U.S Official: U.S is Concerned About Cuba’s Human Rights Issues

The call by other countries to lift the blockade on the Cuban Government also dates back a few decades. More recently, that call has gotten more pronounced, but while the U.S. has not lifted the ban, it has taken measures to be more accommodating in order to benefit Cubans. Today, Jacobstein summarized what the U.S. Government has done in the past couple years to help Cubans.

 

Eric Jacobstein, Dep. Asst. Sec., Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S State Dept.

“President Biden’s approach to Cuba has been one to hold individuals accountable for human rights abuses while continuing to support the Cuban people. So in May of 2022, President Biden announced a series of measures to support the Cuban people, and that included, for example, allowing getting rid of caps on remittances; allowing remittances to be sent not only by family members but by others. It also allowed additional travel to cities beyond Havana from the United States. And most recently in May of this year, we implemented the final measure that was announced two years ago and that was a series of measures essentially to support the Cuban private sector. The Cuban private sector now accounts for about thirty percent of the economy. And these are individuals who are really struggling in a failed communist system to make ends meet. And these are individuals really entrepreneurial, and what we did was announce a series of measures including allowing United States banks to allow these Cuban independent entrepreneurs to open bank accounts. Obviously banks would have to make that decision on their own, but we continue to take steps to support the Cuban people. At the end of the day, our policy foremost is focused on human rights, and we continue to make that clear in every engagement with the Cuban government.”