Mihoko Owada/STAR MAX/IPx
Demonstrators outside the White House protest against the Cuban government, July 17, 2021.
What’s with Joe Biden’s Cuba policy? Barack Obama opted for a policy of greater openness, allowing direct fights to Cuba and more U.S.-Cuba tourism and commerce. Obama’s bet was that a kind of glasnost would gradually liberalize the Cuban regime.
Donald Trump reverted to the traditional cold war against Cuba, rescinding the Obama policies. Remittances are limited to $1,000 per quarter. Restrictions that had been lifted were re-imposed. Flights are again limited. The embargo was tightened. All told, Trump imposed 243 separate sanctions.
In April 2020, candidate Biden pledged to restore the Obama policies, but he has not done so. Not surprisingly, Trump’s new restrictions led to economic privations, and the privations have led to protests. The protests in turn led to a government crackdown.
Last week, a group of left activists and entertainers took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, as an open letter to President Biden. They said, in part, “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.”
But Biden has taken a hard line, identifying with the protesters, condemning the Cuban government’s crackdown against them, and announcing new sanctions.
“The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as all people. The United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime.”
So what’s going on here?
Basically, there are two theories of change, compounded by Biden’s takeaway from the 2020 election, especially in Miami-Dade County, which broke heavily for Trump. Obama’s theory was glasnost. Biden’s theory is to pressure the regime by doubling down on pain.
Without taking sides on the divisive issue of whether the Cuban Revolution was pure despotism, or offered help for Cuba’s working people, or was both, the practical question is which strategy is likely to work better. Six decades of tough sanctions did not bring democracy to Cuba.
Alas, Biden’s doubling down on Trump’s Cuba policy seems more about U.S. domestic politics and less about what might produce a durable democratization and economic progress for the Cuban people.
