We live with two currencies: dollars and our national currency.
I don't have much experience of capitalist systems.
I have experience of the socialist system
because it's the only one I've touched with my hands.
If you don't have money, you don't have access to many things.
Money makes the world go round.
My name is Laura Forment Téllez, I'm 26 and I'm a doctor.
My name's Rogelio Bacallao Ruiz, I'm 30 and have a medical degree.
But right now I'm working as a taxi driver.
My salary is in Cuban pesos, the national currency.
I earn convertible pesos.
Tourists almost always carry convertible pesos.
All Cubans have the right to free healthcare and education.
That's the main advantage of the Cuban socialist system.
Sweetie!
Cuba has the same infant and maternity mortality rates
as any developed country.
We're on a par with developed countries
like Canada and the US.
And I think that's a great achievement of the Revolution.
But the question is: how much do health professionals sacrifice?
The wages are not the best.
It makes no sense that I work a 12 hour night shift looking after patients
and I receive only 2 Cuban pesos [50 cents USD] per hour.
I don't think it's fair.
Hey, is the girl there? Yes.
Hello sweetie, I've come to see you this morning, like I do every week.
I'm off. Ciao, I hope everything goes well.
Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere,
it removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba,
stands up for democratic values and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.
Tourism has grown a lot in recent years.
Havana is trendy.
When President Obama came and tried to mend relations with Cuba,
tourism and cruises boomed.
We see more than 4 million tourists annually.
[Tourism] is one of the most important sources of hard currency
for the economy right now.
It's profitable for me, because I work in the tourism sector
and the more tourists come, the more work I have
and the better my family, friends and people around me can live.
I drive the taxi, my real profession is medical doctor.
Why are you driving a taxi?
Because ... for economic reasons, because it is better another job.
In our country doctors are rich, they don't drive cabs.
Nope, they drive a Mercedes.
Without money, you don't have access to many things.
But I wouldn't say I was proud of being a taxi driver, no.
Somebody who works in a factory screwing on bottle caps
shouldn't earn the same as a heart surgeon.
That's not right.
People asked me: "How can you leave your profession,
after having studied so long and sacrificing so much?"
I asked him: "Bro, are you sure?" It's been so many years.
It was five years, no? Six years.
Plus two years as... Eight years.
Eight years...six years of study plus two years working here at the local clinic.
Many people loved him because he was their family doctor.
It's impossible for state workers.
Sometimes we don't have money to buy basic things for the house.
I'm not talking about luxuries.
I'm talking about meeting basic needs, and that's very difficult.
Living on the rations alone would be impossible.
Besides my salary as a doctor, of course, I need another income.
My partner is a maths teacher but he doesn't do that job.
He works in the private sector with marble and in a cafeteria.
He has two jobs, practically full time.
And that's what really gives our household finances some breathing room.
Most of us Cubans have family abroad because so many have emigrated.
I, as a doctor in Cuba, rely a lot on my aunt.
Hello! Can you hear me?
She's in a capitalist country, the US.
She works in a factory.
All the clothes and shoes I have are from my aunt.
I love you a lot. Bye!
Many Cuban families survive on money sent home from abroad.
My administration has also imposed tough sanctions on the communist and socialist dictatorships
in Cuba and Venezuela.
A crisis creates panic and then the stockpiling starts.
We used to buy a box of chicken that lasted us the whole month,
but now you can only buy two packets of chicken that will last one or two weeks.
As a state worker, I can't afford to queue every week to buy protein.
10 convertible pesos per kilo? They are big packets.
It's 250 Cuban pesos and I make 1,200 Cuban pesos a month.
So it's a fifth of my salary.
We've taken decisions
to help our economy withstand and overcome new obstacles
created by the strengthening of the economic siege.
It is essential that we are alert to the fact that we are faced with additional difficulties
and that the situation could get worse in the coming months.
They've been trying to unify the two currencies for some time,
but I don't see where the process is going.
The only thing they've changed is to allow people to pay in both currencies in shops
where before you could only pay in convertible pesos, but the price is the same.
I have experience of the socialist system because it's the system I live in.
It's the only one I've touched with my hands.
We need to change salaries, and we need to change the dual currency system.