Global Rhythm
Master batá drummer Orlando “Puntilla” Ríos, a seminal figure in the New York Latin music scene, died in a New York City hospital August 12 of complications from heart surgery. He was 60.
Ríos arrived from Cuba in 1980 with the Mariel boatlift and formed an Afro-Cuban folkloric group called Nueva Generación (New Generation) intent on preserving and disseminating both sacred Afro-Cuban music and secular forms such as rumba. He became a pillar of the religious Santería community in New York City as well as an in-demand session musician, recording with such luminaries as the Latin jazz pioneer Chico O’Farill.
Ríos relished his role as mentor and teacher to up and coming percussionists, transmitting what Cubans call “fundamento” (fundamentals) on the sacred, two-headed batá drum used in Santería ceremonies and increasingly in secular music. He was also renowned for his prowess on the conga drums and diverse percussion instruments. Ríos’ polyrhythmic performances and recordings such as 1996’s Spirit Rhythms: Sacred Drumming and Chants From Cuba are credited with exposing a wider audience to Cuban folkloric music. His last project was a tribute album honoring the guaguanco rumba legacy of the late Cuban singer-percussionist Gonzalo Asencio (“Tío Tom”). Released this year by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Ríos recorded the album in Havana’s legendary Egrem studios accompanied by El Conjunto Todo Rumbero.
Born in Havana in 1947 (Dec. 26?), Ríos was a teacher of percussion at the National School of Art in Cuba between 1971 and 1978. He went from performing in the city’s most exclusive hotels - storied cabarets such as the ones in Tropicana and the Hotel Riviera, to accompanying great Latin music figures of the stature of Celia Cruz and Tito Puente on the international stage. He is survived by his wife Ileana. - Lissette Corsa
Monday, September 15, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Judge Overturns Florida's Ban on Academic Travel to Cuba
Chronicle for Higher Education
News Blog
August 29, 2008
Judge Overturns Florida's Ban on Academic Travel to Cuba
A federal judge has struck down a Florida law that restricts students, faculty members, and researchers at the state’s public colleges and universities from traveling to Cuba and four other countries that the U.S. government considers terrorist states.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida had challenged the law in court on behalf of the Faculty Senate at Florida International University, arguing that the statute violated faculty members’ First Amendment rights and impinged on the federal government’s ability to regulate foreign commerce.
The two-year-old law prevents students, professors, and researchers at public universities and community colleges in Florida from using state or federal funds, or private foundation grants administered by their institutions, to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Those at private colleges in Florida are forbidden to use state funds for that purpose.
The decision, issued Thursday by the U.S. District Court in Miami, reversed an earlier ruling upholding the ban. In her order, Judge Patricia Seitz upheld one aspect of the law: State funds may not be used for travel to those countries. But nearly all such trips rely on private funds.
Judge Seitz agreed with the ACLU’s argument that the state should not be allowed to regulate travel financed with private funds and that the Florida Legislature could not interfere with federal foreign-relations powers.
“It’s a blow for academic freedom,” Thomas Breslin, a professor of international relations and chairman of Florida International University’s Faculty Senate, said of the decision during a news conference this afternoon.
The law was passed in 2006 after a Florida International professor and his wife, a university employee, were accused of spying for Cuba. —Karin Fischer
News Blog
August 29, 2008
Judge Overturns Florida's Ban on Academic Travel to Cuba
A federal judge has struck down a Florida law that restricts students, faculty members, and researchers at the state’s public colleges and universities from traveling to Cuba and four other countries that the U.S. government considers terrorist states.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida had challenged the law in court on behalf of the Faculty Senate at Florida International University, arguing that the statute violated faculty members’ First Amendment rights and impinged on the federal government’s ability to regulate foreign commerce.
The two-year-old law prevents students, professors, and researchers at public universities and community colleges in Florida from using state or federal funds, or private foundation grants administered by their institutions, to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Those at private colleges in Florida are forbidden to use state funds for that purpose.
The decision, issued Thursday by the U.S. District Court in Miami, reversed an earlier ruling upholding the ban. In her order, Judge Patricia Seitz upheld one aspect of the law: State funds may not be used for travel to those countries. But nearly all such trips rely on private funds.
Judge Seitz agreed with the ACLU’s argument that the state should not be allowed to regulate travel financed with private funds and that the Florida Legislature could not interfere with federal foreign-relations powers.
“It’s a blow for academic freedom,” Thomas Breslin, a professor of international relations and chairman of Florida International University’s Faculty Senate, said of the decision during a news conference this afternoon.
