Hundreds of Cuban traders and small business owners wrote to President Joe Biden on Thursday, imploring him to follow through on promised US support to the island’s ailing private sector.
“It is incomprehensible and inhuman that in the middle of a domestic economic crisis (your administration) has, for the most part, continued with Trump-era cruel and failed policies that directly target our livelihoods,” the letter says.
Those who signed the document are members of the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE), a group that pushes for private business interests and the lifting of the six-decade-old US embargo on the communist-ruled country.
“We are independent of the Cuban government,” says the letter, seen by AFP journalists.
It was signed by roughly 300 persons who said they work for small businesses or as craftsmen in agroindustry, construction, tourism, transportation, food, and other industries.
Biden promised to “increase support for independent Cuban entrepreneurs” and help the private sector thrive in May 2022.
According to the letter, Biden has not followed through, and current US policy toward Cuba impedes the development of private business.
The letter requests that the White House reinstate the issuing of non-immigrant visas in Havana to allow Cuban companies and tradesmen to travel and obtain supplies for their businesses.
