The Cuban comedian and actor Ulises Toirac published a scathing analysis on Facebook this Tuesday regarding the pricing policy of the Cuban regime, the monetary duality between the peso and the dollar, and the lack of transparency in the Island's economy.
In the extensive post circulating on social media, Toirac describes the CUP as a "parallel reality" with no real value outside the state-controlled internal market: "The dollar and the CUP do not belong to the same universe. The only place —they say— it has value is on the farm, but you go out to the financial market and they look at you like you’re out of place and ask: 'Cuban peso? What’s that?'."
The gap pointed out by Toirac is backed by the numbers: the Central Bank of Cuba set the official exchange rate this Tuesday at 624 CUP per dollar, while the informal market was quoting it between 675 and 695 CUP in recent weeks, according to records from elTOQUE.
The comedian also dismantles what he describes as a recurring methodology of the government: allowing or facilitating extreme price increases, waiting for public backlash, and then imposing caps that, although lower than the peak, remain well above the original prices.
"I dress up as Superman and set prices lower than those of the astronaut in his rocket... but much higher than they were at the beginning of the game," he writes, citing the case of the gas canister as a paradigmatic example.
In July, the regime set the price of the 10 kg gas cylinder at 350 CUP through Resolution 155/2026, an increase of 55% compared to the previous price of 225 CUP.
Regarding the price caps, Toirac is emphatic: "What they do is push the product into the black market and kick the can down the road... of prices. And inflation will get a taste."
That warning aligns with what President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged in June: that the price caps "caused shortages." Despite this, in August provinces like Matanzas and Villa Clara reinstated local price caps, highlighting the inconsistency of official policy.
Toirac also points out the ineffectiveness of controls on supplies when private actors coexist who can pass on costs: "As long as there are private entities like restaurants, for example, that need the oil and can transfer the costs to the price of the dish, they will pay whatever it takes for a bottle of oil."
After the removal of national price caps for chicken, oil, and other essentials in June, the price of chicken rose from 3,000 to over 7,000 CUP in some areas, while oil reached between 2,500 and 3,000 CUP per liter in Havana.
The conclusion of the analysis is a requirement of total auditing: "EVERYTHING MUST BE AUDITABLE. Everything must allow for investigation and analysis. And they will never allow that."
Toirac warns that transparency is “the only way” for economic actors to be able to “play fair,” but that it will never be allowed because “it would be a brutal blow to good clients of Dior and Patek Philippe.”
It is not the first time that Toirac has criticized the economic management of the regime. In June, he demanded a ban on Communist Party officials and military personnel from participating in the new economic openings, calling for an "exclusion clause" and transparency. In February, he pointed out that the average salary of 3,888 CUP was equivalent to less than 13 dollars at the informal exchange rate.
The post concludes with a phrase that encapsulates the tone of the entire reflection: "Things one thinks about while tossing out some spoiled black beans."
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