U.S. Congressional Plea to End Cuban Sanctions of Essentials
Congress of the United States
Washington D.C. 20515
December 14, 2021
The Honorable Joe Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden:
We are writing to ask you to prioritize the well-being of the Cuban people, who are
experiencing the worst economic and humanitarian crisis in recent history. The current
humanitarian situation in Cuba is growing ever more dire, with shortages of food and goods and
decreasing access to medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We urge you to take
immediate humanitarian actions – as the United Nations has urged repeatedly – to suspend U.S.
regulations that prevent food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance from reaching the
Cuban people. We also support a more comprehensive shift to deepen engagement with Cuba
and move towards normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.
We urge your administration to remove the specific licenses required to send medical
supplies, such as testing kits and respiratory devices, to Cuba. We also ask that the
administration lift all restrictions on banking and financial transactions related to humanitarian
aid and suspend end-use verification. While the embargo allows for the shipment of
humanitarian aid, in practice, licensing requirements, end-use verification, restrictions on the
banking sector, and fear of unknowingly running afoul of U.S. law severely complicate sending
humanitarian aid to Cuba, from other countries as well as from the United States.
We ask you to remove all restrictions on family remittances, allowing Cuban Americans
to help their families and improve their standard of living, and the restrictions on non-family
(donative) remittances, allowing nonprofits and faith groups to provide humanitarian assistance
and start-up capital for Cuban entrepreneurs and civil society. We are still waiting for action
based on the recommendations from the Remittance Working Group you established in the wake
of the July 11th protests, tasked with expediting a review withing 30 days of how to send
remittances directly to the Cuban people. Despite concerns over Cuba’s government obtaining
revenue from remittances, the government captures less revenue from remittances than in the
past due to changes initiated in July 2020 and much of the government’s revenue from
remittances is channeled to essential food, fuel, and goods imports for Cubans who do not have
family abroad, many of them in marginalized communities. Moreover, the U.S. government does
not restrict remittances to most of the countries targeted by U.S. sanctions. For example, your
administration restarted the flow of remittances through Western Union to Afghanistan, and as of
last week, you now allow personal and family remittances through financial institutions, showing
you are aware of the importance that remittance channels have for countries facing humanitarian
and economic crises.
We also urge you to roll back the Trump Administration’s restrictions on travel to Cuba,
since they make it more difficult for Cuban Americans to visit and reunite with family on the
island, particularly for those with families outside of Havana. These restrictions limit mutually
beneficial dialogue and exchange between the U.S. and Cuban people. Travel restrictions have
also harmed small private businesses, which have been unable to access needed goods and
products and have struggled since tourism began to slow after such restrictions were put in place. Allowing travel to Cuba would increase the flow of necessary humanitarian supplies to the island
and the amount and distribution of money and goods sent directly into the hands of Cubans.
Cuba was removed from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list in 2015 after an exhaustive
review by experts at the State Department and in the intelligence community. The Trump
Administration did not cite any new facts to justify its decision to relist Cuba during the last days
of its term. Therefore, we ask you to recommend that the State Department conduct a new review
and remove Cuba from the list. This designation places another roadblock in the path towards
improved relations and creates further obstacles for purchasing or receiving humanitarian goods.
In addition to these immediate steps, we believe that a policy of engagement with Cuba
serves U.S. interests and those of the Cuban people. It should lead to a more comprehensive
effort to deepen engagement and normalization, including restarting diplomatic engagement at
senior levels as well as through the re-staffing of each country’s respective embassies. This act
would not only be a gesture of good faith but is in the best interests of the United States, assisting
Cubans interested in migrating via legal means instead of contributing to conditions forcing
Cubans to migrate under dangerous conditions, arriving in increased numbers at our southern
border. Because the U.S. Embassy’s consular section has been closed to Cubans, the United
States is in violation of the 1994 migration agreement signed with Cuba to end the last migration
crisis.
Engagement on key areas of mutual interest that were pursued by the Obama–Biden
Administration should be resumed, including bilateral groups on migration, disaster response,
environment, and law enforcement issues such as counter-narcotics and money laundering.
Cooperation on COVID-19 response and addressing future pandemics are also essential.
Finally, protecting human rights in Cuba, including the right to protest, is better served by
principled engagement, rather than unilateral isolation, which has proven to be a failed policy. In
fact, today, following almost five years of tightened U.S. sanctions, Cuba’s nascent social
movements that emerged during the rapprochement years find their space for public debate and
free expression more constrained than in 2016. Yet increased channels of communication and
access to information via the internet and social media platforms in recent years, in large
measure due to the policy of engagement pursued by the Obama-Biden Administration, have
dramatically influenced how Cubans communicate and their levels of activism to influence
decision making and mobilize and advocate for social causes. Engagement is more likely to
enable the political, economic, and social openings that Cubans may desire, and to ease the
hardships that Cubans face today.
We are eager to work with you to advance U.S.-Cuban relations and human rights and
prosperity on the island. We look forward to your rapid implementation of these
recommendations.
Sincerely,
James P. McGovern Barbara Lee
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Gregory W. Meeks Bobby L. Rush
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David Scott Rosa L. DeLauro
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Adam Smith John Yarmuth
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Maxine Waters Bennie G. Thompson
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Zoe Lofgren Donald S. Beyer Jr.
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Jerrold Nadler Raúl M. Grijalva
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Carolyn B. Maloney Eddie Bernice Johnson
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Nydia M. Velázquez Peter A. DeFazio
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Mark Takano Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
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Jim Himes André Carson
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Eleanor Holmes Norton Peter Welch
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Dwight Evans Andy Levin
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Jake Auchincloss Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr.
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Rashida Tlaib Mike Doyle
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Jared Huffman Jan Schakowsky
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Alan B. Lowenthal Donald M. Payne, Jr.
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Anna G. Eshoo Adriano Espaillat
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Grace Meng Ayanna Pressley
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Dina Titus Mark DeSaulnier
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Betty McCollum Dean Phillips
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Mondaire Jones Ron Kind
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Chellie Pingree Joaquin Castro
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David Trone John Garamendi
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Earl Blumenauer Stephen F. Lynch
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Mark Pocan Danny K. Davis
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David N. Cicilline Suzanne Bonamici
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David E. Price Karen Bass
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Jamie Raskin Robin L. Kelly
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Gwen Moore Brenda L. Lawrence
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Ro Khanna Ilhan Omar
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Ted W. Lieu Pramila Jayapal
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Sara Jacobs Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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Jamaal Bowman Jerry McNerney
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Melanie Stansbury Anthony G. Brown
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Emanuel Cleaver, II Paul D. Tonko
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Daniel T. Kildee John B. Larson
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Diana DeGette Sheila Jackson Lee
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Cori Bush Jesús G. “Chuy” García
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Ed Perlmutter Deborah K. Ross
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Mike Thompson Doris O. Matsui
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Rick Larsen Bonnie Watson Coleman
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Al Green Linda T. Sánchez
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Jackie Speier Ami Bera, M.D.
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Debbie Dingell Ann Kirkpatrick
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Teresa Leger Fernández Judy Chu
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Lori Trahan Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.
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Nikema Williams Marilyn Strickland
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Marie Newman Kweisi Mfume
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Juan Vargas Lucille Roybal-Allard
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Jahana Hayes Katie Porter
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Grace F. Napolitano Nanette Diaz Barragán
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Jimmy Panetta Colin Z. Allred
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Veronica Escobar Alma S. Adams, Ph.D.
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Jimmy Gomez Marc A. Veasey
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Eric Swalwell G. K. Butterfield
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