The “virtual line” was more scary than the real ones: 7,362 people were waiting for a turn to buy the 100 dollars allowed by the authorities
14ymedio, Yankiel Gutiérrez Faife, Camajuaní (Villa Clara), 26 May 2024 — Painted bright blue and with a white grill, the Camajuaní Cadeca (Currency Exchange) is one of the high points of the “boulevard,” the two blocks where almost all the town’s commerce takes place. With only two counter positions and a small office, the dollars that those waiting in line on the side of the building so desperately desire come out of their vault – in dribs and drabs.
Nine months ago, in July 2023, Osmany, 24, and five other family members signed up on the Cadeca waiting list organized by the official Ticket application. The “virtual line” was more frightening than the real ones: 7,362 people were waiting for a turn to buy the 100 dollars allowed by the authorities.
“My intention was to use these dollars on a shopping trip to Caracas, but the wait lasted longer than expected and I decided to make my trip earlier, in February of this year,” Osmany tells 14ymedio. He adds that only upon returning from Venezuela did he receive the news that he had been “lucky” to get one of the 25 daily ‘turns’ for the Cadeca.
To get to the Cadeca he had to cancel a trip to Havana. Nothing could come between him and the “opportunity,” he says. After juggling – and passing through the Ticket line again, but this time for a bus ticket – he was able to reorganize his agenda, get up early and go to the “boulevard.”
On May 16, at 8:00 in the morning, around thirty people were already loitering around the Cadeca. At first glance one could distinguish those who came to solve a specific problem and those who were lining up for business. In a small town like Camajuaní, where everyone knows each other, it is already well defined who each neighborh