One day was enough for the forex trading mechanismlaunched this Tuesday in Cuba, will begin to fail due to the lack of dollars to satisfy the demand of thousands of citizens throughout the country.
This newspaper verified how, since early Tuesday morning, a multitude of Cubans who were only allowed to buy 100 dollars went to the exchange house (Cadeca) in Belascoaín, between Zanja and Salud, in Centro Habana. That is, if they reached one of the 40 shifts available for the day.
The same thing happened on 23rd and J streets, where customers crowded waiting for their place. Like a herd, the movement of the tail varied, became heated or contorted, depending on the call of the custodian of Cadeca.
The panorama this Wednesday was, of course, very different. From the party atmosphere and guarded by the Police, they moved on to the usual endless queue. Retirees, physically handicapped, housewives, youngsters, thugs and coleros veterans were fighting for a space on the waiting list.
“I’m here to do a favor,” he said to 14ymedio a woman stationed in the portals of the Cadeca de Belascoaín. “The dollars are not for me but for a friend who wants to leave the country. I’ve been out of work for a long time and with this I get ‘something'”. The woman, an artist who has not been able to sign any contract for a long time, invests the only thing she has in her survival: time. For several months she has been queuing for other people.
Retirees, physically disabled, housewives, youngsters, thugs and experienced ‘coleros’ fought for a space on the waiting list
“I’ve been here since four in the morning and this is ‘fierce,'” said one boy, as he tried to avoid the midday sun. “They only gave 20 shifts until 8 o’clock and the people who entered,” he says, pointing to the interior of the establishment, “have been there since they opened.”
“All of us unhappy people who are left queuing,” a lady bitterly affirms, “is to see if they distribute 10 more shifts than they promised a while ago.” Sitting on the curb, she laments the “increasing backlog. How come they spend all day serving just 20 customers? They’re out of the dollar and they’re manufacturing it?”
Entering Cadeca was not even a guarantee for customers. The slow service, scheduled blackouts and the fact that only one box was enabled for change hampered operations. Nor was the population informed, as promised by the Minister of the Economy, about the amount available for daily change in each establishment.
An additional difficulty is that Cadeca is not operating with the reserves of dollars and euros of the Central Bank of Cuba, but with the amount that has been deposited the day before. This limitation prevents the normal and safe flow of the foreign exchange market.
“Why didn’t they tell the people at Cadeca: get ready? Do you need cashiers? How much is going to be sold? If all that was discussed, why didn’t you get ready?” She complained an older man to Cuban Television. “Today we are paying the consequences: I am a self-employed worker and I am here, stopping work to buy the currency I need.”
In the capital, the “last port” of the massive exodus that crosses the Island, currency traffic moves at a different pace, but the provincial branches are not so lucky. Among the optimistic comments that telecenters and provincial newspapers cultivate, disagreements and discomfort often slip out about the small amount of money available for change.
“They informed us here that there was nothing more than 200 dollars, there is not an adequate deposit for this number of people. It is incorrect,” a resident of Santiago de Cuba lamented on local television.
While a woman from Palma Soriano, in the same province, pointed out the essential flaw in the new exchange resolutions: “Other measures must be taken regarding the sale of the dollar,” she explained to local journalists, because the family’s wages Cuban women, in addition to being poor, are delivered “in national currency, not in foreign currency”.
Cadeca’s mismanagement has been as predictable as it is scandalous, but its directors are not willing to allow themselves to be criticized.
Cadeca’s mismanagement has been as predictable as it is scandalous, but its managers are not willing to allow themselves to be criticized
A publication of the official reporter Lázaro Manuel Alonso warned that Cadeca’s challenge was “transparency”. According to the journalist, it is not enough for an official to record on television the hypothetical amount available, exchange houses have the duty to inform the public about the deposit that is made.
Otherwise, “the Cadecas will be sadly famous for the obscurity of their management,” said Alonso, “and they will be a breeding ground for an already old business, which for years has earned wheat on the outskirts of shops and wherever they sell something that the population needs.
The mention of the informal market next to the foreign exchange establishments and the irregularities in the deposit’s slogan crossed the line of what is reasonable for the directors of Cadeca.
In its response To “an opinion”, Cadeca confirmed that he had read Alonso’s criticism “with displeasure”, although they did not expose it directly. They claimed to respect personal opinions, but “when that comment comes from a publicly exposed person, it should measure our verb,” they assured with a scolding tone.
The consequence, according to the directors had verified in the barrage of negative comments on Alonso’s publication, was that criticism served “unscrupulous enemies who seek to destroy what has been built with so much effort.”
Next, and perhaps responding to Alonso’s request for “transparency”, Cadeca succinctly summarized its foreign exchange management process. “We are and will be an entity dedicated to the banking business, framed in its corporate purpose, ready to serve the client, with quality and transparency in its operations, serious in its actions, diligent, respectful, with due control and always at the service of the Revolution”, settled the institution, in case there was any doubt.
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