#BTEditorial – Cuba and Venezuela get much-needed eases from US

Just a week ago, United States President Joe Biden announced plans to ease tough sanctions imposed on Cuba and Venezuela.

For Cuba, this includes expanding flights, easing travel restrictions, and lifting limits on sending remittances to people on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean island. The US is also increasing consular services and re-establishing a family reunification programme suspended in 2017. 

As it relates to Venezuela, the Biden administration moved to ease some economic sanctions to encourage further discussions between Maduro and Venezuela’s opposition. The changes will also allow for US oil company Chevron to begin talks with the government in Caracas over potentially restarting oil production.

Two Democratic contenders challenging Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, supported Biden’s moves. Crist said it could be a “game-changer for freedom and democracy in Cuba,” while Fried said she supports the “relentless pursuit of greater connectivity to, from and among the Cuban people”.

These words resonate with us.

It is no secret that former US President Barack Obama was hopeful that Cuba relations would be better than they were decades ago.

However, in his quest to ease Cuba, he seemed likely to hurt his party. The Democrats repeatedly said that they would not shape their foreign policy based on what plays best politically. That has left them navigating the political trouble that looms. The area is home to a huge concentration of Hispanic voters and Latin American exiles who fled Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Some Democrats note that Clinton won the Hispanic-rich regions of the state by wide margins in 2016 despite the fact that President Barack Obama loosened restrictions and became the first sitting US president to visit the island since 1959.

“Obama ran on opening up travel to Cuba and easing restrictions on remittances,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic consultant who ran Obama’s Florida campaign and now works closely with Biden.

Cubans have weighed in on how they felt Biden’s latest decision would positively affect them and, by extension, their country. For the most part, they are happy.

Cuba’s economy was devastated by the loss of tourism caused by the pandemic and by Donald Trump’s tougher sanctions. Fewer people now have a proper disposal income.

The visa ease granted by the US will directly impact on the quality of living for many.

While there are no official figures on how much money family and friends abroad send to Cubans, the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group estimated it reached $3.7 billion in 2019 — with a similar value arriving in the luggage of visitors bringing food, household supplies, small appliances, tires and the like. Much arrived in the wallets and handbags of travellers. But for years, Cuban-Americans also could send Western Union transfers to relatives on the island. 

News reports state that about 400 000 Cuban-Americans visited the island in 2018 and more than 500,000 in 2019. In addition, a half million other US visitors came in 2018. By 2021, remittances had fallen to about $1 billion, the Consulting Group calculated, and overall US visitors dropped to just 60,000, according to government figures.

We are happy to see the US rectify at least one major ill against our two neighbouring countries and we hope even more restrictions will be lifted in the future. Whatever the political troubles, these harsh measures only serve to hurt the citizens.