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FROM
CUBA
Police arrest currency traders outside mall
HAVANA, Cuba - September 6 (Richard Roselló
/ www.cubanet.org) - Municipal police in
Batabanó, a small city on the southern
coast of Havana province, arrested four
suspected of currency trading September
3 outside a shopping mall that trades only
in hard currency.
The arrests came as part of "Operation
Rake", a government initiative meant
to wipe out the underground economy.
The four were accused of buying and selling
convertible Cuban pesos illegally.
Police confiscated several thousand pesos
from the four and imposed fines on two of
them.
"What they have done is arbitrary
and abusive," said Iris Otoño,
adding they had been "fingerprinted
as if they were common delinquents."
Otoño denied trading currency, and
said police confiscated more than two thousand
Cuban pesos and 1.35 in convertible pesos
from her and her brother.
The 1.35 was to buy chicken for her son,
said Otoño, adding that her brother
had earmarked over one thousand pesos to
buy a pair of pigs.
The two said they would demand their money
be returned. They said they weren't fined
or given warning writs.
Versión
original en español
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