{"id":183657,"date":"2021-07-21T20:03:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T00:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/z3news.com\/w\/?p=183657"},"modified":"2021-07-22T14:31:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T18:31:20","slug":"if-biden-wants-to-stand-with-the-cuban-people-he-can-ease-the-cruel-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/z3news.com\/w\/if-biden-wants-to-stand-with-the-cuban-people-he-can-ease-the-cruel-blockade\/","title":{"rendered":"If Biden Wants to \u201cStand with the Cuban People,\u201d He Can Ease the Cruel Blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The corporate media have been bashing the Cuban government<\/a> in response to the recent protests in Cuba, while President Joe Biden<\/strong> claims<\/a>, \u201cWe stand with the Cuban people.\u201d But they ignore or minimize the leading cause of economic suffering in Cuba: the U.S.\u2019s illegal and punishing economic blockade that Biden has left in place.<\/em><\/p>\n

Every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower<\/strong> has maintained the blockade against Cuba. Although former President Barack Obama<\/strong> was constrained by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act from completely lifting the blockade \u2014 which is now exclusively within the power of Congress \u2014 he took several steps<\/a> to ease its effects on the Cuban people.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Obama loosened restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and ended some of the economic prohibitions between the U.S. and Cuba. He removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and facilitated the export of U.S internet hardware and telecommunications. Obama established increased cooperation between the two countries in intelligence-gathering, drug interdiction, scientific research and environmental protection.<\/p>\n

But former President Donald Trump<\/strong> reversed the progress Obama had made and imposed 243 onerous new sanctions on Cuba as part of his \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d strategy against Cuba. Those punishing sanctions, together with the pandemic, spelled disaster for the Cuban people. Trump also returned Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s actions included restricting and then stopping remittances from family members outside Cuba. They blocked cruise ships and most flights to Cuba, even though tourism is central to Cuba\u2019s economy. They reinstated a travel ban for U.S. tourists and prevented Cuba from buying medicines and medical supplies on the world market. Trump also slapped sanctions on the transportation of oil to Cuba from Venezuela, which provided one-third<\/a> of Cuba\u2019s oil in 2019.<\/p>\n

During his presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly hitched his coattails to Obama\u2019s star and promised to lift Trump\u2019s sanctions<\/a> against Cuba. But Biden has refused to end any of Trump\u2019s sanctions on Cuba, even calling it a \u201cfailed state<\/a>.\u201d Ned Price, a U.S. State Department spokesman, dismissively called the embargo the \u201cso-called embargo<\/a>\u201d and refused to admit that the ban on remittances was hurting the Cuban economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf President Joe Biden really had humanitarian concerns for the Cuban people he would eliminate the 243 measures applied by President Donald Trump, including 50 imposed cruelly during the pandemic,\u201d Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel<\/strong> wrote<\/a> on his Twitter account.<\/p>\n

Purpose of Embargo Was \u201cto Bring About Hunger, Desperation and Overthrow of Government\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[C]urrent events in Cuba are a direct consequence of the interventionism of the US government, be it of the Democratic or Republican Party, and their plans to suffocate the country and cause disorder and chaos, to destroy the Cuban Revolution and its example,\u201d the American Association of Jurists, a nongovernmental organization with consultative status at the United Nations, said in a recent statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the U.S. government has sustained a cruel economic, financial and commercial embargo against Cuba. By pressuring other countries not to trade with Cuba, it has become a blockade. The U.S. embargo of Cuba was launched by Eisenhower in response to a 1960 memo written by a senior State Department official<\/a>, which set forth the U.S. strategy for regime change in Cuba. The memo said:<\/p>\n

The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship \u2026 every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba \u2026 a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.<\/p>\n

For the last six decades, the blockade has caused the Cuban people immense suffering. But it has not succeeded in destroying the Cuban Revolution.<\/p>\n

In 1997, the American Association for World Health concluded<\/a> that the blockade had \u201cdramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens\u201d and \u201ccaused a significant rise in suffering \u2014 and even deaths \u2014 in Cuba\u201d as a result of \u201ccritical shortages of even the most basic medicines and medical hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past six decades, the blockade has caused more than $134 billion<\/a>\u00a0in quantifiable losses as of 2018.<\/p>\n

The blockade violates the U.N. Charter, which enshrines the right to self-determination of sovereign states and prohibits forcible regime change.<\/p>\n

Sanctions \u2014 or unilateral coercive measures \u2014 constitute collective punishment of the civilian population, which is prohibited by the Geneva and Hague Conventions. They also violate the Charter of the Organization of American States, which prohibits intervention in the internal or external affairs of another country and the use of economic or political coercive measures \u201cto force the sovereign will of another State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blockade Exacerbates Suffering From the Pandemic<\/strong><\/p>\n

