Madrid/Few have been surprised that Ariel Terrero, a pro-government journalist and economics expert, makes a nuclear criticism of the regime’s strategy against The Touchalthough more surprising has been that a medium as essential in international propaganda as Cubaingencia replicated it this Monday. In full offensive of the ruling party against the media which publishes the exchange rate in the informal currency market daily, this website based in Spain disseminates the “critical analysis” of the specialist whom the staunchest defenders of the regime accuse of defending “capitalist restoration in Cuba.”
On several occasions, Terrero ironically talks about the strategy of the official discourse against The Touch –”Why doesn’t José Jasán Nieves pack his bags right now and fly to open a financial consultancy on Wall Street?”; “Soros would look at José Jasán with envy if the capabilities attributed to him were credible.” The Touch“– and maintains that the manipulation of a currency market requires very costly interventions by powerful agents. When it is achieved, he adds, it is very brief. “Seeking blame for the behavior of the informal exchange market in the actions of an isolated media outlet is, in my opinion, grotesque, lacking any economic support,” he argues.
The journalist, who was winner of the Juan Gualberto Gómez national award, points out that there are five aspects to look at when talking about this topic, all connected but independent: economics, technique, journalism, politics and ethics.
“Soros would look at José Jasán with envy if the capabilities attributed to ‘El Toque’ were credible”
Regarding the economy, it points out that the depreciation of the peso and the freely convertible currency have structural causes: the economic crisis, the lack of reserves in hard currency, the shortage of supplies in the markets, the deterioration of the labor market and salaries, as well as the closure of international markets. He also mentions, of course, “the sibylline” inclusion on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. Terrero never stops criticizing US policies towards the Island and the effects he attributes to it, but he rejects that this applies to everything.
“Given the complexity and evident multi-causality of the conflict, it is misguided to blame inflation on an isolated agent, be it a media outlet or the Cuban Government itself, as it tries to sow the ideological matrix cooked up in the North and in which it also participates. The Touch“, he explains. And the post does not spare criticism of the media directed by Nieves, which he considers technically incapable of making an adequate measurement of the exchange rates in Cuba: “it is a team that is too small to accurately press the markets throughout the country.” In his opinion, the fragmentation of these is combined with that of multiple currencies.
“Although the team The Touch strives to endorse the methodology it uses, admitting that the data for its analysis is extracted from social networks, an unreliable source. “It is not the real measurement of a digitalized market, as he confesses,” says Terrero. In addition, he reproaches him for lacking any independent technical validation to take himself as a reference.
It does grant it the effectiveness, especially at a journalistic level, of having been able to see the market niche that lacking such a tool meant and becoming a reference for the public. However, he questions whether this has served to “legitimize” other of his “media and political” postulates and mocks that in The Touch want to make believe that the United States gives up its work “voluntarily” hundreds of thousands of dollars without political interest”.
Terrero reproaches the founders of the medium for not admitting their militancy when they ally themselves with a country “that for more than 60 years adopted a declaredly hostile stance against Cuba.”
Terrero reproaches the founders of the medium for not admitting their militancy when they ally themselves with a country “that for more than 60 years adopted a declaredly hostile position against Cuba, with terrorist attacks, legislative initiatives to maintain the economic blockade and a media war in which it takes part. The Touchno matter how much José Jasán says and repeats the refrain that they are an ‘independent media.'” Furthermore, the journalist accuses Nieves of not having an ethical attitude, because he takes advantage of the measurement of rates to “sustain a matrix of opinion focused against the Cuban Government” and at the same time attract American money.
However, it also reproaches the Central Bank of Cuba for its inability to “create a flexible exchange market, instead of the inoperative monetary and exchange system with several currencies and rigid exchange rates, consequently inept to provide the information that is urgently needed by the population” and which has been delayed for at least three years.
Having analyzed these elements, Terrero concludes that, although there may be “political and ethical” reasons to condemn The Touch“there is no need to overstate the alleged economic harmfulness” of the medium nor can one uncritically assume the official discourse according to which the blame for inflation and the depreciation of the peso is their responsibility.
The debate is on networks, where the journalist initially published his post. There are many who accuse Terrero of being devoted to criticizing the regime, despite the fact that the analysis contains large doses of political defense of the government model. Until now, the ranks remain firm in the war against The Touch. That is why the strange decision by Cubainformacion – not very fond of plurality – to disseminate a text like this is striking.
