The money that never arrives in Cuba

[El Presidente]

https://www.pressenza.com/2021/09/the-money-that-never-arrives-in-cuba/

The Money That Never Arrives in Cuba

04.09.21 - US, United States - Independent Media Institute

With the money she earns cleaning houses in the morning and an office at night, Virgen Elena Pupo, a 47-year-old Cuban migrant, has managed to raise her family in Washington, D.C., but has not been able to help her parents in Holguín, Cuba. She is separated from her parents by more than 1,246 miles. In Cuba’s eastern region, Holguín has been hit hard by an increase in COVID-19 cases, but Pupo cannot visit or send money to her parents due to the restrictions on flights and remittances from the United States as a result of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies that President Joe Biden has continued.

By Rosa Miriam Elizalde

On October 27, 2020, a week before the U.S. presidential elections took place on November 3, Trump issued his final sanction against the island. Trump included Cuban financial company Fincimex, Western Union’s main partner in the country, in the Cuban Restricted List. The pretext was that it belongs to the Cuban business corporation, Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.

This measure cut off the channels for sending remittances to Cuba, and Pupo’s elderly parents have not been able to receive any help amid the pandemic as a result of this move.

Fincimex issued a statement on August 27, 2021, announcing delays in the delivery of remittances that arrive in Cuba from third countries due to the difficulty of finding financial institutions willing to authorize operations. The inclusion of this company in the list of restricted entities by the U.S. Treasury Department “continues to generate fears in the international banking sector about accepting operations directed to… [Fincimex] and tendencies to limit the scope of these transactions,” said the Fincimex statement.

The U.S. policy relating to remittances goes against all logic. Remittances have come to the rescue of families affected by the coronavirus all over the world. According to the World Bank, money sent by migrants to their families in “low- and middle-income countries surpassed the sum of FDI [foreign direct investment] ($259 billion) and overseas development assistance ($179 billion) in 2020.” For example, remittances grew historically in Mexico in the first six months of 2021, as La Jornada recently reported. They reached $23.6 million, which is 22 percent more than the remittances received during the same period in 2020.

“As COVID-19 still devastates families around the world, remittances continue to provide a critical lifeline for the poor and vulnerable,” saidMichal Rutkowski, global director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank. The regular remittances that poor Latin American migrants send to their families have become vital to many of the region’s economies. Generally, it’s the working poor who send small sums of money, sometimes up to eight times a year, usually sending more money than they earn during the year. For years, remittances have been one of Mexico’s main sources of foreign exchange, and remittances form close to or more than 20 percent of the gross domestic product of Honduras, El Salvador and other countries in Central America. They protect millions of people. But why do migrants do it? Why do they make sacrifices and send money back to their home countries? Surveys say that the explanation for this grand gesture of solidarity, with enormous macroeconomic impact, lies above all in supporting the institution of family. Migrants send money out of moral inspiration and loyalty to their parents, siblings, children, and nieces and nephews.

In a 2006 study on remittances and their imprint on the Cuban family, researcher Edel Fresneda Camacho recognized that this type of aid is not intended for productive investment. “It constitutes an important source of income for the recipient families, [for] their consumption and saving capacity, and implies an improvement in living conditions,” which in the case of Cuba includes the possibility of investing in a small private business.

Camacho and other researchers have given an account of the manipulative forays of the U.S. government on this front. In the 1990s, during the crisis known in Cuba as the “Special Period,” the United States reinforced the economic siege. The former U.S. President Bill Clinton prohibited remittances from August 1994 to 1998 except under strictly humanitarian conditions: illness or in cases of people with official immigration permission. Bush imposed even more cruel restrictions, allowing only visits to the island once every three years if the person visiting had very close relatives in Cuba—aunts, uncles, and cousins were not considered “family.”

Even then, remittances managed to continue reaching the island. That is, until now. Without Western Union offices, without the possibility of shipments by DHL, with banks being intimidated and flights being suspended to all provinces, except for those very limited to Havana, Pupo can only hope that her elderly parents can survive the pandemic without any help from her. And she prays every day for common sense to prevail among those making policies in the White House, which is located just two blocks away from the office she cleans at night with the stubborn will to keep her loved ones afloat.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

[NSXCIGAR]

The policy does not "go against all logic"--obviously the idea is to prevent the regime from profiting from the vig it takes out of the remittances. Unfortunately, there's no way around it. You can't cut your nose off to spite your face. The vast majority of the money winds up in the hands of the people who desperately need it. The best thing for the average Cuban is to allow the remittances. 

