A man waves a Cuban flag at a protest in Havana against persistent food shortages and the Cuban government on July 11.
(AFP via Getty Images)
COLUMNIST AUG. 5, 2021
President Biden should not let Cuban American elites — who are not representative of the Cuban people — dictate his policies toward the island.
Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and others have criticized the Biden administration’s continuing review of Trump’s restrictions on remittances to Cuba.
Those leaders are well-fed, well-off and white, compared with the average Cuban. About 86% of Cuban Americans identify as white, but two-thirds of Cubans in Cuba are Afro or mixed — a consequence of the fact that the first Cuban émigrés to the U.S. were mostly affluent whites. Although this historically meant remittances benefited émigrés’ privileged relatives, more recent Afro Cuban immigrants in the U.S. have been helping relatives back home, too.
Biden says he favors letting Cuban Americans financially support relatives again but wants to make sure the Cuban military doesn’t take a cut. Remittances have long been a top source of income in Cuba, totaling $3.7 billion in 2019 and flowing largely through Western Union. Last fall, Western Union closed its 407 offices in Cuba because the Trump administration banned money from going to firms working with Cuban military-controlled companies. Western Union partners with Fincimex, a military-controlled agency, and a small fraction of remittance transaction fees ended up with the Cuban military.
The voices of comfortable Cuban Americans who oppose remittances because they loathe Cuba’s Communist leaders should not drown out the cries for food and medicine from Cubans. In last month’s historic protests, thousands chanted “patria y vida” — homeland and life — a hopeful reclamation of the Communist Party’s slogan, “patria o muerte,” meaning homeland or death.
Afro Cubans were front and center in the protests, and created the viral song, “Patria y Vida,” that inspired the chants. Biden should listen to them more than white Cuban elites in Florida and other parts of the U.S.
Biden was right to condemn the Cuban government’s repressive response, including hundreds of brutal arrests and an internet blackout. But his paralysis on reversing Trump’s cruel sanctions, a campaign promise, is concerning.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba, which dates back to 1962 and prohibits U.S. companies from doing business on the island, has failed to drive political change. We have 60 years of evidence that it has only worsened hunger and misery — and provided Cuba’s government with a perennial excuse for its failures. Trump’s decision to starve Cubans of remittances is more of the same.
“The U.S. has been tightening screws hoping that just one more turn of the screwdriver would somehow break the regime,” Manuel Pastor, a Cuban American professor of sociology at USC, told me. He says lifting sanctions would help the private sector and fuel a countervailing power to the Communist Party.
Many historians believe lifting sanctions, especially Trump’s remittance ban, would empower locals against the Cuban government. When Obama eased restrictions and boosted travel to Cuba, it exposed locals to a different way of life and politics. But, Pastor adds, this angers those Cuban Americans who have a “shared groupthink that you need to be tough on the Castro regime.”
Ada Ferrer, a Cuban American professor of history at New York University and author of the forthcoming “Cuba: An American History,” argues that Biden should expedite the remittance review. “The litmus test should not be that the Cuban government can get no money, because that’s just impossible,” she told me. “The Cuban government owns almost every store on the island.”
I spoke with Emily Mendrala, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, about the Biden administration’s remittance review. “There is a plan to work very quickly through the month of August and to have options ready to present in a matter of weeks,” she said.
I asked her if Biden’s hands would be tied by politics, since 58% of Cuban American registered voters lean Republican. (Republican-leaning Cubans are more likely to support harsh policies toward Cuba.) “I’m not going to prejudge the outcome of the working group, but President Biden’s overarching goals are clear,” Mendrala replied, citing Biden’s desire to let families support one another.
But many are losing patience with Biden’s pace given intense suffering in Cuba. Carlos Lazo, a Cuban American activist I spoke with, has been struggling to send money to his aunt. He accused Biden of “pandering to the most conservative sector of the Cuban American community.”
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) are urging Biden to stop hesitating on remittances. “The most important priority at the moment is to respond to the suffering of the Cuban people,” Lee said in an emailed statement, adding that Biden “should quickly lift all restrictions and caps of family and donative remittances,” and a number of other sanctions.
McGovern said it’s hard to reconcile Biden today with the man who once promoted Obama’s loosened restrictions as a way to help the Cuban people. He added: “As of right now, I can’t tell the difference between Trump’s policies on Cuba and Biden’s policies on Cuba, and I hope that changes.”
Conservatives have seized on the Cuban government’s smashing of recent protests to argue for maintaining the six-decade-old status quo. Of course, that won’t bring democracy to the island or help protesters crying out for change. Biden needs to break from the decades-long U.S. cycle of backing right-wing interests on Latin America and Caribbean policy at the expense Afro and Indigenous people. Latino voters who helped elect him — including Cuban Americans outside of Florida — are waiting for him to do the right thing.
@jeanguerre
President Biden should not let Cuban American elites — who are not representative of the Cuban people — dictate his policies toward the island.
Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and others have criticized the Biden administration’s continuing review of Trump’s restrictions on remittances to Cuba.
Those leaders are well-fed, well-off and white, compared with the average Cuban. About 86% of Cuban Americans identify as white, but two-thirds of Cubans in Cuba are Afro or mixed — a consequence of the fact that the first Cuban émigrés to the U.S. were mostly affluent whites. Although this historically meant remittances benefited émigrés’ privileged relatives, more recent Afro Cuban immigrants in the U.S. have been helping relatives back home, too.
Biden says he favors letting Cuban Americans financially support relatives again but wants to make sure the Cuban military doesn’t take a cut. Remittances have long been a top source of income in Cuba, totaling $3.7 billion in 2019 and flowing largely through Western Union. Last fall, Western Union closed its 407 offices in Cuba because the Trump administration banned money from going to firms working with Cuban military-controlled companies. Western Union partners with Fincimex, a military-controlled agency, and a small fraction of remittance transaction fees ended up with the Cuban military.
The voices of comfortable Cuban Americans who oppose remittances because they loathe Cuba’s Communist leaders should not drown out the cries for food and medicine from Cubans. In last month’s historic protests, thousands chanted “patria y vida” — homeland and life — a hopeful reclamation of the Communist Party’s slogan, “patria o muerte,” meaning homeland or death.
Afro Cubans were front and center in the protests, and created the viral song, “Patria y Vida,” that inspired the chants. Biden should listen to them more than white Cuban elites in Florida and other parts of the U.S.
Biden was right to condemn the Cuban government’s repressive response, including hundreds of brutal arrests and an internet blackout. But his paralysis on reversing Trump’s cruel sanctions, a campaign promise, is concerning.
The U.S. embargo against Cuba, which dates back to 1962 and prohibits U.S. companies from doing business on the island, has failed to drive political change. We have 60 years of evidence that it has only worsened hunger and misery — and provided Cuba’s government with a perennial excuse for its failures. Trump’s decision to starve Cubans of remittances is more of the same.
“The U.S. has been tightening screws hoping that just one more turn of the screwdriver would somehow break the regime,” Manuel Pastor, a Cuban American professor of sociology at USC, told me. He says lifting sanctions would help the private sector and fuel a countervailing power to the Communist Party.
Many historians believe lifting sanctions, especially Trump’s remittance ban, would empower locals against the Cuban government. When Obama eased restrictions and boosted travel to Cuba, it exposed locals to a different way of life and politics. But, Pastor adds, this angers those Cuban Americans who have a “shared groupthink that you need to be tough on the Castro regime.”
Ada Ferrer, a Cuban American professor of history at New York University and author of the forthcoming “Cuba: An American History,” argues that Biden should expedite the remittance review. “The litmus test should not be that the Cuban government can get no money, because that’s just impossible,” she told me. “The Cuban government owns almost every store on the island.”
I spoke with Emily Mendrala, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, about the Biden administration’s remittance review. “There is a plan to work very quickly through the month of August and to have options ready to present in a matter of weeks,” she said.
I asked her if Biden’s hands would be tied by politics, since 58% of Cuban American registered voters lean Republican. (Republican-leaning Cubans are more likely to support harsh policies toward Cuba.) “I’m not going to prejudge the outcome of the working group, but President Biden’s overarching goals are clear,” Mendrala replied, citing Biden’s desire to let families support one another.
But many are losing patience with Biden’s pace given intense suffering in Cuba. Carlos Lazo, a Cuban American activist I spoke with, has been struggling to send money to his aunt. He accused Biden of “pandering to the most conservative sector of the Cuban American community.”
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) are urging Biden to stop hesitating on remittances. “The most important priority at the moment is to respond to the suffering of the Cuban people,” Lee said in an emailed statement, adding that Biden “should quickly lift all restrictions and caps of family and donative remittances,” and a number of other sanctions.
McGovern said it’s hard to reconcile Biden today with the man who once promoted Obama’s loosened restrictions as a way to help the Cuban people. He added: “As of right now, I can’t tell the difference between Trump’s policies on Cuba and Biden’s policies on Cuba, and I hope that changes.”
Conservatives have seized on the Cuban government’s smashing of recent protests to argue for maintaining the six-decade-old status quo. Of course, that won’t bring democracy to the island or help protesters crying out for change. Biden needs to break from the decades-long U.S. cycle of backing right-wing interests on Latin America and Caribbean policy at the expense Afro and Indigenous people. Latino voters who helped elect him — including Cuban Americans outside of Florida — are waiting for him to do the right thing.
@jeanguerre
VCG
AUGUST 2, 2021
Bobby Naderi
Editor's note: Bobby Naderi is a London-based journalist, guest contributor in print, radio and television, and documentary filmmaker. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
The United States government insists that it has the moral authority to impose sanctions on the Cuban police force and its leaders in response to the Havana government's crackdown on protesters. There always seems to be some reason that makes the next act of targeting Cuba necessary and appropriate. That's because President Joe Biden has promised Cuban-American leaders more actions are coming.
The U.S. Treasury Department says the new sanctions, which appear to be largely political and symbolic, are a reaction to actions to suppress peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba that began on July 11. This is while the continued economic warfare is completely at odds with the principles of the UN Charter which highlights "the right to self-determination."
Furthermore, the protests, social divide and violence have come due to persistent U.S. politics of economic asphyxiation and the fact that Washington wants to choke Havana for challenging its self-declared monopoly over human existence.
The delusion that ban is good
Trade embargo is hardly a new tactic in American geopolitics and it's just as dangerous today. What this means in reality is that it's a lie that sanctions are one set of tools in Washington's broader effort toward Cuba to advance democracy, promote respect for human rights and help the Cuban people exercise fundamental freedoms.
Thanks to the unwarranted embargo, Cuba is still unable to import staple foods and medicines. This goes against UN resolutions that reaffirm non-intervention and non-interference. The UN has identified such measures as adversely affecting Cuban people and blaming the embargo for shortage of life-saving medicines and staple foods.
Biden faces a key Cuba-related decision: to side with the UN and global community in the interests of America or go beyond the bounds of international morality and law, stay in the abyss of embargo and view it as a tool of power and influence, and listen to lobby groups whose stated agenda is to provoke Cuba and escalate toward a costly confrontation.
The U.S. is attempting to isolate the island nation from almost all international trade. This has caused shortages of food, medicines, energy and spare parts for basic infrastructure, including water and power grid. The unintended negative impact the embargo has had through both direct and indirect impacts cannot be ignored.
The most obvious are restrictions on the importation of certain items that are necessary for agricultural production, in particular fuel, machinery and spare parts. The draconian sanctions deliberately target these sectors with devastating impacts. They gravely exacerbate any economic mismanagement, contributing to a catastrophic fall in food production, hyperinflation, economic collapse and rising mortality.
Andres Jimenez, a retired state worker who makes masks to sell in his neighborhood, helps a girl wear face mask as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus in Havana, Cuba, March 31, 2020. /AP
A history lesson ignored
The fierce sanctions against Cuba are an outright failure that are harming U.S. economic and geopolitical interests. This should lead Washington to wonder whether its favorite economic power tool has been so overused that it's becoming ineffective and counterproductive.
The colonial policy is in direct contravention of UN resolutions and principles that call on Washington to lift the economic, commercial and financial restrictions in place for several decades. As highlighted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, it's about "an economic war of extraterritorial scope against a small country already affected in the recent period by the economic crisis derived from the pandemic."