The law was passed in 2006 after a Florida International professor and his wife, a university employee, were accused of spying for Cuba. —Karin Fischer
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Cuba looks at trimming social welfare
Financial Times
Cuba looks at trimming social welfare
By Richard Lapper in London
Published: August 18 2008 22:38 | Last updated: August 18 2008 22:38
Cuba, one of the world’s last surviving Communist states, is looking at watering down the generous social welfare system that has been a cornerstone of its economy for nearly 50 years, according to a senior government official.
Alfredo Jam, head of macroeconomic analysis in the economy ministry, told the Financial Times that Cubans had been “over-protected” by a system that subsidised food costs and limited the amount people could earn, prompting labour shortages in important industries.
“We can’t give people so much security with their income that it affects their willingness to work,” Mr Jam said. “We can have equality in access to education and health but not in equality of income.” He said the emphasis on equality had helped maintain social cohesion during the 1990s when Cuba’s economy came close to collapse after the withdrawal of Soviet assistance, but “when the economy recovers you realise that there is [a level of] protection that has to change. We can’t have a situation where it is not work that gives access to goods,” he said.
Mr Jam’s remarks represent a rare and unusually frank insight into official thinking on Cuba’s future economic direction in the wake of the resignation of its long-time leader, Fidel Castro, in February.
Under Cuba’s new president, the former leader’s younger brother Raúl, the country has eased restrictions on bonuses that can be paid to workers and lifted bans on products such as mobile phones and DVD players.
Mr Castro also decentralised the country’s agricultural system and said idle land would be offered to co-operatives and private farmers to lower dependency on imported food.
However, the welfare system has remained almost intact. Under it, all Cubans are entitled to basic foods, including bread, eggs, rice, beans and milk, at much cheaper prices than those elsewhere in the world. Rents and utilities are extremely cheap and education and healthcare are free.
Any reform of these universal benefits would be controversial within the governing Communist party and unlikely to happen quickly.
But Mr Jam’s comments reflect growing frustration in official circles about poor performance in agriculture, construction and manufacturing. “There isn’t motivation to work in these sectors,” he said.
Cuba looks at trimming social welfare
By Richard Lapper in London
Published: August 18 2008 22:38 | Last updated: August 18 2008 22:38
Cuba, one of the world’s last surviving Communist states, is looking at watering down the generous social welfare system that has been a cornerstone of its economy for nearly 50 years, according to a senior government official.
Alfredo Jam, head of macroeconomic analysis in the economy ministry, told the Financial Times that Cubans had been “over-protected” by a system that subsidised food costs and limited the amount people could earn, prompting labour shortages in important industries.
“We can’t give people so much security with their income that it affects their willingness to work,” Mr Jam said. “We can have equality in access to education and health but not in equality of income.” He said the emphasis on equality had helped maintain social cohesion during the 1990s when Cuba’s economy came close to collapse after the withdrawal of Soviet assistance, but “when the economy recovers you realise that there is [a level of] protection that has to change. We can’t have a situation where it is not work that gives access to goods,” he said.
Mr Jam’s remarks represent a rare and unusually frank insight into official thinking on Cuba’s future economic direction in the wake of the resignation of its long-time leader, Fidel Castro, in February.
Under Cuba’s new president, the former leader’s younger brother Raúl, the country has eased restrictions on bonuses that can be paid to workers and lifted bans on products such as mobile phones and DVD players.
Mr Castro also decentralised the country’s agricultural system and said idle land would be offered to co-operatives and private farmers to lower dependency on imported food.
However, the welfare system has remained almost intact. Under it, all Cubans are entitled to basic foods, including bread, eggs, rice, beans and milk, at much cheaper prices than those elsewhere in the world. Rents and utilities are extremely cheap and education and healthcare are free.
Any reform of these universal benefits would be controversial within the governing Communist party and unlikely to happen quickly.
But Mr Jam’s comments reflect growing frustration in official circles about poor performance in agriculture, construction and manufacturing. “There isn’t motivation to work in these sectors,” he said.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Funding for free Cuba is frozen
Miami Herald
Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2008
Funding for free Cuba is frozen
BY FRANCES ROBLES
Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.
In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.
In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba.
The executive director of Grupo de Apoyo admitted that an employee used the organization's credit card for thousands of dollars in personal items and then billed them to the grant aimed at bringing democracy to Cuba, Driesler's memo said.
The group's funding has been suspended pending further review, and the money has been reimbursed, Driesler said. In a telephone interview, he declined to say what items were purchased.
