Biden Finally Realized He Can’t Ignore Cuba Any Longe
The experience of other presidents demonstrates that engaging diplomatically with the Cuban government on issues of mutual interest, migration first and foremost, has been an effective way to advance U.S. interests.
President Joe Biden has finally learned the lesson that each of his 11 predecessors had to grudgingly accept when it comes to Cuba: Some U.S. interests can only be advanced by engaging with Havana. After a policy review that lasted 15 months, during which former President Donald Trump’s draconian economic sanctions remained in place, the State Department recently announced it will relax the measures that have had the greatest direct impact on the Cuban people.
The change comes at a moment when irregular migration from Cuba is aggravating the crisis on the U.S. southern border and Latin American heads of state are threatening to boycott the upcoming Summit of the Americas if Cuba is excluded.
Biden’s new measures are not a return to former President Barack Obama’s policy of normalization. They represent a limited, unilateral relaxation of specific sanctions that, taken together, look more like Obama’s first-term Cuba policy than the historic breakthrough of restoring full diplomatic relations announced in December 2014. But they will have an enormous impact, improving the standard of living for millions of Cubans and reducing the drivers of irregular migration.
Cuba-United States: the beginning of a new thaw or more of the same?
Biden will lift restrictions on cash remittances, which amounted to some $3.5 billion annually before Trump blocked them, and he will restore people-to-people educational travel, used by more than 638,000 U.S. visitors a year until Trump abolished it. The new policy also promises financial measures to facilitate commerce between U.S. businesses and Cuba’s growing private sector, though the devil will be in the details of the final regulations.
Biden’s new measures appear driven by the confluence of the migration crisis and Latin America’s rebellion over U.S. policy.
As the Cuban economy has contracted under the twin blows of U.S. sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic, migration has soared. But since Trump downsized the U.S. Embassy in 2017, including ending consular services, the issuance of immigrant visas has plunged 90 percent. With safe, legal migration closed, tens of thousands of Cubans have crossed to the Latin American mainland and trekked north to the U.S. border—more than 35,000 in April alone, and 115,000 since last September. That is already more people than arrived during the 1994 “rafters” migration crisis and almost as many as in the 1980 Mariel boatlift—with no end in sight.
In April, the U.S. invited Cuba to resume regular migrations talks, as mandated by the bilateral migration agreement that grew out of the 1994 crisis—consultations that Trump suspended. Biden’s new measures reaffirm an earlier commitment to gradually restaff the U.S. Embassy’s consular section and resume issuing immigrant visas under the Cuban Family Reunification Program. Moreover, Biden’s restoration of remittances and travel will ease the economic hardship that is the main reason people leave.
Another key driver of Biden’s new policy are the objections from Latin American heads of state to senior U.S. officials’ assertions that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua will not be invited to the Ninth Summit of the Americas, which Biden will host next month in Los Angeles. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rebuked the U.S. administration, warning, “If everyone is not invited, I will not go.” Other doubtful attendees include the leaders of Bolivia, Honduras and the 20 islands of the Caribbean Community. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has hinted he might not participate either, although for reasons unrelated to Cuba. A boycott would be a huge embarrassment for Biden. Even at this late date, invitations have not gone out, so Cuba may be offered a seat at the table after all.
Migration and hemispheric politics are not new issues in U.S.-Cuban relations. Three other presidents faced migration crises: Lyndon Johnson in 1965, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Bill Clinton in 1994. Each of them engaged with Cuba diplomatically because that was the only way to resolve the crisis at hand. Moreover, all three times, the domestic political costs of crises that became frontpage news were far greater than the risk of offending Cuban Americans in South Florida by engaging with the Castro regime.
Two of Biden’s predecessors similarly faced challenges from Latin America over their Cuba policies. In the early 1970s, Latin American countries began defecting from the 1964 Organization of American States’ economic and diplomatic sanctions on Cuba. The U.S. secretary of state at the time, Henry Kissinger, complained that Cuba was dominating meetings with his Latin American counterparts. Getting Cuba off the inter-American agenda was one of Kissinger’s motives for opening secret talks in 1975 to normalize relations with Havana, though they came to nothing.
Obama’s 2014 decision to normalize relations was heavily influenced by the public scolding he received from Latin American heads of state at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in 2012. Even close U.S. allies warned that unless Cuba was invited to the 2015 summit, they would not attend. In the words of Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, Washington’s policy of perpetual hostility had become “an albatross around the neck of the United States in the hemisphere and around the world.”
And so it remains. The uncanny parallel between the embarrassment Obama suffered at the Sixth Summit and the risk of even greater embarrassment for Biden at the ninth has finally forced the White House to embrace a limited reopening to Cuba. It is a good first step that will benefit many Cuban families, but unilateral actions alone are not enough.
In its last two years in office, the Obama administration signed 22 bilateral agreements with the Cuban government covering a wide range of issues of mutual interest, from environmental protection to law enforcement. The State Department also opened talks with Havana on the highly contentious issues of human rights and compensation for nationalized property and damages. In reversing Obama’s policy, Trump froze the implementation of those agreements and broke off all substantial diplomatic dialogue with Cuba.
The next step for Biden in developing his own Cuba policy should be to pick up where Obama left off, building closer cooperation with Havana on issues of mutual interest—not as a favor to the Cuban government, but because the only way for the U.S. to make progress on transnational problems is to cooperate with its neighbors.
The experience of other presidents demonstrates that engaging diplomatically with the Cuban government on issues of mutual interest, migration first and foremost, has been an effective way to advance U.S. interests. Cuban diplomat Ricardo Alarcon, who led Cuba’s negotiations with Washington for two decades, concisely summed up the logic of engagement: “We are two neighbors who have had abominable relations,” he said, but “unlike people, we aren’t able to move away.”
***
*This article was originally published on the WRP site. It is reproduced here with the explicit authorization of its author.
William M. LeoGrande is Professor of Government at American University in Washington, and co-author with Peter Kornbluh of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana” (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).
William M. LeoGrande************************************
Bishop
praises US stance toward Cuba, lauds family reunification efforts
May 19, 2022
by Rhina
Guidos, Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON — The
chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International
Justice and Peace praised a May 16 statement announcing the lifting of
restrictions against Cuba by the Biden administration, particularly those
measures that will help family reunification.
The Biden administration said it will increase consular
services on the island to help with visa processing "making it possible for
more Cubans to join their families in the United States via regular migration
channels."
The State Department also announced plans to allow more
people from the U.S. to engage with Cubans via group travel, allowing U.S.
flights beyond Havana, and reinstating a remittance program for families in the
U.S. to send up to $1,000 per quarter to family members on the island.
The move reverses restrictions imposed by the Trump
administration, which had taken a more punitive stance on Cuba.
"We commend the administration's renewed interest in
restarting U.S. engagement with Cuba. Recognizing that points of contention
remain between our two countries, Cuba's punitive isolation has not produced
the economic and social change that the United States has sought to effect,"
said Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, who chairs the USCCB'S
international policy committee.
Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. paved a path of
direct engagement with people on the island, reopening embassies in both
countries and expanding opportunities for travel.
The Vatican, Pope Francis and the former archbishop of
Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, are said to have played a part in the reopening
of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"We are all happy because ... we saw two nations, who
were estranged for so many years, take a step to bring them close
together," said Pope Francis in December 2014, when the renewal of
relations was announced.
The USCCB has advocated for the U.S. engaging Cuba via
dialogue, personal encounters between people, diplomacy and trade.
"The U.S. bishops, including the Cuban-American
bishops, in conjunction with the Holy See and the bishops of Cuba, continue to
stress the vital importance of bilateral engagement and mutually beneficial
trade relations between the United States and Cuba as the key to transformative
change on the island," Bishop Malloy said in a May 19 statement.
He added that expanding travel opportunities for U.S.
citizens, "as well as the lifting of onerous remittance limitations, will
strengthen familial, economic and social ties between our countries. Cuba's
developing civil society and private sector depend on the leadership provided
by active U.S. civil society engagement in Cuba."
Some, like U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, voiced disappointment
with the announcement. The New Jersey Democrat, whose parents came to the U.S.
from Cuba, said in a May 16 statement that the Biden administration's
announcement risked sending "the wrong message to the wrong people, at the
wrong time and for all the wrong reasons."
"For decades, the world has been traveling to Cuba and
nothing has changed. For years, the United States foolishly eased travel
restrictions, arguing millions of American dollars would bring about freedom,
and nothing changed," he said.
The USCCB, in its published "backgrounder on
Cuba," explained that it "has long held that universal human rights
will be strengthened through more engagement between the Cuban and American
people."
The bishops' conference said that over the years, it has
denounced crackdowns on the Cuban people and their right to dissent. But
engagement will do more than "past U.S. policy of isolation."
The USCCB, like its counterpart on the island, the Cuban
bishops' conference, also has opposed the U.S. embargo against Cuba, saying
that "the principal effect on the embargo has been to strengthen Cuban
government control and to weaken an already fragile civil society and economy,
thereby hurting the most vulnerable."
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/bishop-praises-us-stance-toward-cuba-lauds-family-reunification-efforts
******************************
NY Times
Biden Administration Lifting Some Trump-Era
Restrictions on Cuba
The changes include an expansion of flights to the country and the restarting of a family reunification program.
May 16, 2022Updated 10:20
p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration
on Monday announced a partial lifting of sanctions on Cuba, including expanding
flights beyond Havana and restarting a program to reunify Cuban families in the
United States, its first moves toward fulfilling President
Biden’s campaign promise to reverse many of the sanctions imposed by
his predecessor.
The changes, which also include
relaxing the ban on remittances, were announced after a lengthy review of Cuba
policy. They go into effect at a time when food and medicine shortages have
created new waves of Cubans trying to reach U.S. shores.
While administration
officials have said the actions would “center on human rights and empowering
the Cuban people,” they were immediately denounced by Senator Bob Menendez of
New Jersey, a Cuban American Democrat who is the chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee. “Today’s announcement,” he said, “risks sending the wrong
message to the wrong people, at the wrong time and for all the wrong reasons.”
But Biden administration officials
concluded that restoring the status quo from January 2017, when the Obama
administration left office, is as complicated in the case of Cuba as it is in
that of Iran, where a parallel effort has faltered.
The
Biden administration’s policy review concluded that the best way to bring about
change in Cuba was direct engagement with its people — not its government —
which had also been the underlying logic of President Barack Obama’s opening to
Havana. The administration has argued that it is shipping technology to Cubans
to help them avoid government censorship and to help 20,000 people rejoin
family members in the United States.
Mr. Menendez takes a very different
view: that the only way to change the behavior of the Cuban government is to
choke off its revenues. He
objected specifically to the administration’s decision to allow groups to
travel to Cuba, though not individual tourists.
“I am dismayed to
learn the Biden administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba
through visits akin to tourism,” Mr. Menendez said in a statement.
The largest program
that is being revived is the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which
allowed up to 20,000 immigration visas to the United States each year. The
State Department is expected to announce that it is stepping up the approval of
visas at the embassy in Havana. There are 22,000 applications, officials said,
that no one has acted on in the past five years.
The administration is also relaxing the ban on
family remittances of $1,000 a quarter to make sure the payments go to
individuals, not businesses. But it is unclear how the movement of money
will be accomplished: The
main financial processing firm, called Fincimex, has been run by the Cuban
military.
In a conversation with reporters on
Monday night, White House officials sidestepped one of the thorniest issues in
the effort to undo the sanctions imposed by President Donald J. Trump: the
continuing mystery over whether the Cuban government was responsible for
mysterious ailments that have afflicted diplomats and C.I.A. personnel around
the world.
The C.I.A. said in January that the
ailments, broadly known as Havana syndrome because they were first identified
among the U.S. delegation in Cuba, are unlikely to have been caused by Cuba,
Russia or another foreign adversary.
The agency argued that a majority of
the 1,000 cases reported to the government could be explained by environmental
causes, undiagnosed medical conditions or stress, rather than a sustained
global campaign by a foreign power. Groups representing the victims were angry,
and the C.I.A. said studies were continuing for about two dozen cases that
remained unexplained.
Biden administration
officials have said recently that the inconclusive findings left them somewhat
stuck, unable to resolve the Havana syndrome mystery and thus unable to do much
with the diplomatic relationship.
David
E. Sanger is a White House and national security correspondent. In a 38-year
reporting career for The Times, he has been on three teams that have won
Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest
book is “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber
Age.” @SangerNYT • Facebook
****************
Washington Post
Biden to lift Trump-era restrictions on Cuba
Today at 7:13 p.m. EDT
The
Biden administration is lifting Trump-era restrictions on Cuba, including some
aspects of travel to the island, caps on remittances, and the issuance of at
least 20,000 immigrant visas annually.
“We
will encourage commercial opportunities outside of the state sector by
authorizing access to expanded cloud technology, application programming
interfaces, and e-commerce platforms, the statement said. Bans on commercial
and charter flights to cities other than Havana will also be lifted.
In a
potential embarrassment for the administration, a growing number of hemispheric
leaders have said they will not attend an America’s summit Biden is to host
next month in Los Angeles, if Cuba is not invited.
Karen DeYoung is associate editor and senior national security correspondent for The Post. In more than three decades at the paper, she has served as bureau chief in Latin America and in London and as correspondent covering the White House, U.S. foreign policy and the intelligence community.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/16/biden-cuba-travel-remittances-visas/
*****************************
Miami Herald
Reversing
Trump measures, U.S. will expand flights to Cuba and resume family reunifications
BY MICHAEL WILNER AND NORA GAMEZ TORRES UPDATED MAY 16, 2022
9:03 PM
The Biden administration is restoring flights to Cuban
cities other than Havana and reestablishing a family reunification program
suspended for years, following recommendations of a long-anticipated review of
U.S. policy toward Cuba, senior administration officials told McClatchy and the
Miami Herald on Monday. The administration will also allow group travel for
educational or professional exchanges and lift caps on money sent to families
on the island. The policy changes come after a months-long review that began in
earnest after a series of protests roiled the island nation on July 11,
prompting a new round of U.S. sanctions on Cuban officials.
