The most desired bills from several years ago in Cuba are now being rejected. The private sector closed the door to the convertible peso a week before January 1, the date on which the government announced the start of monetary unification. The funeral of this currency is done without pain or glory, just with some posters repeated in private companies, “We don’t accept CUC.”
Although the chavito will continue to circulate on the island for another six months, until June 30, private workers prefer to pass most of their activities on to the peso for fear of devaluation, long queues for banks to change money and some last-minute regulations that the ruling party is taking off . “It is better to be careful because everything seems very improvised and it is better not to get scared,” admits a bread and biscuit vendor near Boyeros Street in Plaza municipality.
“He had already served me the ice cream and when I went to pay in CUC, he told me he couldn’t accept it,” laments a customer who was literally left with mouth-watering in front of the counter of a private ice cream parlor near Cuba Street, in La Old Havana. “This is extremism because they have a few more days to change the convertible pesos,” the frustrated user complained. “All they do with this is lose money.”
“I came to exchange 200 CUC in national currency, called at 5:30 am and still couldn’t get in because there are problems with the connection at the bank”
The huge queues in front of the banks on Monday seem to agree with the independent traders. “I came to exchange 200 CUC in national currency, I called at 5:30 am and I still couldn’t get in because there are connection problems in the bank,” a private carrier who was looking for low denominations in pesos on the bench in the basement of the Ministry of Transport.
After all this, I will not accept any chavito in addition, it is no longer enough to stick the sign in the car that you can only pay in national currency, now I will also put different stickers on the windows so that they know before driving that I do not accept the CUC ”, adds the skipper. If I have to come to the bank early every week to be able to change, with me that they don’t count to collect the CUC currency that is on the street, let the Central Bank do that.
The most prudent and better positioned in the private sector are already implementing other solutions. “Our letter is in different currencies: Cuban pesos, convertible pesos, dollars and euros, you can pay in any of the four,” repeats an elegant employee who, outside a paladar on San Ignacio Street, has several tourists eating locally. “You can pay the same by cash or credit card, we also accept pounds.”
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