The Americas | The worms return

Cuba’s Communist government taps the diaspora for cash

The government makes it easier for exiles to visit, and spend dollars

People walk down the street in Havana, Cuba — They’d like to be in AmericaImage: Getty Images

Jul 6th 2023

Soon after the Cuban revolution in 1959 Fidel Castro, its leader, began damning people who fled as gusanos (worms). The name came from the cylindrical bags into which the emigrants stuffed their belongings. In the four decades that followed the revolution more than 1m Cubans left the country. Castro was not entirely sorry to see them go. Better for malcontents to leave the island than to make trouble at home, he reckoned. These days gusanos send back to Cuba some $2bn-3bn in cash a year, 2-3% of GDP. But the government has punished exiles. It has allowed only those with Cuban passports to visit the island and has charged high fees to let them keep those documents.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The worms return”