Biden Administration Measures to Support the Cuban Regime by Martha Leonard

Biden Administration Measures to Support the Cuban Regime 

Written and originally published by Martha Leonard on jarcuba.com

With the recent news of the Biden Administration lifting many Trump-era sanctions on Cuba, I’m sure many of you are left wondering what the direct impact on the Cuban people would be with these measures. Allow me to walk you through a political analysis of how the series of measures the White House claims is going to “increase support for the Cuban people in line with our national security interests” ultimately funnel mass amounts of money directly to the Cuban Regime.

Specifically, the Administration claims they will:

“Facilitate family reunification by reinstating the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) Program and continuing to increase capacity for consular services. Limited immigrant visa processing resumed in Havana on May 3, 2022. We will reinstate the CFRP and increase visa processing in Havana while continuing to process the majority of immigrant visa cases at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana.”

Let us talk about this “reinstatement” and why the CFRP program was previously halted.

In 2017, the USCIS had to draw down their personnel from the U.S Embassy in Havana Cuba because of sonic attacks, which is one of the many reasons why Cuba’s government is properly designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. My only hope is that the security of the American personnel sent back to the U.S Embassy in Havana is ensured, and SERIOUS countermeasures are taken if the Regime attacks again. 

“Strengthen family ties and facilitate educational connections for the U.S. and Cuban people by expanding authorized travel in support of the Cuban people. We will authorize scheduled and charter flights to locations beyond Havana. We also will implement regulatory changes to reinstate group people-to-people and other categories of group educational travel, as well as certain travel related to professional meetings and professional research, including to support expanded Internet access and remittance processing companies and to provide additional support to Cuban entrepreneurs. We are not reinstating individual people-to-people travel.”

Very vague but let us look closely.

'Expanding authorized travel in support of the Cuban people'

Not only does the “authorization” of travel raise some eyebrows, but chartering the flights enriches the Cuban Regime with OUR OWN AMERICAN TAX PAYING DOLLARS. The regime already ridiculously price gouges all the flights to and from Cuba, exploiting struggling and separated Cuban families, and they make a heavy commission, but now the Biden administration will be using our tax dollars for these ridiculously man-created inflated flights to Cuba. There is no reason why it should cost someone from Miami $5,000+ to fly to Cuba- a literal 30-minute flight. With the Cuban regime’s control over airlines, you can only be certain that they will take advantage of those American dollars. 

They ’re also fully admitting that they are not reinstating individual people-to-people travel but they will allow group travel for “educational” purposes. Not only is this policy extremely vague, even with a little charity, but the only educational purpose you can infer from this is that the educational content is most definitely communist. We are no stranger to the state-sponsored indoctrination system that is in place in Cuba and the U.S. is now chartering flights for those selected indoctrinated personnel to travel and spread more Communism throughout the Western Hemisphere. 

“Increase support for independent Cuban entrepreneurs. We will encourage commercial opportunities outside of the state sector by authorizing access to expanded cloud technology, application programming interfaces, and e-commerce platforms. We will explore options to expand support of additional payment options for Internet-based activities, electronic payments, and business with independent Cuban entrepreneurs. We will work to expand entrepreneurs’ access to microfinance and training.”

This would be a lovely idea only if there actually were true -independent- Cuban entrepreneurs on the island. Any said Cuban entrepreneurship would only be sponsored by the State, as per the current Cuban Constitution the Communist party has full control of the economy. Any attempt for a true independent Cuban to have private capital and make their own profits is fully condemned by the regime. 

“Ensure that remittances flow more freely to the Cuban people while not enriching those who perpetrate human rights abuses. Specifically, we will remove the current limit on family remittances of $1,000 per quarter per sender-receiver pair and will authorize donative (i.e., non-family) remittances, which will support independent Cuban entrepreneurs. We will engage with electronic payment processors to encourage increased Cuban market accessibility. We will not remove entities from the Cuba Restricted List.”

There is no way to ensure this. Cuba’s current monetary system exploits any attempt at humanitarian aid by forcing those said US dollars to be converted to Euros (enriching the Spanish government) and consequently converted into Cuban Pesos on an MLC card only to be used in MLC stores (enriching the Cuban government, the key perpetrator of human rights abuses.) 

‘Engage with electronic payment processors to encourage increased Cuban market accessibility’

Again, very vague. This only sounds like the Biden administration wants a cut out of this new Cuban currency, further exploiting virtually all monetary transactions from three different angles. 

Do you see how virtually every single new measure by the Biden administration directly supports the Cuban Regime?

Sources:

1. https://www.state.gov/biden-administration-measures-to-support-the-cuban-people  
2. https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/humanitarian-parole/the-cuban-family-reunification-parole-program 
3. https://cu.usembassy.gov/u-s-announces-designation-of-cuba-as-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism
4. https://www.fonmoney.com/blogrecharge-and-create-usd-mlc-ais-cards-in-cuba 
5. https://havanatimes.org/opinion/reality-in-mlc-cubas-magnetic-currency 
6. https://bonardahotel.com/biden-eases-restrictions-on-cuban-travel-and-remittances