OPINION | Biden must stop being Trump in his policy towards Cuba

Editor’s note: Jorge Dávila Miguel has a degree in Journalism since 1973 and has maintained a continuous career in his profession to date. He has postgraduate degrees in Social Information Sciences and Social Media, as well as post-university higher studies in International Relations, Political Economy and Latin American History. Currently, Dávila Miguel is a columnist for El Nuevo Herald, on the McClatchy network, and a political analyst and columnist for CNN en Español. The comments expressed in this column belong exclusively to the author. See more at cnne.com/opinion

(CNN Spanish) – The United States will receive a diplomatic defeat at the United Nations on June 23. This has been the case since 1992[i] when Havana first presented the Draft Resolution against the US blockade of Cuba that has lasted 29 years in which only two countries have regularly voted against: the United States and Israel. In 2016, under President Barack Obama’s policy of engagement with Cuba, the United States even abstained from voting against along with Israel. That year Cuba had its most flamboyant victory, with 191 countries condemning the US embargo.

But in 2017 Donald Trump was already president and he became the most aggressive against the island, with the exception of John F. Kennedy who sent the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion to Cuba in 1961. Trump sponsored 240 measures against Cuba, according to a report by the Oxfam, crowning them in its final week when he put it back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Since 2017 it has been downhill for Cuba, in its crucial relationship with Washington.

Biden won the 2020 elections having promised several times in his campaign that he would return to Barack Obama’s policy of compromise with Havana. He said that he would “try to reverse Trump’s failed policies that inflicted harm on Cubans and their families …”. As soon as he assumed the presidency, Biden deactivated, almost as in exorcism, dozens of Trump policies. But for Cuba, Trump continues to rule. Biden is a perfect follower of Trump’s policies towards the island, and the question is why?

It has been said that, because he had to deal with the United States before, since he is the president of this country and not the other; that he does not want to confront the Cuban-American Republican clique in Congress, and especially Bob Menéndez, true too, since the Democratic senator Menéndez, called the “last hawk” Democrat is a closed supporter of the most visceral Republican anti-Castroism who dreams of a new january first[ii] –– the other way around–– in Cuba.

However, Biden will sooner or later have to stop being Trump in his policy towards the island. And perhaps he has at his disposal the steps to not only change his relationship with Cuba, but also the correlation of political forces in “the Cuban republic of Miami”, something not inconsiderable for those who lost Florida in 2020.

In February, the Cuban government expanded to more than 2,000 activities allowed to “self-employed”, leaving 124 for the exclusive performance of the state company and just over a week ago the Cuban Council of Ministers announced that it would “improve”, that is, it would legislate on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and self-employment. On the other hand, and this makes sense, in March, the Cuban government invited Cubans living abroad to invest on the island. When I heard that news, I said to myself, how funny, at least those who live in the United States are limited to doing so by the embargo law. Although it is also true that a large part of the investments of the “self-employed” in Cuba are of relatives residing in the United States, contrary to the law. Blood is thicker than water, as the well-known proverb goes.

Removing the trade embargo is a politically complex task. To repeal it, it must have bicameral support, which I believe currently exists. If it weren’t for the constant accusation by Trumpist Republicans that Biden “leads us to socialism” and the state of radical division that reigns in the country, perhaps the president would have already fulfilled his promise to resume Obama’s policy of compromise with the island and normalized relations. But perhaps it is not necessary to eliminate the embargo to have an innovative and intelligent policy with Cuba. Obama did not eliminate it, but his policy was the issuance of special licenses. If the Biden government issues special licenses so that citizens of Cuban origin –– for family reasons, for example–– can invest in Cuba, it solves three problems: it favors private business empowerment on the island; hands over the thorny issue to Cubans on both shores; and in Florida, the opportunity to legally participate in the Cuban market, both the political debate about Cuba and its complex situation, changes its epicenter. Who can oppose the decision to invest, already legal, of a Cuban-American.

We will have to wait for the Cuban laws of “improvement” that would allow these commercial associations. It will be necessary to see how the Cuban State decides to be, also, a socialism of law.

[i] With the exception of 2020 when Cuba postponed its resolution for this year, due to the pandemic.

[ii] January 1, 1959 was the triumph of the Cuban Revolution