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10/28/2004:

"In Reply to Tightening of Sanctions, Castro Bans the Yankee Dollar"

by Ginger Thompson
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 26 - In a televised address, President Fidel Castro of Cuba announced Monday night that United States dollars, which have kept his country's ailing economy afloat for the past decade, would be banned from all commercial transactions in two weeks.

In his speech, Mr. Castro called the measure a response to the Bush administration's decisions to strengthen economic sanctions by placing new limits on the amount of money people can send to relatives in Cuba and imposing multimillion-dollar fines against banks that have transferred dollars to Cuba.

His aides said Cuba was "protecting itself from external economic aggression," and they asked Cubans to tell their relatives to send euros, British pounds or Canadian dollars.

Full Article: nytimes.com