'' U.S. AID has decided to conduct an immediate review of all the grants to determine where financial vulnerabilities exist and how best to address these vulnerabilities to strengthen the program for future success,'' his memo said. ``All grants are currently undergoing review, and pending the outcome of these reviews, some grants will be partially suspended.''
Grupo de Apoyo Executive Director Frank Hernández Trujillo did not return several messages seeking comment.
The announcement that U.S. AID would conduct a thorough review of its controversial $45 million program is considered a significant development that illustrates increased congressional oversight over the program.
A report by the Cuban-American National Foundation released in May showed that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report said, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.
The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.
IMPORTANT SHIFT
In an important shift, the Bush administration this year ordered a major change in the grants, favoring international advocacy groups over Miami exile organizations.
''Yes, we were worried,'' Driesler said in an interview. ``When we have problems with two institutions within six months out of 11 active grantees, you say, `We hope this is not a pattern, but we better pause and check and make sure.'
``We are focusing on procurements, validating that purchases being billed are being delivered, that the purchase price on the invoice is accurate and that the purchase was legitimate for a government program.''
Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, stressed that the $500,000 fraud at his organization was not discovered by a federal audit but by Calzon himself. He said Berman, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, pushed for the audits because he is against President Bush's Cuba policy.
POLITICS CHARGED
''I think any additional oversight is fine; I don't have any problem with that,'' Calzon said. ``I would say that it is simply motivated by politics. If Mr. Berman were in agreement with the president's Cuba policy, he would not be on this fishing expedition.''
Berman's office did not return a call seeking comment.
Critics say AID's move did not go far enough.
''Those of us who have been following this issue are alarmed about the program,'' said Sarah Stephens, whose organization, Democracy in the Americas, lobbies for a change in Cuba policy.
``We are pleased that Congress has started asking questions and, given what we have learned about possible corruption and waste, we believe Congress needs to stop this funding and continue asking the hard questions.''
Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2008
Funding for free Cuba is frozen
BY FRANCES ROBLES
Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.
In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.
In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba.
The executive director of Grupo de Apoyo admitted that an employee used the organization's credit card for thousands of dollars in personal items and then billed them to the grant aimed at bringing democracy to Cuba, Driesler's memo said.
The group's funding has been suspended pending further review, and the money has been reimbursed, Driesler said. In a telephone interview, he declined to say what items were purchased.
'' U.S. AID has decided to conduct an immediate review of all the grants to determine where financial vulnerabilities exist and how best to address these vulnerabilities to strengthen the program for future success,'' his memo said. ``All grants are currently undergoing review, and pending the outcome of these reviews, some grants will be partially suspended.''
Grupo de Apoyo Executive Director Frank Hernández Trujillo did not return several messages seeking comment.
The announcement that U.S. AID would conduct a thorough review of its controversial $45 million program is considered a significant development that illustrates increased congressional oversight over the program.
A report by the Cuban-American National Foundation released in May showed that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report said, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.
The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.
IMPORTANT SHIFT
In an important shift, the Bush administration this year ordered a major change in the grants, favoring international advocacy groups over Miami exile organizations.
''Yes, we were worried,'' Driesler said in an interview. ``When we have problems with two institutions within six months out of 11 active grantees, you say, `We hope this is not a pattern, but we better pause and check and make sure.'
``We are focusing on procurements, validating that purchases being billed are being delivered, that the purchase price on the invoice is accurate and that the purchase was legitimate for a government program.''
Frank Calzon, executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, stressed that the $500,000 fraud at his organization was not discovered by a federal audit but by Calzon himself. He said Berman, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, pushed for the audits because he is against President Bush's Cuba policy.
POLITICS CHARGED
''I think any additional oversight is fine; I don't have any problem with that,'' Calzon said. ``I would say that it is simply motivated by politics. If Mr. Berman were in agreement with the president's Cuba policy, he would not be on this fishing expedition.''
Berman's office did not return a call seeking comment.
Critics say AID's move did not go far enough.
''Those of us who have been following this issue are alarmed about the program,'' said Sarah Stephens, whose organization, Democracy in the Americas, lobbies for a change in Cuba policy.
``We are pleased that Congress has started asking questions and, given what we have learned about possible corruption and waste, we believe Congress needs to stop this funding and continue asking the hard questions.''
Friday, July 18, 2008
Cuba allows private farmers to have more land
AP
Cuba allows private farmers to have more land
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 18, 12:19 PM ET
Communist officials decreed Friday that private farmers and cooperatives can use up to 100 acres (40 hectares) of idle government land, as President Raul Castro works to revive Cuba's floundering agricultural sector.
The law published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma did not say how much state land will be turned over to private hands and gave no indication of how many Cubans might apply.
