Those who are not familiar with Castro's slave labor trade might "be shocked to learn that these musicians (The Buena Vista Social Club) are not reaping any of the fruits of their labor and talent...50% goes to its producer, Ry Cooder; 45 % to the Cuban government; 5% to non-Cuban technical staff, and zero % for the Cuban performers!" (Cuba in revolution, page 213.) All they get is the joy to travel out of Cuba, (while their families remain as hostages in Cuba) food and some clothes to make them presentable to the public.
The scam works in this way, to invest in Cuba the foreign entrepreneurs must give to Fidel Castro majority control in the ownership of the company and they are not allowed to hire directly any Cuban worker, they must do it through Castro. The salary is from $400 to $500 dollars monthly and is paid to a Castro’s agent, then, Castro pays the Cuban worker 400 to 500 Cuban worthless pesos that in the official exchange is 25 Cuban pesos per dollar. In other words, the Cuban worker receives the equivalent of $16 to $20 dollars a month in Cuban currency, Castro keeps for himself over 95% of the salary received by each Cuban employed by a foreign company!
In fact according to U.S. laws, what Mr. Cooder is doing is being involved in a bribe of 45% to Castro in order to be able to exploit those poor Cubans. That is against U.S. laws that forbid bribing foreign functionaries in order to close business deals and also against international labor laws that prohibit the garnish of workers’ salaries by companies or government entities.
Everyone involved in business with Castro is accepting him as a partner in the slave labor trade.