US expert forecasts changes towards Cuba

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5 February 2021

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Washington, Feb 5 (Prensa Latina) The United States will normalize travel, remittances and consular services with Cuba, according to Ric Herrero, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, cited by CNN.

'We anticipate that we are going to see a certain level of change in the relations between the United States and Cuba,' Herrero assured adding that many measures will be taken unilaterally.

Opening travel, removing limits on remittances and establishing consular services, among others, are the actions that Washington could take to open a process of rapprochement after the White House's Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced a review of several national security policies, including Cuba.

According to US media, the Biden administration began to replace officials of the team assigned to deal with Cuban affairs at the State Department, at a time when the president assesses changes in its policy towards Cuba.

Among the first actions is the appointment of Emily Mendrala as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in charge of Cuba and regional immigration; and Julie Chung as Acting Assistant Secretary of the same agency.

Mendrala was executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas from 2017 to 2021, and with that institution led educational travel delegations for members of Congress and political leaders to Cuba, Central America and the US-Mexico border.

According to US scholar William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University in Washington, D.C., the Democratic administration should not wait for Havana to take the initiative and it would be wise to take the first steps to reestablish ties, the sooner the better, he underscored.