But it described the measure as a way to help Cuba solve the problem of underused land while cutting food imports that are expected to cost the government US$2 billion this year.
Landless Cubans can be given a bit more than 33 acres (13 hectares) while those who already have fully producing plots can add enough state lands to bring their total holdings to 100 acres (40 hectares).
Existing state farms, cooperatives and state factories also can apply for underused land.
Ownership will stay with the state. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms. And all will have to pay taxes for the lands, though the decree gave no details.
While the individual parcels are small, the widespread transfer of farmland from public to private hands could change the face of farming in a country where the government controls well over 90 percent of the economy.
The decree noted that Cuba now suffers from "a considerable percentage of idle state lands," making it necessary to grant concessions "with the objective of elevating food production and reducing importation."
Government statistics released last month show that the percentage of fallow or underused Cuban farm land increased to 55 percent in 2007, up from 46 percent in 2002. Just 29 percent of land on state farms is actively used.
After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, the government expropriated many large farms and agricultural holdings, while allowing thousands of small farmers to keep their plots and sell their produce to the state.
The new measure doesn't say where farmers will sell their output, but nearly all private farmers now are required to sell most of their produce — beyond what they eat themselves — to the state.
Friday's decree spells out details of a plan announced in March, when officials told state television they had begun lending more small plots to private producers of tobacco, coffee and other key cash crops.
Raul Castro, 77, has made increasing food production and reducing dependence on foreign imports a top priority since succeeding his brother Fidel in February.
The government earlier gave more autonomy to regional farm authorities and it is paying private farmers more for milk and meat.
State-owned farms now hold just over one-third of Cuba's agricultural land — down from about 70 percent two decades ago. The rest is worked by small farmers and cooperatives, many of them state-organized.
Cuba allows private farmers to have more land
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 18, 12:19 PM ET
Communist officials decreed Friday that private farmers and cooperatives can use up to 100 acres (40 hectares) of idle government land, as President Raul Castro works to revive Cuba's floundering agricultural sector.
The law published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma did not say how much state land will be turned over to private hands and gave no indication of how many Cubans might apply.
But it described the measure as a way to help Cuba solve the problem of underused land while cutting food imports that are expected to cost the government US$2 billion this year.
Landless Cubans can be given a bit more than 33 acres (13 hectares) while those who already have fully producing plots can add enough state lands to bring their total holdings to 100 acres (40 hectares).
Existing state farms, cooperatives and state factories also can apply for underused land.
Ownership will stay with the state. Private farmers can get concessions of up to 10 years, renewable for another 10. Cooperatives and companies can have renewable 25-year terms. And all will have to pay taxes for the lands, though the decree gave no details.
While the individual parcels are small, the widespread transfer of farmland from public to private hands could change the face of farming in a country where the government controls well over 90 percent of the economy.
The decree noted that Cuba now suffers from "a considerable percentage of idle state lands," making it necessary to grant concessions "with the objective of elevating food production and reducing importation."
Government statistics released last month show that the percentage of fallow or underused Cuban farm land increased to 55 percent in 2007, up from 46 percent in 2002. Just 29 percent of land on state farms is actively used.
After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, the government expropriated many large farms and agricultural holdings, while allowing thousands of small farmers to keep their plots and sell their produce to the state.
The new measure doesn't say where farmers will sell their output, but nearly all private farmers now are required to sell most of their produce — beyond what they eat themselves — to the state.
Friday's decree spells out details of a plan announced in March, when officials told state television they had begun lending more small plots to private producers of tobacco, coffee and other key cash crops.
Raul Castro, 77, has made increasing food production and reducing dependence on foreign imports a top priority since succeeding his brother Fidel in February.
The government earlier gave more autonomy to regional farm authorities and it is paying private farmers more for milk and meat.
State-owned farms now hold just over one-third of Cuba's agricultural land — down from about 70 percent two decades ago. The rest is worked by small farmers and cooperatives, many of them state-organized.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Life in Cuba: One Country, Two Currencies
Same old story...
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0716havanadaily,0,5077590.story
Life in Cuba: One Country, Two Currencies
Doreen Hemlock
Havana Bureau--South Florida Sun-Sentinel
7:25 AM EDT, July 16, 2008
HAVANA
Salesman Juan Carlos Lee hears the complaints daily. He works in an Old Havana store that offers juice, candy and other goods only for sale in Cuba's hard, convertible currency, not in local pesos.
"Ay, everything is so expensive. Convertible currency is such a problem. Cuba, it's not easy," clients tell him.
