Cuba announced Monday that U.S. dollars will no
longer be accepted at stores or other businesses on the communist
island starting next month in a move that will radically change the way
business has been done there over the past decade. With President Fidel
Castro looking on, his chief aide Carlos Valenciaga and state
television personality Randy Alonso read the resolution by Cuba's
Central Bank. The measure called for all such transactions to be done
in a local currency known as convertible Cuban pesos, starting Nov. 8.
The government said the measure was necessary to protect its economy in
the wake of stepped up measures by the U.S. government to punish banks
that ship dollars to Cuba, which has been under an U.S. trade and
financial embargo for more than 40 years. Cubans and others on the
island will still be allowed to hold U.S. dollars in unlimited
quantities. But beginning Nov. 8 they must be changed into convertible
pesos with a 10 percent change at banks or changing houses to be used
at businesses across the island. [more ]
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