Cuban families are the collateral damage of Trump’s policies

The administration resorts to the subterfuge of low-profile regulatory changes that generate few headlines but, taken together, have enormous impact on people’s well-being.

On June 12, the Trump administration added a Cuban financial services company, FINCIMEX, to a list of “restricted entities” that no one in the United States is allowed to do business with. FINCINMEX is the main Cuban processor of remittances, so Trump’s new sanction could potentially cut off $3.7 billion in remittances that Cuban Americans send to family on the island each year. This comes at a time when the Cuban economy is already reeling from the shutdown of the tourism industry because of COVID-19.

A recent independent survey conducted in Cuba found that 56% of Cuban families depend on remittances, funds that are a critical determinant of a family’s standard of living. Remittances have also been essential seed capital for small businesses. If remittances are blocked, it will impoverish millions.

For now, Western Union, the principal transmitter of remittances to Cuba, has a waiver to continue doing business with FINCIMEX, but the Trump administration could revoke their license at any moment.

This is just the latest in a long list of Trump’s policies targeting Cuba that have damaged family ties between the Cuban American community and their relatives across the Florida Strait. And yet there has been little political pushback from the diaspora. If anything, Trump is polling better among Cuban Americans now than he did in 2016.

So what gives?

“Real power is … fear,” Trump told Bob Woodard in March

2016. More than any U.S. presidential candidate in the modern era, Trump’s political strategy is rooted in evoking negative emotions. Fear and anger are his stock-in-trade. Like populists everywhere, Trump divides the political universe into “us” and “them.” He needs enemies.

On the national scene, Trump has offered a revolving cast of enemies — immigrants, the “Russian hoax,” the “fake news” media, the “deep state” and China. But in South Florida, Trump offers a nemesis better tailored to the local scene — Cuba. He plays to Cuban Americans’ visceral animosity toward the communist regime they left behind — emotions shared even by those who stay in touch with family on the island.

Trump woos Cuban American voters with the promise that he will punish this hated regime, bring it to its knees, and vanquish it once and for all. Never mind that it’s an empty promise, made and broken by a long line of politicians over the past 60 years. A significant bloc of aggrieved Cuban American voters still wants to believe.

The emotional appeal of populism always comes at a price. In this case, Cuban families are the collateral damage. By ending consular services at the U.S. Embassy in

Havana, the Trump administration has forced Cubans to travel to third countries for immigrant and non-immigrant visas — a trip few Cubans can afford. At the same time, the administration ended the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. The number of immigrant visas granted plunged by 90 percent. In March 2019, the Trump administration eliminated the five-year multiple entry visa for family travel, further reducing family visits.

The administration has also impeded family travel by eliminating commercial airline and charter flights to all Cuban cities except Havana. Although the rationale was to limit tourism, the regional flights were an important way for Cuban Americans to visit family, and for Cubans living outside of Havana to visit the United

States. This month, the administration went further, limiting the number of flights to Havana as well.

In 2019, the administration limited family remittances to $1,000 per quarter, and in March of this year, it blocked Western Union from handling remittances sent by Cuban diasporas outside the United States. Now, in the midst of a pandemic and the worst economic crisis in Cuba since the depression of the 1990s, the administration is threatening to cut off U.S. remittances as well.

There is a cruel cynicism to these actions. The administration has the authority to simply prohibit family travel and remittances, but such a visible attack on the well-being of Cuban families might stir Cuban American opposition and hurt Trump in November. Instead, the administration resorts to the subterfuge of lowprofile regulatory changes that generate few headlines but, taken together, have enormous impact on people’s well-being.

Cuban Americans in Florida narrowly supported Trump in 2016 and recent polls suggest their support has grown in response to his blustery promises of regime change. But as his policies push Cuban families into deeper misery, will Cuban Americans see past their anger at the Cuban regime, and rebel against the pain being inflicted on their relatives? The outcome of the November election may depend on it.