“Cuba is, unfortunately, a bankrupt state and is repressing its citizens”. This is what Joe Biden said, speaking on the ongoing repression on the island where hundreds of people were arrested, and at least one was killed, in the response of the authorities to the protests that broke out last Sunday.
“There are several things we are evaluating to help the Cuban people, but they would require other circumstances or a guarantee that these will not benefit the government,” added the president, explaining that he does not intend to lift the restrictions on remittances for the time being. Cuba by the American Cubans imposed by the Trump administration, contrary to what was promised in the election campaign.
“As for the possibility of sending remittances to Cuba – he continued – I will not do it now due to the fact that it is highly probable that the regime would confiscate most of these remittances”.
The Trump administration had passed sanctions against several Cuban financial institutions, including Fincimex, which manage remittances to the island, for ties with the Cuban military. Sanctions on Fincimex forced Western Union to suspend services with Cuba, leaving many Cuban Americans with no legal means to send money to their families in the midst of economic hardships exacerbated by the pandemic.
Before the protests began on Sunday, the Biden administration had indicated its intention to abolish some of Trump’s measures, including the squeeze on remittances, for humanitarian reasons. And after his inauguration, the administration had started a review of the measures that Biden had promised to abolish during the election campaign.
But Sunday’s protests, and Havana’s repressive response, changed the scene, with the influential Cuban American community in Florida calling on Biden to support the uprising.
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