Carta de Cuba, la escritura de la libertad

NEW RESTRICTIONS EXPECTED FOR THE DOLLAR

Fidel Castro is scheming something, even nobody knows yet what it is. In a speech pronounced on last October 28^th, at the graduation of a group or young art instructors, the Cuban ruler spoke of possible restrictions to the foreign currency that Cuban natives receive from the relatives abroad. ¨Yet, however, the insolent imperial dollar, which has learned some hard lessons from us, is brutally robbing us¨, said Castro, who qualified the remittance in dollars received by some Cubans in the island, as an ¨insolent instrument of exploitation¨.

According to the arguments exposed by the Cuban leader, the government is making serious efforts to subsidize, at low cost, essential products for the population, and from these subsidies seem to be benefiting those who pay with dollars or other currency.

¨So this country is making great efforts, but meanwhile, how much money it is expending in subsidizing the dollar, multiplying the acquisitive of the dollar?¨, Castro wondered. He gave as an example the case of the electric power, which the Cuban state produces at a cost of $36 per kilowatt, while, as he said, those who receive foreign currency only expend $1 to consume up to 150 kilowatts.

Everything seems to indicate that Fidel Castro pretends to ¨pull the rope¨ even tighter on those who have access to that kind of currency in Cuba. The possession and free receiving of foreign money was duly legalized by the Cuban government, at the beginning of the 90s, as a result of the economic crisis provoked by the disappearance of the Soviet Union, which practically financed the regime’s economy.

With the new alliances –Venezuela, in first place, which is, at present, Cuba’s largest commercial partner- the receiving of foreign currency by the natives has stopped being a relief for the state economy, to actually become a headache.

To this you can add something especially bothering to Castro: the fact that some dissidents and anti-government activists receive small sums of money from organization supporting them from abroad. For all this, you can expect that the Cuban government may use any pretext to ¨de-dollarize¨ the economy.

In its October 28^th speech, the Cuban ruler referred to the shortages suffered by the Cuban population, after 45 years of revolutionary power and tried to identify them with the possession of dollars by certain parties. ¨In reality, while we are being plundered in this fashion, many times our people have been receiving, till very recently –and begins to change- a little piece of soap, rationed and odorless, without any perfume, whatsoever, or a small toothpaste tube, in limited deliveries, or, even, in the case of the women’s sanitary pads, in insufficient quantities¨, he said.

Later on, he explained that while Cuba ¨marches towards military and economic invulnerability¨, the ¨insolent dollar they send us from over there, is changed for 24 Cuban pesos, has a high value in order to acquire state subsidized consumer items, and serves to buy in the foreign currency stores which are not within reach of the general population¨.

Fidel Castro accused several times to those who pay in dollars or other currencies, of taking advantage of the resources employed by the Cuban government to subsidize basic commodities, all of which seems to indicate that in a very short time, still greater limitations will be imposed on those receiving money from abroad.

Havana – The XXIII Havana International Fair concluded with few results. A credit line extended by a bank in Jamaica to promote business trade between both countries, limited agreements with some Spanish corporations and the awaited announcement of the commercial trade with Venezuela, in exchange for medical services and education personnel. However, the big surprise was the contract, for the amount of $27 million dollars, signed between the Cuban company ALIMPORT and entrepreneurs from the state of Nebraska, in the United States, to export to Cuba food staples like wheat, beans and soybean complex, among others.

Caibarién – Margarito Broche Espinosa, ex-prisoner of conscience from the ¨group of the 75¨, who was released on November, 2004, was evicted from the house where he was living and sent to live on the streets. The owner of the house where Broche lived was forced to get him out of her house, after an intense pressure exerted by the local authorities from the Housing Institute in Caibarién, following orders from State Security. Broche has been set free from prison, with an extra-penal license, after suffering a cardiac arrest in jail.

Holguín – To the problems caused by the shortage of food being sold through the ration book to the population in this eastern territory, you can now add the very limited supply of the commercial network. The Cuban official press acknowledged the shortage of products, besides what it described as ¨evident samples of lack of professionalism and customers´ protection, putting as example, the case of hamburgers served directly into the hands of the consumers, for lack of bread. Numerous managers of food sale centers in Holguín have been replaced, without the problem being solved, till now.

Havana – Numerous police operatives are taking place in the Cuban capital since last October 31^st, basically directed against young people. Combined forces of the Ministry of the Interior, integrated by forces of the National Police and the Technical Investigations Department, have arrested and taken to police stations an undetermined number of youngsters, and the popular version is that these police operations are related to the murder of two foreign tourists, which recently took place in the Cuban capital, something about which no news have been reported in the official press.

Havana – A new set of regulations restricting the right to meet for religious purposes went into effect throughout the country. Even such measures had been approved since last April, they were known for the first time on the last days of October, through a report from the official Cuban Information Agency. The religious meetings in private homes must have a permit obtained by submitting in writing the name of the house owner, the days of meeting during the week and the number of people assisting. Besides, the report of the same agency explains that foreigners won’t be allowed without special permission. The violation of these rules will carry an indefinite suspension of every right of meeting in the property where the permit has been requested.

Havana - For the first time, Cuba openly acknowledged that it intends to serve as a platform for the introduction of Chinese products into the market formed by the Caribbean countries. In recent statements, the minister of the Cuban government Ricardo Cabrisas said that the objective is for the Asian giant to become the island’s second commercial partner, in less than a year, and to achieve this, Cuba will exploit what the officer called ¨other potentialities¨, among them, serving as a platform for the products which will be Chinese in the countries in the area. Cabrisas also revealed that two plants for the manufacturing of biotechnological products are being built in China, with Cuban counsel, without specifying details of same.

Guantánamo – The coffee crop has been seriously damaged by the passage of hurricane Wilma through the island. Preliminary estimates point out that this year’s production results are much lower than the amount of 180 thousand 60 kilogram rice sacks, which is in itself low, achieved in 2004. The intense hurricane showers falling over the southern part of eastern Cuba, where 80 per cent of the coffee produced in the island is raised, have provoked the early ripeness of more than 240 thousand cans of the grain. Some 4 thousand students and professors have been taken to the coffee zones in Maisí, Yateras and Baracoa, in order to save as much as possible of the crop.

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