Alarm spreads among Cuban migrants due to the unfounded fear that the president-elect will restrict parcels
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, Miami, November 27, 2024 — Ramón had to wait more than four hours this Tuesday before being able to send a package to his family in Cuba from the Cubamax office in Miramar, in Broward, Florida. “It’s on fire, down hill without brakes,” he heard someone say after two hours. “It was the first time I saw it like that. It looked like a line in Havana, with people waiting inside and outside, standing and sitting on the sidewalk,” the young man, who emigrated to the United States three years ago via Nicaragua, explains to 14ymedio.
“There were people coming from other neighborhoods,” he continues. “A lady, for example, arrived from Miami Lakes, because, she argued, “the Cubamax of Hialeah can’t cope and the lines are worse than those here.” Inside the office, the space was large – 12 chairs plus the three customers who could be served at the same time. There was, Ramón continues, “a real mountain of packages everywhere. They filled the waiting room, because there was no more place to put them.”
It is common that every year at this time agencies such as Cubamax, Cuballama and Cuba Encarga have more customers, because Christmas is approaching. However, the reason in Broward this Tuesday was different. When Ramón was finally able to ask the employees, they replied: “Many people come and say that they have to take advantage now, because when Trump arrives in January, he will surely remove the shipments of packages and foreign exchange to Cuba.”
“The packages filled the waiting room, because there was no more place to put them”
The workers were somewhat outraged by this false news, the young man says. It is true that the president-elect has promised to tighten migration policies from the first day of his mandate on January 20, but he has said nothing about shipments. “People are very sick in the head, letting themselves be guided by TikTok videos,” said one of the employees. “Trump is not going to take anything away, and if he restricts packages, they’ll find a way to send them through a third country, even if it’s more expensive.”
On the other hand, one item is beginning to have success in these offices: power generators. In Cubamax, for example, they have an offer of 99 cents a pound when sending this type of device, only on Wednesdays. “I don’t understand how people keep sending them when it’s a hassle in Cuba to find fuel to get them going,” said María, a Cuban from Pinar del Río.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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