All the piles of propaganda make it difficult to cut to the chase,
especially all the whining from the poor little rich Cubans living in
Miami. So I fall back on my years of reading between the lines, and
my long memory of what Cuba looked like back during the Batista
reign.
When the wealthy Cubans fled to Miami they left their best part
behind. Cuba has come a long way since the days when the Mafia bosses
held court in the posh casinos, and were waited upon hand and foot by
the men and women who would, one day make Cuba into a respectable
Nation. Hard work and determination has made this small nation able
to stand up to the worst the USA has dished out.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/2/21, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Rinse and Repeat: Will Biden Make Normalizing Relations With Cuba a
Priority?
Despite talk that his administration's Cuba policy will be guided by human
rights concerns, Biden seems more concerned about catering to right-wing
Cuban Americans in southern Florida than changing the decades of entrenched
American policy.
by Medea Benjamin
June 01st, 2021
Mint Press News
By Medea Benjamin
HAVANA - Silvia from Miami, Eduardo from Hialeah, Abel from Lakeland. The
names pour in on the donations page for "Syringes to Cuba" as Carlos Lazo
promotes the campaign on his popular Facebook livestream. An energetic
Cuban-American high school teacher in Seattle, Lazo created a group called
Puentes de Amor, Bridges of Love, to unite Cuban Americans who want to lift
the searing U.S. blockade that is immiserating their loved ones on the
island.
Puentes de Amor is the latest addition to the Syringes to Cuba initiative,
which was started by the Saving Lives Campaign and the humanitarian
organization Global Health Partners to help Cuba vaccinate its people
against COVID-19. With the help of two other groups, The People's Forum and
CODEPINK, the campaign has raised over $350,000 and has already placed an
order for four million syringes. Two million will arrive in June and the
balance in July.
This initiative is in response to the dire economic situation in Cuba,
where
the economy shrank by 11 percent last year-Cuba's worst economic downturn
since the early 1990s when the country was left reeling from the collapse
of
the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. The present economic meltdown is
largely a result of the COVID-induced shutdown of the tourist industry and
a
tightening of the embargo under Trump. Reversing the gains made by the
Obama-Biden administration in normalizing relations with Cuba, Trump added
over 200 restrictive measures, including limiting remittances Cuban
Americans can send to their families, stopping U.S. flights to every city
but Havana, and prohibiting cruise ships from docking in Cuban ports. As a
final stab in his parting days, Trump took the completely bogus step of
adding Cuba to a U.S.-created list of state sponsors of terrorism, a
designation that discourages investments and substantially limits the entry
of foreign currency.
As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden pledged to "promptly reverse the
failed Trump policies that have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done
nothing to advance democracy and human rights." Early in the Biden
administration, the White House announced that it was undertaking a review
of Cuba policy. But to the surprise and disappointment of many Cuba
watchers, and despite the fact that most of Trump's policy changes could be
reversed with a single executive order, Biden has not moved an inch.
Questioned about this at an April 16 press conference, Press Secretary Jen
Psaki callously claimed that changing U.S. policy towards Cuba was
"currently not among the president's top foreign policy priorities."
On May 25, the State Department even announced that it would continue
Trump's determination that Cuba does not cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism
efforts. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired back, calling this
action "irresponsible and shameful" and reminding U.S. officials that Cuba
itself has been "the victim of 713 terrorist attacks, in their majority
organized, financed and executed by the U.S. government or individuals and
organizations that are protected and act with impunity in U.S. territory."
On June 23, the U.N. General Assembly will hold its yearly vote calling for
the U.S. to lift its embargo on Cuba. Every year since 1992, the world's
nations overwhelmingly reject the embargo, leaving the U.S. and one or two
of its allies, like Israel and Brazil, clinging to this unpopular and
anachronistic policy. In 2016, the Obama administration broke with 25 years
of U.S. opposition to the UN resolution by abstaining. A new lobby group
ACERE (Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect), with the support of over
100 organizations, is calling on Biden to follow President Obama's lead by
not opposing this year's resolution, and instead using the occasion to
announce the measures that his administration will take to provide relief
for the Cuban people and a return to the path of normalization.
A push for action has also come from the grassroots, through creative and
growing anti-blockade car and bicycle caravans held on the last Sunday of
every month. The largest of the nation's caravans winds through the heart
of
the pro-blockade world: Miami. In the most recent May 30 Miami caravan,
over
200 people participated, most of them Cuban-Americans. "We've had 10 of
these caravans so far," said organizer Jorge Medina (a.k.a. El Proteston
Cubano on YouTube). "Each one is bigger than the last and the energy is
fantastic." But so far, the media-and the Biden administration-have ignored
them.
Congress has been pushing Biden as well. In March 2021, 80 representatives,
led by Congressman Bobby Rush, sent a letter to Biden urging him to take
swift executive action to reverse the Trump administration's draconian
policies and return to the diplomatic path charted by the Obama-Biden
administration, and Congressman Rush later introduced a bill to that
effect.
On May 21, U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced the bipartisan Freedom to Export to Cuba
Act that would eliminate the legal barriers to Americans doing business in
Cuba, a move that would be particularly popular with farm and business
groups interested in trade and export opportunities.
Unfortunately, Biden seems more concerned about catering to right-wing
Cuban
Americans in southern Florida, where the Democrats, failing to stand up to
Trump's red-baiting, lost the state and two congressional seats in the last
election. Despite the talk that his administration is guided by human
rights
concerns, Biden ignores what the humanitarian group OXFAM, in its detailed
report on the devastating effects of U.S. policy, called "The Right to Live
Without a Blockade."
But Biden ignores the crisis in Cuba at his own peril. The dire food and
medicine shortages may well spark a migration crisis that will exacerbate
the rush of Central American asylum seekers at the Mexican border that the
Biden administration is already unable to cope with. Cuba expert Bill
LeoGrande predicts "a mass exodus of desperate people" if Biden doesn't act
soon.
Biden would do well to heed the warning and with the stroke of a pen, lift
trade and travel restrictions and allow unrestricted remittances. These
measures would quickly infuse more money into Cuba's economy and alleviate
the needless suffering Cubans are experiencing at the hands of an
administration that does not consider the well-being of 11 million Cubans
"a
priority."