Cuba to No Longer Accept U.S. Dollars
Cuba announced Monday that U.S. dollars will no longer be accepted at stores or other businesses on the communist island starting next month in a move that will radically change the way business has been done there over the past decade. With President Fidel Castro looking on, his chief aide Carlos Valenciaga and state television personality Randy Alonso read the resolution by Cuba's Central Bank. The measure called for all such transactions to be done in a local currency known as convertible Cuban pesos, starting Nov. 8. The government said the measure was necessary to protect its economy in the wake of stepped up measures by the U.S. government to punish banks that ship dollars to Cuba, which has been under an U.S. trade and financial embargo for more than 40 years. Cubans and others on the island will still be allowed to hold U.S. dollars in unlimited quantities. But beginning Nov. 8 they must be changed into convertible pesos with a 10 percent change at banks or changing houses to be used at businesses across the island
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