[El Presidente]

36 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

 The best thing for the average Cuban is to allow the remittances. 

Absolutely. 

The policy blocking remittances is barbaric. It must be a difficult task to rise and wave the flag of liberty and freedom when the Cuban government is an anchor on your leg and the US Govt has a foot on your throat. 

[bmac]

Just think of it as a tax.

[Nino]

This "small" piece of information about the author of that diatribe should have been included in the post :

Rosa Miriam Elizalde is a Cuban journalist and founder of the site Cubadebate. She is vice president of both the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) and the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP). She has written and co-written several books including Jineteros en la Habanaand Our Chavez. She has received the Juan Gualberto Gómez National Prize for Journalism on multiple occasions for her outstanding work. She is currently a weekly columnist for La Jornada of Mexico City.

Hardly "neutral" or objective being a "hard line party journo" and the fact that FINCIMEX is an arm of the Cuban military is conveniently hidden behind a Mother Theresa mask and not even mentioned.

Pretty much a rubbish smoke screen to hide the hunger of the regime for hard currency.

This tag below the article makes me laugh - what a joke, this "education" is neither independent nor diverse but just onesided Cuban communist propaganda  :

The Independent Media Institute (IMI) is a nonprofit organization that educates the public through a diverse array of independent media projects and programs. IMI works with journalists and media outlets to shine a spotlight on stories that are vital to the public interest, using multiple media formats and distribution channels.

 

[El Presidente]

Financial embargo is a fact regardless of how many pretend  it doesn't exist.

[Nino]

20 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

Financial embargo is a fact regardless of how many pretend  it doesn't exist.

Maybe so - but I am and have been sending money to Cuba via a) my German bank and b) a financial "WU-copy" based in Spain with no problems and it is deposited in hard currency to my friends accounts so they can use it with a debit card to buy much needed stuff.

It is also a fact that the Cuban gvt skims the remittances and pays worthless CUP while pocketing the hard currency through FINCIMEX - regardless of how many pretend that robbery does not take place.

 

[anacostiakat]

Have not been happy with these policies since they were enacted and was hoping for some loosening.  Does not appear that will happen.  

[Ryan]

3 hours ago, Nino said:

Maybe so - but I am and have been sending money to Cuba via a) my German bank and b) a financial "WU-copy" based in Spain with no problems and it is deposited in hard currency to my friends accounts so they can use it with a debit card to buy much needed stuff.

It is also a fact that the Cuban gvt skims the remittances and pays worthless CUP while pocketing the hard currency through FINCIMEX - regardless of how many pretend that robbery does not take place.

 

With the sites I have been looking at, Fonmoney etc. It looks like it is only possible for EU residents with a Euro bank account. I'm having problems with even this, the site is not validating a recipient's AIS - MLC card, so I cannot continue.

[Nino]

2 hours ago, Ryan said:

With the sites I have been looking at, Fonmoney etc. It looks like it is only possible for EU residents with a Euro bank account. I'm having problems with even this, the site is not validating a recipient's AIS - MLC card, so I cannot continue.

I might be able to give you some tips, but yes, EU residents - which you are, and a Euro bank account.

Here are some sites in Spain that transfer money to Cuba and also to AIS cards. More by PM .

Asimismo, el envío de dinero desde España al Banco Metropolitano se efectúa por transferencias directas entre bancos españoles y cubanos o por las siguientes plataformas online:

1. Enviodinero.es.
2. Fonmoney.es.
3. Aisremesascuba.com.
4. Kuzafi.com.
5. Clicktransfer.es.
6. Sendvalu.com.
7. Realtransfer.es.
8. Tusgiros.es.

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

I must say, the regime's stubbornness is impressive. It's pretty clear after 60 years that the regime never caves to outside demands. All they would have to do is transfer remittance management out of direct military control but they refuse to do it. Their obstinance is truly remarkable. Cuba always seems to win the games of chicken. Every policy aimed at hurting the state is redirected on to the people.

Unless the US has another way to get money to the people (like the EU bank methods above) they need to end the remittance ban. 

[El Presidente]

6 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Unless the US has another way to get money to the people (like the EU bank methods above) they need to end the remittance ban. 

