A cultural figure from Santiago de Cuba denounced an informal business on Facebook this Thursday that operates in broad daylight next to the ATMs of one of the buildings known as "18 floors": those who transfer 1,000 Cuban pesos receive only 600 pesos in cash, an abusive commission of 40% that is charged daily amid the inaction of the authorities.
The complaint was signed by Ericka Castellanos Abad, poet and doctor, in a text titled "Biodecoding / Who Allows?"
The author recounts that she accompanied someone as a witness in that transaction: “This afternoon, I served as a companion, almost a guarantor for the looting that occurs daily in the game of dominoes next to the obsolete bank with 18 floors in Sande Cuba.”
Castellanos does not simply describe the fact. He turns it into political evidence: "Transferring 1,000 Cuban pesos to receive 600 Cuban pesos in cash is the worst kind of abuse, and that this happens just a few blocks from the Provincial Party headquarters is both shamelessness and compelling evidence of the significance that the people hold for the highest echelons of national power."
Castellanos Abad goes further in her analysis and points to the Communist Party as the main culprit for the disorder prevailing on the island, although she does not exempt the U.S. embargo or what she calls the "poorly managed civil society."
It describes a "silent strike of arms crossed" and an underground economy that challenges state control: "We live by the law of the jungle where only the front men of the mafia profit today thanks to the advantages provided by the pseudo leadership of the country."
The author also points to institutional corruption: "Many officials prioritize their personal interests over the well-being of the people."
And it concludes with a direct demand for change from within: "It is the people who have to change the government in Cuba, who have to reform."
His final call is for a renewal without euphemisms: "Neither crabs nor vampires nor apostates nor opportunists, people capable of enforcing the laws, of successfully implementing the reforms, each of the transformations."
The reported business operates next to a branch of BANDEC (Bank of Credit and Commerce of Cuba) on Victoriano Garzón Avenue, just a few blocks from the headquarters of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party.
That same ATM has already been the scene of similar arrests. In September 2025, the National Revolutionary Police arrested two men there —identified as Leodan and Yunior— who charged a 15% fee for converting transfers into cash, and confiscated over 250,000 pesos and several magnetic cards.
In last May, new arrests in Santiago de Cuba documented commissions between 35% and 50%. The figure reported by Castellanos Abad —40%— falls exactly within that range.
The phenomenon is a direct consequence of the forced banking system that the regime imposed since August 2023, which mandated digital payments without ensuring liquidity in the banking system.
The result was a black market for converting transfers into physical cash that now operates openly.
The official Cuban press admitted this month the failure of the transfer payment system, and data from 2026 indicates that only 3.77% of transactions in Cuba are digital.
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