Cuban People face scrutiny for sending items again to the island : NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Many individuals world wide dwell partially on remittances, cash despatched house from their relations who moved to the U.S. Cuba is a particular case. Cuban People in Miami have lengthy been transport packages to relations on the island who can not afford primary items, and now that lifeline is underneath strain. David Ovalle studies.

DAVID OVALLE: Leonardo Merida outlets at No Que Barato, a reduction retailer in Hialeah, Florida. As Latin music blares within the retailer, he outlets for his sister.

LEONARDO MERIDA: Like sleeping garments, batas de casas, like this type of stuff, which is straightforward for her, like, when she takes a shower to fall asleep in as a result of it is sizzling in Cuba.

OVALLE: His sister lives in Cuba. A lot of what they promote right here is supposed for individuals like her. You should purchase photo voltaic panel lamps, mosquito nets and mills, like one Merida already despatched to his household.

MERIDA: To allow them to sleep at evening with their followers and in addition get them gentle.

OVALLE: Cuba is combating rolling blackouts prompted by U.S. restrictions on gasoline. Commerce has largely collapsed. Trash piles up on the streets. It is a high-stakes push for regime change. It is also heightened the urgency for humanitarian assist to Cuba. U.S. legislation permits for such assist.

MICHAEL BUSTAMANTE: Merchandise on the market in Cuban shops are simply priced vastly out of proportion.

OVALLE: Michael Bustamante is a historian and Cuba skilled on the College of Miami. He says a carton of eggs has grow to be nearly unaffordable and will go for as a lot as 1,500 Cuban pesos.

BUSTAMANTE: My cousin’s pension from 30 years as a pharmacist is 2,000 pesos a month. So that offers you a way of the reliance of the Cuban financial system proper now on these sorts of parcels and presents from the skin.

OVALLE: I am at Fast Multiservice in a bustling strip mall in Hialeah. Right here, clients are lugging in large luggage of products to ship to members of the family in Cuba.

MARISOL GUERRA: Milk. Espresso.

OVALLE: Marisol Guerra and her husband watch a employee wrap a field sure for relations in Havana. They fled Cuba two years in the past and work odd jobs to maintain their Cuba relations provided with staples.

GUERRA: Soup. Some medicines.

OVALLE: Companies like these have grow to be a thorny topic in Miami. Some hard-line exiles say that the communist authorities advantages financially from some shipments. Native officers, together with Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo, have introduced extra scrutiny of firms that do enterprise with Cuba.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRIAN CALVO: Florida statute permits us, as a municipal authorities, and my colleagues within the different municipalities to revoke or to droop companies supporting the Cuban dictatorship.

OVALLE: That is not fairly the case for the low cost retailer No Que Barato. Right here, Merida is shopping for some laminated Catholic prayer playing cards, that includes Evictus, the saint of pressing causes. They’re additionally for his 46-year-old sister in Cuba. The rationale – she has most cancers.

MERIDA: They usually do not hardly have any medicines in there, so I’ve to succeed in as much as the heavens to see if God maintain us.

OVALLE: He welcomes the Trump administration’s efforts at regime change in Cuba and hopes it’s going to occur quickly.

For NPR Information, I am David Ovalle in Miami.

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might fluctuate. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.