by foreign editors
Trump’s $1,000 quarterly transfer limit is suspended. Family reunions that have been suspended for years are also resuming
The Biden administration has announced that it will resume commercial flights to Cuba, which now only serve Havana, and will remove the $1,000 quarterly limit on remittances, overturning some of the toughest measures taken by its predecessor, Donald Trump. The State Department also said in a statement that President Biden would also restore a family reunification program that had been suspended for years.
The Cuban people are facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, and our policies will remain focused on empowering the Cuban people to help them build a future free from oppression and economic hardship, the State Department said in a statement. The easing of the embargo on Cuba will result in increased visa processing, including at the consulate in Havana, but most will continue to be processed by the US Embassy in Guyana.
According to the Biden administration, this decision will facilitate educational links between the two countries, as well as support professional research, including support for expanding Internet access and for companies engaged in remittance processes, ie, transferring money abroad. To increase the flow of remittances, the US government will remove the current limit of $1,000 per quarter for each sender and also allow remittances from non-families to support independent Cuban entrepreneurs.
The Cuban government has described the measures announced by the US as a small step in the right direction. In a statement released just over an hour after Washington’s announcement, the Caribbean country’s State Department (Minrex) regretted that the Joe Biden administration had not lifted the economic embargo that had been in place since 1962. The decision does not change the blockade, the fraudulent listing of countries that sponsor terrorism, nor most of Trump’s maximum-pressure coercive measures that still affect the Cuban people, Minrex said.
US government announcement is a limited step in the right direction. This decision in no way changes the blockade, #Cubathe fraudulent inclusion in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, or most of Trump’s coercive measures of maximum pressure that still affect the Cuban people.
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– Bruno Rodrguez P (@BrunoRguezP) May 17, 2022
In a message published on Twitter, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodrguez accused the United States of having changed neither the objectives nor the main instruments of the bankruptcy policy (…) against Cuba. However, the government of the island emphasized in its statement that the decision also responds to requests from US society and Cubans living in that country, and that it is a request from the community of Latin American and Caribbean countries and almost all member states of the United Nations. Minrex reiterated that Havana is open to dialogue with Washington based on the United Nations Charter. The two countries held a bilateral dialogue on migration in the US capital last April. it was the first meeting of this kind in four years.
May 17, 2022 (Modification May 17, 2022 | 03:25)
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