One might expect that other countries would now sidestep the unilateral sanctions, but the beltway in Washington has threatened to penalize foreign companies that violate them. It has used the dollar's global clout as a bludgeon, threatening to sanction foreign banks that finance trade with Cuba.
Despite the intense economic pain inflicted on Cuban people, Havana has never succumbed to U.S. demands. Sanctions have proved to be no more successful than military occupation and intervention in Guantanamo. The blockade has been implemented by presidential decree, with almost no public debate and no systematic oversight. Biden realizes that he can impose more restrictions with almost no direct costs to American public, and with virtually no political or international accountability in any fashion for any of it.
To be sure, no matter how hard Washington peddles obvious and verifiable lies, breaks or disregards domestic and international laws, and uses intimidation to gain power and profit with impunity, the fierce blockade enacted against Cuba is still subject to international law, including UN oversight. The economic war is similar in function and outcome to military war, with inhumane consequences for civilians.
In this time of troubles for us all, the UN is expected to exercise its power, authority and responsibility to stop the unwarranted, unlawful and immoral behavior of the United States and secure the future of Cubans. The UN will go a long way if it takes up the fierce policy of embargo and weighs it against the requirements of international and humanitarian laws. It's the only way to defend the truth and defeat the lies.
Bobby Naderi
Editor's note: Bobby Naderi is a London-based journalist, guest contributor in print, radio and television, and documentary filmmaker. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
The United States government insists that it has the moral authority to impose sanctions on the Cuban police force and its leaders in response to the Havana government's crackdown on protesters. There always seems to be some reason that makes the next act of targeting Cuba necessary and appropriate. That's because President Joe Biden has promised Cuban-American leaders more actions are coming.
The U.S. Treasury Department says the new sanctions, which appear to be largely political and symbolic, are a reaction to actions to suppress peaceful, pro-democratic protests in Cuba that began on July 11. This is while the continued economic warfare is completely at odds with the principles of the UN Charter which highlights "the right to self-determination."
Furthermore, the protests, social divide and violence have come due to persistent U.S. politics of economic asphyxiation and the fact that Washington wants to choke Havana for challenging its self-declared monopoly over human existence.
The delusion that ban is good
Trade embargo is hardly a new tactic in American geopolitics and it's just as dangerous today. What this means in reality is that it's a lie that sanctions are one set of tools in Washington's broader effort toward Cuba to advance democracy, promote respect for human rights and help the Cuban people exercise fundamental freedoms.
Thanks to the unwarranted embargo, Cuba is still unable to import staple foods and medicines. This goes against UN resolutions that reaffirm non-intervention and non-interference. The UN has identified such measures as adversely affecting Cuban people and blaming the embargo for shortage of life-saving medicines and staple foods.
Biden faces a key Cuba-related decision: to side with the UN and global community in the interests of America or go beyond the bounds of international morality and law, stay in the abyss of embargo and view it as a tool of power and influence, and listen to lobby groups whose stated agenda is to provoke Cuba and escalate toward a costly confrontation.
The U.S. is attempting to isolate the island nation from almost all international trade. This has caused shortages of food, medicines, energy and spare parts for basic infrastructure, including water and power grid. The unintended negative impact the embargo has had through both direct and indirect impacts cannot be ignored.
The most obvious are restrictions on the importation of certain items that are necessary for agricultural production, in particular fuel, machinery and spare parts. The draconian sanctions deliberately target these sectors with devastating impacts. They gravely exacerbate any economic mismanagement, contributing to a catastrophic fall in food production, hyperinflation, economic collapse and rising mortality.
Andres Jimenez, a retired state worker who makes masks to sell in his neighborhood, helps a girl wear face mask as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus in Havana, Cuba, March 31, 2020. /AP
A history lesson ignored
The fierce sanctions against Cuba are an outright failure that are harming U.S. economic and geopolitical interests. This should lead Washington to wonder whether its favorite economic power tool has been so overused that it's becoming ineffective and counterproductive.
The colonial policy is in direct contravention of UN resolutions and principles that call on Washington to lift the economic, commercial and financial restrictions in place for several decades. As highlighted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, it's about "an economic war of extraterritorial scope against a small country already affected in the recent period by the economic crisis derived from the pandemic."
