{"id":293855,"date":"2023-12-28T20:47:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T01:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=293855"},"modified":"2023-12-28T20:47:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T01:47:28","slug":"cuba-united-states-bidens-third-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/cuba-united-states-bidens-third-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba-United States: Biden\u2019s third year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third year of the Biden administration<\/a><\/strong> 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<\/em> developed by the Obama administration<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> of which Biden was vice president.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, once installed in the White House, the discourse changed. \u201cOur 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,\u201d said the then press secretary, Jen Psaki.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong>, but he did reiterate that he wanted to \u201cmake human rights a fundamental pillar of his foreign policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/span>list of state sponsors of terrorism<\/b><\/a>\u00a0where Trump had put it back a few days before leaving the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there have been changes, which have depended on the initiative of the United States. The <\/span>migratory stampede of Cubans<\/b><\/a> 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 <\/span>immigration talks<\/b><\/a> with Cuba, also interrupted by Trump as a specific chapter of his policy of demolishing bilateral relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, the Biden administration authorized the resumption of <\/span>flights by U.S. airlines<\/b><\/a> 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; <\/span>announced a parole program<\/b><\/a> to reinforce orderly and safe migration; as well as reinstating multiple-entry visas to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 D\u00edaz-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.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that spirit, in September an <\/span>unprecedented meeting<\/b><\/a> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

OnCuba<\/b> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

January<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>4.<\/strong> The United States Embassy in Cuba resumes its consular services and visa processing after an interruption of more than five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviews for those interested in obtaining an immigrant visa began on December 29, 2022. Applicants for <\/span>non-immigrant visas<\/b><\/a>, 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> 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<\/b><\/a>, and that could allow legal access to 30,000 people per month from those four countries.<\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 05. <\/strong>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/span>institutional page<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 06. <\/strong>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 <\/span>enabled for this purpose.\u00a0<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/b>07.<\/strong> A former Pentagon information analyst, the American of Puerto Rican origin <\/span>Ana Bel\u00e9n Montes<\/b><\/a>, 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>08.<\/strong> Ana Bel\u00e9n Montes asks not to focus on her but on \u201cthe serious problems faced by the Puerto Rican people or the United States <\/span>economic embargo<\/b><\/a> on Cuba.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After spending two decades in prison, Montes returned to Puerto Rico. Her lawyer, Linda Backiel, indicated that the statement issued at Montes\u2019 request will be \u201cthe only public expression authorized by her, or on her behalf, concerning her release.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 12. <\/strong>The <\/span>United States<\/b><\/a> Embassy reports that the first Cubans have been approved to emigrate legally as part of the new current policy. \u201cThese people will now benefit from legal, safe and orderly migration instead of attempting irregular and dangerous routes,\u201d said the diplomatic headquarters in X.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>13. The New York Times<\/i><\/a><\/b> includes Cuba in <\/span>a list of 52 places<\/b><\/a> around the world to which the U.S. newspaper recommends traveling during the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>18.<\/strong> The United States Embassy reports that it completed the <\/span>donation\u00a0<\/b><\/a>of 100 protection modules to the Cuban Fire Department, offered after the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in August 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires Benjamin Ziff wrote in X: \u201cThe <\/span>donation of 100 sets of protective gear to the National Firefighters School was completed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>20.<\/strong> The <\/span>United States<\/b><\/a> Embassy warns that \u201creports that the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP) has been canceled are false.\u201d From its X account, the consular section said its offices \u201ccontinue to process individuals through the CFRP program.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It also reported that the \u201crecently expanded parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan citizens, announced earlier this month, remains in effect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParole 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>20.<\/strong> Cuba values the \u201cclimate of respect\u201d and the \u201chigh professional level\u201d in which the <\/span>cooperation talks\u00a0<\/b><\/a>on judicial matters were held with a high-level delegation from the United States government.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>22.<\/strong> The Coast Guard Service returns 83 irregular migrants to Cuba through the port of Orozco, in Bah\u00eda Honda, province of Artemisa, bringing the total to 1,271 returned from that country so far this year, MININT reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>25.<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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. \u201cThese programs,\u201d he said, \u201ccome at a cost to the states.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks to block the program, which allows the monthly entry of 30,000 emigrants from those four nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 25.<\/strong> Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo meets with scientists from the <\/span>Roswell Park Cancer Institute<\/b><\/a> (RPCI), in the United States, who visited the island to expand collaboration with scientific institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perdomo rated the meeting as \u201cvery important\u201d and considered the cooperation between the U.S. institute and the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) \u201can example of what both countries can advance despite the blockade policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 28.<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

30.<\/strong> <\/span>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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the model we have built and will continue to build,\u201d he said. \u201cSo 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,\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