The only non knucklehead foreign policy thought bubble that the  US has had in relation to Cuba is to provide a parralel internet service.  

From there you can provide a cavalcade of services for the average Cuban while largely cutting out the Cuban Govt. 

I hope to see it.  in 60 years it would be their singular embargo success and not just a success but a masterstroke.  Progressive and elevating to the Cuban populace while infuriating the Cuban Govt. 

Certainly beats starving the populace out. 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

59 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

The only non knucklehead foeign policy though bubble that the  US has had in relation to Cuba is to provide a parralel internet service.  

Would be one of the best approaches possible. Love the regime calling the US attempt to get internet to Cuba "aggression" :https://www.voanews.com/americas/cuba-denounces-us-aggression-over-senate-internet-plan

In a sense, they're not wrong. Would be devastating for the regime and they know it.

They seem to be trying to figure it out as we speak: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/salazar-to-roll-out-plan-giving-access-to-telecommunications-abroad-when-internet-access-is-shut-down

Elon Musk working on it as well: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/salazar-to-roll-out-plan-giving-access-to-telecommunications-abroad-when-internet-access-is-shut-down

However the final paragraph of that article is a bit concerning:

And satellite communication is no guarantee of secrecy. Sophisticated autocrats, or those with sophisticated allies, can attempt to track satellite transmissions. In 2012, the journalist Marie Colvin was killed in the Syrian civil war after the country’s armed forces tracked her satellite phone and targeted her. If Starlink becomes a common way to try to elude digital censorship, it won’t be long before repressive regimes (or mercenary technologists) develop the tools to hunt the network’s users.

[Ryan]

15 hours ago, Nino said:

I might be able to give you some tips, but yes, EU residents - which you are, and a Euro bank account.

Here are some sites in Spain that transfer money to Cuba and also to AIS cards. More by PM .

Asimismo, el envío de dinero desde España al Banco Metropolitano se efectúa por transferencias directas entre bancos españoles y cubanos o por las siguientes plataformas online:

1. Enviodinero.es.
2. Fonmoney.es.
3. Aisremesascuba.com.
4. Kuzafi.com.
5. Clicktransfer.es.
6. Sendvalu.com.
7. Realtransfer.es.
8. Tusgiros.es.

 

 

Thanks Nino,

I got it sorted out yesterday. 

Good article here on how sending remittances electronically to individuals is, currently, sending money to the government. The government gives a digital version of those dollars to the recipient, not actual dollars. It is digital currency that can only be spent in Cuba in the MLC stores. Where the actual money goes, well we all know the answer.

This article sums it up well.

https://havanatimes.org/opinion/remittances-to-cuba-the-problem-and-the-solution/?fbclid=IwAR3NJQLeUfqly-h3d1qDOqxUY-gCCWLZY-RmLJU1UVKiInVU9sPdJPyY2lE 

 

[Nino]

45 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Good article here on how sending remittances electronically to individuals is, currently, sending money to the government. The government gives a digital version of those dollars to the recipient, not actual dollars. It is digital currency that can only be spent in Cuba in the MLC stores. Where the actual money goes, well we all know the answer.

This article sums it up well.

https://havanatimes.org/opinion/remittances-to-cuba-the-problem-and-the-solution/?fbclid=IwAR3NJQLeUfqly-h3d1qDOqxUY-gCCWLZY-RmLJU1UVKiInVU9sPdJPyY2lE 

 

Happy for you Andy ! It's the same with the moeny I send, it goes into a MLC debit card.

Very interesting article you link  - thanks. Here is an excerpt that is worth highlighting :

After the military companies that control 100% of remittance transactions arriving through official channels were sanctioned by the US State and Treasury departments, the Cuban Government refused to hand over their handling to any civil institution. Even though at the end of 2020 the Central Bank of Cuba granted the non-banking financial company RED SA the pertinent licenses to take charge of handling remittances from the US —a market accounting for 92% of the total received— this still has not happened.

The explanation for this is simple: the military does not want to lose its main source of financing.

In the same way, channeling remittances through the Correos de Cuba company —which has just been authorized to receive transactions throughout the country, under the same scheme that FINCIMEX SA and AIS SA had, by which dollars are not delivered to the recipients— is to maintain the same capital laundering scheme. This does not solve the problem.