Cuba is facing the
worst economic crisis since the Soviet Union collapsed, with widespread
shortages of food and medicines, and thousands of Cubans trying to reach the
United States. One senior administration official said the new policy measures
allow the administration to continue supporting the Cuban people and guarding
U.S. national security interests. “Our policy continues to center on human
rights, empowering the Cuban people to determine their own future and these are
practical measures intended to address the humanitarian situation and the
migration flows,” the official said, adding that labor rights will also be at
the center of any talks with the Cuban government.
As promised in his campaign for the White House, President
Joe Biden will reverse several of the measures taken by his predecessor,
including by allowing commercial and charter flights to destinations outside
the Cuban capital. Currently, American airline companies can only fly to
Havana, leaving Cuban Americans with few options to visit their families in
other provinces. The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which has not
taken new cases since 2016 and left 22,000 pending applications in limbo, will
also be reinstated, the officials said, following bipartisan calls to address
the issue. An administration official said the United States intends to uphold
migration accords with Cuba from the 1990s, under which the United States
committed to issuing 20,000 immigration visas to Cubans annually, a request
made by a Cuban government delegation that recently traveled to Washington to
discuss an ongoing wave of Cubans trying to reach the U.S. mainland by land and
sea. One senior administration official also said the State Department will
increase visa processing in the embassy in Havana, which resumed this month.
Other measures include lifting the cap on family remittances,
currently $1,000 per quarter per person, with an eye on supporting the emerging
private sector. The officials said the administration will encourage more
electronic payment companies to work in Cuba to facilitate remittances.
Official remittance channels were shut down after the Trump administration
sanctioned Fincimex, the financial firm run by the Cuban military, and the
Cuban government refused to pass the business to a non-military entity.
Fincimex will not be removed from the Cuba sanction list, one senior official
said, but the administration “has engaged” in talks with the Cuban government
about finding a non-military entity to process remittances.
The administration will also expand travel to Cuba by once
again allowing group travel under the “people-to-people” educational travel
category, which was created under former President Barack Obama to allow
Americans to visit the island on organized tours to promote exchanges between
the two countries. The Trump administration later restricted most non-family
travel to Cuba and eliminated the category in 2019. The U.S. officials said there will be more
regulatory changes to allow certain travel related to professional meetings and
professional research, but
individual people-to-people travel will remain prohibited.
Other measures aim at supporting independent Cuban
entrepreneurs by authorizing access to expanded cloud technology, application
programming interfaces and e-commerce platforms. The officials said the
administration will “explore” options to facilitate electronic payments and
expand Cuban entrepreneurs’ access to microfinancing. Last week, the Treasury
Department for the first time authorized an American company to offer a
microloan and investment to a small Cuban private business. The changes were
announced later on Monday but will be implemented in the coming weeks.
The Biden administration has fielded criticism for so far
keeping in place most measures taken by President Trump, who vowed a “maximum
pressure” campaign against the communist government over its role in Venezuela.
But some Cuban exiles, Cuban American Republican politicians and activists on
the island have expressed concern about any easing of sanctions at a time the
government has cracked down on protesters and handed down harsh sentences to
July 11 demonstrators.
A senior administration official said the administration
consulted the policy options with members of Congress and Cuban Americans.
Minutes after the official release, Sen. Bob Menéndez, a powerful Cuban
American democrat who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the timing of
the announcement risks “sending the wrong message” as Cuban authorities
continue the crackdown on Cubans critical of the government. “I am dismayed to
learn the Biden administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba
through visits akin to tourism, Menéndez said in a statement. “To be clear,
those who still believe that increasing travel will breed democracy in Cuba are
simply in a state of denial. For decades, the world has been traveling to Cuba
and nothing has changed. “ A senior administration official told reporters on
Monday evening that the Treasury Department can audit these trips and the
administration will ensure that group travel takes place according to the law.
In a statement released Monday evening, Cuban foreign
affairs ministry called the policy changes a “limited step in the right
direction” but not enough in modifying the U.S. embargo. Relations between
Washington and Havana soured over the islandwide anti-government demonstration
last July. President Biden ordered sanctions against the military, police and
security forces involved in the crackdown. And Havana responded by saying the
demonstrations were financed by the United States. The more recent spat
involves the invitations to attend the Summit of the Americas, a meeting of
leaders from nations in the hemisphere to be held in Los Angeles in June. The
U.S. government has said Cuba will likely not receive one. A senior
administration said the invitations have not been issued yet. But the current
wave of Cuban migrants reaching the U.S. southern border got the two
governments to sit down for the first time since president Biden took office.
The Cuban diplomat leading the talks, Carlos Fernández de Cossio, said he left with
the sense that the talks could be the first step to improving relations. A
senior administration official said the U.S. delegation did not address policy
topics beyond migration. This story was originally published May 16, 2022 5:37
PM.
MICHAEL WILNER 202-383-6083 Michael Wilner is McClatchy’s
Senior National Security and White House Correspondent. A member of the White
House team since 2019, he led coverage of the federal response to the
coronavirus pandemic. Wilner previously served as Washington bureau chief for
The Jerusalem Post. He holds degrees from Claremont McKenna College and
Columbia University and is a native of New York City.
NORA GÁMEZ TORRES 305-376-2169 Nora Gámez Torres is the
Cuba/U.S.-Latin American policy reporter for el Nuevo Herald and the Miami
Herald. She studied journalism and media and communications in Havana and
London. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from City, University of London. Her
work has won awards by the Florida Society of News Editors and the Society for
Professional Journalists.//Nora Gámez Torres estudió periodismo y comunicación
en La Habana y Londres. Tiene
un doctorado en sociología y desde el 2014 cubre temas cubanos para el Nuevo
Herald y el Miami Herald. También reporta sobre la política de Estados Unidos
hacia América Latina. Su trabajo ha sido reconocido con premios de Florida
Society of News Editors y Society for Profesional Journalists.
Biden reverses some
Trump policies related to Cuba, making it easier for families to visit
relatives in country
Updated 7:32 PM ET, Mon May 16, 2022
(CNN)The State Department on Monday announced a series of measures it
said is aimed at supporting the Cuban people, including reinstating the Cuban
Family Reunification Parole Program and increasing consular
services and visa processing.
"We will make it easier for
families to visit their relatives in Cuba and for authorized US travelers to
engage with the Cuban people, attend meetings and conduct research,"
spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
The
Biden administration is also lifting the family remittance cap of $1,000 per quarter "and will support
donative remittances to Cuban entrepreneurs, both with the goal of further
empowering families to support each other and for entrepreneurs to expand their
businesses," Price said.
