Havana, May 16, (RHC)-- The Cuban Foreign Ministry issued a statement in reply to the announcements made by the Biden administration on Monday.

A statement posted on the Ministry's website said that the U.S. government announced several measures, positive but very limited in scope, concerning Cuba regarding visas, regular migration, flights to provinces, remittances, and adjustments to regulations for transactions with the non-state sector.

By their nature, added the statement, it is possible to identify some of President Biden's promises during the 2020 election campaign to alleviate inhumane decisions taken by President Trump's administration, which tightened the blockade to unprecedented levels and the policy of "maximum pressure" since then applied against the island.

The announcements do not modify the blockade at all, nor the main economic siege measures taken by Trump, such as the lists of entities subject to additional coercive measures, nor does it eliminate the travel bans on Americans.

The statement stressed that the new measures do not reverse either the arbitrary and fraudulent inclusion of Cuba on the State Department's list of countries that allegedly sponsor terrorism, one of the leading causes of the difficulties Cuba encounters in its commercial and financial transactions in many parts of the world.

The Foreign Ministry reiterated that the announced measures are a limited step in the right direction, a response to the rebuke of the Cuban people and government. It also responds to the calls of the U.S. society and Cubans living in that country. This has been a demand of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and of almost all the member states of the United Nations, expressed in the overwhelming vote against the blockade. The U.S. government has ignored these just demands at a very high cost to the Cuban population.

The text recalled that Since 2019, the blockade had been extremely tightened, opportunistically taking advantage of the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, the international crisis, and the consequent economic depression. Without exaggeration, the consequences of this siege can be described as devastating. The increase in migration is evidence of this, the statement argued.

In taking these limited steps, the Foreign Ministry noted how the State Department uses openly hostile language, accompanied by traditional slander and new fallacies that have become fashionable in recent months, demonstrating that neither the objectives of U.S. policy against Cuba nor its main tools have changed.

The Foreign Ministry cautioned that to know the real scope of this announcement, it will be necessary to wait for the publication of the implementing regulations.

The statement concluded by reiterating the Cuban government's willingness to initiate a respectful and equal dialogue with the Government of the United States, based on the U.N. Charter, without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for independence and sovereignty.