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Commander in Chief Fidel Castro’s message on the new economic aggression
by the United States government and the Cuban response, read during
the news program "Round Table" broadcast on October 25, 2004 "Year
of the 45th Anniversary of the Revolution"
Dear Fellow Cubans:
On 10 May this year
a cable from the BBC took note of a fine imposed by the US Federal
Reserve on a Swiss bank for an alleged violation of US sanctions
against Libya, Iran, Yugoslavia and Cuba. They accused the Swiss
bank of accepting US dollar bills from or of sending them to
countries that were subject to United States government sanctions.
 A
few days later, the NOTIMEX agency reported on statements made by
that crook Otto Reich in which, in reference to the measures
recently adopted by the United States government, he said that some
were already being implemented and that others were about to be
implemented. Concretely, he said in a threatening tone:
"Many of them need regulations and some other bureaucratic things to be
put in place and government lawyers and other officials are working
on that and many more are on the way to being implemented."
On that same day,
an article full of slanders and blatant lies appeared in the Miami
El Nuevo Herald under the headline "Cuba Laundered $39
billion in Swiss Bank". The article, not only twisted everything to
do with the normal trading operation that Cuba sustains with foreign
countries but also urged US authorities to take new action against
our country, saying that:
 "We
know that the Federal Reserve is autonomous and evidently has no
interest in applying the Helms Burton Act but the OFAC (Office for
Foreign Assets Control) is part of the executive branch and it can
demand a better explanation of the Cuban part of the of the USB’s
(Union of Swiss Banks) business which was elegantly swept under the
carpet by the Senate Banking Committee. Perhaps Cuban-American
members of Congress can convene hearings in the relevant House of
Representatives’ committees so that light may be shed on this
colossal scandal".
On June 8, the
Cuban government, true to its habit of keeping our people duly
informed, published an explanatory note in the newspaper Granma,
which gave a detailed account of the origin of our operations
with foreign banks, through which the dollars in cash received in
Cuba are deposited in bank accounts so that we can settle the debts
derived from our foreign trade.
Among other things,
the Note read:
"… we have seen
how in the last few days the ultra-right wing of the Bush
administration is taking steps clearly aimed at blocking the income
our country obtains from tourism and other services, at reducing to
zero the possibility that Cubans living in the United States can
send remittances to their relatives in Cuba by using the most evil,
devious, hypocritical method imaginable: simply by preventing Cuba
from making deposits in foreign banks of the dollars it obtains from
sales in hard currency shops, from activities related to tourism and
from other trade services. Thus, Cuba would not be able to use these
dollars to buy medicines or food or to import the stock needed for
the very shops where those who receive remittances from family
members living in the United States buy those products".
The United States
government is using this sleazy method to put pressure on foreign
banks to not accept money from Cuba, the origin of which is
completely legal and honest. Moreover, it is encouraging the Miami
terrorist mob’s papers to publish the repulsive slander that this
money could even come from activities against which our country
wages a fierce battle, activities such as money laundering and drug
trafficking".
The note published
in Granma reads on:
"These actions are
even more outrageous if one takes in account the fact that the only
reason tourists who visit Cuba must use cash is that the Yankee
blockade does not allow them to use credit cards or travelers’
checks issued by US banks and other financial institutions that
control this market. Moreover, they have granted only one US Company
a license for processing remittances sent through banks to Cuba so
that Cubans living abroad need to go through an ordeal to send
economic assistance to their relatives and, in the end, most of them
are forced to send remittances in cash. These same persecutions and
threats, which hang permanently over those who send money from the
United States to their relatives in Cuba, means that they often
prefer to send cash, so there is no paper trail that could make them
liable to persecution from US authorities and to the violent
behavior of the terrorists who live in Miami.
The Granma
note continues: "One cannot conceive of a more cynical, evil
formula: the United States forces remittances and payment made by
visitors to Cuba to be made in cash and now, with this crude
pressure, is trying to prevent Cuba from using this cash to pay for
its imports".
The note ends as
follows:
"All of these
tricks are doomed to failure. With its usual steadfastness and
serenity, our heroic people will struggle against and will be
victorious over a powerful, but despicable, cowardly enemy which is
truly contemptible for its genocidal policies and its Nazi-fascist
methods".
We can add to this
the fact that, in the seven year period referred to, Cuba has
imported more than $30.854 billion worth of goods, so that the $3.9
billion which they say were sent to the Swiss bank in question and
transferred to other beneficiaries, make up approximately 13 per
cent of the total amount of payments Cuba made in this period to
meet the cost of its imports, a substantial part of which are food,
fuel or medical necessities or raw material for its production,
other intermediate products for its new industries, articles sold in
the chain of hard currency outlets, etcetera.
