Havana Cuba. – The sudden fall of the dollar in the informal Cuban currency market may not have been as coincidental or as unpredictable as some believe. It happened precisely in May, a month that has come loaded with more good news than bad news for that “private sector” that a few days ago was benefited by Joe Biden’s Government with several licenses that, among other matters related to finances and The Internet facilitates a series of banking and commercial operations.
This May is also the month in which exactly two years have passed since the United States issued the first license that authorized the investment of a US company in a Cuban MSME, although the Havana regime did not issue the regulation that could make it effective. probably because the beneficiary in Cuba, just the owner of an unknown business, does not have any type of relationship with the leadership in power and therefore is not of interest to them, as are the very small group of “private” companies that even By the end of 2023, it had made purchases in the United States worth nearly $27 million (including $8 million in vehicles of various types).
Of the latter “privileged”, especially due to the efficient articulation of their “own” logistics with that of several state companies – including the Mariel Special Zone, the Berroa warehouses, meat processing plants, airports and even polygons belonging to the Armed Forces – , there are several whose “owners” look too similar to front men of individuals closely linked to the Cuban regime, however, the lack of public information regarding how and with what capital these businesses were created does not allow us to affirm with complete certainty that they are names or of entities managed from the shadows by those in power, and that camouflage themselves in their “private” character to evade the restrictions of the embargo, benefiting from the apparent little knowledge demonstrated by the current North American government about how a good part of the so-called “private sector” actually works. ” in Cuba.
Among these “entrepreneurs of interest” (who are also the most successful, as they dominate imports, distribution, wholesale marketing and even home delivery services with payments from the United States) there are many from those who have been former leaders of the Union of Young Communists and the Communist Party itself, former officials of MINREX and other ministries, former directors of state companies and even children of soldiers or high officials of the regime, some of whom in recent weeks have starred or been part of the fierce campaign on social networks, initially to sow the idea that inflation (and not the regime itself) is the cause of the current economic disaster (not the other way around) and, subsequently, that lowering the dollar rate in the informal market can be done from a campaign, and this would immediately solve the problem of high prices by returning the national currency, as well as salaries and pensions, to their previous value.
Without a doubt, a misleading campaign in the eyes of those who know not only the principles and laws of the economy but also the true systemic origin of the Cuban crisis but, equally, an attractive campaign not only for those who are desperate seeing that their income is not enough to live decently, for those who cry out for a miracle in the face of the disaster caused by the so-called “Ordering Task”, but also for those who urgently want to emigrate and have not been able to because of the high price of the dollar – a necessary currency for those who undertake the escape. — does not allow them to acquire enough to do so.
It is, therefore, a campaign for which it is very easy to obtain support within Cuba, since it does not even reveal its true background (obtaining the greatest amount of dollars at very low prices through the panic induced in the currency sellers). only to cushion the losses but to later end up dominating the informal exchange market), nor who are its main promoters, standing out among all of them Mr. Arturo Aliaga Iglesias, son of Arturo Aliaga Céspedes, current head of the Legal Department of the Directorate National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).
“King Arthur”, the “Bony of Cuba” and the other Arturo (the one from ANAP)
It could have been a coincidence but it was this May 17, when ANAP was celebrating another anniversary of its founding, that the dollar registered its first decline in the informal market after four months of dizzying rise.
It seems that both events are unrelated, but both were carried out by two men from the same family, of the same blood, both named “Arturo” and both, from their “businesses”, very interested in providing any service to the regime, of the whatever nature it was (although if such a “sacrifice” were reverted to his own benefit, even better), as can be seen in his Facebook accounts where the youngest, apparently trying to hide his true identity, also presents himself with his alter ego of “Bony de Cuba”, “Bony merca”.
Artiaga Iglesias, publicly, also works as administrator of several pages dedicated to the promotion of his dissimilar “businesses” and the union of those Cuban MSMEs most closely linked to the dictatorship.
As a “gift to dad, the peasant leader”, from the young Arturo Aliaga Iglesias, the social media campaign began long before May 17, but began to show its effects that same day in an “inexplicable” way. , although not for the “Bony of Cuba”, apparently very aware of what was happening. As he had promised his followers in his groups and profiles on social networks, this was just the beginning of a battle that he himself had helped orchestrate and whose favorable results he did not doubt.
According to testimonies from people within his circle of friends, consulted by CubaNetArturo Aliaga Iglesias spoke the day before on several occasions about the subject and how from “above” they were preparing a coup that “was going to put the dollar on the floor.”
