Presbyterian Mission reports that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one 24 faith-based organizations, including The Episcopal Church, that have signed a letter asking the Biden administration to begin lifting sanctions on Cuba.
The letter urges the Cuban government to respect the right of the Cuban people to peacefully protest.
“In Cuba, we hope that the Cuban government will respond to these protests with dialogue and action; as in other countries, we condemn heavy-handed responses to protest by security forces, and we urge the government to release all those detained for peacefully protesting or reporting on the protests,” it says. Hundreds of Cubans remain in detention for their roles in the protest.
But the aim of the letter is to call on Biden to lift many aspects of the longstanding embargo against Cuba, which has been widely regarded as outdated and causing more harm to the Cuban people than the government. In particular, the requests include lifting restrictions on remittances from Cubans in the United States to family in Cuba, suspension of licenses and other requirements to send medical and humanitarian aid to Cuba and lifting restrictions on financial and banking transactions related to humanitarian aid in Cuba. The letter also calls for re-staffing the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
The United States had begun to ease relations and many restrictions with Cuba during the administration of President Barack Obama, but most of those policies were reversed under President Donald Trump.