The next day,
another article in El Nuevo Herald returned to the subject
and, with the utmost disregard for the truth, suggested that the
money deposited in the aforementioned Swiss Bank was in the name of
"unknown entities or persons in banks that were not named", when, in
every single case, that money was used for normal trade transactions
with internationally recognized trading and industrial companies.
The Herald hysterically demanded:
"We must learn what those names are. Florida congresspersons Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart must put pressure so that
people learn where this money went and where it came from."
On June 10, in a
campaign obviously aimed at drawing international attention to this
matter, El Nuevo Herald once again said that the Miami
mob, through its best-known spokespersons, congresspersons Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, was requesting the federal
government to investigate the origin and destination of the
aforementioned money. In this article El Nuevo Herald
reported that:
"’The United States must investigate the origin and destination of some
$3.9 billion that the Cuban government "laundered" through an
international program of the Federal Reserve’, Florida
congresspersons Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart said
yesterday in letters sent to the Federal Reserve and to the House’s
Finance Committee.
"’ We are extremely puzzled as to how such a serious violation of federal
law by the USB (Union of Swiss Banks) could have taken place’, the
two wrote to the Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. ‘We hope
that the investigations can answer the many questions we have about
this matter".
In a press
conference on June 22, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, "The big, bad she-wolf",
hysterically as usual" said that:
"I am shocked that
a bank which was given the extremely important responsibility of
distributing the new American money should violate our country’s
regulations concerning a state identified as a terrorist state".
And she made this
demand in a most impertinent manner, saying that:
"I am waiting for
the result of the investigation… if the USB (Union of Swiss Banks**)
is found guilty of violating US restrictions on transactions
involving terrorist states such as Cuba, it is most important that
those responsible be fined appropriately".
On June 30, Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, continuing with her campaign, addressed a letter to
the chairman of the House of Representatives’ International
Relations Committee demanding an investigation into the matter.
Obviously, the aim
of intimidating any bank which might have financial relations with
Cuba could clearly be seen behind this campaign and blatant
pressuring, the purpose being to prevent them from accepting dollar
bills which our country must send abroad at regular intervals for
the reasons explained above.
At this point, it
began to become clearly apparent that many banks were being subject
to pressure by US authorities to try to block those remittances and
create an extremely critical situation for our country.
In these
circumstances, we began to analyze all possible variants in order to
prevent any further criminal action by the United States government
from causing serious economic damage to our country by impeding the
use of the dollars in cash collected in Cuba for trade purposes.
While Cuba calmly
and thoughtfully analyzed all its alternatives, the lies and
slanders about this subject continued to rain down.
On June 3, El
Nuevo Herald launched an attack on the Inter-American
Development bank and ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean) accusing them of inflating its estimates of
family remittances from the United States to Cuba, which, according
to them, would justify the legal origin of the $3.9 billion.
With reference to
this point they said:
"This whole
business is what the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) and ECLAC
are covering up with their inflated figures on remittances, which
they say come from the Cuban-American community. This must be
clarified. What is more, this money laundering scandal shows that
Cuba is a safe haven for money from terrorists and embezzlers. This
must be exposed".
On July 23, with
the crass sensationalism characteristic of the Miami riffraff, El
Nuevo Herald published an article entitled "Links to Cuban Money
Sought in United States" which, among other things reported that:
"The United States has started a judicial investigation to see if there
are possible links between ‘U.S. bodies and persons’ and the $3.9
billion that Cuba infiltrated into the international banking system
using a Federal Reserve program.
"The operation was carried out through the Union of Swiss Banks** (USB).
"’At this time there is an investigation opened by the South East New
York district attorney’s office’ Juan Zárate, the US Treasury
undersecretary responsible for the fight against financing terrorism
said during a visit to El Nuevo Herald made yesterday."
Apparently the lies
which were published every day in Miami on this affair were so many
and so outrageous that, in spite of the proverbial discretion of
Swiss banks, the banking institution involved in this case felt
itself obliged to publicly deny any accusation of money laundering
and a cable form Agence France Press published in Zurich on July 25
said the following:
"L’ Union des
Banques Suisses (**Union of Swiss Banks, USB) the biggest Swiss bank
denied having laundered money for Cuba, as three member of the House
of Representatives who are demanding an investigation, have alleged.
"A USB spokesperson in Zurich said that he had no knowledge of a new
investigation into the bank and denied all accusations of money
laundering."
[…]
"According to the USB spokesperson, the US Federal Reserve (FED) and the
Swiss Federal Banking Commission (FBC) have already looked into the
case."
