This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 97%. (I'm a bot)

CUCs aren't paid to Cubans; islanders receive their wages in a different currency, the grubby national peso that features Che Guevara's face, among others, but is worth just 1/25th as much as a CUC.

The CUC turned tourism into a lucrative lifeline during the 1990s, and at first only a few essential imports-shoes, soap, tires-were sold to Cubans in CUCs, at a few, heavily guarded stores.

When MasterCard announced it would begin accepting charges from Cuba on March 1, the Cuban government slapped that down.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Theory | Feedback | Top five keywords: Cuban^#1 Cuba^#2 CUC^#3 peso^#4 more^#5

Post found in /r/worldnews, /r/hackernews, /r/Economics, /r/vzla, /r/POLITIC, /r/economy and /r/cuba.