Cuba: Joe Biden partially eases Trump's course

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Tourists approaching Havana

Photo: Ramon Espinosa / dpa

The USA is relaxing its course towards Cuba again.

The State Department announced on Monday evening (local time) that, among other things, consular services and visa processing at the US Embassy in Havana would be ramped up again to allow more Cubans to visit relatives in the United States.

The previously applicable upper limit for transfers of money from the USA to relatives in Cuba will be lifted.

Overall, a little more travel between the two countries should be made possible again.

In addition, the Cuban private sector should have better access to American Internet services and e-commerce platforms.

However, US companies and citizens are still not allowed to do business with companies that are on the sanctions list for ties to the Cuban government or the military.

The limit on remittances to relatives in Cuba, previously capped at $1,000 per quarter, will also be lifted and donations to non-family members will be allowed.

During his tenure in office, former US President Donald Trump scaled back a rapprochement with Cuba initiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Now Trump's successor, Joe Biden, is turning things around again.

At the end of April, the United States and Cuba held direct talks on migration at a high diplomatic level for the first time in four years.

Among other things, it was about the implementation of existing immigration agreements - also in view of the recent increase in illegal migration from the socialist Caribbean state to the USA.

The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs had criticized, among other things, that the United States was not adhering to a bilateral agreement that guaranteed 20,000 visas for Cubans every year.

A senior US government official has now said that this magnitude should be reached as soon as possible.

as/dpa/Reuters