Havana/The discomfort grows among Cuban doctors who fulfill official mission in Angola. After months of complaints for the impossibility of extracting on the island its accumulated foreign exchange, the government’s response has been perceived as “salt on the wound”: from next January they will receive a classic card to buy in the dollarized stores, but they will continue without access to withdraw cash in the US currency.
This Friday, Cuban staff in Angola – which includes toilets, sports coaches and teachers – will be informed that it will have two magnetic cards: the current one in freely convertible currency (MLC) and the new classic, which will allow to acquire products and services in the dollarized state trade. During their vacation on the island, they can use half of the accumulated balance in each.
’14ymedio’ had access to the memorandum of the meeting that will be held this August 15 with the groups of Cuban professionals in the African country
Although the measure has not yet been officially announced, 14ymedio He had access to the memorandum of the meeting that will be held this August 15 with the groups of Cuban professionals in the African country. The family aid received by relatives on the island will be delivered from this month through the classic card, and the bank “will notify when they have to go find the new card.”
The meeting document instructs to have doubts before an next meeting of professionals on mission with the address of Above (Corporation Antillana Exportadora SA). In addition, the message was transmitted in videoconference to the bosses of each brigade to “prepare their people so that they do not protest,” according to Cinthya – a name changed -, a doctor who works in Angola.
“They will impose this, but there has been no change in contracts on payment methods to collaborators,” he warns. “In the role we signed, he continues to say that on our return to Cuba they will give us the money saved in dollars, although we have to wait for the availability of foreign exchange in the bank.” However, that commitment It has been systematically breached In recent years.
The message was transmitted in videoconference to the bosses of each brigade to “prepare their people so they do not protest”
The contract signed by the more than 2,000 Cubans in mission in Angola – medical, nurses, health technicians, constructors, drivers and teachers – establishes that an above “whenever there is cash availability” will “accredit” one hundred percent (100%) of the amount in USD “of the monthly salary before the return to Cuba. In the case of most doctors, the amount ranges between $ 20,000 and $ 22,000.
But the lack of currency in banks prevents extracting those amounts, and for years the only legal route has been to spend the savings on purchases in MLC, an option that describes as “an armed hand assault.” The rejection grew in recent months to the same extent that the MLC was devalued, and now it is hardly worth 200 pesos, half of the 400 that the dollar has reached this week on the island.
Cinthya, who works at the Do Camama Dr. Manuel Pedro Azancot de Menezes Maternal Hospital, concludes his mission next year and recognizes that complaints in the independent press have forced the government to “take the step and offer a classic card, but that does not solve the problem.” Separated from his family, he keeps at the Popular Bank of Savings funds with which he plans to buy a home on his return: “No person who is selling a house will accept me that I pay him with a classic … with a few dollars that he will not even be able to get out.”
Complaints in the independent press have forced the government to “take the step and offer a classic card”
Until now, he says, many sold their MLC to buy dollars, but “it no longer makes sense because the Fula It is worth double “and money is always lost in those operations. Currently, each doctor receives 1,000 dollars per month and about 200 in Kuanzas [moneda de Angola]although for each of these sanitary ones Angola pays for antex $ 5,000. The family on the island can use about 50 mlc per month, an amount that will now be on a classic card for purchases in dollarized markets.
The previous corporation, part of the GAESA military conglomerate and sanctioned by the United States Foreign Assets Control Office (OFAC), manages business in Angola ranging from construction and repair of aerodromes to travel agencies. Between 2013 and 2017 he received more than $ 1 billion from that country, according to The touch. Cuba ha capitalized the participation of more than 300,000 soldiers in the Angolaña Civil War (1975-1991) through an above among other companies. In 2015, 70% of health personnel in Angola was Cuban, according to the Portuguese press.
“Now the MLC is on the floor and the stores in that currency are shortages”
Some professionals who have already fulfilled their mission do not know if the change will benefit them. “When I returned they told me that the bank had no currency availability and all this time I have only been able to use the money through the card in MLC,” says Osbel, a sanitary of Villa Clara. “We do not know if this of issuing a classic will also touch us or it is only for those who end from now on their stay in Angola.”
Uncertainty feeds frustration. “Most want effective and now that the MLC is on the floor and stores in that currency They are unfitdoes not even compensate to buy to resell in Cuban pesos. Do what I do, I lose the money that I sweated so much, “Osbel laments. For him, the payment by classic card” is a patch that will last little, because doctors want dollars not a plastic. ”
