US Funding for Cuban Entrepreneurs: Who Will Benefit?

The recent actions announced by the Biden administration toward Cuba, have reaffirmed the polarization among Cubans, both at home and abroad. The increase in support for independent Cuban entrepreneurs through voluntary remittances is one advertisement that has generated a variety of criteria.

The question that floats in the air is: How can these microfinances for Cuban entrepreneurs and MSMEs be realized, when there is a legal ban from Cuba on their access to foreign funding?

During a Facebook broadcast, activist Saily González, who was an entrepreneur in Cuba, pointed out the obstacle to identifying this particular measure. Gonzalez argues that if the Cuban government allows external funding, the entrepreneurs will be immediately questioned and forced to neutralize any dissenting position.

In the recent economic report issued by the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, it was clear that MSMEs are not a free electron and should be restricted to the state business sector. “So I am concerned about how this funding will return to the investor. Will you be paid into the MLC? I was hoping that this empowerment would spark more active political positions in Cuban entrepreneurs in developing leadership that could lead to the democratization of Cuba” Gonzalez said at the conference He lives organized by the touch.

On this topic, Ricardo Herrero, Executive Director of the Cuban Study Group and an advisor on US policy towards Cuba, sees the interest in giving Cuban entrepreneurs access to payment and microfinance platforms beneficial and positive, thus opening a field of opportunity.

Cuban law states that small and medium-sized businesses cannot accept members who are not permanent Cuban citizens, but they also said they can associate with foreign private companies. So there is a possibility that you will get this microfinance. We know it exists. People were doing it informally, because the remittances were sent to the entrepreneur to start the business and then share the profits,” explained Herrero.

Some young Cuban entrepreneurs, such as Eric Garcia, are betting on the existence of Cuban companies that receive funding from the United States, although the self-employed knows that the rules of the game will be how they are implemented, how the money will enter, who will be the intermediaries and what legal procedures.

“I continue to advocate for the self-employed and the possibility of their commitment and empowerment. Limiting the tools that everyone has access to just because they are Cuban is wrong. If you allow him to flourish and understand how the global financial world works, he himself will realize the reality in which he lives and which generates obstacles and hindrances; This is the formula ”, confirms the young man.

However, Cuban immigrant intellectuals such as journalist Jorge de Armas and historian Oscar Grandio took a critical stance on the announcement of the measure.

Is it true that US taxpayer money is funding the island’s economic reconstruction? Is it acceptable to give small loans to companies that will eventually contribute to the Cuban government? Is it right that we go back to this push to a dictatorship that shows symptoms of pain? This has to do with direct openness that benefits Cuban inclusion,” says de Armas.

According to Grandio, capital facilitation for private business investment would be possible in an ideal Cuba, but the hope that it would contribute to the empowerment of civil society and entrepreneurs has no real basis in the current circumstances. . The historian notes that there is no legal framework protecting nongovernmental workers and North American investments.

On the other hand, it is considered that the entrepreneurs who have an advantage in the process are, in general, the ones chosen by the Cuban government. “Sectors can be empowered so that, far from favoring the empowerment of civil society, they can hinder change,” the academic says.

Were the procedures issued in time?

One of the biggest criticisms from people inside and outside Cuba is the inappropriate moment the Biden administration’s actions were announced, just a day after the approval of the controversial Cuban Penal Code and after the suppression of the 11J protesters. More than 700 people have been imprisoned because of the protests, which remain unresolved.

Salome Garcia, Editor Hypermedia Magazinean activist and member of the Justice 11J group dedicated to monitoring the situation of political prisoners in Cuba, also noted that at least ten other people are in prison for organizing the failed march on November 15, to which about a thousand political prisoners in Cuba were added, estimated by the non-governmental organization. Governmental Prisoners Defenders.

The young activist considered that the speech proposed by the United States is “extremely unfortunate at this time” because it does not meet the expectations of the families of political detainees and indicates the Biden administration’s misleading about the Cuban reality and those who exercise power in it. Country.

“Power in Cuba goes well beyond the military leadership, and it goes through many institutions that have been articulated in recent years with the Ministry of the Interior and the Council of State to unleash a climate of terror throughout civil society,” Salome said.

Selye Gonzalez shares his position, noting that the measures “reward” and benefit the Cuban government and do not include ways to support the families of political prisoners and civil society activists.

