Cuban-American lawmakers have slammed the Biden administration after the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would lift some financial restrictions on Cuba.
Treasury officials Adjustment The initiative aims to support independent businesses and “internet-based services to promote internet freedom in Cuba, support independent private Cuban entrepreneurs, and expand access to certain financial services” for Cubans who have been living under a dictatorial regime since the 1959 revolution.
The Treasury Department amendments will allow private business owners in the Caribbean to open bank accounts in the United States and manage them from Cuba. The changes will make it easier for transactions between the two countries to be processed through the U.S. financial system.
Havana-born Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez of Florida called the reforms reckless, arguing that so-called free enterprise in a totalitarian regime means deregulation that only helps the regime.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jimenez said the move was another step in the wrong direction to open ties with the Cuban dictatorship, citing more than 60 years of “oppression and repression of its people.”
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“The Biden administration decided that now is a good time to reward them by giving them access to the US banking system. It is insane that they even think there is such thing as ‘free enterprise’ in Cuba,” he said.
Although the edge of Jimenez’s district is 90 miles from Cuba, he said he was sure anyone with a “private business” in his district had some kind of connection to the government.
Jimenez also said the Treasury’s decision will help the Cuban government in a time of crisis, and that the adjustments are “empowering the regime at a time when it should be strangled.”
He noted that other lawmakers and former President Barack Obama have visited Cuba and met with the late Chairman Castro and the government of current leader Miguel Diaz-Canel, and said the move was just the latest in Democrats’ habit of trying to build good relations with the Cuban regime.
“How can you justify that? You can’t do that unless you’re a socialist or a communist yourself,” he said, adding that he believed the only way to give true freedom to the Cuban people was through regime change, which could only be achieved through the voluntary action of the Cuban people and the explicit support of the U.S. government.
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“[Cuba] “They are the biggest enemy in our hemisphere, they are the cancer that is spreading across South America. They have direct ties to Venezuela and Nicaragua. And they are allies of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea,” Jimenez said.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the Treasury Department’s move a political ploy by President Biden to gain foreign policy advantages.
“President Biden’s concessions to the notoriously repressive Cuban regime are deeply disturbing,” Rubio said in a statement.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), who represents Miami’s “Little Havana,” also criticized the Treasury Department, saying the announcement “makes a mockery of U.S. law given the lack of progress toward freedom and the escalating repression on the island.”
In comments to Fox News Digital, Salazar added that he has been pushing for some time against the Biden administration’s proposal to open U.S. banks to “independent Cuban business owners,” and reiterated his argument that such actions only serve to advantage Diaz-Canel.
Johana Tablada de la Torre, Cuba’s US official, told The Times that the reforms were “limited” and largely negated by the ongoing US embargo. Associated PressShe also said that if these reforms were truly meant to help the Cuban people, the Cuban government would not obstruct them.
Fox News Digital also reached out to the Democrats involved about the matter but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The Treasury Department has directed Fox News Digital to transcribe the comments from administration officials.
One official said the administration understands the “dire situation” of Cuba’s economy.
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“Against this backdrop, the Cuban government has been reluctantly opening up space to the nascent but growing private sector. Cuenta Propista (self-employment) has been legal for several years, but in 2021 the Cuban government [moderate]”It’s a business of that size,” the official said.
The White House also responded to the criticism, with a National Security Council spokesman telling Fox News Digital that the restrictions were a “key tenet of the Biden Administration’s policy towards Cuba, which advocates for respect for human rights and support for the Cuban people.”
“It is ironic that some lawmakers criticize U.S. policies that support struggling entrepreneurs, who are Cuba’s best hope for bringing capitalism to the country,” the NSC spokesman said, denying that the restrictions were a concession to Havana.