Lee tries to calm buyers by noting prices are rising worldwide for food, oil and other basics.
But he knows first-hand how hard it is to make ends meet with a salary equal to about $20 a month, when many consumer items now sell at international prices. He gives thanks that family in Spain sends him money. Yet like clients, he yearns for a day when wages stretch far and shopping takes one currency, not two.
"That's going to take time," the 42-year-old Havana resident said Tuesday. "It won't be overnight."
Strapped for dollars, euros and other currencies needed to buy imports, communist-run Cuba uses a unique dual-currency system to conserve foreign reserves. It pays islanders in local pesos and offers some goods and services at peso outlets, often with hefty subsidies. But increasingly, it requires a dollar-like convertible currency unit or CUC at other shops and businesses, where prices include little or no subsidies.
Cubans pay 25 pesos per CUC, a hefty sum when salaries average in the 400-range monthly. Those who can best afford it are those Cubans who earn some pay or tips in CUC from tourism or the thriving black market, and those who receive cash from friends and family overseas.
The government recognizes the four-year-old system hurts national self-esteem and widens social divides. Officials vow to end the program once foreign reserves spike -- a growing challenge as import prices soar.
Lucia Morgan, 38, a teacher in Havana who earns about $20 a month, said she copes with rising costs by buying soda just once or twice a week at the CUC store, instead of three times. She's also trying to rely more on goods sold in pesos, like rice and beans, foregoing the spaghetti she buys in CUC.
Other Cubans seek quicker change. The Federation of Latin American Rural Women, a group known by its Spanish initials as Flamur, is campaigning to end the two-currency system it calls "discriminatory." On Monday, two activists protested by entering a pharmacy that sells goods in CUC and offering to pay for a bottle of medicine in local pesos. The cashier refused, and the manager took the bottle away, the group said.
"These actions will continue until the popular will is fulfilled, expressed by the 10,738 signatures that we gave the National Assembly, to pay in all establishments in the country with the same currency in which are wages are paid to us," Flamur President Belinda Salas said in a news release. "We will not be intimidated."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0716havanadaily,0,5077590.story
Life in Cuba: One Country, Two Currencies
Doreen Hemlock
Havana Bureau--South Florida Sun-Sentinel
7:25 AM EDT, July 16, 2008
HAVANA
Salesman Juan Carlos Lee hears the complaints daily. He works in an Old Havana store that offers juice, candy and other goods only for sale in Cuba's hard, convertible currency, not in local pesos.
"Ay, everything is so expensive. Convertible currency is such a problem. Cuba, it's not easy," clients tell him.
Lee tries to calm buyers by noting prices are rising worldwide for food, oil and other basics.
But he knows first-hand how hard it is to make ends meet with a salary equal to about $20 a month, when many consumer items now sell at international prices. He gives thanks that family in Spain sends him money. Yet like clients, he yearns for a day when wages stretch far and shopping takes one currency, not two.
"That's going to take time," the 42-year-old Havana resident said Tuesday. "It won't be overnight."
Strapped for dollars, euros and other currencies needed to buy imports, communist-run Cuba uses a unique dual-currency system to conserve foreign reserves. It pays islanders in local pesos and offers some goods and services at peso outlets, often with hefty subsidies. But increasingly, it requires a dollar-like convertible currency unit or CUC at other shops and businesses, where prices include little or no subsidies.
Cubans pay 25 pesos per CUC, a hefty sum when salaries average in the 400-range monthly. Those who can best afford it are those Cubans who earn some pay or tips in CUC from tourism or the thriving black market, and those who receive cash from friends and family overseas.
The government recognizes the four-year-old system hurts national self-esteem and widens social divides. Officials vow to end the program once foreign reserves spike -- a growing challenge as import prices soar.
Lucia Morgan, 38, a teacher in Havana who earns about $20 a month, said she copes with rising costs by buying soda just once or twice a week at the CUC store, instead of three times. She's also trying to rely more on goods sold in pesos, like rice and beans, foregoing the spaghetti she buys in CUC.
Other Cubans seek quicker change. The Federation of Latin American Rural Women, a group known by its Spanish initials as Flamur, is campaigning to end the two-currency system it calls "discriminatory." On Monday, two activists protested by entering a pharmacy that sells goods in CUC and offering to pay for a bottle of medicine in local pesos. The cashier refused, and the manager took the bottle away, the group said.
"These actions will continue until the popular will is fulfilled, expressed by the 10,738 signatures that we gave the National Assembly, to pay in all establishments in the country with the same currency in which are wages are paid to us," Flamur President Belinda Salas said in a news release. "We will not be intimidated."
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