February<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>2.<\/strong> The United States government considers it unlikely that its <\/span>relations with Cuba\u00a0<\/b>will return to the levels reached during <\/span>Barack Obama\u2019s\u00a0<\/b><\/a>administration, according to statements by Benjamin Ziff, charge d\u2019affaires of the <\/span>embassy on the island<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to go back… The world has changed since the Obama era and now we have to deal with today\u2019s world,\u201d Ziff said in an <\/span>interview<\/b><\/a>\u00a0with The Associated Press (AP), in which he addressed different bilateral issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Ziff, \u201cthe change in Cuba comes from Cuba, from the Cubans, it does not depend on anyone else.\u201d He said that the United States \u201ccan support, help, encourage, advocate, pressure, everything, but basically, the future of Cuba depends on the Cubans\u201d and he defined the relations between the two countries as \u201ccorrect and pragmatic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>8.<\/strong> After President Biden\u2019s <\/span>State of the Union speech,<\/b><\/a> a phrase related to Cuba <\/span>captured almost by chance<\/b><\/a> gains some notoriety.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBob, I have to talk to you about Cuba,\u201d the president told Senator <\/span>Bob Men\u00e9ndez<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The moment was captured on C-SPAN cameras as Biden spoke with Men\u00e9ndez and Sen. Adam Schiff.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>19.<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am extending the national emergency concerning Cuba\u201d related to \u201cthe regulation of anchoring and movement of vessels,\u201d indicates the <\/span>document signed<\/b><\/a> by the president and released by the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>23.<\/strong> A Florida judge grants political asylum to Cuban pilot Rub\u00e9n Mart\u00ednez Machado, who arrived in South Florida on October 21, 2022, after having diverted a Russian fumigation plane owned by the Cuban government.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>24.<\/strong> Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio speaks out against the visit to the United States of a delegation of the Cuban border patrol.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>a letter sent to Biden<\/b><\/a>, Rubio wrote that the regime\u2019s 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\u2026. He demanded that Biden immediately cancel this visit and provide a clear explanation of why he is sharing the nation\u2019s security protocols with one of our country\u2019s oldest foreign adversaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

March<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>01.<\/strong> Cuba summons the charge d\u2019affaires of the United States Embassy, Benjamin Ziff, to the Foreign Ministry to \u201cconvey\u201d a \u201cstrong protest\u201d following a <\/span>judge\u2019s<\/b> decision to grant political asylum<\/b><\/a> to a pilot who hijacked a fumigation plane.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a <\/span>statement from the island\u2019s government<\/b><\/a>, 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry said that the decision of the U.S. government and the judicial system \u201cmakes 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>02.<\/strong> The Cuban government rejects that Cuba is a state sponsor of <\/span>terrorism<\/b><\/a>, in accordance with the provisions of a new <\/span>report <\/b><\/a>from the United States government, published on February 27 and corresponding to 2021. It states: \u201cThe Cuban government repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism by granting safe harbor to terrorists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>02.<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>02.<\/strong> A group of Democratic and Republican senators <\/span>present <\/b><\/a>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.).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>09.<\/strong> A group of <\/span>United States\u00a0<\/b><\/a>legislators presents a <\/span>bill to prohibit courts from validating any assertion of rights over businesses or assets nationalized by the Cuban government.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initiative was led, among others, by Democrat Bob Men\u00e9ndez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican <\/span>Marco Rubio, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Men\u00e9ndez, the proposal would \u201ccodify into law\u201d the long-standing U.S. policy of supporting \u201cthe rightful owners of stolen property,\u201d by ensuring that U.S. courts and the executive branch only recognize the rights of those \u201cwhose trademarks were illegally taken by the Cuban government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>10.<\/strong> It is announced that in January 2023 Cuba registered a significant increase in chicken purchases in the <\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 10. <\/strong>The <\/span>Biden administration opens the door to the possibility of receiving into its territory Cuban <\/span>opponents\u00a0<\/b><\/a>who are imprisoned on the island. Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs <\/span>Brian A. Nichols<\/b><\/a> said that \u201cwhile 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 16. <\/strong>Professors and students from <\/span>Cuba and the United States<\/b><\/a> celebrate the annual event \u201cInvestigative Searches.\u201d 42 delegates from Maryland and George Washington universities participated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The groups included educators and graduate students whose master\u2019s and doctoral thesis topics are related to Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 21. <\/strong>Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez describes as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and \u201cslander\u201d the <\/span>references to Cuba\u00a0<\/b><\/a>in the report on Human Rights published by the <\/span>State Department.<\/p>\n

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 <\/span>July 11, 2020 protests<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a <\/span>preface signed<\/b><\/a> by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, authoritarian governments \u2014 such as those of Cuba, Belarus, and Venezuela, among others \u2014 have sentenced hundreds or thousands of peaceful protesters to long and unjust prison sentences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez responded: \u201cwith the shameful history of violations and abuses of its own citizens,\u201d the United States \u201cshould refrain from stigmatizing others.\u201d And he added that the United States \u201ctries in vain to disguise its interventionist and meddling behavior.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

22.<\/strong> The <\/span>Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MINREX) denounces the \u201cunfortunate and dangerous incidents against the team\u201d that represented Cuba in the <\/span>5th World Baseball Classic and that took place during the game against the United States, in Miami.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the game at the LoanDepot Park stadium, the team had to face \u201cvile and organized aggression,\u201d which contrasted with \u201cmultiple messages of support, recognition and solidarity\u201d also in the United States\u2026,\u201d says the Foreign Ministry <\/span>Statement<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b> 23. <\/strong>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\u00a0<\/span>Cuban Academy of Sciences<\/b><\/a> (ACC) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).<\/span><\/p>\n

In the workshop \u201cThe future of scientific cooperation between the United States and Cuba\u201d 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 <\/span>Agencia Cubana de Noticias<\/b><\/a>\u00a0(ACN) news agency. The agenda included topics on environmental protection, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and marine protected areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

24. <\/b><\/span>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 \u201cit is convenient for its criminal policy of economic asphyxiation,\u201d Bruno Rodr\u00edguez <\/span>posted on X<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

29. <\/strong>The number of rafters intercepted by the Coast Guard<\/b><\/a>Service exceeds in the last six months the figure reported in the entire previous fiscal year, according to data provided\u00a0<\/b><\/a>by this institution.<\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

April<\/b><\/p>\n

04.<\/strong> The 4th Agricultural Conference between Cuba and the United States takes place in Havana, with the aim of strengthening <\/span>bilateral ties\u00a0<\/b><\/a>in the sector at a time when Cuba is trying to promote trade, foreign investment and domestic production to alleviate its economic crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

UN agency makes million dollars\u2019 worth of investment in Cuban agriculture<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n