Officials suddenly halted most of the dollar sales that Cubans have come to count on and warned of higher dollar prices for food and gasoline. They blamed new US measures meant to undermine the island's government.
Scores of agitated people lined up for last-minute purchases at late-night variety stores after the official declaration was read on Cuban state television shortly before 8pm Monday night.
PHOTO: AP
The measure could have dramatic effect on everyday life in Cuba, where hard-currency stores offer plentiful goods -- from soap to spark plugs -- that are available in scant quantities, if at all, at highly subsidized prices in Cuban pesos.
Except for food, gasoline and personal hygiene products, the announcement said, sales in dollars "are suspended until further no-tice." It was not clear if they would resume at some point.
It also said that dollar prices would be raised on food and gasoline -- and perhaps other products if the stores reopen. Prices in pesos, the government said, would remain stable.
Crucially, food and personal hygiene products were exempted.
Cuba blamed the measure on "the brutal and cruel" measures adopted last week by US President George W. Bush to strengthen the embargo of Cuba and to hasten the end of the country's communist government.
The announcement said the US proposals "are directly aimed at strangling our development and reducing to a minimum the resources in hard currency that are essential for the necessities of food, medical and educational services and other essentials."
Many analysts had seen the Bush measures as a relatively modest tweak to the broad US economic embargo that has been in place against Cuba since the early 1960s.
Bush said Cuban-Americans now can visit relatives on the island once every three years rather than once a year. They can spend US$50 a day rather than the earlier limit of US$164. Visits and money transfers are limited to immediate family members -- excluding uncles and cousins -- and officials and Communist Party members cannot receive funds. More money would be allotted for dissidents.
Cuban officials have warned the measures could be a possible prelude to stronger US attacks, possibly even an invasion.
A permanent closure of the dollar stores could be another step back from the liberal reforms enacted in the early 1990s to cope with the loss of aid and trade Cuba had enjoyed with the Soviet Union.
Possession of dollars was legalized in 1993 to draw dollars from growing tourism and family remittances into the state stores. The government has steadily offered more and more goods in the US currency while the Cuban ration book of items available in pesos has withered.
Many of those lined up Monday night at shops built into gas stations were buying cooking oil and soap before prices rise. Most expressed frustration at the measures.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS