Bob Kutner, co-founder and editor of the excellent left-wonkish journal The American Prospect, has long been one of my favorite commentators on economic policy and its politics. He doesn’t often talk about foreign policy, but in his latest newsletter post he calls the Biden administration out on Cuba. Since I agree with him pretty completely and since I can’t link to it, I’ll simply reproduce the post in its entirety below. I will only add the observation that on June 23 the UN voted, for the 29th time in as many years, for the US to end its embargo of Cuba. The vote was 184 to 2. You know the US voted against; I’ll leave it to you to guess the identity of its sole supporter.
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.
Donald Campbell July 28, 2021 at 11:54 am
American politicians cannot have a realistic conversation about Cuba. Remember what happened when Sanders spoke of the literacy rate or decent quality medical system during one of the democratic presidential debates. Stating simple facts about improvements Castro made in Cuba brought instant condemnation from several candidates.
Why Cuba has received such vindictive treatment from the USA for so many decades, with so little policy success is indicative of the general failure of USA foreign policy. The roots of this failure probably extend back to the Spanish-American war with some successes overshadowed by the many failures, particularly the failures from Viet-Nam through to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Syrian Civil War, not to mention Israeli policy.
It seems destruction rather than construction is the primary accomplishment of USA foreign policy.