Other Cubans, such as businessman Eric Garcia, celebrate the new measures and consider them positive: “I am happy that 100,000 Cubans are in the process of family reunification and they will not have to go to Guyana to do paperwork to reunite him with his family. Remittances make me happy because they can be a way To solve problems I know there are political prisoners and it is sad what is happening with activists and independent journalists, but actions are the way to expose those who are doing wrong things.

For historian Oscar Grandeau, “Biden’s actions constitute a comprehensive rearrangement of the Obama administration’s policies. It appears that regime change was not pursued as a short-term strategy nor was the Cuban reality considered after 11J. The interests of the Cubans are not a priority, but rather the strategic interests of the US administration.”

Looking at the picture from the American side, we find the fact that the current immigration crisis – approx 115 thousand Cubans They have been in the US since October 2021 – putting pressure on the current administration’s domestic policy. Therefore, the mass migration of Cubans to the southern borders of the North American nation has had significant weight in resilience measures.

Guenadys Rodriguez, Youtube The Miami-based legal, who is the Biden administration’s advisor on policy decisions toward Cuba, highlights this phenomenon along with the events of July 11, during which talks took place between the US government and part of the Cuban-American community. Many participants in the meetings warned that if the policy against Cuba would further harden it, it could lead to increased hunger, poverty and loss of life for Cubans.

A line similar to Rodriguez’s follows Ricardo Herrero, stating that while he agreed that a day after the Cuban Penal Code was approved was not the best time to announce the change in policy, decisions take months of planning and preparation to announce on a specific day.

“These are practical measures to address the migration crisis and help the Cuban people. At the same time, flights will be opened to the provinces, which sounds very good to me. The policy that has been followed so far has not helped democracy or human rights or eased repression and immigration. On the contrary. Exactly. It made everything worse because the system uses the same rhetoric and excuse as always. So the best thing is to remove that excuse, said the counselor.

Can US policy toward Cuba contribute to the country’s democratization process?

Political expert Armando Chagueda highlights that Biden’s decision passes through resolving the immigration crisis, through a humanitarian sense linked to this priority through the humanization of immigration conditions, and through another humanitarian consensus on the issue of flights and procedures. However, it highlights the lack of efforts to strengthen civil society and democracy in Cuba, which wants this policy to be amenable to correction and adjustment.

Among the measures that the Cuban side could take in response to Biden’s flexibility, he points to releasing political prisoners, dropping cases, freezing the penal code, and authorizing an organization such as Amnesty International – with a presence in all countries – to discuss the conditions of prisoners on the ground.

These three measures do not change Cuba’s current political system or power structure, but they will demonstrate the goodwill of Biden’s actions. “If these measures are not taken, we will see that there is no will in the kind of state that operates with the logic of a kidnapper and hostage-taker,” Shagwaida said.

Guenadys Rodríguez’s recommendation to the current US administration was primarily to raise awareness, support, and monitor the 11J prisoners, a request to which he received no response. He stressed that the US sanctions did not represent an internal political challenge to make the necessary changes in Cuba.

“They used repression, they hurt their image, but they didn’t make the changes,” he said. Youtubewhich recommends the creation of a clear political movement that transcends the current polarization and ideological confrontation between Cuban society to make political demands that exert pressure and lead to a tangible outcome.

“This conflict teaches us that we have to be better neighbors so that Cuba does not continue to be authoritarian and that the United States does not suffer from the migration crisis that arises on the southern border due to the authoritarianism in Cuba. It would be very good to take advantage of the shared history and seek influence in economic, political, military and intellectual fields.

Cuban mathematician Angel Toure, an active member of the Cuban immigrant community in the United States, considered the current measures to be another stumble on the same stone and proof that half of the political power of the United States has abandoned the opinion of the Cuban community. . “I bet all or nothing: I will remove all kinds of penalties, because penalties do not work and this is proven. Or we go with all kinds of penalties to finish racism There in Cuba, where there is no economic freedom and no political freedom.

In the framework of the activism, Salome Garcia put, as a fundamental and imperative point, the urgency of an American policy designed so that human rights abusers face the consequences of their actions. This should be the centerpiece of US policy toward Cuba, and it hasn’t happened.”

Meanwhile, the thinker Jorge de Armas considered that politics that contributes to the process of democratization must pass through a culture of cross-border citizenship. “Some internal and external operational structures in Cuba must be transnational; we can contribute to I know howworking together and even transforming specific institutions into transnational spaces. Now, if the authoritarian government structures in Cuba did not take this step, it would be practically impossible.”

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