The third year of the Biden administration is leaving without any profound changes in bilateral relations. As will be remembered, during his electoral campaign the Democratic candidate gave signs that his policy towards Cuba would go through the dismantling of that of his predecessor, Donald Trump (2017-2021), and that, consequently, he would return to some extent to the path of the so-called constructive engagement developed by the Obama administration, of which Biden was vice president.
However, once installed in the White House, the discourse changed. “Our policy towards Cuba is being studied and is guided by two principles. First, support for democracy and human rights, on which the center of our efforts is concentrated. The second is the Americans, especially the Cuban Americans, the best ambassadors of freedom in Cuba, so we are going to review the policies of the Trump administration,” said the then press secretary, Jen Psaki.
As a result, policy towards Cuba would be frozen for a while. Another senior official confirmed at one point that the new president did not consider Cuba a priority, but he did reiterate that he wanted to “make human rights a fundamental pillar of his foreign policy.”
In other words, the statements on that commitment were dilated until they vanished after an initial approach that came to handle the idea of removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism where Trump had put it back a few days before leaving the White House.
However, there have been changes, which have depended on the initiative of the United States. The migratory stampede of Cubans across the southern border and the Straits of Florida became a movement factor. Since the opening of trips to Nicaragua, in November 2021, an unusual flow of Cubans began to travel thousands of kilometers by road to reach the enormous and porous border with Mexico. This was the basis for resuming and maintaining to this day immigration talks with Cuba, also interrupted by Trump as a specific chapter of his policy of demolishing bilateral relations.
Likewise, the Biden administration authorized the resumption of flights by U.S. airlines to the interior of the island; validated the meetings between the Coast Guard and border patrol services and the dialogues on natural disasters with the Cuban counterparts; gave the green light to emergency aid to assist the population affected by natural disasters; announced a parole program to reinforce orderly and safe migration; as well as reinstating multiple-entry visas to the United States.
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In this group of steps, the most recent and innovative has consisted, without a doubt, in the announcement of measures to support the emerging Cuban private sector, a specific component of the strategy of sponsoring contacts with civil society and outside the government headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel. One of them, facilitating the opening of accounts and banking transactions in the United States of private Cuban entrepreneurs, has not materialized so far.
In that spirit, in September an unprecedented meeting took place in the city of Miami between entrepreneurs from the island and American and Cuban-American businessmen that included representatives of the government and served, among other objectives, to explore and identify ways to connect these players in a context of embargo/blockade and adversities determined by the presence of Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, one of the recurrences of this cycle that is closing.
OnCuba offers its readers an approach to the basic events of the last twelve months in terms of politics and economy in the peculiar relations between the two countries.
January
4. The United States Embassy in Cuba resumes its consular services and visa processing after an interruption of more than five years.
Interviews for those interested in obtaining an immigrant visa began on December 29, 2022. Applicants for non-immigrant visas, except for diplomatic or official visas or for medical reasons, continue under the condition that the process is carried out in a U.S. embassy in any other country.
5. The Biden administration announces a humanitarian parole program that would regulate the entry to the United States of Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians, similar to the one implemented for Venezuelans, and that could allow legal access to 30,000 people per month from those four countries.
The new plan establishes that applicants must have a sponsor or family member who legally resides in the United States and also pass a background check.
Beneficiaries are allowed to stay legally in the United States for two years and apply for a temporary work permit, valid for the authorized length of stay.
05. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat for Oregon, calls on the Biden administration to strengthen support for Cuban small and medium-sized private enterprises by creating more general licenses, as well as private sector access to international banking.
Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, announced that he would promote a discussion on this issue with his Senate colleagues, as he posted on his institutional page.
06. The United States Embassy clarifies that it is not processing requests to enter the United States within the framework of the new plan announced on the 5th. Entry permits, it announced, will be processed exclusively electronically through the page enabled for this purpose.
07. A former Pentagon information analyst, the American of Puerto Rican origin Ana Belén Montes, is released from a federal prison in Texas after serving 21 years of a 25-year prison sentence for espionage for Cuba, according to the Prisons Bureau.
08. Ana Belén Montes asks not to focus on her but on “the serious problems faced by the Puerto Rican people or the United States economic embargo on Cuba.”
After spending two decades in prison, Montes returned to Puerto Rico. Her lawyer, Linda Backiel, indicated that the statement issued at Montes’ request will be “the only public expression authorized by her, or on her behalf, concerning her release.”
