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Cuba: A Tour Through Ruins of the Gaesa Military Empire

A walk through El Vedado reveals the decline of the commercial network the military built to control remittances, tourism, and hard-currency stores.

By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – Some buildings collapse with a deafening crash, while others quietly crumble away. The former Fincimex card processing center on 23rd Street in El Vedado belongs to the latter category.

As I pass its entrance, I find little more than a faded sign still proclaiming the greatness of a company that once controlled much of the dollars flowing into the country. Behind the dusty windows there are no longer lines of customers, hurried employees, or Cubans waiting to receive the magnetic card that opened the door to remittances sent by relatives abroad. All that remains is the echo of another era.

For years, that office was the funnel through which the money of thousands of families passed. A household’s prosperity fit onto a piece of plastic with a magnetic strip and the Fincimex logo. You had to wait days to get one, but anyone who walked out holding that card felt as though they had secured a lifeline. Today, the entrance looks abandoned, plaster peels from the walls, and silence has taken the place once occupied by impatience.

I cross the street and retrace my steps. The heat turns the asphalt into a griddle, and the shade from the trees is scarce. Along the way I stop at one of those dollar stores that, just a few years ago, symbolized........

© Havana Times