Nothing and nobody can intimidate or threaten us
• Fidel affirms that the country needed to act urgently in the face of the latest imperialist action in the field of finance •  The dollar is to be replaced by the Cuban convertible peso within national territory • The Central Bank of Cuba has adopted the appropriate resolution

BY MARIA JULIA MAYORAL AND VENTURA DE JESUS —Granma daily staff writers—

FROM November 8, the convertible peso will circulate throughout the whole of our national territory as a replacement for the U.S. dollar, in response to the intensification of the empire’s economic warfare. The news was announced yesterday during the Roundtable discussion program with the active participation of President Fidel Castro.

"Over the last few weeks," commented Fidel, "we have been analyzing every detail, each response that we would have to give for the crooked actions of the empire that is increasingly intent on creating more difficulties for us.

"The U.S. government has dictated new measures directed at systematically hindering the flow of Cuba’s external finances, which would provoke grave damage and serious risks for our country. As part of this policy, the Bush administration has intensified pressure and threats on foreign banks to prevent the island from making deposits abroad – for the purpose of dealing with our commercial obligations – using the U.S. dollars that our population and foreign visitors spend in Cuban establishments that sell merchandise or offer services in this currency."

During the Roundtable, it was explained that the U.S. State Department’s assistant deputy secretary for western hemisphere affairs recently announced the creation of a Pursuance of Cuban Assets Group, made up of officials from various government agencies, in order to interfere with and put a stop to the flow of dollars to and from Cuba, which constitutes an unprecedented aggression in the history of international financial relations.

The aforementioned group has been complemented by a crude press campaign in the mainstream media, fundamentally in South Florida, with the intention of distorting the truth and presenting Cuba as a country involved in money laundering and, at the same time, reinforcing the intimidation of foreign banks that have links with our country. In this midst of this dung heap of lies, those allied with the Cuban-American mafia appear as leading players once again, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart.

The resolution by the Central Bank of Cuba that brings into effect our country’s decisions was also presented during the television broadcast.

According to Fidel, being in possession of dollars or other hard currencies will not be illegal: the population can maintain its possession of these currencies without any restriction whatsoever.

He described as "criminal" the use of the term "money laundering" to refer to the transactions in dollars that our country has honorably undertaken. He underlined that the persons most affected by this situation will not be the Cuban people, who are accustomed to imperialist lies, but those who reside in the United States itself, including U.S. citizens.

Whilst they are depriving the Cuban nation of dollars used to cover its basic needs, the Miami mafia is arranging to send money to its mercenaries in Cuba. They don’t send it directly: they choose someone important, for example a deputy from the remotest places, to being dollars to those on their payroll on the island, commented Fidel.

"You cannot crush a country just like that," he stressed. "You can sow chaos and uncertainty in the world and even prompt emigration. And don’t be trying afterwards to make our country responsible for it. Our die is cast and there is nobody who can intimidate or threaten us," he warned.

The president refuted the slanderous charges that the island’s dollar income is being used to finance "internal repression."

A significant percentage of Cuba’s dollars have been used to purchase foodstuffs, paid for in cash and without any delay. "For that reason we have prestige with U.S. farmers," Fidel recalled.

A total of 3,371,900 tons of food has been imported from that country. In 2001 28,200 tons worth $4.4 million was purchased from the U.S. business sector.

In 2002, that volume rose by 831,900 tons, worth $175.9 million. In 2003, it increased by 1,272,900 tons, at a value of $343.9 million. From January to October of the present year 1,238,900 tons has been bought from U.S. farmers at a price of $390.4 million.

Fidel emphasized that funds earned by the country through the sweat of its brow, without plundering from anybody, without exploiting anyone, without stealing from anyone, have been used for those purchases.

Francisco Soberón, minister-president of the Central Bank of Cuba, stated that to accuse us of money laundering is, moreover, a lie that should not be uttered by officials of a country whose banks undertake more than 50% of that type of illegal operation on the planet.

"Our banking system," Fidel emphasized, "has been maintained for 45 years without any fraud. There are no cases in Cuba of people whose money has been touched, not even in the most complex circumstances. The exchange rate with the dollar has not been altered for three years and people feel secure. There are billions of pesos in accounts held by the population in the branches of our banks.

"We are a country of Patria o Muerte," he ratified, "where the overwhelming majority of our citizens do not wish to return to a past that nowadays is the reality of many countries. This is the country of most equality in the world; every day we discover the vast human capital of our people. They can try to asphyxiate us by perversely denying us what we have honorably earned. They do not understand what Cuba is," he asseverated.