Statements like
these did not prevent the Miami mobsters and the newspapers from
continuing with their lying campaign and on September 16 Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen came out with more statements:
"’This is starting and it’s growing’,
the congresswoman remarked to El Nuevo Herald. She added: ‘There
are at least three persons who were involved in this money
manipulation and other banks are being looked into’
Note the overt
threat when she says "others banks are being looked into".
On that day, I
asked the Central Bank of Cuba to speed up work on this matter and I
said —the Commander explains— that they should concentrate on
analyzing the possibility of using the convertible peso instead of
the dollar, so that the country would not be vulnerable to the new
pressure from the mob and the United States government.
Perhaps you
remember that on 28 September, during the second Round Table on the
subject of electricity, in my comments, I alerted the public to
these problems without giving many details. On this point my actual
words were:
"We have an enemy
that has been trying to destroy us with any and every possible
method for more than 45 years so that even the money paid by a
tourist cannot circulate through the world because, since they are
the owners of the most important currency and owners of the world,
they forbid the dollar to be used in any Cuban transaction."
And with regard to
the measures we were working on, I hinted in the Round Table on
September 29 which was about energy that:
"They are making a
big effort, and we are also thinking about how we are going to
defend ourselves, because we will not be helpless. We are not going
to tell them anything, let they do whatever they want, let them
hassle us, let them try to knock us down, but any measure they take
to blockade and then accuse the country of laundering money —as if
it were money earned from gambling, from smuggling, from money
laundering— they will not go unanswered. It is our money earned with
the sweat of our people, honorably. Then they take measures so that
their dollar can’t circulate, but we shall see, we shall surely find
a response to such measures, and they will fail as they have always
failed."
As recently as
October 9, exactly 11 days before my accidental fall, a speech given
by Daniel W. Fisk, undersecretary for Western Hemispheric Affairs at
the US State Department to the Cuban American veterans’ Association
came to our attention. There, he bragged with boundless cynicism
about the alleged success of the criminal measures taken by the Bush
government against our country. The things he said included:
"Yet another pillar in our strategy is to identify long-ignored revenue
streams for the Castro regime and then move to degrade them. For
example, tourism, which has replaced sugar exports as Cuba’s main
foreign exchange earner.
[…]
"As many of you are aware, to continue to reduce the flow of resources
that enable Castro to keep the Cuban people repressed, we have
tightened our policy on remittances, gift parcels and family travel
to the Island. These avenues had generated an estimated $1.5 billion
in funds and goods sent to Cuba from those living outside the
Island.
[…]
"…we have deprived the Castro regime of over $100 million in hard
currency. That’s $100 million less Castro has to repress his people
and keep his grip on power.
"Moreover, by projecting these numbers over a full calendar year, we
estimate a net annual loss to the regime of some $375 million —and
that’s just from reduced travel.
"When factoring in the decline in all revenue flows, we estimate we will
have denied the regime at lest half a billion dollars that Castro
would have used to support his security and intelligence apparatus."
Among all that
imperial arrogance and bragging, there was one specific paragraph
which needs careful consideration.
Mr. Fisk said
"We have established a Cuban Assets Targeting Group staffed by law
enforcement officials from several agencies to investigate and
identify news ways hard currency moves in and out of Cuba; and to
stop it".
The relationship
between the Miami mob’s dirty campaign on the subject of alleged
money laundering and this new, criminal action by the United States
government when it created a group to track down hard currency flows
into and out of Cuba couldn’t be clearer. Thus the actions to
protect our country’s interests against this new attack had to be
taken without any more delay. I immediately instructed the Cuban
Central Bank to prepare a timetable for having the convertible peso
circulate instead of the US dollar as soon as possible.
That timetable has
been drawn up and now we are in a position to officially announce,
that, as from November 8 the convertible peso will begin to
circulate instead of the US dollar throughout Cuban national
territory.
The first thing we
need to make clear is that this does not mean that the possession of
US dollars or any other freely convertible currency will be
penalized. The population can hold any amount of dollars it wishes
and this will not be a breach of the law. What this means is that,
as from the date mentioned earlier, November 8, the US dollar will
not be accepted in our hard currency dealings; these will only
accept convertible pesos.
As from November 8,
any person in possession of freely convertible currency, be that
person Cuban or a visiting foreigner, will first have to obtain
convertible pesos in the Exchange Bureaus (CADECAS), in bank
chapters —and even in a large number of the very shops that make
sales in hard currency, who will also be offering this service— in
order to make purchases in the chain of outlets which use hard
currency. As an additional element, it has been decided that as from
that date, November 8, anyone who wishes to obtain convertible pesos
for US dollars in cash will have to pay a 10 percent tax. This tax
will serve as compensation for the risks and costs which derive from
using US dollars in the Cuban economy as a result of the
aforementioned United States government measures which are trying to
prevent our country from using US dollars in cash for normal trade
purposes.
