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The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden condemned the new restriction imposed on sending remittances to Cuba as part of the offensive that President Donald Trump has maintained against the island.
In a statement, Biden's Florida campaign strategic advisor, Christian Ulvert, called President Trump's war on family remittances a cruel distraction.
In the statement released Wednesday, the Biden team member recalled that the U.S. company Western Union is the largest remittance service on the island, so its closure will hurt Cuban families, especially the elderly and most vulnerable.
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US Implements New Measure Against Sending Remittances to Cuba
"In the midst of a global pandemic in which families are suffering deeply on the island and around the world, President Trump is denying Cuban Americans the right to support their families," he added.
According to Ulvert, the supposed support that Trump says he is offering the Caribbean country's people is nothing more than empty rhetoric. "Both Americans and Cubans cannot afford four more years of weak leadership, empty words and broken promises from Trump," he noted.
The announcement by Biden's campaign, who will be the Republican leader's rival in next Tuesday's elections, comes after the US government announced on October 23 that it would eliminate the scope of certain general authorizations related to sending remittances to the Caribbean nation.
Joe Biden blasts Donald Trump’s Cuba policy in Miami visit https://t.co/3eo1Tff9fl
— MO (@marchionworld) October 29, 2020
The measure, which was published in the Federal Register on October 27 and will go into effect a month later, specifically covers any transaction related to the so-called Cuba Restricted List, a controversial State Department list containing more than 200 Cuban entities and sub-entities off-limits to U.S. citizens.
Among that controversial list is the financial institution Fincimex, the Cuban counterpart of the money transfer company Western Union.
In a statement released this week on its official Facebook page, Fincimex stated that Western Union would close its 407 payment points distributed throughout the country because of these brutal provisions.
Earlier this month, during a visit to Miami, Florida, Biden criticized Trump's stance on Cuba and spoke out in favor of a new policy toward the Greater Antilles.
At the time, the Democrat argued that Trump's hard-line approach to the island is not working while hurting families in the Caribbean nation. He rejected several of the Republican's earlier measures, including previous restrictions on remittances.
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