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Cuba Gives Another Week
to Exchange Dollar
Yahoo! News. By ANITA SNOW,
Associated Press Writer. November 4, 2004.
HAVANA, 4 - Because of the huge demand
to dispose of the U.S. dollars that were
legal tender in communist Cuba for a more
than a decade, the Central Bank said Thursday
that people will have an extra week to exchange
their America money for a local currency
tied to the dollar.
The need to extend the two-week transition
period indicated that economic planners
here underestimated how many U.S. dollars
had accumulated on the island since they
were made legal tender as a temporary measure
to capture hard currency after the loss
of Soviet aid and trade.
President Fidel Castro has said the move
is necessary to protect the country from
an increasing U.S. crackdown on foreign
banks sending American cash to Cuba.
"The attitude of our people in the
face of the most recent economic aggressions
by the U.S. government has been an example
of patriotism, discipline and confidence
in the revolution," the Central Bank
said in a note published in the Communist
Party's newspaper Granma.
"Considering this exemplary reaction,
and taking into account the repeated requests
of the people, it has been decided to extend
until Sunday Nov. 14 the period stated"
to exchange dollars into convertible Cuban
pesos without paying a new 10 percent surcharge.
Previously, the last day to change American
money without the fee was Sunday.
The Central Bank note said that the rest
of the resolution issued Oct. 25 to eliminate
U.S. dollars from general circulation was
unchanged.
Banks will open Saturday and the weekend
of Nov. 13-14 to help Cubans change their
U.S. dollars into convertible pesos before
the deadline, it added.
The Cuban currency, like that of many other
smaller nations, has no value outside the
country. But Cuba relies heavily on imported
goods that must be purchased with dollars
or other convertible foreign currencies.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
with which Cuba conducted barter trade,
Havana's need for hard currency grew.
The currency switch appears aimed at eliminating
Cuba's dependence on the money of its No.
1 enemy - the United States - for hard currency
reserves, building up new sources of convertible
foreign funds, and reasserting centralized
control over the economy.
The United States has recently moved to
restrict the flow of American currency into
Cuba, with severe limits on the amount Cuban
exiles can send relatives on the island
and Federal Reserve fines imposed on international
banks sending U.S. dollars here.
Central Bank President Francisco Soberon
told The Associated Press earlier this week
he has been surprised at the large amounts
of American dollars Cubans are changing
to avoid the new surcharge.
"It's been above our expectations,"
Soberon said of the quantities changed.
"A lot of people are opening accounts
in important amounts of money. We didn't
know how much people were saving under their
mattresses."
Soberon did not provide estimates on how
much had been changed thus far, but said
in the first week there were 700,000 transactions
to exchange dollars or open dollar accounts
across the island of 11.2 million people.
Some independent analysts have estimated
that several hundred million American dollars
would be exchanged into convertible pesos
before the surcharge takes effect.
Last week, there were numerous reports
of smaller money exchange operations in
Havana shutting down early after their daily
allotment of 50,000 convertible pesos ran
out. Nevertheless, Soberon insisted that
Cuba has printed enough convertible pesos
to meet demand.
Soberon told the AP Monday that after the
changing period ends economic planners will
have a much better idea of how much cash
is circulating on the island.
"To plan our monetary policy, to
plan our internal finance, we will know
how many convertible pesos are in circulation,"
said Soberon, adding it was impossible to
know previously how many dollars existed
in Cuba.
"It gives us much more control over
the financial variables in the Cuban economy,"
Soberon said.
The dollar is not banned and Cubans can
still hold the currency, although it will
not be of use to buy goods or services until
changed into the convertible peso.
The 10 percent surcharge taking effect
Nov. 15 for those selling dollars will not
apply to other foreign currencies such as
the euro or the Canadian dollar. There will
be no surcharge to buy dollars.
Mel Martinez to become first Cuban-American
in US Senate
MIAMI, 3 (AFP) - Former Republican cabinet
member Mel Martinez was set to become the
first Cuban-American in the US Senate, after
his Democratic rival, Betty Castor, a former
top state education official, conceded defeat.
Castor, who trailed Martinez by just about
one percentage point, initially rejected
Martinez's claim to victory but eventually
conceded, local television reported.
Martinez, 58, who came to the United States
at the age of 15 as part of a church operation
to help children leave communist Cuba, had
spent much time campaigning with President
George W. Bush, who also won Florida.
The race to replace retiring Democratic
Senator Bob Graham had been marked by bitter
personal attacks on issues such as the Iraq
war, terrorism and taxes.
"If Betty Castor had her way, Saddam
Hussein would still be butchering the people
of Iraq," Martinez, Bush's former secretary
of housing and urban development (HUD),
said at a recent rally.
One of his campaign ads accused Castor
of being soft on terror for allowing a man
investigated for terrorism links to teach
at the University of South Florida while
she was president there.
Castor, 63, fought back with a picture
of Martinez next to one that showed Bush
together with the suspect during the 2000
presidential campaign.
Sami Al-Arian has since been indicted for
allegedly helping to raise funds for the
Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
The Democratic candidate linked her rival's
three-year stint as a cabinet member with
lucrative private-sector jobs he later received
from companies that may have benefited from
regulatory decisions he made while in government.
"I think he benefited in a private
capacity from his services at HUD,"
Castor told reporters.
The Martinez campaign dismissed the claim
as "playground insults."
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