The remittances must reach Cubans in the form of dollars, not electronic dollars only good to buy at stores that also belong to GAESA. The Biden Administration must be vigilant so as not to fall into the trap that is being set by Havana. If the Government wants to channel remittances through Correos de Cuba, it must guarantee that Cubans are actually given dollars, and that they are the ones who decide what to do with them. Otherwise, the dollars will remain in the hands of the oligarchy.

No wonder the money sent never reaches the Cubans - it all goes to the gvt and military ...

[Nino]

34 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Where the actual money goes, well we all know the answer.

This article sums it up well.

https://havanatimes.org/opinion/remittances-to-cuba-the-problem-and-the-solution/?fbclid=IwAR3NJQLeUfqly-h3d1qDOqxUY-gCCWLZY-RmLJU1UVKiInVU9sPdJPyY2lE 

 

Yes, we all know the answer from reading independent and objective articles about the oligarchy and the corruption - not from reading Granma, Juvntud Rebelde or Cubadebate ..

Here is a well researched article on where the actual money goes - don't expect to read it in the state press :

https://www.cubanet.org/english/yes-the-capital-invested-in-the-construction-of-hotels-is-cuban-capital/

Yes, the Capital Invested in the Construction of Hotels is Cuban Capital

Cuban men and women, left to fend for themselves in the middle of a tragic health crisis, are becoming ill by the thousands and dying by the dozens, while the regime continues adding more floors to its hotels.

CubaNet martes, 31 de agosto, 2021 3:55 pm en English

 

Progress in the construction of what will be the tallest hotel in Havana (Credit: CubaNet)

 

HAVANA, Cuba. – During the last several weeks, thousands of Cuban men and women have protested or voiced their indignation on social media for the sharp contrast between the construction of hotels in Cuba and the dilapidated state of hospitals and the dismal state of public health in general.

The construction of tourism facilities, carried out mostly by the military corporate conglomerate known as GAESA (founded in Panama as an off-shore company of the Cuban Armed Forces in the 1980s), has not been stopped even for a minute during a year-and-a-half of crisis aggravated by COVID-19; they have not altered their construction and delivery schedules. However, the irresponsible and inefficient handling of public health contingencies is obvious, compounded by the deplorable state of medical attention in the context of perpetual shortages of medications and food together, and the deterioration of hospital infrastructure and related services.

While the two hotel towers being built on First and Avenue D, in El Vedado (with more than 600 guest rooms, at a cost of US$ 80 million) are almost ready for inauguration, and while the hotel complexes on 25th and Avenue K (also in El Vedado, with several floors already completed) and on Third and 70th Avenue in Miramar (which will headquarter a real estate firm and a shopping center that will replace the present area market), hospitals in the island are literally collapsing and the handful of ambulances that still run are falling to pieces. Not to speak of “medical attention”, which barely exists thanks to the huge personal effort of health personnel and international aid that is received nowadays as a result of individual campaigns and initiative to get donations to Cuba, since the government –controlled by the military- refuses to divert a single penny from hotel investment funds to other matters unrelated to their construction plans.

Against the constant protests by the independent press and on social media about the scandalous inequality, the most active and aggressive advocates of the Cuban regime –those whose government-funded work is not to produce goods but to monitor cyberspace, to fight freedom of expression and to justify that which is unjustifiable- argue that hotel development is not executed with Cuban capital but with funds from foreign investments. This is far from the truth.

Many people, both inside and outside Cuba, subscribe to this erroneous view, out of spite or naïveness, and they repeat the same erroneous information without researching even a minimum of published news, including those published by the Communist Party official press. If they did their research, they would corroborate easily the level of crime being committed in the island today by a handful of military strongmen who are more concerned about the number of tourists that will arrive in Cuba in 2030, than about the number of Cubans who die -and will die- of starvation or COVID-19 now in 2021. 

Not too far back in time, in May 2018, the Cuban News Agency published a report by Daysi Malvares Morel, Director of Development of the real-estate company Almest -which belongs to the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group (GAESA, by its Spanish acronym)- about three hotel projects in Havana that were being built totally with Cuban capital.

She was referring to two buildings being raised at the time in the vicinity of Cuba’s National Aquarium, in lots located east of 70th street between First and Third Avenues. She was also referring to the construction –also with Cuban capital- of “a real estate complex that will extend from 68th Street westward to 70th Street,” around the site where another hotel was to be built, adjacent to Miramar’s Business Center and about 100 meters from the future administrative office –the first of its kind– of an American corporation, namely Sheraton.

