Claver-Carone will be named to key Western Hemisphere post by Trump administration
The Miami Herald is reporting that Mauricio Claver-Carone will be named new senior director of the National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere Affairs. Claver-Carone, a lawyer, led the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC and Cuba Democracy Advocates, a not-for-profit he claimed promoted democracy and human rights in Cuba.
The fact is his role on the Cuba matter is and was much different than advertised. Over the years Claver-Carone has promoted misery for the more than 11 million Cubans on the island. He has also been a strong proponent of family separation as he has always opposed even travel to Cuba meant to unite families. He was a strong proponent in the early part of the century of the the Bush administration measures that limited travel to the Island, no matter the reason, even if it meant family emergencies, to once every three years.
Claver-Carone was also a strong proponent and spent years lobbying in favor of keeping Cuba on the state sponsor of terrorism list that — together with the blockade that still hampers Cuba today — made life even more difficult for regular Cubans on the island.
With the naming by the Trump administration, Claver-Carone will coordinate Latin American policies among the White House, State Department, Treasury and other agencies, according to Franco Ordoñez of the Miami Herald, adding that “he is part of a group of new hires at the National Security Council after John Bolton took over the department.”
It is not good news for Cuba and Cubans, and other countries in the region.
Claver-Carone drew the ire of the Obama administration whose approach to Cuba policy was different than what Trump is attempting to go back to: a failed policy of confrontation and strangulation by a hegemonic giant from the north. He may have found a perfect landing place in government with an administration that respects no one and imposes its will by means of bullying and boast. Claver-Carone, like his new master, is a strong proponent of terrorism and the overthrow of governments the U.S. can’t control, by any means possible.
In the end, his naming is not good news — for anyone who believes in peace and decency.