“He said that we should be prepared because the dollar was going down before June,” says a source on condition of anonymity. “That we had to go out quickly to get all the dollars that people were going to drop like hot potatoes, I was very sure. [Arturo] always has a lot of people [que trabaja] buying dollars on the street all the time but a few weeks before [del 17 de mayo] He said that he was not going to buy more, and that [nos aconsejaba] that we would do the same (…). Until the other days he was not taking a single dollar, [porque] “He said it was going to continue going down, and look, he was right,” says one of the sources on condition of anonymity.
Bony’s “fight”, in which he even boasts of being able to hold it for rounds (of which this episode of the abrupt fall would be only the first), has concentrated – according to its own statements reflected in numerous posts on Facebook – on basically confusing the algorithm of The touch with a strong and sustained publication campaign and, thus, “give them a taste of their own medicine.”
“Bony de Cuba” himself—in conversation via the internet with CubaNet— although he took full credit for the campaign and denied any complicity with the Cuban regime (despite the fact that in his profile, for example, he uses “January 1, 1959” as his date of birth), he said about the violation of the algorithm The touch:
“I patiently studied the entire phenomenon for a while until I was clear about the plan, I just had to wait for the start signal of the market and it arrived. It really only took one influential figure [se refiere a él mismo] to detonate (…). Then the MSMEs from several provinces joined me to stop buying the expensive dollar, then the population.”
In sync with the regime’s discourse, Arturo Aliaga identifies the independent press as one of the main people responsible for the devaluation of the peso against the US currency. In this sense, the goal of whoever likes to call himself “King Arthur” among his closest friends would be to keep the exchange rate as close to the official rate (120 CUP per dollar), although this is what he writes in the publications perhaps only with the objective of gaining followers in a campaign that so far has only brought benefits to the owners of MSMEs while the prices of goods in retail stores remain as high as they were before May 17.
“Bony de Cuba” himself, in response to our questions, referred to “the sales [de su negocio] on the floor” as the main cause that led to promoting the campaign.
The “business” of the two Arturos
“The dollar is going down and food doesn’t even notice,” “MSMEs are getting richer by buying cheap dollars,” are the comments that are most common among those who are beginning to realize the true objectives of a social media campaign that, not by coincidence, it had its origin in pages and groups related to MSMEs but, especially, with those administered by the circle of friends of Arturo Aliaga Iglesias, which in turn coincides with the one, led by Alfonso Larrea Barroso—a former agent of the regime’s counterintelligence, turned into a “private” entrepreneur—meets every Friday at 5:00 in the afternoon at the 2.45 bar in Havana, whose owner is the former athlete Javier Sotomayor.
In fact, Alfonso Larrea has been, on the networks, another of the most active in the current campaign, although not to the point of attributing that leading role that not only for boasting but also for probable certainty of what happened has been attributed to “Bony de Cuba”. Even this one has done it discreetly in his most private Facebook profile, which is where he does not usually hide his face, as can be seen in the images that, from other more “corporate” profiles, he shares testimonies of the meetings and conferences that he already gives at the La Divina Pastora restaurant or at the Grand Aston Hotel in Havana, which are also attended by his father Arturo Aliaga Céspedes, the senior ANAP official.
In March 2024, both at La Divina Pastora and at the Grand Aston Hotel, the “Bony” gave a series of conferences titled “The secret of wholesale sales”, supported by his experience as one of the main food buyers and distributors. and agricultural inputs from the “private sector” in Cuba, through several companies, among which Asere Producciones Internacionales (1), Mayorca SRL (2), Emprotex SRL (with its own pavilion at the FIAGROP 2024 fair, of the Ministry of Agriculture) stand out. ) (3), in addition to others such as Shop Queen Habana and Productos Mayoristas (4), associated with his wife Yissel Gutiérrez, a computer scientist and former employee of the Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) of Cuba.
Although he has insisted that Arturo Aliaga and “Bony” are two different subjects, to a certain extent without close ties, certain details, including the names of the companies they manage, refute this. For example, on the poster promoting the conferences you can see the logo of your company Mayorca next to your contact telephone number. In the Facebook profile where he appears as Arturo Aliaga Iglesias, he recognizes himself as “president” of Mayorca, and there are also several publications promoting both his venture and the visits to the Grand Aston and La Divina Pastora, where meetings and conferences take place, at which is also attended by Carlos Julio Gámez Viamonte, another “mipymero” among the most active in the campaign and linked to several companies managed by “Bony”, including Mayorca itself and Asere Producciones, of Mexican origin but connected to the Ministry of the Food Industry (MINAL), as recorded in the only two operations reflected in the commercial records.
