May 16, 2022
Today, the US government announced several measures, positive but very limited in scope, regarding Cuba in the areas of visas, regular migration, flights to the provinces, remittances and adjustments to regulations for transactions with the non-state sector.
By their nature, it is possible to identify some of President Biden’s promises during the 2020 election campaign to alleviate inhumane decisions taken by President Trump’s administration, which tightened the blockade to unprecedented levels and the policy of “maximum pressure” since then applied against our country.
The announcements do not modify the blockade at all, nor the main economic siege measures taken by Trump, such as the lists of entities that are subject to additional coercive measures, nor does it remove the 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 alleged to be sponsors of terrorism, one of the main causes of the difficulties Cuba faces in its commercial and financial transactions in many parts of the world.
It is, however, a limited step in the right direction, a response to the denunciation of the Cuban people and government. It also responds to the calls of US society and of Cubans living in the US. This has been a demand of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and of almost all the member states of the United Nations, expressed in the overwhelming vote against the blockade. These are just demands that have been ignored by the US government at a very high cost to our population.
Since 2019, the blockade has been intensified to the extreme, opportunistically taking advantage of the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, the international crisis and the consequent economic depression. Without exaggeration, the consequences of this siege can be described as devastating. The increase in migration is a case in point.
In taking these limited steps, the State Department is using openly hostile language, accompanied by traditional slander and new fallacies that have become fashionable in recent months, demonstrating that neither the objectives of US policy against Cuba, nor its main tools, have changed.
To know the real scope of this announcement, it will be necessary to wait for the publication of the implementing regulations.
The Government of Cuba reiterates its willingness to initiate a respectful dialogue on an equal footing with the Government of the United States, on the basis of the United Nations Charter, without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for independence and sovereignty.
Source: Cubaminrex