By Michael Wilner and Nora Gámez Torres
Miami Herald,
Updated May 17, 2022 10:03 AM
Original
Article: Reversing Trump Measures,
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 island wide 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.