So that not the
slightest confusion exist, it is very important to repeat that this
tax will begin on November 8, so that those with US dollars have two
weeks to exercise their right to exchange them for convertible pesos
at par and with no tax whatsoever; or if they wish, they can also by
goods in dollars before that date, as is done now. If anyone has a
US-dollar-account in the bank, they can deposit more dollars and
withdraw them later in convertible pesos at par or in US dollars
whenever they want them, also with tax exempt. If a person has no
bank account, he or she can open one and deposit his or her US
dollars in the bank and withdraw them whenever they wish in the
future as convertible pesos at par or in the same dollars, also tax
exempt.
Those who usually
receive money from abroad have two weeks from today to coordinate,
if they so wish, with their relatives so that in the future the
latter do not send their cash remittances in US dollars but in other
currencies, such as the Euro, the Canadian dollar, the pound
sterling or the Swiss franc, which will not be subject to the 10
percent tax.
This means that we
have looked for formulas, which ensure that no one is harmed by this
measure, since enough time has been allowed for people to make the
arrangements they wish with their US dollars in cash in order not to
have to pay the required tax.
I repeat, this is
not a measure aimed at obtaining dollars by imposing a tax, it is a
response to a real threat posed by a criminal United States
government measure and a flagrant campaign to intimidate foreign
banks.
I also want to
stress that all US dollars, convertible pesos or any other currency
bank accounts are totally guaranteed, and, as I already said, no tax
will be imposed on money deposited in banks, no matter when clients
wish to withdraw it, there being no time limits of any kind.
Perhaps, in order
to make this easier to understand, Randy could read the Central Bank
resolution which will make this measure effective and after that we
can offer some clarification.
As I already
explained, the first thing the resolution establishes is that the
population can posses, as they can now and with no kind of
restriction, any amount of US dollars or any other convertible
currency. Between tomorrow and November 7, everything will be as it
is now and US dollars will continue to be accepted in the shops;
those who wish to change their US dollars for convertible pesos will
not be charged the ten percent tax and the exchange will be at par.
People may open new dollar bank accounts with no restrictions of
whatsoever or can make new deposits in existing accounts, and they
can withdraw these funds whenever they wish in the future in
convertible pesos at par or in US dollars, the client may choose,
without being subject to any tax.
The obligation to
pay in convertible pesos in all establishments that use dollars will
come into effect on November 8, and the 10 percent tax will be
applied to any transaction that involves exchanging physical US
dollars for convertible pesos. Remember, that this is not a change
in the exchange rate between the US dollar and the convertible peso,
which continues to stand at par, but it is simply a tax on
purchasing convertible pesos with US dollars in cash. If you have a
convertible peso, you can buy a US dollar; but if you have a US
dollar and want to buy a convertible peso, you will have to pay the
10 percent tax, so that you will only receive 90 cents of a
convertible peso for your US dollar.
I remind you again
that there is no kind of tax for the other currencies that are
accepted in the country —euros, Swiss francs, pounds sterling and
Canadian dollars. The ten percent tax will be applied to US dollars
in cash because of the situation created by the United States
government’s new measures to asphyxiate our country.
In order to make it
easier to exchange money, this can be done as from October 28 in the
Exchange Bureaus (CADECAS), bank chapters, hotels and shops, in the
ways that Randy already read from the resolution.
The resolution also
sets forth that transactions made with credit or debit cards will
have no tax applied to them, no matter in which currency they are
made, including the US dollar. The explanation is that, when a
transaction is made with a credit or debit card, no movement of
actual cash is involved, so that the costs and risks associated with
handling US dollar bills do not exist.
Some measures have
been taken affecting the banking system to make currency exchange
easier. For example, banks will open on Saturday and Sunday November
6 and 7, respectively, and from October 28 to November 5 and from 12
noon onwards at that time, they will be totally dedicated to
currency exchange operations and during those hours will not process
any other transactions, in order to give more time to the public and
so that no one who wishes to exchange US dollars for convertible
pesos before the 8th, so as not to pay the tax, fails to
do so.
Of course, we also
want to make it clear, following the same rational, that those who
wish to buy Cuban pesos at the CADECAS with US dollars will also be
subject to the 10 percent tax, since we would be accepting US
dollars in cash.
I also want to make
it clear that this measure will not prevent nor hinder in any way
whatsoever the guarantees issued by Cuban financial institutions to
foreign institutions, nor the availability of funds in freely
convertible currency to honor their obligations. This measure is
only domestic in scope and we are only regulating matters, which
pertain to the circulation of money within Cuban territory and
protecting ourselves from an external economic attack.
RESOLUTION No 80/2004
Informative Note | 
