Shame on you, President Biden
“And justice for all” are the last four words of the pledge of allegiance.
If there was true justice on this earth, the United States, sad to say, would lead the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, a list of “countries determined by the Secretary of State to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism…” Instead, because of their purported “exceptionalism,” the U.S. government deems itself worthy of creating the list and inserting whatever country it sees fit — usually based on a political calculus.
Donald Trump, on January 12, before leaving office and to satisfy a rancorous and bloodthirsty group headquartered in South Florida, re-inserted Cuba to the list. Trump, who terrorized a country and a large part of the world during his four years as president, knew it would buy him 2020 presidential votes in Miami.
As one of four countries on the list — which includes North Korea, Iran, and Syria — Cuba now (again) faces many political, financial, and travel restrictions. For those who live on the Island, who struggle daily with a faltering economy made even worse by the Covid-19 pandemic, the arbitrary designation by a deranged U.S. president represents a step closer to the abyss.
Last week I received a call from a friend in Cuba. We’re not related by blood, but he’s really more than a friend. Let’s call him an older brother from a different mother (and father). As usual, we discussed what’s happening on the ground: the scarcity, the long lines to obtain the little food and necessities available, the fear of Covid. Cuba 2021, not a pretty picture.
But for the first time in many years I sensed desperation, something usually not found in this person who usually turns lemons into lemonade. He is now older, so is his wife, and he has a daughter he is concerned about. And he worries for their health in a country, like the rest of the world, ravaged by the virus. A country who seeks a solution through their own promising vaccines, but a place where the long lines for food, and most everything else, create the possibility of Covid spread, especially among the most vulnerable — the elderly.
President Joe Biden
His first 100 days have come and gone. From a strictly U.S. point of view, I’d call them successful. The vaccine rollout has America on its way to a more normal society. Stimulus money is being doled out to those in need — for a change — not the rich as has been the case for decades. And although I live in a country on the brink of splitting violently in half, or even thirds, there is hope based on the influence of a small group of progressive politicians who insist on looking forward with their eyes on a fairer economy, on helping to fix a dying earth, and equity among the diverse groups that now make up this country.
Joe Biden promised during his campaign to lift current restrictions on remittances and travel to Cuba. Vice President Kamala Harris went even further. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, when asked about Cuba policy, the then candidate for president answered, “We should end the failed trade embargo and take a smarter approach that empowers Cuban civil society and the Cuban American community to spur progress and freely determine their own future.”
As of Thursday it will have been 119 days since Biden and Harris were inaugurated. And to this day their promises on Cuba have fallen on deaf ears. In fact, in April White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that “a Cuba policy shift or additional steps is currently not among the president’s top foreign policy priorities.”
Which prompted a retort from Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser and architect of the former president’s normalization of ties with Cuba, who tweeted disapprovingly on April 23: “So far, Biden has been completely indistinguishable from Trump on Cuba policy and messaging.”
Biden champions empathy and compassion as American traits. He seems to possess those qualities when it comes to strictly American dogs and people, but he has shown none of it when it comes to Cuba and the 11 million Cubans living on the island.
Because if President Biden had wanted to show compassion and empathy towards Cubans, he could have easily started the process of removing them from the terrorist countries’ list, which he knows full well they don’t belong in, and he could have followed up on his promises of travel and remittances. Instead, as Psaki said, Cuba is not a priority. One other suggestion: Biden has promised to share millions of vaccines with others around the world. Send some to Cuba…
But you know what is saddest? Cuba policy under Biden is strictly political. It answers to a small group of Cuban Americans advising him, the very great majority of which, who will not vote for him, or the next Democratic Party presidential or congressional candidate(s). But Biden, unlike Obama before him, has fallen back in time on Cuba and landed on the same old, tired trap.
And the ones paying the price are people like my friend in Cuba who at 82 has to stand for hours in line for food worried about catching the virus.
That, my friends, is a shame on US.
