A resolution by the Cuban government with instructions on accountancy had never ever been a best seller. This year’s 12 edition (extraordinary edition) of La Gaceta Official (The Official Gazette) is sold successfully on Havana’s streets; newspaper seller announce it with the promise that it covers everything one needs to know about the elimination of the dual currency.
The issue has not been very much covered by the Cuban press media. Apart from some explanations by journalist Ariel Terrero every morning in the Buenos dias news bulletin, humorist Luis Silva is the only one that tackles it while interpreting the character of Panfilo in the show “Vivir del cuento”. The newspapers have not said much either.
This lack of information has paved the way without too much protocol to all kinds of speculations, rumors and misunderstandings. Those with bank accounts wonder what currency they should use for their savings, while others lining up outside CADECA (money exchange booth) long for the day they will no longer have to line up to change some Cuban pesos (CUP) in Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) or vice versa.
In the midst of such uncertainty, banks or CADECAS are taken by assault by the shouting of old men full of newspapers announcing the Gazette on the dual currency, as if it were a manual of economic prophecies published by Banco Central de Cuba.
Cubans buy it, and make references to La Gaceta Oficial using its legal and financial language which tells him what is going to happen when the CUC is no longer in use(?). It is an official document loaded with information, but it is the wrong information, unless its reader is one out of the 20 000 officials being trained by the government so that they can understand and implement the resolution.
Namely, accountancy specialists are given more thorough explanations so that they are able to understand what it is all about. If these specialists require training for understanding the resolution, the rest of the people would need lessons for at least three months in order to “start” to understand it.
The greatest contribution of La Gaceta and its most readable fragments to the people has been the spreading of the so-called Day 0. Besides, it also convinced the most skeptics that the CUC will be gone for good.
Regardless of the publication of accountancy regulations, the latest news on the process of elimination of the dual currency was stated by the vice president of the Cuban government, Marino Murillo, who pointed out that it is an extremely complex process but necessary “for reestablishing the value of the Cuban peso and its functions”.
Author
Javier Ortiz
