On Tuesday, the Trump administration lifted financial limitations on Cuba, giving “independent private sector entrepreneurs” in the communist-ruled country exposure to the US banking system and opening U.S. bank accounts.
These “entrepreneurs” may even have access to a wide variety of U. S- based online providers.
In a press release, the Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC ) stated that the easing of the restrictions will “further implement the policy announced by the Biden- Harris Administration on May 16, 2022 to increase support for the Cuban people.”
OFAC claimed that the list of actions is directed at “independent private sector companies,” a word the organization claims “better reflects Cuba’s non-state business” and that supposedly excludes Castro government authorities and Cuban Communist Party members. Cuba, a country under a communist regime for more than six years, does not have a “private business,” according to the organization’s statement.
Cuba has long been a state sponsor of terrorism in the United States as a result of its close ties to numerous international terrorist organizations, including the Shiite jihadist Hezbollah, Hamas, and the National Liberation Army ( ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ), two of which are Marxist terrorist organizations.
Cuba is currently listed as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but the Biden administration just ordered Cuba off the list of nations that are” not entirely cooperating” with the United States in the fight against terrorism. At the press conference, it’s not clear whether any of the Communist Party’s actions merited a change.
Five Communist Party officials took a key journey of Miami’s international airports last year, which included visits to some of TSA’s highest-security areas inside the aircraft.
Politicians and the Cuban diaspora in Florida immediately condemned the browse, which both the local Miami-Dade County leadership and airport personnel claimed they were unaware of. Next month, the TSA apologized.
The measures announced by OFAC amend the Cuban Assets Control Regulations ( CARC ), a law that includes the provisions of the Cuban “embargo,” to allow Cuban “independent entrepreneurs” the ability to open U.S. bank accounts and to maintain, and remotely use, the accounts regardless of where the parties involved are located.
OFAC even re- authorized” U- change” economic transactions, which had been prohibited in September 2019 during the presidency of former President Donald Trump. U-turn deals are transfers that arise and end outside the United States and do not fall under the purview of U.S. courts.
OFAC claimed that the initiative “is intended to assist the Cuban people, including impartial private business entrepreneurs,” by facilitating payments and obligations for transactions in the Caribbean private sector that are permitted by the CARC’s terms.
Additionally, the new lowering of the restrictions includes provisions that sanction U.S. citizens to grant access to U.S. citizens. S- based online services to Cubans for as” social media platforms, collaboration platforms, video conferencing, e- gaming and e- learning platforms, automated translation, web maps, and user authentication services”, as well as cloud- based services like as rural data storage, data transport service, material distribution networks, digital machines, software- as- a- service, and infrastructure- as- a- service.
Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, the Cuban Foreign Minister, criticized the measures on social media and called them “limited.”
Rodrigues Parrilla’s message read,” They do not reverse the cruel impact and economic asphyxiation imposed on Cuban families by the application of the Genocidal Blockade and inclusion in the list of State sponsors of terrorism.“
The US government finances disinformation operations to hold the Cuban government accountable for the severe harm the Cuban people have suffered for 65 years, according to the message.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL ) criticized the new OFAC measures, saying that President Joe Biden will “give the Cuban dictatorship more oxygen” by allowing the “private sector” to open U.S. bank accounts, which she described as” a cover for the regime to obtain foreign currency.”
How can he make sure the repressive apparatus receives the funds? This Administration is complicit with Havana, once again”, Rep. Salazar said.
Omara Ruiz Urquiola, a Cuban activist, claimed that the Biden administration’s new financial restraints are intended to “violate” Cuba so that it stops producing immigrant labor.
” To that end, it is essential to annihilate the real civil society, asphyxiate it, annul it and replace it with the one created by Cuba’s General Intelligence Department, including the’ independent’ media that act as legitimate spokespersons for the strategy”, Ruiz Urquiola said.
Venezuelan author Christian K. Caruzo documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
