“I have a friend who sent the passport on Friday and is going crazy. His mother is sick and he will have to ask a humanitarian process. “
That’s the story of Alain, a Cuban resident in Miami waiting for a prompt solution to the new episode of diplomatic tension between Cuba and the United States. As he and his friend, many Cubans share a desire for a solution without delay to a situation in which they are involved without anyone asking them.
In Cuba, asking at a bus stop or in the usual coterie of neighborhood generates almost always the same face “that’s not good, but I do not know what it means.”
“It has all the characteristics of a countermeasure to financial pressure from the Americans,” Lazaro, retired geologist with a child out of the country and another inside, says. “Sometimes things must get worse before they get any better and if now bottomed out, the solution may be much better than it was before,” he considers.
“This is temporary, I guess,” Victor, a boat carpenter South Florida who travels frequently to his native village in the province of Cienfuegos answered. “The American government is taking steps to solve this problem because banks are private and the government has no power to force them to do business with anyone. Anyway that is resolved and soon you will see it. And God willing we will be there in February, ” he concludes his message.
His opinion shared approach to the mass media from Wednesday in the United States: “The White House cannot interfere in the decisions of the banks.”
“We are concerned with the measure, at least those who advocate for family reunification and are pending what happens with respect to Cuba. Even my dog who is 100 % Cuban waits for the end of this issue, “Rafael, from Miami Beach, says.
In Pueblo Griffo , a district of the so-called Pearl of the South , Esther laments the possible implications for those planning to spend New Year with family and had not updated their documents. “It’s a shame that something as fundamental as the reunion is at the mercy of political pressure,” she reflects.
But others, on the other side of the Strait, consider it will not have such an impact at least in this Christmas.
“All those going that we know of have updated their passport,” Lucia, who has lived for three years near 8th Street in Miami said. “The process has to be done a couple of months before because it can take up to 45 days to return the document. Sometimes it comes quickly, but not always, unless some other case, I do not think that many will affect this December, “she says.
Some of the emigrants think of it as a “harakiri” by the government a “propaganda trick” the decision to close. But according to Lazaro, cost / benefit of mounting a “tantrum” is significantly inclined towards loss if the Cuban government did not explode before all possibilities to find another bank willing to manage the Cuban finances and get exposed to fines by OFAC.
“Disrupting the flow of visitors (secure income, hard currency) in exchange for a” show “is too simplistic tool for such serious issues,” he says, and thus contrasts with several approaches such as one commenter on Facebook that states that “everything will end when the Cuban government feels tight on the pocket.”
The communication of the closure of the consular services evidence results of the millionaire financial pressures on all seeking to manage Cuban assets and reinserted the “embargo” as pending in U.S. domestic policy issue , it is not just a matter of governments but has direct impact on the lives of thousands of Americans and Cuban Americans .
The holding pattern continues. In the middle of the tourist season it should generate some impact on the growing number of Americans visiting the country, and some family who regret the absence of the person who possibly financed the New Year’s Eve’s roast piglet.
Meanwhile, others like Jorge, of Hialeah, as confident that the dispute will be resolved, expect to have their passports ready to go as soon as they “give them an openeing “that the Interests Section of Cuba in Washington reports will not happen until “further notice”