12. The United States Embassy reports that the first Cubans have been approved to emigrate legally as part of the new current policy. “These people will now benefit from legal, safe and orderly migration instead of attempting irregular and dangerous routes,” said the diplomatic headquarters in X.
13. The New York Times includes Cuba in a list of 52 places around the world to which the U.S. newspaper recommends traveling during the year.
18. The United States Embassy reports that it completed the donation of 100 protection modules to the Cuban Fire Department, offered after the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in August 2022.
Chargé d’affaires Benjamin Ziff wrote in X: “The donation of 100 sets of protective gear to the National Firefighters School was completed.”
20. The United States Embassy warns that “reports that the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP) has been canceled are false.” From its X account, the consular section said its offices “continue to process individuals through the CFRP program.”
It also reported that the “recently expanded parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan citizens, announced earlier this month, remains in effect.”
“Parole is a program that is run at the discretion of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), although the Consular Section does most of the processing. Unlike immigrant visas, beneficiaries do not enter the United States with Legal Permanent Resident (LPR) status.”
20. Cuba values the “climate of respect” and the “high professional level” in which the cooperation talks on judicial matters were held with a high-level delegation from the United States government.
The U.S. group was made up of officials from government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard and the FBI, the State Department reported.
The exchange, which took place on January 18 and 19 in Havana, dealt with terrorism, illicit trafficking of migrants and immigration fraud, among other issues, said the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
22. The Coast Guard Service returns 83 irregular migrants to Cuba through the port of Orozco, in Bahía Honda, province of Artemisa, bringing the total to 1,271 returned from that country so far this year, MININT reported.
25. Republican Senator Marco Rubio criticizes the humanitarian parole implemented at the beginning of the month by the Biden administration for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians.
Asked about the lawsuit that 20 Republican states had just filed because of the creation of the new plan, Rubio said that he understood the reasons why they had done it. “These programs,” he said, “come at a cost to the states.”
The lawsuit seeks to block the program, which allows the monthly entry of 30,000 emigrants from those four nations.
25. Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo meets with scientists from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), in the United States, who visited the island to expand collaboration with scientific institutions.
Perdomo rated the meeting as “very important” and considered the cooperation between the U.S. institute and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) “an example of what both countries can advance despite the blockade policy.”
28. It is reported that more than 4,700 Cubans have been authorized to enter the United States under the humanitarian parole program established by the Biden administration in early January.
30. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas travels to Miami to explain and defend the new humanitarian parole immigration plan for Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans.
“This is the model we have built and will continue to build,” he said. “So that our principle of humanitarian aid is achievable in a safe and orderly manner so that people do not have to risk their lives in the hands of those who only seek to exploit them for profit,” the secretary said in a press conference after meetings with the Cuban and Haitian community held at the Ermita de la Caridad and the Little Haiti Cultural Center, respectively.
February
2. The United States government considers it unlikely that its relations with Cuba will return to the levels reached during Barack Obama’s administration, according to statements by Benjamin Ziff, charge d’affaires of the embassy on the island.
“It’s hard to go back… The world has changed since the Obama era and now we have to deal with today’s world,” Ziff said in an interview with The Associated Press (AP), in which he addressed different bilateral issues.
For Ziff, “the change in Cuba comes from Cuba, from the Cubans, it does not depend on anyone else.” He said that the United States “can support, help, encourage, advocate, pressure, everything, but basically, the future of Cuba depends on the Cubans” and he defined the relations between the two countries as “correct and pragmatic.”
8. After President Biden’s State of the Union speech, a phrase related to Cuba captured almost by chance gains some notoriety.
“Bob, I have to talk to you about Cuba,” the president told Senator Bob Menéndez.
The moment was captured on C-SPAN cameras as Biden spoke with Menéndez and Sen. Adam Schiff.
19. The United States announces that it will keep in force for at least another year the declaration of national emergency, in force since 1996, which prevents U.S. vessels from entering Cuban territorial waters.
“I am extending the national emergency concerning Cuba” related to “the regulation of anchoring and movement of vessels,” indicates the document signed by the president and released by the White House.
23. A Florida judge grants political asylum to Cuban pilot Rubén Martínez Machado, who arrived in South Florida on October 21, 2022, after having diverted a Russian fumigation plane owned by the Cuban government.
24. Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio speaks out against the visit to the United States of a delegation of the Cuban border patrol.
In a letter sent to Biden, Rubio wrote that the regime’s Border Guards are not only subordinate to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, which appears on the list of Restricted Entities and Subentities Associated with Cuba, but it is also very likely that the delegation includes members of the Cuban intelligence agencies…. He demanded that Biden immediately cancel this visit and provide a clear explanation of why he is sharing the nation’s security protocols with one of our country’s oldest foreign adversaries.
March
01. Cuba summons the charge d’affaires of the United States Embassy, Benjamin Ziff, to the Foreign Ministry to “convey” a “strong protest” following a judge’s decision to grant political asylum to a pilot who hijacked a fumigation plane.
According to a statement from the island’s government, Cuba had requested the United States, in four verbal notes, for the return of the pilot, who was detained in a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Florida.
The Foreign Ministry said that the decision of the U.S. government and the judicial system “makes them, in practice, accomplices and promoters of piracy and air hijacking, crimes that, if tolerated and protected, could stimulate similar illicit acts with negative repercussions for the national security of both countries.”
02. The Cuban government rejects that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, in accordance with the provisions of a new report from the United States government, published on February 27 and corresponding to 2021. It states: “The Cuban government repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism by granting safe harbor to terrorists.”
02. The remittance management agency Orbit S.A. announces that as of March 2, the U.S. company Western Union (WU) extended the service for sending remittances to Cuba to the entire United States.
02. A group of Democratic and Republican senators present a bill that would end the trade embargo/blockade on Cuba and maintain other laws that impose restrictions based on human rights. The bill was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
09. A group of United States legislators presents a bill to prohibit courts from validating any assertion of rights over businesses or assets nationalized by the Cuban government.
The initiative was led, among others, by Democrat Bob Menéndez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Marco Rubio, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere.
According to Menéndez, the proposal would “codify into law” the long-standing U.S. policy of supporting “the rightful owners of stolen property,” by ensuring that U.S. courts and the executive branch only recognize the rights of those “whose trademarks were illegally taken by the Cuban government.”
10. It is announced that in January 2023 Cuba registered a significant increase in chicken purchases in the United States market, with a figure that represents the highest volume of monthly tons since February 2022. Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) show there was an 11% increase in these purchases compared to the previous month.
10. The Biden administration opens the door to the possibility of receiving into its territory Cuban opponents who are imprisoned on the island. Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols said that “while the United States firmly oppose forced exile, it will not turn its back on political prisoners, and if they want to come to the United States, the avenues available under U.S. law to accommodate them will be explored.
16. Professors and students from Cuba and the United States celebrate the annual event “Investigative Searches.” 42 delegates from Maryland and George Washington universities participated.
The groups included educators and graduate students whose master’s and doctoral thesis topics are related to Cuba.
21. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez describes as “unacceptable” and “slander” the references to Cuba in the report on Human Rights published by the State Department.
The report states that in Cuba the courts have handed down draconian prison sentences to hundreds of people for protesting for their rights, in reference to the prisoners from the July 11, 2020 protests.
According to a preface signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, authoritarian governments — such as those of Cuba, Belarus, and Venezuela, among others — have sentenced hundreds or thousands of peaceful protesters to long and unjust prison sentences.
Rodríguez responded: “with the shameful history of violations and abuses of its own citizens,” the United States “should refrain from stigmatizing others.” And he added that the United States “tries in vain to disguise its interventionist and meddling behavior.”
22. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MINREX) denounces the “unfortunate and dangerous incidents against the team” that represented Cuba in the 5th World Baseball Classic and that took place during the game against the United States, in Miami.
During the game at the LoanDepot Park stadium, the team had to face “vile and organized aggression,” which contrasted with “multiple messages of support, recognition and solidarity” also in the United States…,” says the Foreign Ministry Statement.
23. A workshop on the future of scientific cooperation between the United States and Cuba is held for two days in Havana. It was sponsored by the la Cuban Academy of Sciences (ACC) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
In the workshop “The future of scientific cooperation between the United States and Cuba” issues were assessed in which the scientific communities of both countries can get involved and establish long-term collaboration, specialists from the ACC reported to the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency. The agenda included topics on environmental protection, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and marine protected areas.
24. The government of Cuba affirms that the United States never had the intention of removing the island from the list of state sponsors of terrorism because “it is convenient for its criminal policy of economic asphyxiation,” Bruno Rodríguez posted on X.
29. The number of rafters intercepted by the Coast GuardService exceeds in the last six months the figure reported in the entire previous fiscal year, according to data provided by this institution.
From October 1, 2022 to that date, the Coast Guard intercepted 6,202 Cubans, 20 more than those notified in the previous fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2021 and ended on September 30, 2022.
April
04. The 4th Agricultural Conference between Cuba and the United States takes place in Havana, with the aim of strengthening bilateral ties in the sector at a time when Cuba is trying to promote trade, foreign investment and domestic production to alleviate its economic crisis.
UN agency makes million dollars’ worth of investment in Cuban agriculture
Fourteen U.S. businesspeople and farmers from different states, belonging to the United States-Cuba Agricultural Coalition, participated in the meeting, while for the host country, authorities, businesspeople and producers, both state and private, were present.
10. The United States and Cuba once again talk about immigration issues. “Ensuring safe, orderly, humane and regular migration between Cuba and the United States remains a primary interest of the United States, consistent with our interest in fostering family reunification and promoting greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba,” stressed the U.S. side.
11. Delta Air Lines resumes direct flights between Miami and Havana. Two daily frequencies, José Martí Airport reported on Twitter. Delta had returned to the Cuban market in 2016 after a fifty-five-year hiatus, but suspended service in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
12. The bilateral meeting on immigration issues concludes in Washington. The U.S. delegation was chaired by the deputy assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere of the Department of Homeland Security, David Chloe; and the Cuban one, by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
Cuba reaffirmed its willingness to “fulfill and respect, as it has done until now, the established commitments,” said Cossío, and “reiterated its concern about the measures to encourage illegal migration.” Special emphasis was placed on the negative impact that the United States economic blockade and the extreme reinforcement measures applied since 2019 have on the socioeconomic conditions of the Cuban population. “The preferential treatment Cubans who enter the United States illegally still have and the validity of the Cuban Adjustment Act are also stimuli,” he added.
In the talks, the Cuban delegation “reiterated the importance of reestablishing the processing of non-immigrant visas at the U.S. Embassy in Havana,” because “after six years, the obligation to travel to a third country to obtain a visa is inexplicable to Cuban citizens, when there is an Embassy and a Consulate in Cuba and the false causes that were alleged to close such services in Cuba were demonstrated,” a Cuban statement underlined.
24. A flight arrives in Havana with irregular migrants returned to Cuba from the United States. It was the first air operation of this type from U.S. territory since December 2020, as confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
On the flight, 123 people returned “who had either arrived in U.S. territory through the land border with Mexico or by sea and were captured upon reaching the coasts of that country,” the official note states. “The group is made up of 40 rafters and 83 detainees on the southern border. The majority are from Havana, Artemisa, Matanzas and Granma and had left in 2022, and some in 2019 and 2021.”
29. Cuba and the United States carry out a technical exchange in Havana on cooperation to combat terrorism, reported the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
Authorities from both governments discussed the hijacking of aircraft and maritime vessels, as well as the use of digital networks for violent purposes, according to a press release published on the official MININT website. “Both parties agreed on the importance of cooperation in this area, and agreed to continue technical meetings in the future,” it said.
Likewise, Cuba regretted that the Washington administration accused it in an “arbitrary and unjustified” manner of being a state “sponsor of terrorism” and considered that this exchange “is an expression of the commitment of the Cuban government in the fight against this scourge, and of the determination to take all necessary steps to combat its perpetrators.”
May
05. Owners of MSMEs, representatives of cooperatives and local development projects, independent workers and artists sgn a document with seven petitions to Biden, in which they requested recognizing “the significant damage that the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration and that his administration has maintained have caused our enterprises, families and communities.”
The coalition of organizations and people pro-normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, ACERE, facilitated its web platform to publicize the letter and collect endorsements.
11. Cuba receives the second flight with irregular migrantsdeported from the United States. It was a group of 66 people, 60 men and six women, “who were captured either upon reaching the coast by sea or upon crossing the border with Mexico,” reported the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
More than 4,000 irregular migrants returned to Cuba this year
12. Almost 9,000 Cuban and American businesspeople send President Biden a set of demands on policy towards Cuba. Among these, the main one is to remove it from the list of state sponsor of terrorism.
“Despite the fact that there is no evidence that Cuba sponsors international terrorism, and also despite the serious impact of this designation on the financial transactions of Cuban and American companies, and even humanitarian organizations, the Biden administration continues to maintain Cuba on that list.
“The current State Department resorts to the same spurious claims used by its predecessor, even though they have no merit. The Cuban authorities cooperate with U.S. security agencies in the fight against terrorism, as demonstrated by the recent meeting between U.S. and Cuban officials on the fight against terrorism,” they expressed.
And further on they noted: “Cuba’s inclusion on that list was unequivocally rejected as undeserved during the Obama administration, but President Trump restored it before the end of his term.”
Cuban entrepreneurs address Biden: “We ask again that you listen to us”
13. Representative Jim McGovern and former Senator Patrick Leahy, both Democrats, point out in The Boston Globe that the president of the United States should remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
“Nearly all intelligence officials and diplomats in the Democratic and Republican administrations agree with this: the designation was without merit,” they wrote of the decision made during the final days of the Trump administration.
21. Border patrol troops and the Coast Guard foil an international drug trafficking operation north of Banes, Holguín, with 340.7 kilograms of marijuana.
A phone call from the Miami Coast Guard’s Seventh District alerted Cuban authorities on May 18. Then they warned of the presence of a boat with two crew members on board and two outboard motors 5 miles north of the province.
23. The United States keeps Cuba, for the third consecutive year, on a list of countries that do not collaborate “completely” against terrorism.
“Pursuant to section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2781) and Executive Order 13637, I hereby determine and certify to Congress that the following countries are not fully cooperating with the counterterrorism efforts of the United States: Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), Iran, Syria and Venezuela,” Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken wrote in the Federal Register (FR), which contains rules from federal agencies and public notices.
June
07. U.S. businessmen Mark Baum and Jorge Ignacio Fernández advocate for greater exchange between the United States and Cuba, during a meeting held at the island’s Chamber of Commerce.
Baum, vice president of the Food Industry Association (FMI), and Fernández, president of the humanitarian organization Hope for Cuba, completed a working visit. Their first activity was a dialogue with Cuban entrepreneurs.
08. Miguel Díaz-Canel receives at the Palace of the Revolution the vice president of the United States Food Industry Association, Mark Baum, and the head of the Hope for Cuba Foundation, Jorge Ignacio Fernández.
08. The Pentagon assures that it has no information that Cuba has agreed to open a Chinese espionage center in its territory. The governments of the island and China denied the rumor. The spokesman for the Department of Defense, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, pointed out at a press conference that the report by The Wall Street Journal stating that Cuba had signed a million-dollar agreement with China for the installation of this center “is inaccurate.”
Cuban foreign minister rejects Blinken’s statements on alleged Chinese espionage base on island
13. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denies the statements by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the existence of an alleged Chinese spy base on the island.
“The statements by the United States Secretary of State about the presence of a Chinese spy base in Cuba constitute a falsehood. Cuba’s position on this issue is clear and categorical. These statements lack foundation,” he noted.
July
06. An immigration judge in Miami grants political asylum to two Cubans who landed in Key West, Florida, in March, on a motorized hang glider.
07. A letter signed by economists and sanctions experts asks Senator Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.) to stop “spreading the false narrative that there is no relationship between economic sanctions and the economic and humanitarian crises in countries affected by those sanctions.”
11. The United States responds to Cuba that international law allows it to send military assets to Guantánamo. “As the Pentagon has already said, we will continue to fly, sail and move military assets where international law allows,” said spokesman Matthew Miller.
16. The New York Times publishes an editorial assessing the pros and cons of U.S. economic sanctions on other countries, focusing on Venezuela and Syria. The case of Cuba, which has suffered an embargo/blockade for more than sixty years, is briefly addressed.
The newspaper emphasized that while sanctions are easy to impose, they are politically and bureaucratically difficult to remove, even when they no longer serve Washington’s interests. Worse still, sanctions also escape meaningful public scrutiny. It added thatew officials are responsible for whether a particular sanction works as intended rather than unnecessarily harming innocent people or undermining foreign policy objectives.
28. It is reported that from January to the end of June more than 38,000 Cubans have been examined and approved to travel to the United States, and more than 35,000 entered the country through the humanitarian parole program. The Department of Homeland Security specified in a fact sheet that this policy has allowed the legal entry of 160,000 migrants, including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
Humanitarian parole: more than 57,000 Cubans authorized to enter U.S.
28. An immigration judge in the city of Miami rules that Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, who faced a deportation order after 56 years living in the United States, could remain in the country. Sánchez said that what happened in court was “an act of justice.” The judge’s decision allowed him to continue the process to obtain residency in the United States.
August
11. The Cuban government affirms that it does not believe that the United States has an interest in improving bilateral relations and that bilateral talks are at the minimum possible. And “that’s why they make excuses along the way and in a way so that we can’t improve relations. They talk about prisoners, they only talk about prisoners in Cuba, they don’t talk about prisoners in the United States. It would be a topic we could have a reciprocal conversation about if it were the will of the United States. We could talk about human rights between the two countries,” Carlos Fernández de Cossío said to NBC.
13. The number of Cubans benefiting from the Diversity Visa lottery system for entry to the United States, corresponding to 2024, amounts to a total of 3,081, which more than doubled the 1,358 received a year earlier.
Data from the bulletin issued by the Consular Center of the Department of State indicated that the lottery was carried out under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides up to 55,000 annual permanent resident visas to individuals from countries with low immigration rates to the United States.
17. The United States Embassy announces that it will open an “international field” office dedicated to family reunification procedures and applications for refugee relatives, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
17. Cuban entrepreneurs increase the import of food and agricultural products from the United States: they exceeded 37 million dollars in June. According to data from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, until June, this year’s exports had increased by 11% compared to 2022. What was striking was that the Cuban private sector opened the range to products that the state company Alimport it did not buy.
30. The United States government resumes the delivery of B2 tourist visas for five years for Cuban citizens. These are multi-entry visas, suspended since 2019. “As of August 25, 2023, B2 visas issued to Cuban citizens are valid for five years and allow multiple entries to the United States. Cuban citizens who have the B2 visa will be able to travel to United States several times over a five-year period,” the Embassy reported on its social media.
31. The Cubans who had left the island on a motorized hang glider and landed in Key West in March are released by the authorities.
September
04. It is reported that more than 3,500 Cubans have been rejected from October 2022 to date by the United States immigration authorities on the border with Mexico, according to official sources. According to data from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a total of 3,522 Cuban migrants have not been admitted to U.S. territory since October 1, when the fiscal year began.
11. The Higher Board of Appeals of the United States Department of Justice rules against considering the I-220A form as a legal document to access permanent residence. The ruling goes against Cuban immigrants entering the country through the southern border who seek to regularize their status by appealing to the Cuban Adjustment Act using the I-220A form. Two years ago, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agreed to recognize the I-220A document as a valid form to apply for the Cuban Adjustment Act.
14. President Biden extends for another year the law that regulates the embargo/blockade against Cuba under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
18. The Biden administration announces that it will provide “greater financial support” from the United States to the Cuban private sector, a measure that seeks to ease restrictions on the island, according to Bloomberg. This is, the media pointed out, a step to try to help private enterprises that are struggling to survive and prosper in the crisis conditions in which the island lives.
21. According to a report from Cubatrade, exports from the United States to Cuba had increased in July by at least more than 32 million dollars in food and agricultural products. The flow includes everything from coin-operated washing machines to microwaves and vehicles, notes the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in the analysis “Economic Eye on Cuba.”
The increase is reflected in almost 40% compared to the same month in 2022. Cited by Directorio Cubano, the report states that the most exported products in July of this year to Cuba were chicken quarters and pork, among others.
22. The United States Embassy announces that it has a second head of mission within the framework of the normalization of its functions. This is Elias Baumann, a diplomat with eleven years of experience who participated in the dialogue that led to the thaw under Barack Obama.
23. Miguel Díaz-Canel met with U.S. businesspeople in New York, where he participated in the sessions of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. According to Díaz-Canel himself on Twitter, at the meeting, they talked about new business opportunities in Cuba, the transformations in the national economy and the interest in expanding ties with the United States.
25. The Cuban government denounces a terrorist attack against the headquarters of its embassy in Washington. An individual had thrown two Molotov cocktails at the building, without causing any human damage. “Tonight, 9/24, the Cuban Embassy in the U.S. was the target of a terrorist attack by an individual who threw two Molotov cocktails. There were no injuries to personnel. The details are being specified,” wrote Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on his social media.
Cuban government reveals video on Molotov cocktails thrown at embassy in Washington
26. The State Department considers the attack on the Cuban Embassy in the United States “unacceptable.”
27. The Cuban government reveals video of Molotov cocktails thrown against its Embassy in Washington. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla assured that the material was already in the hands of the U.S. authorities.
