The Return of the Loanshark to Cuba

The Return of the Loanshark to Cuba

Posted: 08/15/2013 6:16 pm



They don't have their own places, but they flourish everywhere. They

lend money at interest, facilitate loans, and charge the same in cash as

in goods and services. They are the new moneylenders. After being

stigmatized for decades, these banned bankers have returned without

licenses or pity. They offer everything from small amounts to thousands

of convertible pesos, although the latter is only for very reliable

clients. They operate in areas they know well; they know how much their

neighbors make in wages, whether they receive remittances from overseas,

or if they have some other source of income. Starting with this

information, they distinguish between those who will be "good for it"

and those who won't. Although there can always be surprises. The great

nightmare of these "usury experts" lies in the customers' intentions to

board a boat and be smuggled out of the country, without returning to

them what is theirs.



Other situations can be resolved with pressure and threats. When a

debtor is overdue in his payments, the lender feels that the time has

come to teach him a lesson.



Edward was watching television last Saturday when they knocked on his

door. Two burly men pushed past him into the house and one of them hit

him in the face with his fists. They took the stereo and left, but not

before warning him, "You have 72 hours to pay back El Primo... if you

don't, we'll be back and we won't behave so nicely." The victim could

not go to the police, because, from the beginning, he preferred illicit

credit, without possible complications. He spent the next three days

selling some of his home appliances and going into debt to friends so

that he could repay the loan. He also prayed a little that El Primo and

his henchmen might be raided for the great number of crimes they commit.



María, however, obtained a loan of 10 thousand pesos from the

Metropolitan Bank. She needed to fill out endless forms and present

written evidence of her employment. She planned to use the money for

construction materials to remodel her old house. She felt satisfied to

have gotten the sum legally, although now any paperwork she fills out

includes the information that she is in debt to the State. Others, who

could not meet the requirements, had to accept the conditions and

interest rates of their neighborhood moneylender. More than one client

has had to pay with favors from her own body when the repayment date has

come and gone; more than one family has had to deliver a refrigerator or

a car, because an irresponsible member thought to ask for money they

could never repay.



As necessary as he is slandered, the moneylender is just one link in the

illegal financial chain of our reality. Cautious when giving, implacable

when collecting.



Source: "The Return of the Loanshark to Cuba | Yoani Sanchez" -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/the-return-of-the-loansha_b_3764295.html