Related videos:
The Cuban comedian Ulises Toirac lampooned the new "floating" rate of the Banco Central de Cuba (BCC) this Thursday, by comparing the newly published official values with those of the independent medium elToque, which the regime itself had accused for months of manipulating the informal currency market.
In a post on his Facebook profile, Toirac wrote: “It's going to be funny to see the Central Bank of Cuba consult elToque daily to publish (give or take a few pesos, of course, so they don't say otherwise) the exchange rate of the day... Ayyyyypiiiiiiiinnnn! Finally, who works for the CIA?” accompanied by two screenshots taken —as he clarified— “exactly at the same minute, just seconds apart.”
The images highlighted the similarity between both sources: the euro at 480 CUP and the dollar at 440 CUP in the elToque table, compared to the 481.42 and 410 CUP published by the Central Bank.
The post, which gathered thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments, sparked a wave of mockery, outrage, and sarcasm towards the regime's economic policy. Many internet users agreed that the Government ended up “validating” what it had criticized for months. “The Touch is officially nationalized”, said one, while others noted that “the Central Bank consulted the neighbor's exam” and that “now it has turned into a you touch me and I touch you.”
Some comments referred to the coincidence as "a joke," "an official-signed copy," or "a bad taste comedy," while several users summed up the citizens' frustration: "So much swimming to die on the shore." Another, with a more critical tone, wrote: "So much trash they talked about Toque, was he right or not!"
There were plenty of messages that mocked the official campaign against elToque, with phrases like “After so much Teque, now el Toque is official” or “So much talk to end up the same.” Others focused on the absurdity of the measure: “I think someone ‘noticed’ the test of the one next door,” wrote a user, referring to the similarity between both rates. “These two are in love: BCC and elToque,” or “It's no longer el Toque; it's el Teque,” said others. There were also those who expressed disappointment and fatigue over the monetary chaos: “Another measure that messes with the average Cuban,” “Nothing changes, only the names,” or “The same dog with a different collar.”
Toirac responded to one of the comments defending the Central Bank by saying: “But didn’t they spend nearly two months saying that the dollar values from elToque were inflated to destroy the economy? So what now?”
It is not the first time that the comedian has satirized the monetary policy of the regime. On December 12, he ironically proposed the creation of the “pesolar”, a fictional currency with which he ridiculed the coexistence of multiple currencies and exchange rates in Cuba. On that occasion, he suggested eliminating the Cuban peso, “a national currency that holds no value in the nation,” and the dollar, “which is not national even though they want to nationalize it by force,” accompanying his message with a caricature of a bill where he replaced Benjamin Franklin's face with his own.
A month earlier, in November, he published another reflection titled "It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault", in which he criticized the Government for blaming elToque for the national economic collapse instead of acknowledging "decades of failed policies and absolute state control."
The new exchange rate, presented by the president of the BCC, Juana Lilia Delgado, came into effect on December 18 and divides the market into three segments: a state segment (1x24), a business segment (1x120), and a floating segment, aimed at individuals and small and medium enterprises, whose rate will be updated daily according to supply and demand.
On its first day of implementation, the dollar was officially set at 410 CUP and the euro at 481.42 CUP, values that are practically identical to those reported by the informal market (440 and 480 CUP respectively). The measure, according to authorities, aims to "organize the flow of currencies" and "reduce informality," although even officials from the Central Bank admitted that “perhaps it is not what many expected”, acknowledging that the system will only sell what it is able to buy and that the new exchange rate will not immediately eliminate the parallel market.
With the near-microscopic alignment between the state rate and the informal one, Ulises Toirac's publication reignited the debate over the credibility of the Central Bank and the implicit acknowledgment that, for years, the real value of the Cuban peso has been defined outside state institutions.
Filed under: