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Cuba's Dollar-Only Stores Reopen
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated
Press Writer. Mon May 24, 5:25 PM ET
HAVANA - Stores selling everything from
cigarettes to refrigerators for dollars
reopened Monday, two weeks after Cuba's
Communist government abruptly shut them
down to raise prices because of U.S. measures
squeezing the island's economy.
The government imposed price increases
of up to 25 percent for alcohol, 22 percent
for gas and 15 percent for electrical goods
in the island's 5,000 dollar-only stores.
The opening of the stores and the price
increases were announced in a front-page
article in the Communist Party daily Granma.
"Oh my, the prices have really risen,"
said Gracie Zaeta, 46, who went to the Plaza
Carlos III mall with her husband.
The hair dye she occasionally buys rose
to between $6 and $7. Before, she said,
it cost about $4.50. The couple was mostly
interested in the prices of such basic items
such as chicken, soap and children's shoes.
They were unhappy with the increases because
their salaries are paid in Cuban pesos and
have remained stagnant.
"We don't agree with this, because
we do not earn our salaries in dollars,"
said Zaeta, who each month makes 250 pesos,
or about $10, as director of personnel for
Havana's municipal government.
Cuba was forced to implement liberal reforms
in the early 1990s to cope with the loss
of Soviet aid and trade. The possession
of dollars was legalized in 1993 to draw
hard currency from tourism and from family
purchases at state stores.
But most Cubans are still paid in pesos,
and Cuban leaders worry that the shops,
which only accept U.S. dollars, create social
inequality.
Cubans have free rent and receive free
health care, university education and other
services, and some receive meals at work.
But wages average less than $20 a month
and monthly rations of nearly free food
have dwindled.
Cuba blamed the price increases on U.S.
measures aimed at reducing hard currency
on the island by limiting how often Cuban-Americans
can visit relatives, decreasing how much
they can spend here and prohibiting money
transfers to Cuban officials and Communist
Party members.
Cubans who can get dollars that filter
through the economy from abroad turn to
hard-currency shops for food products and
other goods that are difficult to obtain
for pesos.
The Granma article directly linked the
price increases to the U.S. measures, saying
Washington wanted to "pummel the country's
economy as part of its murderous and genocidal
plans against the Cuban people."
The article, entitled "Information
for the People," said prices at the
dollar stores were increasing by an average
of 15.4 percent. The government similarly
raised prices at dollar stores two years
ago, but it did not close them to do so.
It also reduced some prices after customers
complained.
Some dollar-only stores remained closed
early Monday as workers continued changing
price tags on goods. Some food stores that
remained open during the last two weeks
to continue selling staple items also were
temporarily shut Monday to raise prices
10 percent.
Prices for leather goods, laundry detergent
and imported cigarettes rose by as much
as 20 percent, while clothing, shoes, electrical
goods and furniture now cost up to 15 percent
more.
Customers lining up at gas stations also
were unhappy with the higher prices. Regular
and premium gas cost about 20 cents a gallon
more, while diesel fuel increased by 40
cents a gallon.
The most popular, but very low-quality,
gas used in motorcycles and old American
cars also rose 20 cents a gallon.
"This is economically very bad,"
Juan Manuel Jimenez, a 30-year-old trumpet
player with the Cuban group Charanga Habanera,
said while putting regular gas into his
gold Fiat.
Jimenez, whose group was nominated for
a Latin Grammy last year, could only fill
his tank up to less than a quarter of capacity.
"It's too expensive to fill up,"
he said.
At the mall, Zaeta and her husband, Eduardo
Sanchez, howled with laughter when they
saw one new price tag - $3,506.80 for a
modern, two-door refrigerator.
"Conclusion: we, the poor people,
cannot buy these things," Sanchez said
as the couple left empty-handed.
Scores of Cuban emigres Meet With Castro
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated
Press Writer. Mon May 24, 7:45 PM ET
HAVANA - Hundreds of Cuban emigres, who
returned to their native land for a conference
designed to promote reconciliation, have
met the man most Cuban exiles love to hate
- President Fidel Castro.
Many people attending the conference left
Cuba before the 1959 revolution, which brought
Castro to power. Most don't share the resentment
of exiles who lost their homes and after
the government moved toward socialism. Some
even openly praised Castro during the three-day
conference that began Friday.
"He looked very well," Cuban-born
Pedro Rodriguez, who now lives in Miami,
said Monday of the 77-year-old Castro. "He
has tremendous stamina."
Others, including some former members of
the failed U.S. backed Bay of Pigs invasion
of Cuba in 1961, said too many years had
passed to continue holding resentments.
The communist government restored Cuban
citizenship to seven such former enemy invaders
during the gathering.
Even Rodriguez, who spent years in a Cuban
prison after launching an armed attack on
the government in the early 1960s, said
he no longer harbors rancor for Castro and
his political system.
International journalists were not invited
to the Sunday night reception at the Palace
of the Revolution, where Castro regularly
entertains visitors.
Rodriguez said Castro wore a dark suit
rather than his typical olive green uniform
and "was greeting one after the other,
talking." He said the Cuban leader
told them similar meetings with emigrants
would be held in the future.
All of the more than 500 participants in
Havana were invited to the reception. While
many at the event now live in the United
States, they came here from 49 countries,
including Spain and parts of Latin America.
Also among those present was Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo,
a former rebel commander who later fell
out with Castro's government and served
more than 20 years in prison for plans to
violently attack the government.
After his release, he was exiled to the
United States, where he formed an opposition
group, Cambio Cubano, which seeks dialogue
and reconciliation with the communist government.
Gutierrez-Menoyo has lived in Cuba without
government permission for nine months, since
returning here to stay. His migratory status
remains undefined.
Dollar stores reopen; prices up
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press. Posted on Tue, May. 25, 2004
HAVANA - Stores selling everything from
cigarettes to refrigerators for dollars
reopened Monday, two weeks after Cuba's
communist government abruptly shut them
down to raise prices because of U.S. measures
squeezing the island's economy.
The government imposed price increases
of up to 25 percent for alcohol, 22 percent
for gas and 15 percent for electrical goods
in the island's 5,000 dollar-only stores.
The opening of the stores and the price
increases were announced in a front-page
article in the Communist Party daily Granma.
''Oh my, the prices have really risen,''
said Gracie Zaeta, 46, who went to the Plaza
Carlos III mall with her husband.
The hair dye she occasionally buys rose
to between $6 and $7. Before, she said,
it cost about $4.50. The couple was mostly
interested in the prices of such basic items
such as chicken, soap and children's shoes.
They were unhappy with the increases because
their salaries are paid in Cuban pesos and
have remained stagnant.
Cuba was forced to implement liberal reforms
in the early 1990s to cope with the loss
of Soviet aid and trade. The possession
of dollars was legalized in 1993 to draw
hard currency from tourism and from family
purchases at state stores.
But most Cubans are still paid in pesos,
and Cuban leaders worry that the shops,
which only accept U.S. dollars, create social
inequality.
Cubans receive free health care, university
education and other services, and some receive
meals at work. But wages average less than
$20 a month and monthly rations of nearly
free food have dwindled.
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