President
Joe Biden promised in September 2020, during the campaign, that he would
"try to reverse the failed Trump policies that inflicted harm on Cubans
and their families." His administration had been conducting a review of
Trump's Cuba policies since Biden took office in January 2021. How Biden
navigates Cuba could carry political implications, given he lost Florida to
Trump in the 2020 election after the former President repeatedly claimed Biden
would turn the US into a "socialist country" if he won, a message
that resonated with Cuban Americans.
The
announced changes to Cuba policy announced came after a lengthy review ordered
by the President, and amount to the biggest policy steps toward the island
since Biden took office. Yet they stop short of fully reinstating the
Obama-Biden administration approach toward Cuba, leaving in place some
restrictions and maintaining sanctions on certain entities.
The US
will still prohibit American tourism in Cuba and won't allow individuals to travel there for educational
purposes, even after loosening some Trump-era restrictions on the
island, senior administration officials said Monday.
But the
changes will expand the
number of commercial and charter flights to Cuba, including to cities beyond
Havana, and will allow more Americans to interact with the Cuban people through
authorized group "people-to-people" visits.
Doing
so "will allow for greater engagement between the American people ... and
their democratic values," one senior administration official said.
The US
still plans to process
immigrant visas at its embassy in Guyana as it works to restaff its facility in
Havana, which saw a reduction in size following still-unexplained health
incidents among diplomats and staff. Biden instructed his team to increase the
staffing at the embassy, in part to make applying for immigrant visas easier.
The
announcement comes as Biden faces a decision over whether to invite Cuban
leaders to the upcoming Summit of the Americans, which he is hosting in Los
Angeles at the start of June. Officials insisted the changes announced Monday
were completely unrelated to the summit and controversy surrounding its
potential exclusion of certain leaders in the region.
"We should be focusing on
addressing a whole host of shared challenges in the region and not blow up the
summit over who shows up and who's who doesn't," one official said.
Instead,
they said the lifting of the restrictions came after months of deliberation and
study, which Biden ordered following protests in Cuba last year.
An
official described the changes as "practical steps that we are taking to
address the humanitarian situation and to respond to the needs of the Cuban
people."
This
story has been updated with additional reporting.
Biden
administration expected to lift Trump-era restrictions on Cuba
By ZEKE MILLER, ANDREA RODRIGUEZ and
AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press
May 16, 2022 at 7:54 pm
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration
announced Monday that it will expand flights to Cuba, take steps to loosen
restrictions on U.S. travelers to the island, and lift Trump-era restrictions
on remittances that immigrants can send to people on the island.
The State Department said in a statement
that it will remove the current $1,000-per-quarter limit on family remittances
and will allow non-family remittance, which will support independent Cuban
entrepreneurs. The U.S. will also allow scheduled and charter flights to
locations beyond Havana, according to the State Department.
The administration said it will also move to
reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which has a backlog of
more than 20,000 applications, and increase consular services and visa
processing.
“With these actions, we aim to support
Cubans’ aspirations for freedom and for greater economic opportunities so that
they can lead successful lives at home,” State Department spokesman Ned Price
added. “We continue to call on the Cuban government to immediately release
political prisoners, to respect the Cuban people’s fundamental freedoms and to
allow the Cuban people to determine their own futures.”
The policy changes come after a review that
began soon after a series of widespread protests on the island last July.
Former President Donald Trump had increased
sanctions against Cuba, including the cancellation of permits to send
remittances and the punishment of oil tankers bound for the island.
These measures and the pandemic contributed
to an economic crisis in Cuba, where people suffer from shortages of basic
products, power outages and rationing.
The economic situation led thousands of
people to the streets across Cuba on July 11, 2021 — the largest such protests
in decades on the island. Many people were frustrated with shortages and low salaries,
as well with the socialist government. Nongovernmental organizations have
reported more than 1,400 arrests and 500 people sentenced to up to 20 years in
prison for vandalism or sedition.
In recent weeks, both the U.S. and the Cuban
governments have started some conversations, amid a surge of Cubans trying to
emigrate illegally to the U.S.
The first week of April, the U.S. Embassy in
Havana resumed processing visas for Cubans, though on a limited basis, more
than four years after stopping consular services on the island amid a hardening
of relations.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat
who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the moves send the
“wrong message” to Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government. Menendez was
particularly critical of the administration decision to reinstate travel by
groups for educational and cultural exchanges as well as some travel for
professional meetings and professional research on the island.
“I am dismayed to learn the Biden
administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba through visits akin
to tourism,” Menendez said. “To be clear, those who still believe that
increasing travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of
denial.”
White House officials, who briefed reporters
on the condition of anonymity, noted that the Treasury Department has the
authority to audit groups that are organizing travel and will ensure that
travel is purposeful and in accordance with U.S. law.
One
official defending the move noted that the president has underscored his belief
that “Americans are the best ambassadors for democratic values.”
Biden said as a presidential candidate that
he would revert to Obama-era policies that loosened decades of embargo
restrictions on Havana. Meanwhile, Republicans accused him of not being
supportive enough of Cuban dissidents.
President Barack Obama’s rapprochement was
reversed by Trump, who sharply curtailed remittances that Cuban Americans were
allowed to send to relatives on the island, barred financial and commercial
transactions with most Cuban companies affiliated with the government or
military and, in his final days in office, redesignated Cuba a “state sponsor
of terrorism,” in part for its support of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Sen.
Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he would put a hold on all relevant Biden nominees
requiring Senate confirmation until the decision is reversed.
“Biden can frame this however he wants, but
this is the truth: this is nothing but an idiotic attempt to return to Obama’s
failed appeasement policies and clear sign of support for the evil regime,”
Scott said.
Rodriguez reported from Havana.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-cuba-biden-united-states-20220516-r2osvn2qrzcizlcy45kqajsl5e-story.html
******************************
Financial
Times
US eases
Cuba policy to allow more travel and remittances
Biden administration softens aspects of Trump’s hardline
approach to island’s communist government
The Biden administration is restarting a stalled visa
programme for Cubans and will allow more flights and visits to the island,
softening former president Donald Trump’s harder line against the communist
government.
President Joe Biden’s decision came after a more than
year-long review of policy towards the country, where the economy has been
squeezed by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, spurring
a jump in Cuban migration to the US.
Biden’s administration said it will aim to issue 20,000
visas under a family reunification programme for Cubans to join their relatives
in the US. It will also permit more commercial flights to destinations beyond
Havana for group educational trips and lift a $1,000 limit on quarterly
remittances.
“These measures will aim to support greater freedom and
expand economic opportunities for the Cuban people,” a senior Biden
administration official said on Monday.
The war in Ukraine has hurt the Cuban economy, with fuel
scarcity causing blackouts and limited public transport available. That
disruption came after a pandemic slump in dollar revenue from tourism led to
chronic food and medicine shortages.
The economic crisis has driven more Cubans to try to migrate
to the US. Since October, almost 80,000 Cubans have crossed the US-Mexico
border, more than double the number in 2021, according to statistics from US
Customs and Border Protection. Arrivals from Cuba surged in March, when border
patrol agents encountered more than double the number in all of 2020.
