“The Cuban people are confronting an unprecedented humanitarian crisis and our policy will continue to focus on empowering the Cuban people to help them create a future free from repression and economic suffering,” the State Department said. The loosening of the embargo on Cuba will see increased visa processing, including at the Havana consulate, but with most visas still handled at the US embassy in Guyana.
The statement said it will “facilitate educational connections” between the two countries, as well as support for professional research including “support for expanded internet access and remittance process companies.”
To boost the flow of remittances, the US government will lift the current limit of $1,000 per quarter for each sender, and also allow non family remittances to “support independent Cuban entrepreneurs.”
Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, tweeted that the move was “a small step in the right direction,” but emphisized that it does “not modify the embargo” in place since 1962.
“Neither the objectives nor the main instruments of the United States’ policy against Cuba, which is a failure, are changing,” he wrote.
US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, denounced the lifting of some restrictions, saying that the Cuban regime “continues its ruthless persecution of countless Cubans from all walks of life” following unprecedented street protests last year.