In the end, this project did not materialize, due to the turn of events in the Obama thawing of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Cuban regime. However, the project still stands, and, according to information that officers of the construction company shared with us, Almest has not withdrawn its plans nor has it reduced the pace of construction, even though no foreign-management proposals have been received as of yet.

“There is money to do them, and they will spend it, but only in hotel-related expenses,” an anonymous source directly linked to the military conglomerate commented. The source also noted: “Almest’s policy, like GAESA’s in general, is not to work with foreign capital. They don’t need it, they’re not interested and it’s also not to their benefit. It works with the French (Bouygues Bâtiment International) because it’s a necessary evil, they need the specialized workforce which doesn’t exist in Cuba, but the hotels belong 100% to Almest, and part of this capital comes from rentals (of hotels) to Gaviota, and not just from that, but from all the other GAESA companies, of which there are many. Everything comes out of, and reverts to, the same bag.”

Also in mid-2018, and in agreement with the statements the directors of Almest made to the official press, in lots reserved by GAESA in the municipalities of Plaza de la Revolución, Playa and Habana Vieja alone, a construction plan for 7,500 new hotel guest rooms was authorized until 2025, all of them financed with Cuban capital.

Among the constructions included in this portfolio, the most salient is undoubtedly the 42-floor tower that will provide 565 guest rooms right across from the Coppelia Ice Cream parlor, the tallest hotel in Havana once it’s inaugurated in late 2022.

At a cost of over US$ 100 million, some people consider it unnecessary, because the rate of hotel occupancy, even before COVID-19 struck, was under 50%. In addition, this project was conceived for the tourism boom associated with the normalization of relations with the United States, which never happened.

Under those plans, from 2016 to the present, the hotel availability in Cuba increased by 15,000 new guest rooms, of which only 8,000 were finished between 2018 and 2020, while Cuba’s MINTUR has informed, through scattered official press releases, that it intends to build an equal number of guest rooms for 2022, even though no one knows as yet how “post-pandemic tourism” will perform.

As reported on the official news outlet Cubadebate between late 2018 and mid 2019, several MINTUR executives, among them the general director of the ministry’s Development, Business and Investments department, José Daniel Alonso, made reference to MINTUR’s “Development 2018-2030” plan, whose objective was “raise the number of hotel rooms by 83,000 units through implementation of 216 new hotel facilities, plus expansion and remodeling of another 77 facilities.” This is an ambitious plan that is not limited to hotels, but includes real estate development related to golf courses, theme parks, nature parks and marinas, to surpass every nation in Latin America.

In total, the plan includes 332 hotel projects to be implemented with 2/3 Cuban capital and 1/3 foreign capital. More than merely “ambitious”, the MINTUR plan’s estimated cost is more than US$ 19 billion, an amount far higher than what is assigned to productive activities, science and technological innovation, or culture and sports in the state’s budget between 2012 and 2018, according to data from Cuba’s Statistical Yearbook for those years. 

As majority investors in MINTUR’s plans, Gaviota S.A. and Almest construction and real estate company (sole owner of the facilities it builds) are responsible for 121 projects, at a cost of US$ 13 billion. This raises their participation to more that 70% of all tourism investment projects in the island. Once built, the hotels will provide a lodging capacity for Cuba that is higher than that of its competitors in the area, like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

In less than 20 years, and coinciding with the replacement of Fidel Castro by his brother Raúl in 2009, the military conglomerate GAESA –which in the 1990s managed barely 10% of the tourism market with less than 4,000 guest rooms- has transformed into the unquestionable leader of the sector, with more than 100,00 guest rooms. Also, it has become the major investor, yielding such financial power that, contrary to MINTUR’s own entities, it boasts about not having to accept participation of foreign capital ever in its construction plans.

According to sources which CubaNet consulted –since there is no published data at present, just that of 2018 and 2019– Almest allegedly assigned at least US$ 1.5 billion to finish about 10 projects in Varadero and the northern keys from Villa Clara to Camagüey.

According to Cuban economy researchers Richard E. Feinberg and Richard Newfarmer, before 2016, Gaviota S.A. would obtain some US$ 700 million per year, of which it would pay US$ 80 million to Almest for the rental of properties. Today, that figure has doubled. And, keeping in mind the total number of hotels it rents to other hotel chains, the money Almest received is much greater, and it doesn’t matter if the hotels are empty or full.