The new measures are partly a reversal of Trump’s
restrictions on the island, which has been subject to a US trade embargo since
the 1960s. Former president Barack Obama eased some of the toughest measures
while in office, but Trump rolled back his predecessor’s actions, describing it
as a “one-sided deal”.
US policy towards Cuba also has electoral ramifications, as
conservative Cuban-American voters who tend to favour a harder line on the
island’s communist government represent a significant bloc in the swing state
of Florida.
Republican senator Marco Rubio of Florida denounced the
announcement, while Democrat Bob Menendez from New Jersey, who chairs the
Senate foreign relations committee, said he was “dismayed” by the authorisation
of group travel.
“To be clear, those who still believe that increasing travel
will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial,” he said in a
statement. “For decades, the world has been travelling to Cuba and nothing has
changed.”
The senior Biden administration official said the measures,
which also included support for Cuban entrepreneurs, would be implemented over
the coming weeks and that it was committed to human rights issues.
In just a few weeks, the US is due to host the Summit of the
Americas, one of the most important political meetings in the hemisphere.
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other Latin American leaders
have threatened to not attend unless Cuba is invited.
The
senior Biden administration official said the measures were not linked to the
summitt, and a decision on whether Cuba would be invited had not been made.
https://www.ft.com/content/16142e35-0a50-4d06-810b-c962cf296533
NPR
Biden eases restrictions on Cuban travel and
remittances
May
16, 20229:22 PM ET
The Biden administration plans to make it easier for families to
visit relatives in Cuba and increase visa processing on the island, reversing
some of former President Trump's harsh policies toward the island government.
The move comes after a long review of U.S.-Cuba relations and
fulfills some of President Biden's campaign promises.
"The measures today again are practical steps that we are
taking to address the humanitarian situation and to respond to the needs of the
Cuban people," a senior administration official said. "President
Biden is also fulfilling his commitment to the Cuban-American community and
their family members in Cuba by announcing measures in four key areas which we
plan to implement in the coming weeks."
Just a year ago, the Biden administration slapped additional
sanctions against the Cuban officials following widespread crackdowns of large
antigovernment protests.
In addition to reinstating the Cuba Family Reunification Parole
program and increasing consular services, the administration is also lifting a
$1,000 cap on family remittances, increasing support for Cuban entrepreneurs
and expanding authorized travel.
The announcement, however, fell short of previous polices
enacted by the Obama administration.
Individual "people-to-people" travel will not be
reinstated, for example.
A senior administration
official said the U.S. also would not remove entities from the Cuba Restricted
List, the list of Cuban government- and military-aligned companies that U.S. companies
are blocked from doing business with.
A senior administration official said the moves are aimed at
helping the Cuban people, but the timing of the announcement also raised
questions whether the U.S. is trying to curry favor with leftist leaders in the
region.
The U.S. is hosting this year's Summit of the America and some
leaders in the region have threatened not to attend unless Cuba, Venezuela and
Nicaragua are also invited.
Mark Feierstein, a former senior adviser at the U.S. Agency for
International Development under Biden, said the plans were under way long
before the controversy emerged.
He called them a "big change" and "tilting
back" toward the Obama era in line with Biden campaign promises. But he
acknowledged the timing of the announcement can't be overlooked.
He noted that some Biden officials will soon be traveling to
Mexico to meet with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is threatening
not to attend.
"It's possible this
is a signal to Mexico and others that the administration is prepared to revise
the policy toward Cuba, but not necessarily willing to invite Cuba to the
summit," he said.
Cuban officials called the moves "positive, but of a very
limited scope."
"These announcements in no way modify the blockade or the
main measures of economic siege adopted by Trump," the Cuban Foreign
ministry said in a statement.
A key Democrat also released a concerning statement.
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, criticized the decision, saying the administration was
authorizing "visits akin to tourism."
"To be clear, those who still believe that increasing
travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial,"
Menendez said in a statement.
In response to Menendez's concerns, the senior administration
official said the administration will ensure that "travel is purposeful
and in accordance with U.S. law."
**************
Reuters
U.S. revises Cuba
policy,
eases restrictions on remittances, travel
and Humeyra Pamuk
The measures, which
were rolled out after a lengthy U.S. government review, mark the most
significant changes in the U.S. approach to Havana since President Joe Biden
took office in January 2021.
But the announcement stopped short of returning U.S.-Cuba
relations to the historic rapprochement engineered by former President Barack
Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president. That included less crimped
flow of remittances, fewer travel curbs and faster visa services.
U.S. State Department
spokesperson Ned Price in a statement said the measures announced Monday were
to "further support the Cuban people, providing them additional tools to
pursue a life free from Cuban government oppression and to seek greater
economic opportunities."
The State Department
said the United States would lift the cap on family remittances, previously set
to $1,000 per quarter, and authorize donative remittances to non-family
members.
But it made clear that
the United States would
not remove entities from the Cuba Restricted List, a State Department
list of Cuban government- and military-aligned companies with whom U.S. firms
and citizens are barred from doing business.
"We are going to
ensure that remittances flow more freely to the Cuban people, while not
enriching those who perpetrate human rights abuses," an administration
official said.
The United States will
use "electronic payment processors" for remittances to avoid funds
going directly to the Cuban government, an official said, adding that the United States had already
engaged with the Cuban government "about establishing a civilian processor
for this."
Biden officials have
been mindful that easing restrictions on the communist-run island could lead to
political fallout from conservative Cuban Americans, a key voting bloc in south
Florida who mostly backed former President Donald Trump's tough policies on
Cuba.
Senator Bob Menendez,
the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a
statement: "Today's announcement risks sending the wrong message to the
wrong people, at the wrong time and for all the wrong reasons."
Trump slashed visa
processing, restricted remittances, scaled back flights and increased hurdles
for U.S. citizens seeking to travel to Cuba for anything other than family
visits.
There were few details on how the new policy would be
implemented, but officials said the steps would be implemented over coming
weeks.
Cuban Foreign Minister
Bruno Rodriguez, in a Twitter post, called the U.S. announcement "a
limited step in the right direction."
"The decision
does not change the embargo, the fraudulent inclusion (of Cuba) on a list of
state sponsors of terrorism nor most of the coercive maximum pressure measures
by Trump that still affect the Cuban people," he said.
FAMILY REUNIFICATION
Among the changes is a
plan to reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which had
provided a legal way for Cuban families to be reunited in the United States,
and increase capacity for consular services.
Washington will aim to
issue 20,000 immigrant visas a year, the official said, in line with a
migration accord. The
Biden administration is seeking to expand embassy staffing to handle the backlog
but it was unclear how and when that might happen.
The U.S. embassy in
Havana began issuing a trickle of immigrant visas to Cubans this month, making
good on an earlier promise to restart visa processing on the island after a
four-year hiatus.
The Biden
administration will also expand authorized travel to Cuba, allowing scheduled
and charter flights to use airports other than Havana, according to the State
Department.
Washington will also
reinstate some categories of group educational travel, as well as certain
travel related to professional meetings and research.
Individual
"people-to-people" travel, however, will not be reinstated. The category was eliminated by
Trump officials who said it was being abused by Americans taking beach
vacations.
