• America.Cuba launches another wave of reforms five years after the start of the thaw
  • new era: the path of Cuba and the US towards the thaw

On Tuesday, Cuba experienced one of those economic miracles only possible in revolution. The Miguel Díaz-Canel government inaugurated 72 MLC stores (in freely convertible currencies), that is, in foreign currencies, especially the US "enemy" dollar. The establishments are distributed throughout the island and their objective is the sale of basic necessities , especially food, in addition to toiletries and hardware.

The implementation of the new government measure to combat the crisis was a "success": the shelves were full of meats, sausages and cheeses and people waited in queues for most of their lives to buy some missing or scarce products for a year . Like the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish in its Castro version.

"Everything we couldn't find anywhere was there by quantity. Instead, the stores of cuc (convertible pesos, one of the two official currencies of Cubans) are empty. We saw many queues and 'matazón' (fight) for any "foolishness" (foolishness), even for a "cub" of chicken. It is impudence, a lack of respect that we continue to allow, "opposition leader Darien Columbie told EL MUNDO from Santiago de Cuba .

The same question ("Why is there everything now?") Was repeated on the streets of Havana on Tuesday, the same day that the 10% tax on the US dollar was eliminated after 16 years due to the government's need for foreign exchange. "Dollar stores are looking for liquidity. The government has mismanaged monetary policy with the cuc and the Cuban peso, two currencies that are not convertible, which hinder the processes of the economic cycle. Companies that sell cuc afterwards cannot make imports The idea of ​​leaving all of this dollarized is that it be direct: they sell, they have dollars and they import. You isolate a piece of the economy and make it more fluid and generate income in dollars with markets that operate better than the rest. of the economy. The same thing that was done in the 90s with tourism, foreign investment or nickel, "remembers for EL MUNDO the economist Pavel Vidal , former official of the Central Bank of Cuba.

The process of raising foreign currency to face the voracious Cuban economic crisis thus completed its first day amid expectation and criticism, both due to the "miracle" of the reappearance of the products and their prices, despite the fact that the authorities promised to apply " standards of the region. " A day that started early with the queues in front of the banks that issue the magnetic cards necessary to pay in stores in MLC, since cash payment is not allowed. Accounts must be backed in foreign currency, but these dollars cannot be withdrawn from bank accounts at MLC.

"The Cuban people are now subdivided: those from MLC will eat, those from CUC (which has parity with the dollar) more or less resolve something and those from the CUP (Cuban peso) for Tonga (very little)," criticized the economist Martha Beatriz Roque , the only woman imprisoned by Fidel Castro during the Black Spring. The minimum wage in Cuba is equivalent to 15 dollars , only above the Venezuelan (between two and three dollars) and below the Haitian (59 dollars).

The opening of dollar stores already experienced a prologue last year with the launch of its version for household appliances and vehicle parts. For next month it is planned to incorporate clothing, footwear, furniture and home supplies.

As always when some kind of event occurs on the island, independent journalists were harassed by the police. "They have dawned without data connection or with house arrests. State security agents have been clear: they cannot leave their homes. What is the government afraid of?" Denounced the human rights NGO Cubalex.

Among the journalists retained was, once again, Luz Escobar , from the editorial staff of the digital newspaper 14ymedio.

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  • Fidel Castro

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