Photo: YAMIL LAGE / AFP / Getty Images
By: EFE
Tuesday, November 19
The Biden Administration will not yet resume the authorization to send remittances to Cuba
WASHINGTON – The process to decide whether to reauthorize the sending of remittances to Cuba from the United States, banned for almost a year, has been extended after the White House rejected some recommendations on the subject, a source reported this Friday
President Joe Biden in July directed his administration to identify possible avenues to resume sending remittance payments to Cuba , a crucial source of income for Cubans that the government by Donald Trump (2017 – 2021) completely suspended it at the end of November 2020.
To comply with Biden guidelines, the Departments of State and Treasury created a task force on remittances that has already presented its recommendations to the White House, revealed this Friday a high fu US official, who requested anonymity.
However, the White House has “returned some” of those recommendations to the task force, because it wants to “make sure that the Cuban military are not going to derive benefits ”from sending remittances, added the official in a telephone press conference with a small group of media, including Efe.
Achieving this objective is complicated, according to experts, given the broad control of the Cuban Armed Forces of the country’s economy, and therefore The evaluation process of the Biden government “is taking time” , in the words of the aforementioned official.
“We are exploring new and innovative options to try to avoid the regime and make sure that the benefits go directly to the Cuban people,” stressed the source, who did not offer an approximate deadline to complete the process. .
The official stressed that Biden wants to find a “third way” in relation to Cuba, between the opening of the Barack Obama government (2009 – 2017) and the heavy hand that Trump imposed, especially after seeing the Cuban response to the anti-government protests of the past 11 July on the island .
After Trump banned send remittances to Cuba through companies such as Western Union, which concentrated the vast majority of shipments from the United States to the island, the only way that remains to get that money is the informal one, through travelers who carry the currency in cash, a method complicated by the pandemic.
In addition to the issue of remittances, Biden ordered his team in July to analyze the possible transfer of more personnel to the US embassy in La Haba na , drastically reduced after that, in 2017, several US diplomats suffered some mysterious “health incidents” that have been repeated in other countries.
The mandatary He also asked to clarify if the United States can help improve the stability of the internet in Cuba, that was restricted after the July protests, and that issue is still pending as well.
“The president He has asked us to see what we can do to (…) facilitate the connection between Cubans, and it is an issue that we are studying very thoroughly, ”said the aforementioned official.
It may interest you:
– From the 21 June cash dollars cannot be deposited in Cuba
– Cubans request that family remittances be delivered in dollars and not in Cuban pesos