The United States will
also increase support for
independent Cuban entrepreneurs, aiming to ease access to the internet and
expanding access to microfinance and training, among other measures.
Biden promised during
the 2020 election to re-engage with Cuba. But Havana's crackdown following
widespread protests on the island last July led instead to sanctions on Cuban
officials.
The Cuban government
blamed the protests on meddling by the United States.
"We continue to
call on the Cuban government to immediately release political prisoners, to
respect the Cuban people's fundamental freedoms and to allow the Cuban people
to determine their own futures," Price said.
The officials said a decision has not been made on whether to
invite Cuba to next month's U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas. Mexico and
others have threatened to not attend unless all countries in the Americas are
invited. read more
Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra
Pamuk; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington and David
Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Mary Milliken and Rosalba O'Brien
Cuba Calls Biden Easing Some Restrictions 'Limited
Step in Right Direction'
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 5/16/22 AT 8:16 PM
EDT
The Cuban Foreign
Ministry has partially welcomed and criticized President Joe
Biden's decision to ease certain restrictions against the island
nation, noting that it would still keep in place broad efforts to maintain
pressure against Havana's Communist-led government.
"The
announcements do not modify the blockade in any way," the Cuban Foreign
Ministry said in a statement shared with Newsweek on
Monday, "nor the main
economic siege measures taken by Trump, such as the listings of entities that
are subject to additional coercive measures, nor does it eliminate travel bans on
Americans."
"It
does not reverse the arbitrary and fraudulent inclusion of Cuba on the State
Department's list of countries that are allegedly sponsors of terrorism,"
the statement continued, "one of the main causes of the difficulties that
Cuba encounters for its commercial and financial transactions in many parts of
the world."
"It is, however," the
statement added, "a
limited step in the right direction."
Speaking to reporters Monday, a
senior Biden administration official said the White House was rolling out a
package of new measures including the resumption of immigration visa
processing, expanding authorized travel for family and educational purposes,
reinstating people-to-people educational travel under a general license,
increasing support for Cuban entrepreneurs and relaxing tight restrictions on the
flow of remittances.
The official emphasized, however,
that other sweeping restrictions in line with the six-decade embargo against
Cuba would remain in place, in addition to specific sanctions placed on
individuals and institutions since Biden took office.
Asked by Newsweek if the measures marked a departure from
the hard-line strategy pursued by former President Donald
Trump toward a more conciliatory approach pioneered by former
President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president, the
senior administration official said that the steps were focused on improving
humanitarian support and empowering U.S.-Cuba connections in line with
Washington's interests.
"These
are steps that are...intended to help alleviate the humanitarian suffering that
prompts outbound migration from Cuba and also to advance our interest in
supporting the Cuban people and ensuring that Cuban Americans and Americans, in
general, are also the best ambassadors for U.S. policy," the official said.
And while the Biden administration
has rejected the "maximum pressure" approach on other foreign policy
areas such as Iran, the official said the current agenda very much planned to
keep the pressure up against Havana.
"The measures are ones that are
a complement to what has been an active effort since July of last year to
increase the pressure on human rights abuses in Cuba, and to find ways to
provide more direct humanitarian support," the official said.
"And again," the official
added, "the
president's direction has been to find ways to hold the regime accountable and
to support the Cuban people and that's been what has informed this
policy."
The U.S. has maintained broad
sanctions against Cuba since shortly after the revolution that brought leader
Fidel Castro to power in 1959, toppling a U.S.-backed government. These
restrictions have been occasionally expanded over the years until Obama
introduced a thaw in long-frozen ties, setting the stage for the mutual opening
of embassies and greater opportunities for educational, tourist and cultural
interactions.
Then-Vice President
Biden backed the measures at the time and his wife, now-first lady Jill
Biden, even visited Cuba weeks before the 2016 election that would
ultimately bring victory for Trump and a return to tense U.S.-Cuba relations.
Trump reversed much of Obama's detente with a series of constraints and pointed
the finger at the Cuban government amid a series of reports of health incidents
affecting personnel at the U.S. embassy in Havana.
While challenging Trump on the
campaign trail in September 2020, Biden said he would "try to reverse the
failed Trump policies that inflicted harm on Cubans and their families."
But little progress was made on this front and, in July of last year, a series
of rare protests in Cuba in response to economic hardships exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic prompted an even tougher approach by Biden.
Last month, a
senior Cuban official told Newsweek that
U.S. and Cuban officials "haven't had one official formal serious
discussion on any issue."
Less than two weeks later, U.S. and
Cuban officials announced that they held their first talks on migratory issues
in four years.
Despite these early inroads,
speculation has mounted as to whether or not the U.S. would invite Cuba along
with fellow leftist-led Nicaragua and Venezuela to the Summit of the Americas
set to be held next month in Los Angeles. Mexico and a number of Caribbean
nations have threatened to boycott the event if all countries in the Western
Hemisphere were not included.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday she had
no update to offer on the invite list, and the senior Biden administration
official on Monday's call said the announcement vis-à-vis Cuba policy was
"completely separate" from the invitation issue.
"We should be focusing on
addressing a whole host of shared challenges in the region and not blow up the
summit over who shows up and who doesn't," then official said.
Monday's Cuban
Foreign Ministry statement reiterated the nation's "willingness to
initiate a respectful dialogue on an equal footing with the Government of the
United States, based on the Charter of the United
Nations, without interference in internal affairs and with full
respect for the independence and sovereignty."
The Biden
administration has also been subject to domestic pressure on Cuba, especially
from Republicans and a sizable, influential community
of Cuban Americans opposed to the Cuban Communist Party's rule.
A joint statement
released by Republican Senators Marco
Rubio, Rick Scott, Jim Risch, Bill
Cassidy, and Ted Cruz, along with Republican Representatives Mario
Díaz-Balart, Michael McCaul, Mark Green, María Elvira Salazar and Carlos
Giménez accused Biden of "appeasing Cuba's murderous regime."
And within Biden's
own party, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob
Menendez of New Jersey said the move "risks sending the wrong message to
the wrong people, at the wrong time and for all the wrong reasons."
Others such as Massachusetts Representative Jim
McGovern, however, welcomed the move.
"Encouraged
by steps in the right direction from the Biden administration on Cuba,"
McGovern tweeted. "Reversing Trump's failed strategy & undoing decades
of outdated, cold-war policies will take time. I applaud this move towards a
smarter strategy of engagement and diplomacy."
New York Post
Biden
eases money transfers to Cuba and flips Trump migrant, travel rules
By Steven Nelson May 16, 2022
The Biden administration
on Monday said it would relax rules for sending money to Cuba and reverse
former President Donald Trump’s policies that made it more difficult to travel
to or migrate from the island.
The slate of changes
outraged prominent Cuban-American politicians who hoped Cuba’s authoritarian
Communist leaders were on the ropes after large anti-government protests last
year, which were harshly repressed.
The financial reforms
include lifting a $1,000 per quarter remittance cap and allowing for direct US
investments for the first time since
1960.
