The US Dollar Seen as Cuba’s Socialist Lifesaver

HAVANA TIMES – Although wages in Cuba continue to be paid in Cuban pesos (CUP), the government recently opened dollar only stores to access essential goods. The 10% tax that weighed on the US currency, and that sought to discourage its use on the island, has also been eliminated.

The Castro-Diaz Canel regime implements shock measures hoping to survive the economic crisis brought on by the loss of income from tourism and health measures due to the global pandemic.

And although the decisions seem contradictory to the socialist model, they are similar to those adopted by Fidel Castro in 1993, to respond to the loss of income from the Soviet Union.

The US currency appears to be the lifeline of the revolution at a new critical juncture, similar to the one experienced in the 1990s during the “Special Period”.