The Cuban influencer Lino García, known as the Cuban Creator, experienced a chaotic first day in Caracas as he was unable to use the one thousand dollars in cash he had on him, unable to eat or take a taxi due to the peculiarities of the Venezuelan monetary system.
His desperation was captured in a video posted on Facebook in which he urgently requested help from Cubans residing in the Venezuelan capital, although he did not lose his characteristic optimism.
"If you don't have a bank account, you go crazy here. I have a thousand dollars in cash, in hundred-dollar bills, and there's no damn place that will exchange it," García declared in the video. "I seriously wouldn't recommend anyone to come to this country, I mean, it's a disaster."
The problem, as explained to him by the taxi driver who transported him upon his arrival, is that Venezuela operates almost entirely digitally. Without a local bank account, García did not have access to Pago Móvil, the system that handles the majority of financial transactions in the country and requires a Venezuelan bank account, a local phone number, and identification information.
"You don't have an account here; you'll have to pay everything in dollars, but try to have smaller bills," the taxi driver warned him. The problem was that García only had $100 bills, and merchants often don't have cash for high denominations.
"This is worse than Cuba", said the influencer.
The trip to Venezuela is part of a series of visits that El Creador Cubano describes as journeys to "extreme" places with Cuban communities.
Months earlier, I had been in Moscow, where I documented heart-wrenching testimonies from Cubans living in vulnerable immigration conditions, with accounts of illegal stays, police raids, and labor exploitation.
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