The US also will restart
a family reunification program for Cubans to move to the US, which the Trump
administration suspended in 2017, and resume “educational” US group travel to
the island that was banned in 2019.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ),
the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the plan to
resume educational group tours, saying in a statement that the plan was “akin to tourism”
and would benefit the Cuban government.
“I am dismayed to learn
the Biden administration will begin authorizing group travel to Cuba through
visits akin to tourism. To be clear, those who still believe that increasing
travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial,” Menendez
said.
Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.) tweeted, “The regime in #Cuba threatened [President]
Biden with mass migration and have sympathizers inside the administration and
the result is today we see the first steps back to the failed Obama policies on
Cuba.”
Nicaragua’s leftist
government in November allowed Cuban citizens to visit without a visa, and many
Cubans are using the Central American nation as a starting point to reach the
US-Mexico border, where COVID-19 deportation policies are scheduled to end next week.
The restarted Cuban
Family Reunification Parole Program allows for 20,000 US visas per year.
Biden administration
officials defended the policies in a White House-organized call on Monday night.
One administration
official said that “the humanitarian situation in Cuba right now is very
concerning. And as the president directed us to find ways to meaningfully
support the Cuban people, he assessed that these measures do take steps to do
so at a particularly concerning time.”
A different official
noted US condemnation of the Cuban authorities’ repression of protests last
year.
“The crackdown by the
Cuban regime after the July 11 protests were there for I think the world to see
and the sentences that were imposed on people that were singing in the streets
and asking for food and to have a greater say in the future of their country
really shows the situation, the lack of respect for human rights on the
island,” the second official said.
He added, “But these are
steps that we thought were designed to get specifically to the Cuban people and
that were in our unilateral interest.”
US citizens have been
allowed to visit Cuba since President Barack Obama’s administration relaxed
decades-old rules in 2015 — though many flouted the prior US ban and entered
through third countries.
Although Trump rescinded
the educational group tours, US
citizens have still been allowed to go if they could document their “Support
for the Cuban People” with little enforcement and easy-to-meet guidelines such as staying at an
Airbnb rental rather than a hotel and dining at private restaurants.
The precise new US
policies around investments in Cuba were not described in detail in government
releases.
The Miami Herald reported Monday
that last week the US
Treasury Department issued a precedent-setting decision granting a license to a
company controlled by John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council, to invest less than $25,000 in a Cuban business.
The Herald said the
Treasury Department’s decision “appears to be a first in more than six decades” and “could open the
gate to American investment.”
Cuban government salaries
are extremely low by international standards — with doctors earning just $67 per month. Since 2010, Cubans
have been allowed to engage in some private enterprises, including owning
restaurants.
The State Department cast
the Biden reforms as enabling greater freedom from the Communist government,
despite pushback.
“We will encourage the
growth of Cuba’s private sector by supporting greater access to U.S. Internet
services, applications, and e-commerce platforms. We will support new avenues
for electronic payments and for U.S. business activities with independent Cuban
entrepreneurs, including through increased access to microfinance and
training,” the State Department said.
“We also will support
Cuban families and entrepreneurs by enabling increased remittance flows to the
Cuban people in ways that do not enrich human rights abusers. We will
lift the family remittance cap of $1,000 per quarter and will support donative
remittances to Cuban entrepreneurs, both with the goal of further empowering
families to support each other and for entrepreneurs to expand their
businesses.”
https://nypost.com/2022/05/16/biden-eases-money-transfers-to-cuba-and-flips-trump-migrant-travel-rules/
**********************
Florida Republicans Slam Biden’s New Cuba Policies
By
-
May 18, 2022, 6:00 am
This
week, the Biden administration announced “a series of measures
to increase support for the Cuban people in line with our national security
interests” which drew fire from Republicans in the Florida delegation.
Insisting
that “the Cuban people are confronting an unprecedented humanitarian crisis —
and our policy will continue to focus on empowering the Cuban people to help
them create a future free from repression and economic suffering,” the U.S.
State Department announced steps to “facilitate family reunification
by reinstating the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP)
Program and continuing to increase capacity for consular services.”
The
Biden administration will increase visa processing and expand counselor
services and air travel. The State Department also announced efforts to “ensure
that remittances flow more freely to the Cuban people while not enriching those
who perpetrate human rights abuses” including ending “the current limit on
family remittances of $1,000 per quarter per sender-receiver pair and will
authorize donative (i.e., non-family) remittances, which will support
independent Cuban entrepreneurs.”
Ned
Price, a spokesman for the State Department, weighed in
on the new policies, which break with those established during the Trump
presidency, on Monday.
“The
administration’s policy towards Cuba continues to focus first and foremost on
support for the Cuban people, including their human rights and their political
and economic well-being,” said Price. “Today, the administration announced
measures to further support the Cuban people, providing them additional tools
to pursue a life free from Cuban government oppression and to seek greater
economic opportunities.
“We
will reinstate the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP)
Program and further increase consular services and visa processing, making it
possible for more Cubans to join their families in the United States via
regular migration channels,” he added. “We will make it easier for families to
visit their relatives in Cuba and for authorized U.S. travelers to engage with
the Cuban people, attend meetings, and conduct research.
“We
will encourage the growth of Cuba’s private sector by supporting greater access
to U.S. Internet services, applications, and e-commerce platforms. We will
support new avenues for electronic payments and for U.S. business activities
with independent Cuban entrepreneurs, including through increased access to
microfinance and training,” Price continued. “We also will support Cuban
families and entrepreneurs by enabling increased remittance flows to the Cuban
people in ways that do not enrich human rights abusers. We will lift the family
remittance cap of $1,000 per quarter and will support donative remittances to
Cuban entrepreneurs, both with the goal of further empowering families to
support each other and for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses.
“With
these actions, we aim to support Cubans’ aspirations for freedom and for
greater economic opportunities so that they can lead successful lives at home.
We continue to call on the Cuban government to immediately release political
prisoners, to respect the Cuban people’s fundamental freedoms and to allow the
Cuban people to determine their own futures,” Price said in conclusion.
Congressional
Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco
Rubio, R-Fla., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., and U.S. Reps. Mario
Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., Carlos Giménez, R-Fla., and Maria
Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., took aim at the new policies in a joint statement.
“During
Cuba’s historic anti-regime protests last year, President Biden said
‘[t]he United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets
to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime.’ Yet today, while
hundreds of activists remain unlawfully imprisoned, the White House is
resurrecting President Obama’s failed policy of unilateral
concessions to the Castro/Díaz-Canel criminal dictatorship,” the lawmakers
said. “Rather than supporting their pleas for freedom by expanding democracy
programming, broadcasting, global diplomacy, and sanctions against their
oppressors, the Biden White House is rewarding the Western Hemisphere’s
longest-ruling communist dictatorship with high-level talks, easing sanctions,
increased travel, and access to U.S. financial institutions. Appeasing Cuba’s
murderous regime does not comply with the statutory requirements in U.S. law
and undercuts America’s support for Cuba’s democratic opposition,” they said.
