With the lack of a benefactor to fund the communist dictatorship and 65 years of failed socialist policies, the economy in Cuba is on the verge of collapse. Cubans are doing whatever they can to survive, including creating informal markets using foreign currencies to obtain food and basic necessities. Nevertheless, the Cuban regime issued a stern warning through its state-run newspaper, threatening Cubans who engage in the buying and selling of foreign currency with criminal prosecution.
The primary mouthpiece of the Cuban regime, the newspaper Granma, published an article on Wednesday threatening those who buy or sell foreign currencies. The piece emphasized that such activities are not only criminal offenses punishable by law but also result in the confiscation of the money involved, highlighting the severity with which the government seeks to control the economic transactions of its citizens.
In its digital edition, the newspaper lashed out at individuals exchanging national currencies for foreign ones, arguing that this “affects the country’s economic system.” Additionally, it noted that any transaction involving the sale, transfer, or acquisition of foreign currency “is illegal and constitutes a crime.”
According to Granma, the public should be aware that there is no “informal market” but rather a criminal activity that “takes advantage of social communication networks to offer, buy, sell, and exchange national currencies and foreign currencies.”
The article specifically targeted the platform El Toque, labeling it as “an indicator of the illegal market” and accusing it of aiming to “affect the economy, generate a negative impact on the country’s monetary scale, and worsen the living conditions of Cubans.” This narrative ignores the many facets of Cuba’s worsening economic crisis and its primary culprit, the government itself.
The communist Castro family dictatorship operates in the same manner of a Mafia crime family, cracking down on those they see as invading their territory and denying them their prodigious cut.