US keeps ban on lodging in Cuban hotels and rental houses, Cuban FM denounces

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 14 (ACN) The U.S. government maintains on its List of Prohibited Accommodations in Cuba 422 hotels and private rental houses operating in the Caribbean island.

Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Cuban foreign minister stated on Twitter that although the U.S. government claims to support Cuban entrepreneurs, contrary to its statements, it maintains the suspension of cruises, flights and people-to-people contact.

The list, released in September 2020, constituted an additional discouragement to travel, and was part of the more than 240 measures that the U.S. government has imposed on the island as a tightening of the blockade.

These measures also include the cancellation of regular and charter flights to the entire country, except to Havana, whose frequencies were also limited, the effects of this announcement reached both U.S. citizens and Cuban families.

In addition, they decided to limit the amount of remittances to US$1,000 per quarter, suspended non-family remittances and prohibited remittances from third countries through Western Union.

It was approved to allow lawsuits in U.S. courts under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, after 23 years of successive suspensions of this possibility, which has had an indisputable impact on the possibilities of attracting foreign investment.

Within the framework of the campaign to discredit Cuba's international medical cooperation and a regional scenario favorable to the right, the United States promoted the termination of agreements with several countries in the region and increased pressure on multilateral organizations and third countries.

The measure preventing the importation of products from any country containing more than 10 % of U.S. components was reimposed on Cuba; in a globalized economy, this constitutes a real obstacle to the acquisition of necessary inputs, regardless of the market of origin.

In the interest of restricting one of the main exportable items, the importation into the U.S. of rum and tobacco of Cuban origin was banned, an announcement that was combined with a rhetoric aimed at discrediting those products.