank of Cuba will benefit most people. “That’s for a small group, not for ordinary people,” he says, leaning against his old bicycle. “All we do is stand here praying that the cash doesn’t run out before we get to the teller window.” Around him, several elderly people nod in agreement as they try to take advantage of the shade under the doorway.
*Translator’s note: The “Ordering Task” was a collection of measures that include 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 a broad range of other measures targeted to different elements of the Cuban economy.
Translated by GH
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.