However, not only is there enough money for GAESA to build hotels in Havana and in other traditional tourist destinations like Varadero and Coco Key, but also there are other extremely costly projects in Santiago de Cuba, where, according to official press reports, since late 2018, the first “intelligent and sustainable” hotel in the Eastern region is under construction.

Raúl Castro himself has promised that he will be present at its inauguration, which means that they will hurry to finish it soon, whether there is tourism or not, if only to satisfy the wishes of the ninety-year-old dictator.

The hotel was conceived for tourists who are fanatics of Castro politics, and as such, according to its principal designer, “it offers quick access through Patria Avenue to the patrimonial Santa Ifigenia cemetery” (where Fidel Castro’s funeral niche is located). The project is being undertaken by Santiago de Cuba’s Empresa de Proyectos No. 15 (Emproy-15), and is promoted as “the most modern facility of its kind in the country.”

This hotel will enjoy a 5-star-plus category and is being built at a cost of US$ 90 million. It will have 452 guest rooms spread throughout its twin towers, 15 and 17 floors respectively, and its shape will evoke an undulating Cuban flag 72 meters tall.

According to Cubadebate, the hotel will feature a convention center, a ball room, five restaurants, a bar, a cafeteria, a physiotherapy gym, swimming pools and “all the components of a luxury facility” whose windows are made of special, imported, insulating glass “that will protect the building from the harmful effects of the sun” and which creates “an intermediate chamber with thermal bridge breakage (to control) heat transmission to the inside, as well as photovoltaic cells which, unlike traditional solar panels, are transparent and of a desired tone,” states the official news outlet. 

A waste of “our money” in the middle of a tragic health crisis. The stark reality is that, at this precise moment, Cuban men and women, left to fend for themselves, are becoming ill by the thousands and dying by the dozens, while they watch as more than 20 buildings rise at a rate of several meters per hour and guzzle tons of materials that are mostly imported, often from Europe and Asia, two markets whose geographic distance from Cuba has been used ad nauseam, along with the U.S. embargo, as the communist regime’s excuse to justify a financial and social disaster for more than half a century.   

[Nino]

Guess I could not say it any better than this article :

https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1631101232_33948.html

"It must be understood that whoever is in power today in Cuba is not a socialist government, but a group that is not interested in the welfare of the people and is only interested in the fortune it can accumulate through legislative mechanisms and business schemes hidden in unknown tax havens. 
This group is the criminal organization that invests in the construction of dozens of hotels in the midst of the pandemic and not in buying efficient food, medicines and vaccines to save a defenseless population without resources.

The country has been taken over by those who steal the remittances sent by emigrants to their relatives - which remain in bank accounts in a third country while in Cuba a devalued currency is delivered that does not serve anywhere in the world.
They appropriate 80% of the salary of doctors exported as slaves, by those who control the repressive apparatus and the dollarized market of the country and try not to lose the monopoly of information, overwhelmed by the dynamics and imprint of social networks and independent media .

The protests will return. Until the internal dynamics change and citizens are restored to their freedom of expression and of being able to freely generate wealth, the possibility of rebellion will be more alive than ever.

The Cuban crisis is not an external problem, but an internal one. Therefore, it will not be resolved by the opening of the US consulate in Havana. Cubans don't want to emigrate, they want freedom. Emigration will not solve the problem of the crisis. The crisis will be resolved when the rights and freedoms hijacked 62 years ago are returned."

[El Presidente]

If you took a poll in Cuba today, does anyone have any doubt their would be overwhelming support for remittances to be  reopened even knowing full well that the government is skimming/scamming? 

Again the Tolstoy quote is apt. 

I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back.

 

[Nino]

The citizen's poll last July all over Cuba was overwhelmingly in support of Freedom and against the dictatorship choking the lives of Cubans and asking for it to be removed .... the choke has since become even tighter by the state.

 

[NSXCIGAR]

18 hours ago, Nino said:

It must be understood that whoever is in power today in Cuba is not a socialist government, but a group that is not interested in the welfare of the people and is only interested in the fortune it can accumulate through legislative mechanisms and business schemes hidden in unknown tax havens. 

No, I think that sounds exactly like a socialist government. Is there a socialist government they have in mind that didn't do those things?