Cuba resurrects dollar-only stores, a symbol of inequality

#Cuba #resurrects #dollaronly #stores #symbol #inequality

Havana: In Communist Cuba, some customers are more equal than others, as a 40 -year -old math teacher who was recently shopping with his son in Havana.

The couple passed a new shop located on the ground floor of a luxurious hotel in the up -market Miramar area. But “when we told me that (the payment) was in the dollar, we barely entered one foot,” Michael, who refused to give his name, Michael told AFP.

“Come on, it’s not for us,” he said, making his son a door for the door.

The government -owned supermarket, which is opened in January, is the first of several dollar -linked stores to open on the island, as part of a bid to promote its dominant economy.

Prime Minister Manuel Mariero said the move was an “essential process” to raise some dollars in the black market for the state “illegally” circulating.

The Caribbean Nation is facing its worst economic crisis in 30 years owned by 9.7 million, with a significant shortage of food and fuel shortages, repeated blackouts and harsh currency. Cuban immigrants are the second largest source of remittances in the island, followed by borrowing from tens of thousands of doctors in 60 countries, including Venezuela and Brazil.

But many Cuba do not have access to Greenbacks. This makes the country distributed among molecules, which can buy a lot of goods in dollar-paying stores, and notes like Michael, which are paid in Cuba Peso-which then converts to MLC, which is introduced in 2019, a virtual currency that has lost its price.

‘Prince and Paper’

Since Michael was leaving the dollar-linked store, customers were emerging with piles of trolleys with luggage-a rare look in Cuba, where store shelves are often empty. The shortage with shortage of wages (the average monthly salary is about 5000 PESO or $ 42) means that people can rarely manage their vehicles.

“Here we have always found what we are looking for,” said 24 -year -old Engineer Anzo Pobella. He receives dollars from relatives abroad, uses them to buy eggs, cook oil and meat-rarely accumulates in the MLC payment store across the road.

There is a contradiction between the two stores that Cuba has named them “prince and powder”.

“The main problem of the dollar is partial.”

“This naturally causes people who have no way to get dollars,” said Maranda, a researcher at the University of Jevyana University in the city of Kelly, Colombia.

When the dollar meant

Cuban has a long, tumultuous relationship with the dollar.

After the nationalist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, the dollar was strictly banned.

Being in the possession of a single greenback can be jailed for a year.

It took the end of the Cuban’s central ally and financial supporter the Soviet Union to bring about a heart change.

In 1993, Castro finally eliminated the dollar occupation, and the first stores to accept the Greenbacks were opened. But after a decade, between a row with the United States, the dollar was eliminated as a legal tender.

Decrease in tourism

During Donald Trump’s first presidency, Cuba accused of tightening its current economic problems, which is a six -decade -long US trade ban.

But it is also suffering from a decline in tourists, which has been stopped due to widespread shortages and blackouts, and a failed monetary reform in 2021, which increased the dollar price in the black market.

The government has bills its partial dollar strategy as a temporary move aimed at restoring the economy – and says its ultimate purpose is to completely remove Cuba from US currency.

This is a fraudulent purpose, for the Cuban economist at the US University in Washington.

Cuba, he said, “When you try to deduce an economy,” a textbook is a matter of difficulties you face “.