As of January 1, with the start of the Ordinance task, the CUC will finally disappear and the official exchange rate of the dollar will be 1×24 Cuban pesos. Wasn’t that what the people wanted? Now, instead of monthly salaries of between $ 25 and $ 40, Cubans will be paid at least $ 87 (2,100 pesos). Of course, the salary will be charged in Cuban pesos, the official currency of the country, with which the dollars will have to be bought … from whom? Where are these dollars that cost 24 Cuban pesos?
The Cuban state has no dollars to sell. It does not even allow those who have bank accounts in dollars or euros to withdraw the amount of money they want, when they want. Even medical staff performing missions abroad – recognized by the Government as their main source of foreign exchange inflows – will see their bank savings frozen if they decide to convert them into dollars or euros.
Cubans who do not have dollars or whoever is sent to them will have to buy with pesos, the country’s official currency after the elimination of the CUC. But where? What basic necessities does the Cuban state sell in pesos, in addition to those from the winery? Cap. Whoever needs soap, shampoo, detergent, tomato puree, oil, will have to buy them with dollars. But first you will have to put them in a bank account and once there you will not be able to touch them again. You will need to apply for a magnetic card to purchase at Free Convertible Currency Stores.
That’s when Cubans will see that their real salary is not $ 87, but $ 60 or less. If the state does not sell dollars, they will only be able to buy them on the street, where they will hardly find them for less than 35 Cuban pesos.
Cuban workers will not only face a drastic drop in their wages, but also the dilemma of doing without basic necessities or committing the crime of “illegal trafficking of national currency, foreign exchange, metals and precious stones.”
Article 235.1 of this Penal Code punishes “with deprivation of liberty of two to five years or a fine of three hundred to one thousand quotas or both to which f) make foreign exchange operations in black markets of national or foreign currencies or by channels other than legally established “.
This paragraph f is what has served to accuse the so-called “resellers” who were located in the vicinity of the Exchange Houses (CADECAS) and shops in CUC and sold the convertible peso at 25 Cuban pesos, which was the same price to what CADECA was selling, with the difference that they were bought without queuing.
Many Cubans refused to buy CUC from these people because they did not want to use a channel other than “legally established ones.” Where are these channels for buying currency now?
Deprivation of liberty for two to five years or a fine of 300,000 shares, or both, is provided not only for those who sell the currency, but also for the person who, in the absence of legal alternatives, must buy it. . Both parties materialize the action of foreign exchange operations on the black market, in accordance with the law.
At present, you do not need to have cash on hand. A bank transfer that is considered suspicious of operations of illegal exchange of dollars or Free Convertible Currency (MLC) between Cubans, or between foreigners, or between foreigners and Cubans located in the national territory, through the use of technologies for the electronic circulation of money, it is enough for the police report to be filed. Banks in Cuba are under an obligation to report to the specialized structures of the Ministry of the Interior in charge of determining economic crimes, on the identity of individuals banking operations of any kind considered suspicious.
In interventions on the so-called “ordering”, the Government has repeatedly stated that no one would be left helpless. Did he mean that in prisons inmates have guaranteed food? Many honest people, who have done nothing but work throughout their lives and continue to do so or are retired, could go to jail or pay fines for a crime that is induced by the state.
If the government is not able to supply the shops that sell in the official currency of the country – which, according to the authorities, was the goal of the shops in MLC – or to provide the people with an alternative for the purchase legal tender, must remove from the Penal Code the criminal figure of illegal foreign exchange trafficking or refrain from applying any sanction until the problem it has created has been resolved.