Tag: Ric Herrero

Other Reactions to New Treasury Department Regulations on Cuba Private Enterprise   

A senior official of the Biden Administration said that it is “essential” for the Biden administration to make sure the private sector continues to expand on the island to encourage Cubans to become self-sufficient and more independent from the government. The official also said the policy would help to stem migration from the island and counter actions by other nations, hinting at Russia, which Cuban authorities tapped to help them manage the private sector on the island. ‘Providing support for Cuba’s private sector will help to stem irregular migration from the island by creating more economic opportunity,’ the official said. ‘We believe that engaging in support of Cuba’s independent private sector will ensure that these important continental actors are supported by the United States and make it more difficult for other state actors who wish to engage economically in Cuba only in support of the government and without supporting the private and entrepreneurial sector.’”

Now “Cuban software developers to have their apps available for download on the Apple or Google app stores.”

Another administration official observed, “In light of the ‘dire straits’ of the Cuban economy, it’s clear the communist experiment in Cuba has failed and the government is no longer able to provide for its citizens‘most basic needs in a country where there are no free elections.”

“The Cuban private sector has rapidly expanded since it was first allowed in 2021, and there are now more than 10,000 small and medium enterprises, employing a third of all Cuban workers. Because the government is almost bankrupt amid a severe economic crisis, the private sector has taken roles previously unthinkable in a communist island that once banned all private property. These enterprises, known by their acronym mipymes in Spanish, have become major importers of food and other necessities in the midst of the widespread scarcity. They have become significant suppliers of the flour that state-owned bakeries need to produce bread for the public.”

“’We can congratulate the Biden administration on its commitment to helping civil society,’ said former Congressman Joe García, who has pushed to step up U.S. support to private businesses on the island. ‘These new small independent players perhaps offer the only option for helping the Cuban people.’

Ric Herrero, the executive director of the Cuban Study Group, a Washington-based organization that provides training and support to Cuban independent entrepreneurs, said on X that the ‘excessive delay’ in publishing the regulations ‘due to congressional extortion tactics has caused undue harm to independent Cuban entrepreneurs and to efforts to expand internet access in Cuba.’

John Kavulich, the president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said ‘the measures are a step in the right direction but don’t go far enough in regularizing banking transactions. While Cuban entrepreneurs can operate their U.S. accounts, it will be difficult for them to transfer money from and to their accounts using Cuban banks because there are no direct banking relations between the two countries.”

Kavulich also said, “While useful for the Biden-Harris Administration to …authorize entrepreneurs to have bank accounts in the United States, there remains one glaring omission — the continuing prohibition upon direct correspondent banking. As long as financing, investment, and payments need to be routed through third countries, the Biden-Harris Administration will be constraining precisely the activity it professes to support.”

Pedro A. Freyre, a lawyer and chairman of international practice at a major law firm in Miami, said, “the new regulations will provide more clarity regarding the private sector.” Nevertheless, the U.S. continuation of the terrorism designation [for Cuba] “has a chilling effect and banks engage in overcompliance.”

Aldo Alvarez, a lawyer based in Havana who runs a private food wholesale business, said,  “This announcement is very positive for the Cuban private sector, since it allows it to legally operate its payments collections in the U.S.”

Criticism of the new regulations came from U.S. Representatives Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar, both Republicans from Florida.\

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Adams, Biden Moves to Open U.S. Banks to Cuba’s Private Sector, N.Y. Times (May 28, 2024); DeYoung, Biden administration eases some economic restrictions on Cuba, Wash. Post (May 28, 2024); Torres, In a first, Cuba’s private business owners will be able to use U.S. banks, Treasury says, Miami Herald, (updated 3:15 pm, May 28, 2024).

 

 

 

 

Subdued Commemoration of Second Anniversary of U.S.-Cuba Rapprochement    

December 17, 2016 was the second anniversary of Presidents Obama and Castro’s joint announcement that their two countries had embarked on the path of normalization and reconciliation. The U.S. commemoration of this date was subdued. The White House held a small gathering that was not widely publicized .The Cuban government, on the other hand, apparently did not hold any such event. But two Cuban publications published sketchy comments on the anniversary.

White House Commemoration[1]

On December 15, the Obama Administration hosted a private gathering across the street from the White House at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. President Obama did not attend, but did send a letter to the 20 or so attendees encouraging them “to carry forward the work of strengthening our partnership in the years ahead.”

The gathering was addressed by Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor; Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the acting U.S. ambassador in Havana; and three high-level officials from the U.S. Commerce, State and Treasury departments. Another speaker was

José Ramón Cabañas, the Cuban Ambassador in Washington. Also in attendance were U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and U.S. Representative Kathy Castor of Tampa, Florida, both Democrats.

Rhodes and DeLaurentis touted the administration’s accomplishments and, at different times, got emotional — Rhodes remembering support from Cuban-American friends in the wake of stinging criticism over his work, and DeLaurentis describing his work in Cuba, where he began and might end his diplomatic career, as the most rewarding of his life.

The attendees were Cuban Americans, Cuban government officials and business partners in Washington, including Miami entrepreneur Hugo Cancio, who publishes an arts magazine in Cuba; Felice Gorordo, founder of the Roots of Hope nonprofit; former U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; John McIntire, head of the Cuba Emprende Foundation; Miami attorney Ralph Patino; Giancarlo Sopo, founder of the CubaOne foundation, and Miami Foundation president and chief executive Javier Alberto Soto.

Another attendee, Ted Henken, a Baruch College sociology professor and Cuba expert, observed, “It was partly a celebration of what has been achieved, and a mourning” for the intense political fight that awaits.”

As Ric Herrero, former head of the pro-engagement Cuba Now group and the current president of Manos Americas, a social entrepreneurship nonprofit, put it, the gathering was “bittersweet. There was just a lot of gratitude toward the administration for their commitment to this cause and to everything they’ve done.” But they all were left with the questions: “What next? Where do we go from here? Because there is no certainty.”

Indeed, a chief concern among attendees was that Trump’s “volatile” personality could ignite a war of words with the Cubans, who have so far kept silent about the president-elect’s Cuba statements. On the other hand, attendees noted, Trump doesn’t have a clear political ideology, and could be more interested in showing up Obama on Cuba by negotiating more concessions.  However, Rhodes said, “We would like nothing more than the new administration to succeed beyond what we did.”

Obama supporters at the meeting thought that Trump had a willingness to keep negotiating with Raúl Castro’s government and that U.S. regulatory changes, following a top-to-bottom policy review, could take time–so long, perhaps, that by then Castro might near his own retirement, scheduled for February 2018.

“We’re living through a lot of uncertainty, but there’s a pretty strong consensus that Trump is going to realize that turning back the clock is going to be very difficult,” said Carlos Saladrigas, president of the Cuba Study Group. “Returning to a failed policy doesn’t make any sense.”

However, at a December 16 “thank You” rally in Ordlando, Flordia, Trump told the crowd, “America will also stand with the Cuban people in their long struggle for freedom. Their support has been unbelievable. The Cuban people. We know what we have to do, and we’ll do it. Don’t worry about it.”[2]

Cuban Observance

No Cuban commemoration event was found in searching Cuban public sources, Instead, two articles on the subject were found.[3]

The CubaDebate article reviewed some of the key things that had happened since December 17, 2014, while reiterating Cuba’s fervent desire for the U.S. to end its embargo (blockade) and to return Guantanamo Bay to the island. It also alleged that President Obama had done “much less than he could, given the broad executive powers that he [allegedly]possesses and that [allegedly] would have allowed him to reduce the blockade to its minimum expression.”

Nevertheless, the article stated, on December 7, 2016, Josefina Vidal of the Cuban government reaffirmed Cuba’s willingness to continue this process and expressed its hope that President-elect Donald Trump will take into account, when he takes office on January 20, what has been achieved” over the last two years.

These same points were essentially repeated in the article in Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba. It also added the following points:

  • Obama had acknowledged for the first time that the U.S. policy of “aggression” [“hostility” would be more diplomatic] against Havana was a failure and had ended up isolating the U.S. itself. It also alleged that the U.S. methods were changing, but not its objective – regime change in Cuba.
  • The U.S. still has a ban on US investment in Cuba, except in the area of telecommunications.
  • The Cuban state sector, where more than 75% of the labor force is employed, remains deprived of selling its products to the U.S. with the sole exception of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.Also, Cuban imports of goods produced in the U.S. that the state-owned enterprise can make are very restricted.
  • Although several months ago the US approved the use of the U.S. Dollar by Cuba in its international transactions, it has not yet been possible to make deposits in cash or payments to third parties in that currency, due to international banks’ fears of fines by the U.S.
  • The U.S. has not yet ended Radio and TV Marti programs aimed at Cuba.

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[1] Mazzei & Torres, Muted White House celebration marks Obama Cuba anniversary, Miami Herald (Dec. 17, 2016).

[2] Lemmongello, Trump thanks Florida at Orlando rally, Orlando Sentinel (Dec. 116, 2016).

[3] Cuba-US: After two years, much remains to be done, CubaDebate (Dec. 17, 2016); Gomez, The keys of December 17, Granma (Dec. 16, 2016).