Cubans in Havana on Tuesday celebrated the U.S. government’s decision to ease former President Donald Trump’s remittance and term restrictions on travel to the island, a respite as Cuba grapples with the economic crisis and the mass immigration of its citizens to the United States.
The US measures announced Monday mark the most significant changes in Washington’s Cuba policy since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, but lag far behind the historic convergence under former President Barack Obama.
But among Cubans yearning to be reunited with loved ones in the United States, the announcement that the United States would relaunch a visa program aimed at reuniting families came as a blessing.
“Here’s the moment we’ve been waiting for,” said 29-year-old mother Elba Castillo, who said she waited four years to bring her 2-year-old daughter, Isabella, to the United States to live with her father. .
“It’s been a long wait but I hope this year… our dream will come true.”
The Biden administration pledged on Monday to significantly increase consular services in the country amid a crowd of Cubans appearing on the southern US border in numbers rivaling the 1980s ship Mariel. Suspend the border with Cuba and remittance.
US officials did not provide details on the new schedules, but said the regulations will be published soon.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States must take more steps to lift the Cold War embargo after Monday’s announcement, calling Biden’s measures a “limited step in the right direction”.
Tensions between longtime rivals Cuba and the United States rose again last year after Cuba cracked down on protesters who took to the streets on July 11 for anti-government rallies in what is believed to be the largest since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Ten Republican lawmakers said on Monday that the Biden administration turned its back on those who protested last July.
Peter Kornbluh, an expert on US-Cuban relations and a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, said the Biden administration had finally taken a “sensible policy approach” to Cuba.
“President Biden reinstates at least some of the Obama-era initiatives on travel, immigration and remittances, recognizing the value of positive engagement rather than punitive distances to advance U.S. interests and those of the Cuban people.”
Miami reactions
Only two people were out Tuesday morning at Miami’s Versailles restaurant, a popular hangout for the Cuban-American community. Both carried banners describing Biden as a “traitor.”
Osvaldo Hernández, a 57-year-old Cuban exile, said the Cuban people are suffering from tyranny. “If you give the oppression more oxygen, they will continue to put more pressure on you.”
Elsewhere, on radio and television, Miami’s response was muted compared to previous years.
source: Noticias