October
01. More than 70 private entrepreneurs from the island are received in Miami by Cuban-American and U.S. colleagues to establish contacts and forge alliances while waiting for Washington to announce new flexibilities that favor the expansion and strengthening of the Cuban private sector.
Legal experts and Biden administration officials participated in this event to clarify the limits and opportunities available when establishing economic relationships. They provided explanations about the U.S. government policies and regulations on trade with Cuba.
03. The Cuban government points out that the growth of the private sector in Cuba is a national decision. In an interview with WLRN, Florida public radio, Deputy Foreign Minister Fernández de Cossío stated that this decision was made “regardless of what the United States does.”
“Cuba is not waiting for the United States to act in any way. The growth of the private sector in Cuba is a decision of Cuba,” he said in statements made after a group of private entrepreneurs from the island held a meeting in Miami with U.S. businesspeople, legal experts and authorities.
04. The Cuban government urges the United States to avoid “regrettable events” due to the unstoppable migratory flow. MINREX asked to adopt the “necessary measures” to stop the irregular migratory flow through the Central American corridor bound for that country after an accident with ten Cuban migrants killed in Mexico.
04. Chicken exports from the United States to Cuba register records, both in value and tons. According to data published by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, based in New York, in August exports of the product from the United States to Cuba increased by 35.8%. The figure placed Cuba in 52nd place among the agricultural and food export markets of the United States.
22. The regional summit on migration, held in Palenque, Mexico, calls on the governments of Cuba and the United States to sit down and talk “in the shortest time possible.” At the close of the meeting, the eleven participating Latin American and Caribbean nations adopted 13 agreements related to the migration issue and an additional clause referring to relations between Havana and Washington.
25. Mario Díaz-Balart is opposed to changes in policy towards Cuba, even if they favor the private sector. The Republican representative from Florida opposed possible measures by the Biden administration that would facilitate the opening of accounts and banking transactions from the United States by private Cuban entrepreneurs.
31. New York legislators ask Biden to lift the embargo on Cuba. Led by Senator Jabari Brisport, the signatories sent a letter to the U.S. president and the majority leader in the federal Senate, Charles Schumer. The legislators reminded Biden that three years ago he promised to reverse the policies increased by Trump, which “have caused harm to the Cuban people and have done nothing to promote democracy and human rights.” Among them, they highlight the designation of Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism.”
November
07. The “dramatic increase” in charter flights from Cuba to Nicaragua worries the Biden administration, since “they facilitate irregular migration,” according to Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Bryan A. Nichols. “Concerned by reports of a dramatic increase in charter flights to Nicaragua that facilitate irregular migration from Cuba and other places to the United States,” Nichols said in a tweet.
14. In a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Republican Marco Rubio raises his displeasure with Cubans who obtain asylum in the United States by ensuring that they are persecuted in their country, but once they settle down they return to Cuba on vacation. “Sometimes up to six times a year,” he said.
“If you come from Cuba it is presumed that you are fleeing political persecution. Therefore, you are automatically eligible for refugee cash, you are eligible for food stamps, and you are eligible for Medicaid. Others who immigrate to this country have to wait five years to receive them and do not receive refugee cash, but within a year, depending on whether they are paroled, they can apply for a green card or permanent residence and then can travel back to Cuba as many times as they want,” Rubio criticized.
14. The Cuban government alerts the United States government about the “measures to encourage irregular migration” that it maintains for Cuban migrants and that, according to its point of view, contradicts the agreements between both countries.
After holding a round of talks on the issue in Havana, the Foreign Ministry assured that the Cuban delegation “reiterated its willingness to comply with the established commitments and expressed its concern about the measures to encourage irregular migration that remain in force by political decision of the U.S. government.”
15. The United States Coast Guard (USCG) returns to Cuba 60 people intercepted at sea, a figure that raised to 5,056 irregular migrants returned to the island from various countries so far this year.
15. It is reported that more than 50,000 Cubans have received approval so far this year to enter the United States through the humanitarian parole program, an increase of around 5,000 permits granted during October.
Humanitarian parole: more than 57,000 Cubans authorized to enter U.S.
The strategy to confront the current immigration crisis on its southern border, and to establish an orderly flow of citizens from three other nations, had opened the doors of the United States to nearly 270,000 people, according to a statement issued by the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
December
02. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) rejects “in the strongest terms” the reference to Cuba in the most recent State Department report on terrorism.
