On the 10th anniversary of Obama’s inauguration, the outgoing president must take immediate action because it’s good for the U.S., good for the Cuban people — and rightly so.
On November 15, just one week into the final phase of Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House, the president received strong letter to Congress urging him to take “immediate action” to provide critical humanitarian and energy assistance to Cuba. “The Cuban people are currently facing widespread blackouts and an escalating energy crisis,” said the letter, co-authored by Reps. Barbara Lee and James McGovern, along with eight other signatories. “The situation not only causes immense suffering to the Cuban people, but also poses serious risks to US national security interests,” they wrote. “If left unchecked, the crisis will almost certainly fuel increased migration, strain US border management systems, and completely destabilize an already tense Caribbean region.”
To date, there has been no response from the Biden White House. But last week during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testified that “I do not expect any change in our policy toward Cuba during the adjournment of this administration.” Despite the president’s promise during the 2020 campaign that he would restore the historic US policy of normalizing relations that Barack Obama announced 10 years ago, Biden’s legacy in Cuba looks set to be one of disillusionment and inaction. irritation – leaving the previous Trump administration’s hostile and punitive policies in place, and allowing the next Trump administration to rapidly escalate its stance on regime change toward Cuba after January 20, 2025.
The breakthrough of Obama and Biden
Four years ago, few in the political establishment and the community of Cuban political supporters could have foreseen this ominous outcome. Expectations were high that the incoming Biden administration would restore the successful process of positive engagement that was developed by the Obama and Biden administrations and destroyed by Trump. After all, Biden was present at the creation of Obama’s history-changing de-escalation of tensions with Cuba; the then-Vice President was one of the few senior White House officials who knew about the secret talks with Raúl Castro’s government that Obama allowed to finally come to fruition lifestyle with Cuba.
These secret negotiations were conducted by two officials of the National Security Council. Benjamin Rodas and Ricardo Zúñiga, along with Raúl Castro’s son, Major Alejandro Castro, and another Cuban soldier, spent 18 months leading to the historic breakthrough on December 17, 2014. On that dramatic day exactly 10 years ago, which Cubans symbolically call “diez y siete d”—17 D—Obama and Raúl Castro announced an agreement to end the irritation of the past and normalize diplomatic relations. Just two weeks later, Biden attended the inauguration of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, where, one White House aide recalled, he was thanked by one Latin American leader after another for normalizing US bilateral relations with Cuba.
As Biden knows, the de-escalation of US tensions with Cuba was a significant success for the interests of both countries. The Obama administration moved quickly to remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of international terrorism, officially reopen embassies in Washington and Havana, lift restrictions on money transfers, resume commercial flights to the island, and ease travel restrictions so US citizens can to see for himself the realities of Cuba and to expand trade, commerce and the presence of American businesses on the island. The influx of travelers and businesses like Airbnb have contributed significantly to the Cuban economy, particularly in the expansion of Cuba’s entrepreneurial private sector. The two countries also advanced mutual security interests by establishing a bilateral commission to oversee cooperation on key issues such as counter-narcotics operations, counter-terrorism cooperation, natural disaster management and normalization of migration. In less than two years, Washington and Havana have signed 23 bilateral agreements to advance these issues through mutual cooperation.
Current issue
Trump’s regression
Obama’s engagement proved so successful that an interagency national security review conducted in the first months of the Trump administration concluded that the policy should continue. “(T)he response was sent to Trump with a recommendation to maintain Obama’s commitment to normalizing relations with Cuba,” Foreign policy reported in 2017 “He abandoned the idea after campaigning to accommodate new policies to Cuban-American hardliners.” During his first administration, Trump systematically dismantled the Obama-Biden de-escalation policies with Cuba, replacing them with dozens of harsh punitive sanctions, including a freeze on remittances during the pandemic, which have taken a heavy toll on Cuba’s economy and its people. Violating the rights of US citizens to freely visit Cuba, Trump canceled flights, banned cruise ships and created Restricted objects list.— hotels, restaurants, bars and businesses that US travelers can no longer legally patronize. Just seven days before leaving office, Trump falsely designated Cuba as a state sponsor of international terrorism, imposing even more economic sanctions on the island.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden stated this “pretty much I would go back” to the era of Obama’s engagement with Cuba. He recognized the benefits of such an approach for the Cuban people and for US relations in the hemisphere. “It’s about more than Cuba,” he noted, “it’s about the entire Caribbean and all our friends and allies in Latin America.”
But since Biden’s inauguration, his administration has taken little action to lift Trump’s sanctions and restore Obama’s policy of normalizing relations. After nearly three years of inexplicable delays during the pandemic, the Treasury Department has finally restored Western Union service in Cuba and the ability of Cuban-Americans to send critically needed remittances to their relatives on the island; Biden also restored commercial flights to regional airports in Cuba, which Trump had canceled, while maintaining no-go lists of where travelers can stay, eat, drink and shop. In May last year, the Ministry of Finance finally issued long-promised rules that would allow Cuban entrepreneurs to open bank accounts in the United States. Still, the Biden administration has refused to remove Cuba as a state sponsor of international terrorism, even though US officials have quietly acknowledged that Cuba does not belong on the list.
What Biden can do
The congressional letter to Biden specifically calls for removing Cuba from the list of terrorist states in order to facilitate “access to energy and economic assistance for the Cuban people.” To deal with the escalating crisis in Cuba, representatives also called on Biden to speed up humanitarian aid and technical support; suspend all sanctions that prevent aid and donations to Cuba; and expedite the export of critical equipment to repair and upgrade Cuba’s electrical grid. “We urge your administration to act quickly to implement these measures and mitigate the escalating crisis in Cuba while advancing U.S. interests in the region,” the letter concluded.
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Certainly, any executive action Biden might take in the final days of his troubled presidency could be overturned by new hardliners led by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio. But Biden could and should implement these measures — to urgently provide aid to the Cuban population in need, and to resurrect the model of peaceful coexistence as a successful alternative to the US stance of hostility and aggression that has failed to serve US interests for more than 60 years. years. To achieve this goal, he should also order the expedited declassification of key classified files related to Obama’s détente — including an interagency assessment conducted during the first Trump administration that positive engagement advances US interests as well as the interests of the Cuban people. These documents represent the verdict of the history of the model of creative diplomacy and peaceful coexistence, which is more relevant today than ever.
Biden’s legacy as vice president includes a historic detente in U.S.-Cuban relations under Obama. In the final days of his tumultuous tenure, his presidential legacy may also include reminding the world that Washington is capable of sane, productive and normal policy toward Cuba.
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