English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Eliás Amor Bravo, Economist, August 24, 2020 — Perhaps, possibly, together with salaries, housing and the daily worry about food, monetary unification has become one of the main problems for Cubans. There is proof of that. The article published in Granma with the title “Monetary unification is on the horizon in Cuba”, in which several specialists … Continue reading “Monetary Unification: The Story Never Ends”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 24 August 2020 — A note recently published by the official Cuban press discusses once again the much harped on and, so far, unresolved issue of monetary unification, through an interview conducted by its author with various specialists from the Central Bank of Cuba. Said officials agreed on the importance of … Continue reading “Cuba, Monetary Unification and “The Horizon” for its Destiny / Miriam Celaya”
Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 November 2019 — The CUC was the fictitious currency created by Fidel Castro during the Special Period to avoid the dollarization of the Cuban economy. A controversial decision that has created not a few problems in the operation of demand and supply. Three years after his death, the authorities seem to have … Continue reading “The Slow Agony and Death of Fidel Castro’s Currency”
Source EFE, via 14ymedio: Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, denied on Tuesday that the imminent rise in state wages is a populist measure, and he assured that it will be accompanied by other economic reforms, such as the long-awaited elimination of the double currency. The president affirmed in an appearance on the Roundtable TV show that … Continue reading “14ymedio Headline News Summary: Diaz-Canel Links Salary Increases to the End of the Dual Currency System in Cuba”
14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Havana/Miama, 26 May 2018 — The Telecommunications Company of Cuba (Etecsa) announced Thursday on Round Table program that beginning on June 5 people will be able to make three balance transfers daily between cell lines in the country and the charge for this service will be 20 cents CUC for this … Continue reading “A New Crypto-currency is Born in Cuba, The "Etecso"”
EFE via 14ymedio, Havana, 30 March 2018 — Cuba’s Central Bank, on Thursday, tried to calm the “false” rumors that one of the two currencies circulating in the country will be immediately withdrawn in the process of monetary reunification, which has led to a rush on banks and currency exchanges. “This event is based on the … Continue reading “Cuban Government Asks for Calm in Face of Rumors About Imminent Monetary Unification”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, 15 March 2018 — The last weeks have been like a heart attack for Luis, the employee who guards the door at the Metropolitan Bank (Banmet) on Galiano Street, in Havana. The flood of customers doesn’t give him a minute’s rest because “people are going nuts changing and saving money” out of fear that … Continue reading “Long Lines at Cuban Banks For Fear of Monetary Unification”
EFE, via 14ymedio, Havana, 1 February 2018 — The European Union (EU) has offered to share its experience in transitioning to the euro to aid Cuba in its transition to a single currency, one of the main challenges facing in the Cuban economy and something some experts believe could happen this year. The European Commission’s … Continue reading “The EU Offers Cuba Help in Unifying Its Currency”
EFE / via 14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2017 — The president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, confirmed on Thursday that he will leave office on April 21, after the Cuban Parliament extended his current mandate until that date, a mandate which was due to end on February 24. “When the National Assembly is constituted I will … Continue reading “Raul Castro Confirms He Will Leave the Presidency and Urges Elimination of Dual Currency”
Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 26 October 2015 — Without a doubt the most complex challenge Raúl Castro’s regime has in the short-term is monetary unification. The use in the country of two national currencies for the last two and a half decades has ended up generating an inestimable distortion in the internal finance system, which by itself would … Continue reading “Monetary Unification in Cuba, an Unresolved Issue / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
14ymedio, Havana, Miriam Celaya, 27 August 2014–The information that the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) published on August 19th in the paper edition of the newspaper Granma about “the next issuance of high denomination bank notes (100, 50 and 20 pesos, CUP) with new security measures” brings back to the forefront the issue of the … Continue reading “What Purpose Did the Dual Currency System Serve? / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
HAVANA TIMES —The announcement that the Cuban government plans to eliminate Cuba’s two-currency monetary system has awakened numerous concerns among common citizens and analysts. This was to be expected, for, even if we assume the simplest and most vulgar point of view on Cuban reality, it is clear that this is a serious issue that … Continue reading “Cuba’s Monetary Unification: a Turn for the Better or for the Worse? / Haroldo Dilla Alfonso”
Danilo, an illegal hard-currency speculator, has had a busy week. “I buy dollars, euros and convertible pesos. But after the government announced it would move to a single currency, I am without funds,” he says from a centrally located Havana boulevard. Some of the CADECA currency exchanges have closed early because they did not have … Continue reading “The Long-Awaited End to Cuba’s Two-Currency System / Ivan Garcia”
When a government’s finances are in the red, everything’s a big rush. So they usually rush to grab the scissors. And butcher public expenditures. Or raise taxes. Which is what the government of General Raúl Castro is doing. With the difference that the Cuban citizens have miserable salaries, and so they resort to charging fees … Continue reading “New Tariffs in the Regime’s Hunt for Hard Currency / Iván García”
The revolution is not in crisis. The revolution itself is a perennial crisis and a chronic illness. 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, July 2, 2024 — Fidel Castro did not want to call the great Cuban debacle of the 1990s a crisis. He preferred the euphemism “Special Period.” He used the term twenty times during … Continue reading “Never a Time of Peace for the Cuban Economy”
