作为古巴 - 美国。关系解冻，汇款扼杀了新的紧张局势

When President Barack Obama announced plans to与古巴恢复外交关系并且简单地提供旅行和贸易限制，他认为美国可以通过参与的岛屿对岛国产生更大的影响而不是通过延续十年的外交和经济禁运。在至少一个方面，他似乎是对的。

古巴美洲人对被留下的亲属汇款正在培养越来越多的阶级和种族划分古巴分析师说。大多数钱都流向白古巴斯，他们更有可能在佛罗里达州拥有亲戚而不是他们的黑色同胞。

纽约市大学巴鲁奇学院的古巴私营部门专家Ted Henken说：“美国黑人人民不太可能移居“多年后，他们在国外的亲属越来越少，谁可以寄回汇款。”

Remittances to Cuba are now estimated at between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion a year, or roughly 1 to 2 percent of gross domestic product. More than 80 percent originates in the U.S., with most of the rest coming from Spain and Latin America. The total looks set to jump because the Obama administration has relaxed rules on remittances this year, allowing Americans to send four times as much money as before — up to $8,000 annually. That is a princely sum for a country where the per capita income is about $6,000 a year, based on the official exchange rate (and far less based on black market rates). Monthly salaries average only $20 at the black market rate, but that is mostly disposable income for Cubans because the state provides free housing, education and health care and subsidizes food prices.

Havana is increasingly sensitive to criticism that remittances are fueling a nascent business sector and fostering inequalities that Fidel Castro sought to eradicate with the socialist revolution of 1959. In several speeches, President Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother, has asserted that the regime’s objective is to create a “sustainable socialism.” Under tepid market-oriented reforms, the government has allowed small-scale private businesses and large hotel joint ventures to operate, hoping they will draw workers from the bloated state sector, generate new tax revenue and free up government resources for the benefit of the neediest Cubans.

但汇款受益于贫困人数较少。“这笔钱只占古巴人口的约20％，”一位以华盛顿州的智库为基础的华盛顿州的一名高级对话的高级研究员说。古巴学者估计，拟定白人的30％至40％被认为是白色的汇款，而只有5％到10％的黑人。

Whatever advantages Afro-Cubans may have received as a result of the revolution — in terms of access to jobs, housing, medical care and education — have diminished over the past quarter century. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 put an end to Soviet subsidies and trade benefits that had sustained Cuba, sending the economy into a tailspin. In recent years委内瑞拉had stepped into the breach to provide low-cost oil and other aid, but that country’s economic crisis has slashed that support as well. The economic squeeze helped persuade the Castro regime to seek to normalize relations with the U.S.

在哈瓦那社区可见收入差异不断增长的证据。在Vedado，以其20世纪早期的希腊复兴联排别墅而闻名，重新装修和重新粉刷外观标志着收到汇款的人的住所;大多数房屋都有变色的墙壁和下垂的门廊。越来越远，在旧商业社区的Centro Habana，较贫穷的家庭人群进入衰减，两层，19世纪的国家称为solares因为他们的内部庭院暴露在阳光下。

The most glaring urban poverty is found in the squatter settlements off eastern Havana Bay, known as Llega y Pon (“Come and Squat”). Wood, adobe and concrete shacks have sprouted over the past decade, with a jumble of wires illegally siphoning electricity from utility poles. The residents, many of them Afro-Cuban, fled the countryside and settled there without government permission in hopes of finding employment.

汇款的接受者也使用这笔钱进入业务。根据Oropco的研究，超过一半的企业使用的汇款被投资于床上和早餐的酒店，而被称为帕拉多斯，迎合外国游客 - 主要是加拿大人，欧洲人，越来越多，古巴美国人。大约40万古巴美洲人去年访问了古巴，或者在2008年的总数五次。他们载有大约一半的汇款;其余的是通过西联汇款和MoneyGram等汇款公司发送。

汇款业务对于大多数美国银行来说太小，无论如何他们声称哈瓦那和华盛顿需要在古巴开放商店之前澄清银行规则。“佛罗里达州国际银行家协会首席执行官David Schwartz说：”银行正在致力于焕发融化。“

上个月在迈阿密的协会会议上，若干金融机构的参与者对他们在古巴开展业务的许多障碍表示担忧：担心在哈瓦那不适当强制执行反洗钱法规，暴露他们自己的机构在华盛顿抵制不合规;担心送给个人或企业的钱可能被古巴的通讯银行吸收;并担心国会的共和党大多数人将拒绝预计到4月底的行政请求，以从赞助恐怖主义列表中删除古巴。

“只要古巴仍然存在于该清单上，银行将不愿意以任何方式行事，这些方式将以监管执法行动将其视为监管执法行动，”迈阿密的海洋银行和古巴银行研究组主任，董事Fernando Capabranca在古巴监控金融服务的非营利性实体。

不过,许多美国大型公司的前女友pressed interest in doing business with Cuba following President Obama’s call to restore full diplomatic relations. They include farm and construction equipment makers John Deere and Caterpillar, hotel manager Marriott International, agricultural commodities trader Cargill and food and beverage conglomerate Pepsico.

“银行将遵循重要的客户，”FIBA的Schwartz说。