As of January 1, with the start of the ordering task, the CUC will finally disappear and the official dollar exchange rate will become 1×24 Cuban pesos. Wasn’t that what the people wanted? Now, instead of a monthly salary between $ 25 and $ 40, Cubans earn at least $ 87 (2,100 pesos). The salary is of course billed in Cuban pesos, the country’s official currency, with which to buy the dollars … from whom? Where are those dollars that cost 24 Cuban pesos?
The Cuban state has no dollars to sell. In fact, those who have bank accounts in dollars or euros cannot even withdraw the desired amount whenever they want. Even medical personnel on missions abroad – recognized by the government as their main source of foreign exchange – will see their bank savings frozen if they decide to convert them into dollars or euros.
Cubans who don’t have dollars or whoever sends them will have to buy with pesos, the country’s official currency after the dissolution of the CUC. But where? What commodity does the Cuban state sell in pesos besides that of the winery? No. Whoever needs soap, shampoo, dish soap, tomato paste, oil will have to buy them with dollars. But first you have to put them in a bank account, and once there you can’t touch them. You must request a magnetic card to buy in freely convertible currency stores at stores.
At that point, Cubans will see that their actual salary is not $ 87, but $ 60 or less. If the state doesn’t sell dollars, they can only buy them on the street, where they will barely find them for less than 35 Cuban pesos.
Cuban workers will face not only the drastic fall in their wages, but also the dilemma of forgoing basic necessities or committing the crime of “illegal trade in national currency, foreign currency, metals and gems”.
Article 235.1 of the current Criminal Code sanctions’ with deprivation of liberty of two to five years or a fine of three hundred to one thousand quotas or both to those who f) conduct exchange transactions in black markets of national or foreign currency or through other than legal channels established “.
That subsection f is the one that served to accuse the so-called ‘resellers’ who were located around the Casas de Cambio (CADECAS) and the shops in CUC and sold the convertible peso for 25 Cuban pesos, which was the same price CADECA sold it at , with the difference that it was bought from them without a queue.
Many Cubans refused to buy CUC from these people because they did not want to use any channel other than “the legally established one”. Where are those channels to buy currency now?
The deprivation of liberty for two to five years or a fine of 300,000 installments, or both, is provided not only for the person who sells the currency, but also for the person who, in the absence of legal alternatives, has to buy it. Both parties materialize the action of black market barter operations, according to law.
Currently there is no need to have cash on hand. A bank transfer that is suspected of illegal exchange of dollars or Freely Convertible Currency (MLC) operations between Cubans, or between foreigners, or between foreigners and Cubans located in the national territory, using technologies for the electronic circulation of money is sufficient to file a declaration. Banks in Cuba are required to inform the specialized structures of the Ministry of the Interior in charge of determining economic crimes of the identities of those whose banking activities they consider suspicious.
In its interventions on the so-called “ordinance”, the government made several assurances that no one would be left helpless. Was he referring to the fact that prison inmates have guaranteed food? Many honest people, who have done nothing but work all their lives and continue to do so or are retired, could go to jail or pay fines for a crime caused by the state.
If the government is unable to supply the stores that sell in the country’s official currency – which, according to the authorities, was the purpose of the stores in MLC – nor to provide the people with an alternative to the legal purchase of dollars, she must remove the criminal figure of illegal currency trading from the criminal code or not apply any sanctions until the problem that caused it is resolved.