Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Cuba moving away from the Dollar
Castro is trying to stick it to America.
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Castro is trying to stick it to America.
Moving to wean its communist economic system from the U.S. currency, Cuba said that dollars will no longer be accepted at island businesses and stores in a dramatic change in how commercial transactions have been done here in more than a decade.
The resolution announced Monday by Cuba's Central Bank seemed aimed at finding new sources for foreign reserves and regain more control over its own economy as the U.S. government steps up efforts to prevent dollars from reaching the island as part of a strategy to undermine Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s government.
Cuba's national currency, the peso, cannot be used with international partners.
"Beginning on November 8, the convertible peso will begin to circulate in substitution of the dollar throughout the national territory," Castro said in a written message read by his chief aide Carlos Valenciaga.
In his message, Castro asked Cubans to tell relatives living abroad to send them money in other foreign currencies, such as euros, British sterling or Swiss francs.
The move was likely to hurt mostly those Cubans who receive American dollars from relatives living in the United States.
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