In a statement published on its website, the Foreign Ministry considered this reference “slanderous against Cuba” and stated that “the elements exposed in the aforementioned report dishonestly recycle the pretexts used to justify” the presence of the island on the list of states that allegedly sponsor terrorism.
04. Former U.S. diplomat Manuel Rocha is arrested in Miami after a long investigation by the FBI. He is accused of having been an agent for the government of Cuba. The 73-year-old former diplomat appeared in court, according to a statement by the Department of Justice.
“This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that for over 40 years, Victor Manuel Rocha served as an agent of the Cuban government and sought out and obtained positions within the United States government that would provide him with access to non-public information and the ability to affect U.S. foreign policy,” he emphasized.
04. Southwest Airlines announces that starting June 4, 2024, it will increase the daily frequency of flights to Cuba without stops from Tampa to Havana.
“Tampa International Airport is excited about Southwest Airlines’ decision to expand its direct service to Havana,” said its executive director, Joe Lopano, which he considers a “commitment” to the Cuban community of Tampa Bay, “which will benefit greatly from the double daily frequency.”
06. Former U.S. diplomat Víctor Manuel Rocha faces 15 criminal charges in a Miami court, including spying for Cuba and electronic fraud, according to the indictment published in the judicial system.
A Grand Jury indicted Rocha, 73, for a total of six crimes, which together would carry a maximum prison sentence of 60 years if convicted.
08. Cuba’s chicken imports from the United States plummet during October to their lowest level since June 2020, according to data from the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Chicken is one of the products that Cuba can buy in the U.S. market, but without access to credit lines and with advance payments. Food shortages are one of the main causes of sustained price rises and rampant inflation. The island imports almost 80% of its food.
09. “After three years of the current government of the United States there have been no substantial changes, nor are there prospects that there will be substantial changes” in the policy towards Cuba, said Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
11. The United States government approves a fund of 25,000 dollars to restore the former home of U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, reported the Finca Vigía Foundation, which works with the authorities to preserve the house-museum. The money will also be used to create a restoration center, as well as to rescue and maintain “thousands of documents, manuscripts, letters and photos, along with its library with 9,000 copies,” the Foundation added in a statement.
“Supporting Finca Vigía represents our commitment to preserving the incalculable history and shared cultural heritage that links the United States and Cuba,” said the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy, Benjamin Ziff.
12. A Miami court postpones to January 12, 2024, the hearing of former U.S. diplomat Víctor Manuel Rocha, accused of several charges of espionage for Cuba for forty years. The former diplomat had a hearing this day, the second in the process since he was arrested, but Judge Edwin G. Torres changed the date by accepting a request from his lawyer, Jacqueline M. Arango.
15. The Cuban government accuses Washington of “complicity” due to “the shelter, protection and tolerance” that certain “promoters and commissioners of terrorist acts” enjoy in U.S. territory. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez assured that the United States “is very aware of the official, public and repeated complaints of the government of Cuba” about the protection that Washington offers to people whom Havana accuses of terrorism.
It was the first direct accusation against the U.S. government after the publication, the week before, of a National list of Terrorists issued by the island’s authorities.
19. A delegation of U.S. scientists, led by Dr. Thomas Schwaab, director of Strategic Development of the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Hospital, visited Cuba on the occasion of the five years of Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance SA (IIA), the first and only Cuban-U.S. biotechnology company.
The IIA joint venture was created by Roswell Park and the Center for Molecular Immunology.
Its reality is of “a very high significance, and has a lot to do with what we aspire from the relations between our peoples, and that we can always share everything that can unite us, everything that can build bridges,” said Cuban President Díaz-Canel during the meeting with U.S. and Cuban scientists.
19. The Cuban government described as a “total fallacy” the inclusion of Cuba in a report declassified this Monday, attributed to unspecified “intelligence services” of the United States, and in which Cuba is accused of attempts to interfere in the legislative elections in 2022.
According to CNN, the U.S. intelligence community said it had detected “limited initiatives” by Cuba to favor or harm the electoral aspirations of certain candidates depending on whether or not they supported a possible change in policies towards Havana.
“Slander from the United States against Cuba resurfaces. This time with accusation, without foundation or evidence, that we interfered in the electoral processes of that country,” the Cuban Foreign Minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Author
OnCuba Staff
