TAMPA, Fla. — Juan Carlos Cruz hasn’t lost hope. He is motivated to redouble his business to help Cuban families in Tampa and bring them closer with their relatives on the island after the Biden administration eases some restrictions on Cuba.
“It is a positive move after so much uncertainty that we have seen during the last years,” said Cruz, 46, owner of Taino of Tampa & Pedro’s Envios, a travel agency that also offers shipping services to Cuba.
The announcement to ease some Trump-era sanctions on Cuba has gained traction among those who support stronger ties to Cuba. Others disapprove.
The Biden administration will allow scheduled commercial and charter flights to locations beyond Havana, and it will remove the current $1,000-per-quarter limit on family remittances.
Remittances from relatives in the United States were unlimited under Obama and have long been a fundamental help to support families in Cuba to buy essential goods and services. These transfers are a significant source of income and represent Cuba’s third biggest source of dollars after the service and tourism industries, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington D.C.-based research organization.
In 2019, for example, Cuba received $3.72 billion in remittances, according to The Havana Consulting Group, a Miami firm.
The new measures announced last week increase consular services and visa processing, and reinstates the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program to issue 20,000 immigrant visas annually to Cubans. It also allows payments to independent Cuban entrepreneurs and restores travel by so-called educational groups.
The White House said the changes are part of a methodic review of the Cuba policy over the last year. The goal: to promote accountability for human rights abuses and to explore ways to support the Cuban people, not the regime.
Critics questioned how people could be effectively helped on an island where the authorities have systematic control over the economy and its citizens.
Cuban-American Danet Rodriguez, 29, said she doesn’t support any approach until democracy and freedom are reinstated in Cuba. Rodriguez, from Brandon, is one of the leaders of Plantados de Tampa, a group that coordinates anti-government initiatives and publishes news about Cuba on Facebook and WhatsApp.
“It is a naive or intentional movement from the Biden administration to say that they are supporting the Cuban people who live in a totalitarian system controlled by a monopoly,” Rodriguez said. “I consider this another betrayal.”
Thousands of political dissidents, including minors, are in Cuban prisons for speaking up, Rodriguez said. One of her relatives in Cuba was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison under sedition and public disorder charges following protests on July 11, 2021. According to advocates and human rights activists, Cuba charged more than 700 people after the uprising.
Cruz, whose business has been on West Columbus Drive since 2014, said its operations have shrunk by more than 50% since 2017. That year former president Donald Trump imposed several sanctions on Cuba under a zero-tolerance policy. Now Cruz is optimistic.
Cruz used to sell 50 to 60 airline tickets each week between commercial and charter flights during the Obama administration’s expansion with the island. Havana is the only destination in Cuba for Southwest Airlines flights from Tampa and charter flights. Other Cuban cities for charter flights such as Holguin and Santa Clara were banned under Trump.
“At least this is something because we want to make progress, but politics has gotten in the way,” said Cruz, who came with his wife and two children in 2011 from the Cuban province of Pinar Del Rio. “Each government has its own agenda.”
Vicente Amor, 54, owner of the Ybor Art Factory, an artistic project at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, said it is immoral that attempts have been made to hinder family support. He welcomed any effort to alleviate the burden that has weighed on Cuban families but he’s not seeing a real change toward the island.
“This is the victory of the resistance of the Cuban people and the ability of their relatives here, who find ways to stand up, survive and support each other,” said Amor.
Cuban dissident Daniel Llorente, 57, a former political prisoner in Cuba, said the U.S. government should not lift sanctions on Cuba. The repression hasn’t changed, Llorente said. Two weeks ago Cuba approved a new penal code, imposing jail sentences to people who criticize government officials. The new code also made it illegal for journalists and their groups to receive economic support from abroad.
“Our people want to live in freedom, but it should not be used as a political experiment,” said Llorente.
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