But how do the two Arturos, father and son, ensure that their business activities, not at all “official”, are not only hosted in a regime hotel (specifically GAESA) like the Grand Aston, where they are already a regular presence, but appear in the programming of the main halls as well as other meetings of Government institutions such as MINREX, MINTUR or MINCEX, which are the ones who most use this almost recently inaugurated facility? Why does he always hide his face in the photos if it is not to avoid being identified as the son of who he is and which, therefore, would explain why he has large warehouses, inventories and state refrigerators, and even contracts as a supplier of meat and agricultural products for (and from) state entities?
Arturo Aliaga Iglesias or “Bony de Cuba” claims to have a “master’s degree in Investment Management in Private Business Administration.” But several sources consulted by CubaNet They point out that he started in the MSME arena in mid-2021 after leaving his job at the Customs at the “José Martí” International Airport in Havana and in just three years he has already placed himself at the head of the sale of chicken containers. and other foods throughout the Island, a position where it has hardly any competitors due to the logistics necessary to handle such a volume of merchandise and, most importantly, with the security of doing so without any type of obstacle, which leads to suspicion of whether Is it your own business or someone else’s.
Arturo Aliaga Céspedes, the father of “Bony de Cuba”, accompanies him as “the root of the experience” in all business meetings (according to what the son writes in a publication) and conferences.
With decades of work at ANAP, where he began as a legal advisor in the 90s (along with the father of actress Ana de Armas, whom he says he met as a child in the ANAP offices), today he is among the main directors of an organization among the most closely linked to the regime, despite pretending to be an NGO. So much so that its leadership structure is decided in the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as happens with other supposedly “non-governmental” organizations, such as the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and the Federation of Cuban Women. (FMC).
Therefore, “leading” at such a high level in the ANAP (the NGO that it is not, but pretends to be) for so many decades, having survived so many appointments and dismissals, implies certain qualities as a simulator, as well as the approval of its exercise. in government bodies. In this sense, Arturo Aliaga Céspedes is a perfect candidate to direct and at the same time pretend to be unrelated to his son’s businesses, because evidently from his position in the regime, with the connections he has made in his years of service to the dictatorship, has been a key piece for the “Junior” to stay where it is, whether in its mission as a “mipymero”, as a successful businessman, or in this recent one as a standard bearer in the campaign to lower the dollar and which it assures will end. in victory.
“Victory for whom, the dollar is falling but not food prices?” some ask on social networks. Well, apparently it will be a resounding victory for the same “entrepreneurs” that OFAC has benefited by putting US banks at their disposal, the same month as Miguel Díaz-Canel’s new trip to Moscow and the harvest of the cheap dollar harvested. by the clever ones from the MSMEs, who could be the same ones from the Central Committee.
Footnotes:
1: Asere Producciones Internacionales SA de CV appears registered in the Mariel Special Zone as a Cuban-Mexican company, however it does not exist as such. It was created at the end of 2023 by ALIMPEX, an entity of the Ministry of the Food Industry (MINAL) only for the import of two containers of boneless pork – as recorded in several commercial registries – for wholesale sale to MSMEs and some others. state-owned companies that could make payments in foreign currency. Its distribution in Cuba was carried out through Mayorca SRL, a company registered in the name of Arturo Aliaga Iglesias. Asere Producciones has not had any other activity since January 2024 when it imported the second and last container. The first was imported in December 2023.
2: Mayorca SRL is the only company properly registered in the name of Arturo Aliaga Iglesias, with approval on November 18, 2022 as a “small company” and with the purpose of “manufacturing meat products and their derivatives”, however, so far only has provided import and wholesale distribution services.
3: Emprotex SRL was registered as a small private company on July 22, 2022, and is linked to Yissel Gutiérrez, wife of Arturo Aliaga Iglesias.
4: Shop Queen Habana and Productos Mayoristas are companies with TCP licenses (self-employed workers), but still in the registration phase as micro and small businesses, respectively, in the name of Yissel Gutiérrez. Wholesale Products currently operates as part of Mayorca SRL
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2024-06-16 03:56:19
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