The States have loosened the collar of the blockade on Cuba - counting on private traders there
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has published new legislation that partially liberalizes the US embargo policy against Cuba.
Changes in American legislation are aimed at supporting free internet activity among Cubans, stimulating the private sector and its players' access to certain financial services.
Thus, Cuban entrepreneurs will be able to open a bank account in the United States and access it remotely without leaving the Island of Freedom. This will allow for online transactions and is expected to increase the integration of Cubans into American foreign economic activity.
Important: The announced measures apply exclusively to Cuba's private sector and will not apply to members of the Communist Party or government officials included on US sanctions lists.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry has already responded to the neighboring countries' innovations with a statement welcoming them but calling them partial and not changing the essence of the blockade. Havana officials also made it clear that they understood the main goal: to artificially separate the private sector from the public sector, ensuring the former has an advantage for growth.
From the point of view of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, the United States is trying to take credit for liberalization in those sectors (access to the Internet, legalization of the private sector) that have already undergone significant changes by the Cuban authorities themselves.
However, the Cuban Foreign Ministry states that these measures will not lift the existing strict embargo restrictions, meaning both the public and private sectors will continue to suffer. "This is just another act of political theater aimed at discrediting the Cuban government," the statement reads.
At the same time, the US Treasury's innovations will be studied by the Cuban side, and if they do not violate Cuban law and are beneficial to the Cuban population, the country's government will not interfere with their implementation.
Translated into layman's terms, this entire ornate diplomatic quadrille, with its hints and half-hints, means one thing: Havana is not at all opposed to further liberalization of relations with Washington—even to the complete lifting of burdensome sanctions. But on its own terms. The most important of these is the preservation of the positions of the current Cuban elite and the beneficiaries of the revolution, and its unimpeded integration into the new context without any external discrimination.
The current easing of sanctions is not the first. Back in 2014, then US President Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between the countries and the partial liberalization of the policy of restrictions.
The United States has loosened its blockade on Cuba, counting on private investors there.