One might expect that other countries would now sidestep the unilateral sanctions, but the beltway in Washington has threatened to penalize foreign companies that violate them. It has used the dollar's global clout as a bludgeon, threatening to sanction foreign banks that finance trade with Cuba.
Despite the intense economic pain inflicted on Cuban people, Havana has never succumbed to U.S. demands. Sanctions have proved to be no more successful than military occupation and intervention in Guantanamo. The blockade has been implemented by presidential decree, with almost no public debate and no systematic oversight. Biden realizes that he can impose more restrictions with almost no direct costs to American public, and with virtually no political or international accountability in any fashion for any of it.
To be sure, no matter how hard Washington peddles obvious and verifiable lies, breaks or disregards domestic and international laws, and uses intimidation to gain power and profit with impunity, the fierce blockade enacted against Cuba is still subject to international law, including UN oversight. The economic war is similar in function and outcome to military war, with inhumane consequences for civilians.
In this time of troubles for us all, the UN is expected to exercise its power, authority and responsibility to stop the unwarranted, unlawful and immoral behavior of the United States and secure the future of Cubans. The UN will go a long way if it takes up the fierce policy of embargo and weighs it against the requirements of international and humanitarian laws. It's the only way to defend the truth and defeat the lies.
As Progressives Call for End to Blockade, Biden Announces More Sanctions Against Cuba
The move comes after Democratic leadership in the House blocked an amendment to roll back limits on how much money people in the United States can send to family on the island nation.
A Cuban takes part in a rally calling for the end of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, in Santa Clara, Villa Clara Province, on April 25, 2021. (Photo: Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
JESSICA CORBETT
Benjamin is among hundreds of academics, activists, artists, clergy, musicians, politicians, and other public figures who have signed a public appeal to Biden calling on him to immediately lift Trump's 243 unilateral and additional sanctions.
The open letter urging Biden to "Let Cuba Live!" appeared as an advertisement in last Friday's edition of The New York Times and as symbolically represented in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Square that same morning.
The letter encourages the U.S. president to "reject the cruel policies put into place by the Trump White House that have created so much suffering among the Cuban people," emphasizing that "while the Covid-19 pandemic has proven challenging for all countries, it has been even more so for a small island under the heavy weight of an economic embargo."
"We find it unconscionable, especially during a pandemic, to intentionally block remittances and Cuba's use of global financial institutions, given that access to dollars is necessary for the importation of food and medicine," the letter says, calling on Biden to "begin the process of ending the embargo and fully normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba."
Last month, continuing a nearly three-decade trend, 184 members of the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution demanding an end to the U.S. blockade on Cuba. Only the United States and Israel voted against it, while Brazil, Colombia, and Ukraine abstained.
"The embargo is not only illegal and inhumane," Progressive International said at the time. "It is incredibly unpopular."
The move comes after Democratic leadership in the House blocked an amendment to roll back limits on how much money people in the United States can send to family on the island nation.
A Cuban takes part in a rally calling for the end of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, in Santa Clara, Villa Clara Province, on April 25, 2021. (Photo: Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images)
JESSICA CORBETT
July 30, 2021
While President Joe Biden campaigned on a pledge to reverse the "failed" policies of his predecessor that "inflicted harm on Cubans and their families," his administration—already under mounting pressure from progressives to deliver on that promise—announced new sanctions against Cuba on Friday.
Following Cubans' recent protests over shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials during the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cuba's main law enforcement body, Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR), as well as its director and deputy director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce and Eddy Sierra Arias.
The Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the moves that "the Cuban regime deployed the PNR… to suppress and attack protesters." In the midst of these protests, progressives have highlighted the role of the United States' decadeslong blockade, and called out U.S. media for how it has handled that history and its present-day effects.
"Cuba has a population of 11 million people. The protests pale in comparison, both in terms of turnout and in state repression, to mass mobilizations that have rocked Colombia, Haiti, Chile, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries over the past few years—or even Portland, Oregon, or Ferguson, Missouri," Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores of the U.S. anti-war group CodePink wrote for Common Dreams this month. "Moreover, U.S. media have paid little attention to the counterprotesters, who have gone out into the streets to express their support for the government and Cuban Revolution."
