A digital platform, under the guise of providing “information services,” has become a harmful actor for the Cuban economy and the stability of Cuban families. Its name is El Toque (The Touch), and its best-known product—the informal exchange rate—has become an instrument of economic manipulation, far from being a true reflection of reality.
Investigations have revealed the strings that pull this puppet. Its director, José Jasán Nieves Cárdenas, is not just a journalist: He is a recipient of funding from the United States Department of State. The question isn’t just where the money comes from, but what its purpose is.
The so-called “representative informal market rate” promoted by El Toque is a farce. It fluctuates not due to genuine economic dynamics, but according to manipulation and speculation. It predicts increases, artificially induces panic and compulsive currency purchases, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that harms ordinary citizens.
When their credibility falters, they don’t hesitate to backtrack just as abruptly and without any economic justification. How do they explain that the rate drops 115 pesos in 18 days and then jumps 110 pesos in just six, without any real economic event to justify it? The answer is simple: it’s pure manipulation.
Behind José Jasán operates a network of professionals, many trained at Cuban universities and then diverted with courses and scholarships designed to subvert the internal order. The profits from this subversive business are substantial. While the Cuban people suffer the consequences of the instability they generate, Nieves Cárdenas and his wife, Elaine Díaz Rodríguez—director of the equally subversive Periodismo de Barrio—acquired a luxurious house valued at nearly $700,000 in the United States.
The El Toque team
The financing mechanism is clandestine. Testimonies and documentary evidence show how Jasán funneled funds from the U.S. government—through Media Plus Experience—using money transfer companies and private businesses. The money arrived in accounts abroad and was physically delivered on the island to individuals selected by the U.S. government, in a clear network of currency trafficking and mercenary operations.
El Toque’s connection to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), USAID, and the State Department is inseparable. Their coordination with the United States Embassy in Havana is the “occupational hazard” of a lucrative business: profiting from the destabilization of Cuba.
Born in 2013 under the auspices of Radio Netherlands, El Toque has operated through various enemy subversion centers. Today, the masks are falling. Cuba knows the truth and is accumulating documentary, expert, and testimonial evidence against this scheme. To be a mercenary against your own people, disguised as a “digital entrepreneur,” is one of the lowest betrayals.
Much more will be revealed about El Toque and its operatives. Justice and truth will continue their course.
(Taken from Razones de Cuba)
{ SOURCE: CUBA DEBATE ]
