The Cuban opposition has reacted positively to President Joe Biden’s new measures to allow Cuban mini-businesses to open bank accounts in the United States, when the island is suffering one of its worst economic crises. But in a statement from Dfrente, the coalition of Cuban opponents that demands dialogue and free elections from the regime, He also demands “the lifting of the North American embargo” on the island.
“The measures decreed by the Biden administration on May 28, 2024, come at one of the most difficult moments in the history of Cuba,” said DFrente, in a statement distributed from Havana, Paris, and the rest of the world, where the Cuban diaspora lives.
“DFrente, since its creation, has advocated the need for consensus in Cuban civil and political societies. Besides, advocates for a “political negotiation” between exponents of the social and political fabric of citizens, of the Island and the diaspora, and the Government of Cuba, aimed at the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners, Human Rights, freedom, democracy, legality, general well-being and attention to those most in need. He also advocates for the United States to understand that the paralysis of its government’s policy towards Cuba harms any possibility of change, since the embargo affects the entire Cuban reality, not just the current government of the Island,” the statement says.
It is the first time that an opposition coalition in Cuba argues massively about the need to lift the embargo, the regime’s great justification for the restrictions and crisis suffered by the Cuban people. Many analysts believe that despite the American influence on the island, the Cuban regime is collapsing. It is his great justification for maintaining his “revolutionary spirit.”
“All of this in search of a solution that, first of all, prevents more suffering for the people of Cuba and, in addition, makes possible the path towards the much-needed National Reconciliation, based on peace, well-being and freedom,” continues the statement from the Cuban opposition.
The needs of small businesses
“DFronte, from such budgets, considers that the measures want to offer a horizon of empowerment to the incipient MSMEs of the Island. These could achieve better access to computer services, which are the central column of the functioning of contemporary economies; fluidly access the North American market; and allow a greater flow of foreign currency to Cuba, through U-turn transfers, which would translate into an increase in remittances and therefore liquidity in the country,” they maintain.
“In this way, the new regulation could contribute to mitigating inflation problems, facilitate the ability to import basic products that are so urgent today for our population, and perhaps untie some “knots” that limit production. Currently, given the inability of the distributing state, MSMEs are largely the main supplier of essential products for Cubans. In this sense, these measures could influence in some way the improvement of the very poor living conditions of the vast majority of Cubans,” argues DFrente.
The Cuban opposition DFrente demands “that the Cuban Government complete and implement the Business Law announced in 2022, and that it remove all the obstacles that the Government itself imposes on the nascent private business community, on foreign investment and on the establishment of an effective economic model. ; in short, to the prosperity of the entire nation.”
He warns, again, “that there will be no definitive solution without the State returning sovereignty to the people, so that individual and social freedom “They can become the soul of the Republic that we deserve.”
Starting this Tuesday, May 28, entrepreneurs can “remotely open, maintain and use US bank accounts, including through online payment platforms, to carry out transactions,” the Treasury Department announced in a statement. It specified that the account holder may be physically located in Cuba, the United States or a third country.
The Treasury also authorized “U-turn” transfers, which Donald Trump’s administration had banned Cubans in 2019.
These are fund transfers that begin and end outside the United States, where neither the sender nor the recipient is under US jurisdiction.
According to the US government, the measures facilitate payments for transactions in the Cuban private sector, as well as remittances, which support many families on the islands with the help of relatives abroad.
They benefit “private cooperatives, small private companies and sole proprietorships located in Cuba with up to 100 employees.” They exclude noted officials of the Cuban government and the Cuban Communist Party“to ensure that US actions intended to benefit independent private sector entrepreneurs are not taken advantage of,” according to the statement.
The measures are part of the “support for the Cuban people” policy announced by the Biden government in May 2022 and reverse some of the strong restrictions imposed by the previous Donald Trump administration.
The communist regime of Cuba, a country in permanent economic crisis since the 90s, has allowed the establishment of some private businesses in the last three decades. It has been gradually opening its economy to private capital, although with many restrictions and in specific sectors. In Cuba today there are about 11,000 private companies that generate approximately a third of jobs, according to government data.
Added to the measure is the political uncertainty that, with less than six months until the US presidential elections, conditions both Cuban banks and businessmen who want to benefit from the new measures.
Reaction of the Cuban government
The Cuban government also considered that the new United States measures are “limited” and protested because “they do not touch the body of the lock”in reference to the embargo.
“They also do not modify the extreme measures and regulations applied by the governments of former President Donald Trump and the current president, Joe Biden,” said Johana Tablada, deputy director for the United States of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tablada alleged that the provisions exclude the majority of the Cuban population and predicted that it will be difficult to apply them, due to the country’s inclusion on the list of sponsors of terrorism.