Benjamin and Flores continued:
The protests should also be understood in the context of a brutal economic war waged by the United States against the island nation for more than 60 years. This was laid out clearly by the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 1960, when he explicitly called for "denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government." This strategy has failed in its goal of regime change for decades, and it is unlikely to be successful now.
...While the blockade has been in place for over six decades, it was tightened in significant ways under the Trump administration's policy of "maximum pressure." This strategy targeted Cuba's tourism, energy, and other key economic sectors. It even restricted the amounts of money Cuban Americans can send home and closed the Cuban branches of Western Union, the main vehicle for sending remittances. These policies have had a disastrous impact on the Cuban economy, especially when the Covid-induced shutdown of the tourist industry has deprived the island of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. For its part, the Biden administration has been "reviewing" its Cuba policy for six months, all the while continuing Trump's strategy of economic warfare that is designed precisely to create the shortages Cubans are now experiencing.
As Belén Fernández put it in a piece for Al Jazeera on Thursday: "Cuba's dire situation has just about everything to do with United States interference… particularly the six-decades-long blockade that, under international law, technically qualifies as an act of war."
"Although mainstream articles do often mention U.S. sanctions," Fernández wrote of U.S. newspapers, "they almost never convey their comprehensively asphyxiating nature—context without which none of Cuba's contemporary history can begin to be understood."
The Biden administration's new sanctions come after Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked an amendment from Rep. Jesús G. "Chuy" García to roll back Trump's $1,000-per-quarter limit on remittances that people in the United States can send to family in Cuba.
"The United States has no business preventing Cuban Americans from sending lifesaving remittances to their families, especially while so many lack adequate food, water, and medicine," García told The Nation. "We must end our decadeslong blockade against Cuba, which has led to desperation instead of democracy. Restoring remittances is an important first step."
Noting that Trump not only restricted remittances, but also tightened sanctions and barred most travel to Cuba, The Nation reported Wednesday, before the Treasury Department's latest announcement:
Now, after months of ignoring Cuba, Biden has embraced Trump's approach, slapping on additional sanctions last week and defying the progressive voices in his party calling for relief.
Biden's tougher line on Cuba, and congressional Democrats' complicity, is better understood in the context of domestic politics, not foreign policy. It's largely driven by the desire to placate Cuban Americans in Florida, who weren't planning on voting Democratic in the first place. Most Cuban American voters nationwide identify as Republican, a 2020 Pew Research Center study found. And for years now, Republicans have outperformed Democrats in Florida on things like ground game and voter registration. So Democrats hold relief hostage, inflicting pain on countless ordinary Cubans in the process, for political gain that doesn't actually materialize.
A senior Biden administration official told CNN that along with the new sanctions—on top of those announced last week—the U.S. government is pursuing new "efforts to improve internet connectivity" on the island, and the president was set to discuss both topics in a meeting with Cuban-American leaders.
CodePink's Benjamin, in a Friday tweet about the latest sanctions, nodded to the argument that the Biden administration's policies are intended to appease Democrats in South Florida.
While President Joe Biden campaigned on a pledge to reverse the "failed" policies of his predecessor that "inflicted harm on Cubans and their families," his administration—already under mounting pressure from progressives to deliver on that promise—announced new sanctions against Cuba on Friday.
Following Cubans' recent protests over shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials during the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cuba's main law enforcement body, Policía Nacional Revolucionaria (PNR), as well as its director and deputy director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce and Eddy Sierra Arias.
The Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the moves that "the Cuban regime deployed the PNR… to suppress and attack protesters." In the midst of these protests, progressives have highlighted the role of the United States' decadeslong blockade, and called out U.S. media for how it has handled that history and its present-day effects.
"Cuba has a population of 11 million people. The protests pale in comparison, both in terms of turnout and in state repression, to mass mobilizations that have rocked Colombia, Haiti, Chile, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries over the past few years—or even Portland, Oregon, or Ferguson, Missouri," Medea Benjamin and Leonardo Flores of the U.S. anti-war group CodePink wrote for Common Dreams this month. "Moreover, U.S. media have paid little attention to the counterprotesters, who have gone out into the streets to express their support for the government and Cuban Revolution."