“The
Biden administration’s repeated appeasement to the Cuban dictatorship is a
betrayal of America’s commitment to human rights and freedom, and to the
longsuffering Cuban people who are struggling for a genuine democratic
transition,” they added.
U.S. Rep.
Charlie Crist, D-Fla., threw his support behind the new policies.
“The
Cuban communist regime continues to violently oppress peaceful protestors
crying out for freedom and liberty, all while more and more Cubans attempt the
dangerous journey to the United States to escape,” said Crist. “I am encouraged
by the Biden administration’s announcement today, and it is my hope that this
will improve the quality of life for everyday Cubans on the island, while
giving Cuban-Americans the freedom to visit, support, and reunite with their
families. I look forward to continuing to engage the administration, along with
Cuban community leaders, to make sure that entrepreneurship dollars go to mamás
y papás and not to companies run by the military establishment. If the Cuban
people have alternatives to the communist regime for internet access and
financial services, this could be a game-changer for freedom and democracy in
Cuba. ¡Patria y vida! ¡Cuba será libre!”
Originally from Jacksonville, Kevin Derby is the editor of Florida Daily and covers politics across Florida. Reach Kevin at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com
https://www.floridadaily.com/florida-republicans-slam-bidens-new-cuba-policies/
********************************************************
[This is a balance to Miami Herald columnists. I have no idea who Arthur Gonzalez is. A hard liner from the Cuban Party or Security Services? A true believer from the US solidarity movement? A disinformation blog from the US or Russian government to sow distrust? Or just someone who does not understand how US political reality will distort the characterization of even good intentions until both countries have achieved a measure of real normalization and reconciliation.]
By Arthur Gonzalez
On May 16, 2022, Joe Biden's administration unveiled new measures towards Cuba, which point to the same historical direction of subverting the internal order to dismantle socialism, despite the fact that in 63 years they have only obtained failures.
One does not have to be a political analyst or expert in these matters to realize that the current administration does not hide tits intentions to finance an internal counterrevolution, to work on the youth and strengthen the cognitive war through the use of the Internet, in order to sow disenchantment and discouragement among the people, just as their predecessors did and that is why they keep the economic, commercial and financial war intact, regardless of which party the rulers of the day belong to.
The CIA's plans for covert actions against Cuba are no longer secret, since imperial arrogance is such that their desire to crush governments that maintain their sovereignty and freedom drives them to a level of open action, without the slightest demur.
For that reason, the announced measures, more electoral than beneficial for Cuba's economy, are a signal for the people to be very attentive to the subversive activities that will accompany them, as well as the actions of the new diplomats arriving in Havana.
The official communiqué from the U.S. government states:
"The authorization of group travel by Americans for educational or professional exchanges to visit the Island is for them to interact with the Cuban people, attend meetings and conduct research."
It adds:
"The intended purpose is to encourage the growth of Cuba's private sector, supporting it with greater access to U.S. Internet services, applications and e-commerce platforms, opening new avenues for electronic payments and for U.S. business activities with independent Cuban entrepreneurs, who will be allowed greater access to and training in microfinance."
An administration official clearly stated:
"The new policy measures allow the administration to continue to support the Cuban people and protect U.S. national security interests. Our policy continues to focus on human rights, empowering the Cuban people to determine their own future, and are practical measures aimed at addressing the humanitarian situation and migration flows." "Labor rights will be at the center of any conversation with the Cuban government."
Regarding remittances, the route to be used is yet to be defined, but the official communiqué states:
"The $1,000 per quarter limit on remittances will be suspended, with a view to supporting the emerging private sector."
Evidence of what they aspire to achieve was stated by a State Department official:
Before approving them, the administration consulted on policy options with Cuban-American members of Congress.
On these measures, the Florida Democratic Party asserted:
"The Administration's announced changes in Cuba policy seek to maintain pressure on the regime while preventing citizens of the Island from becoming collateral damage," and Manny Diaz, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, explained, "Cuba policy is best conducted with a scalpel, not a machete."
As stated by the Cuban Foreign Minister, "the objectives of the Yankee policy are the same as always", something reflected in the statements made by Timothy Zúñiga-Brown, US Chargé d'Affaires in Cuba, on March 3, 2022, when he announced to the press that his country would resume the issuance of migrant visas in Havana and that the new accredited diplomats have included a strategy of broader expansion in their functions, to facilitate diplomatic dialogue and with the "civil society".
The Cubans have in mind the objectives proposed by the Council on Foreign Relations, for the design of a new policy towards Havana, welcomed by Barack Obama, where they express:
The means should be used to support, nurture and strengthen the civil society that is slowly, tentatively, but persistently beginning to emerge in Cuba today (1999) under the shell of communism.
Promote U.S. interests and values in Cuba in order to hasten the day when a fully democratic Cuba can assume a normal and friendly relationship with the United States.
Promote the transition to democracy.
End restrictions on humanitarian visits, those that Cubans residing in the United States make on their trips to Cuba, as well as those of U.S. citizens.
Increase the cap on remittances to $10,000 per family per year, but U.S. authorities should be alert to any tax the Cuban government might want to impose on those funds or any other regulatory policy that might be developed on them.
Reduce or eliminate existing restrictions that hinder graduate and post-graduate academic exchanges, and issue a permanent license to all Americans wishing to travel to Cuba.
Sending professionals to Cuba to advise on the organization of small businesses and private farms. It would include inviting Cuban counterparts to the United States.
Nothing has changed, it is more of the same in a desperate attempt to dismantle socialism from within, taking advantage of the hardships caused by the economic warfare increased by Donald Trump.
Not to forget what Obama clearly said in his speech of December 17, 2014:
"...we will continue to address issues related to democracy and human rights in Cuba [...] we can do more to support the Cuban people and promote our values through engagement." "...we will insist that civil society join us so that citizens, not just leaders, shape our future."
On 01.07.2015 in reporting the opening of embassies Obama specified:
"We will be able to significantly increase our contact with the Cuban people." "We will have more staff, and our diplomats will be able to engage more extensively across the island...including with civil society and with Cubans seeking to achieve a better life." The changes introduced in our new policy will further enhance our goal of empowering the Cuban people.
Our travel and remittance policies are helping Cubans by providing new sources of information, opportunities for self-employment and access to privately owned assets, and strengthening independent civil society.
These measures will serve to further encourage people-to-people contacts, to further support civil society in Cuba.
Our efforts are focused on promoting the independence of Cubans from dependence on the Cuban state.
In 2004, this was embodied in the Bush Plan:
"Reaching out to Cuban youth represents one of the most significant opportunities to precipitate the end of the regime."
Cuba will be vigilant to confront the new actions of political and ideological subversion, an important component within the context of the doctrine of unconventional warfare developed by the U.S. government, as it is a permanent and continuous process, with a strategy focused on provoking the softening of the Cuban people's character and capacity for resistance, with the aim of imposing Yankee values and symbols.
That is why José Martí asserted:
"Trenches of ideas are worth more than trenches of stones".
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