Benjamin and Flores continued:
The protests should also be understood in the context of a brutal economic war waged by the United States against the island nation for more than 60 years. This was laid out clearly by the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 1960, when he explicitly called for "denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government." This strategy has failed in its goal of regime change for decades, and it is unlikely to be successful now.
...While the blockade has been in place for over six decades, it was tightened in significant ways under the Trump administration's policy of "maximum pressure." This strategy targeted Cuba's tourism, energy, and other key economic sectors. It even restricted the amounts of money Cuban Americans can send home and closed the Cuban branches of Western Union, the main vehicle for sending remittances. These policies have had a disastrous impact on the Cuban economy, especially when the Covid-induced shutdown of the tourist industry has deprived the island of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. For its part, the Biden administration has been "reviewing" its Cuba policy for six months, all the while continuing Trump's strategy of economic warfare that is designed precisely to create the shortages Cubans are now experiencing.
As Belén Fernández put it in a piece for Al Jazeera on Thursday: "Cuba's dire situation has just about everything to do with United States interference… particularly the six-decades-long blockade that, under international law, technically qualifies as an act of war."
"Although mainstream articles do often mention U.S. sanctions," Fernández wrote of U.S. newspapers, "they almost never convey their comprehensively asphyxiating nature—context without which none of Cuba's contemporary history can begin to be understood."
The Biden administration's new sanctions come after Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked an amendment from Rep. Jesús G. "Chuy" García to roll back Trump's $1,000-per-quarter limit on remittances that people in the United States can send to family in Cuba.
"The United States has no business preventing Cuban Americans from sending lifesaving remittances to their families, especially while so many lack adequate food, water, and medicine," García told The Nation. "We must end our decadeslong blockade against Cuba, which has led to desperation instead of democracy. Restoring remittances is an important first step."
Noting that Trump not only restricted remittances, but also tightened sanctions and barred most travel to Cuba, The Nation reported Wednesday, before the Treasury Department's latest announcement:
Now, after months of ignoring Cuba, Biden has embraced Trump's approach, slapping on additional sanctions last week and defying the progressive voices in his party calling for relief.
Biden's tougher line on Cuba, and congressional Democrats' complicity, is better understood in the context of domestic politics, not foreign policy. It's largely driven by the desire to placate Cuban Americans in Florida, who weren't planning on voting Democratic in the first place. Most Cuban American voters nationwide identify as Republican, a 2020 Pew Research Center study found. And for years now, Republicans have outperformed Democrats in Florida on things like ground game and voter registration. So Democrats hold relief hostage, inflicting pain on countless ordinary Cubans in the process, for political gain that doesn't actually materialize.
A senior Biden administration official told CNN that along with the new sanctions—on top of those announced last week—the U.S. government is pursuing new "efforts to improve internet connectivity" on the island, and the president was set to discuss both topics in a meeting with Cuban-American leaders.
CodePink's Benjamin, in a Friday tweet about the latest sanctions, nodded to the argument that the Biden administration's policies are intended to appease Democrats in South Florida.
Benjamin is among hundreds of academics, activists, artists, clergy, musicians, politicians, and other public figures who have signed a public appeal to Biden calling on him to immediately lift Trump's 243 unilateral and additional sanctions.
The open letter urging Biden to "Let Cuba Live!" appeared as an advertisement in last Friday's edition of The New York Times and as symbolically represented in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Square that same morning.
The letter encourages the U.S. president to "reject the cruel policies put into place by the Trump White House that have created so much suffering among the Cuban people," emphasizing that "while the Covid-19 pandemic has proven challenging for all countries, it has been even more so for a small island under the heavy weight of an economic embargo."
"We find it unconscionable, especially during a pandemic, to intentionally block remittances and Cuba's use of global financial institutions, given that access to dollars is necessary for the importation of food and medicine," the letter says, calling on Biden to "begin the process of ending the embargo and fully normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba."
Last month, continuing a nearly three-decade trend, 184 members of the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution demanding an end to the U.S. blockade on Cuba. Only the United States and Israel voted against it, while Brazil, Colombia, and Ukraine abstained.
"The embargo is not only illegal and inhumane," Progressive International said at the time. "It is incredibly unpopular."
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