The blockade has exacerbated the suffering of the Cuban people during the pandemic. Conditions are dire in Cuba. There are long lines for food, water and supplies. And a gasoline shortage caused by the blockade is preventing food grown in the countryside from reaching the market in the cities. Speaking to protesters on July 12, Diaz-Canel explained <\/a>that they have had to convert hotels to hospitals because of the spike in COVID-19 cases. This has caused electricity shortages.<\/p>\n

Even before the pandemic, there were serious food, medical and fuel shortages<\/a>. In 2020, seven UN special rapporteurs and independent experts concluded<\/a> that the blockade was \u201cobstructing humanitarian responses to help the country\u2019s health-care system fight the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of the pandemic, Cuba is unable to buy ventilators or personal protective equipment. It can\u2019t receive financial transfers from foreign companies and humanitarian organizations. The blockade has had a \u201cdrastic effect on Cuba\u2019s vaccine industry\u201d by making it difficult to obtain the raw materials to make the vaccine, according to Oxfam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven so, the state\u2019s generous and long-term investment in health care and education means it was able to develop its own COVID vaccine \u2014 only to then face a shortage of syringes<\/a>, the blockade making it difficult to buy them from manufacturers,\u201d Branko Marcetic wrote at <\/a>Jacobin<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In March, 80 House Democrats urged Biden to repeal the Trump administration\u2019s \u201ccruel policies against the Cuban people<\/a>.\u201d They told Biden that, \u201cwith the stroke of a pen, you can assist struggling Cuban families and promote a more constructive approach by promptly returning to the Obama\u2013Biden Administration policy of engagement and normalization of relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe embargo is absurdly cruel and, like too many other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point,\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong> (D-New York) said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI outright reject the Biden administration\u2019s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day people.\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/strong> (I-Vermont), Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/strong> and former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/strong> all laid the blame for the conditions in Cuba on U.S. policy.<\/p>\n

Black Lives Matter condemned<\/a> \u201cthe U.S. federal government\u2019s inhumane treatment of Cubans\u201d and urged it \u201cto immediately lift the economic embargo,\u201d which it called a \u201ccruel and inhumane policy, instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans\u2019 right to choose their own government,\u201d noting that it is \u201cat the heart of Cuba\u2019s current crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, for the 29th straight year, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The vote was 184-2. Only the United States and Israel voted against the resolution.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Has Defended Terrorism Against Cuba<\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides its cruel blockade, the U.S. government has encouraged and facilitated terrorism against Cuba while calling Cuba a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 1959, anti-Cuba terror groups based in Miami have carried out several terrorist attacks<\/a> against Cuba and people who advocated normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Those terrorist organizations include the Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, Commandos F4, Independent and Democratic Cuba, and Brothers to the Rescue. They have operated with impunity in the United States \u2014 with full knowledge and support of the CIA and the FBI.<\/p>\n

Luis Posada Carriles planted a bomb on a Cubana airliner in 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard. He has never been criminally prosecuted in the United States even though declassified FBI and CIA documents at the National Security Archive show that Posada Carriles was the mastermind of the airplane bombing.<\/p>\n

In the face of this terrorism, five men from Cuba, known as \u201cthe Cuban Five,\u201d gathered intelligence in Miami in order to prevent future terrorist acts against Cuba. They peacefully infiltrated criminal exile groups and then turned over the results of their investigation to the FBI. But instead of working with Cuba against terrorism, the U.S. government arrested the five men.<\/p>\n

At trial, former high-ranking U.S. military and security officials testified that Cuba posed no military threat to the United States. None of the five Cuban men had any classified material in their possession or committed any acts to injure the United States. They were nonetheless convicted in 2001<\/a> of acting as unregistered Cuban agents in the United States and of conspiracy to commit espionage. The Cuban Five were sent to prison for many years and were eventually released.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. But Trump added Cuba back onto the list. The 80 House members also urged Biden \u201cto reverse the recent politicized decision by the departing Trump Administration to add Cuba back to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. This designation will further damage Cuba\u2019s economy and place another roadblock in your path towards improved relations.\u201d The letter noted that, \u201cCuba was removed from the list in 2015 after an exhaustive review by experts at the State Department and in the Intelligence Community, and the Trump Administration did not cite any new facts to justify their decision.\u201d Biden says he is reviewing the designation.<\/p>\n

It is high time for Biden to make good on his pledge to reverse Trump\u2019s sanctions against Cuba. Congress should listen to all of the countries of the world who have repeatedly urged the lifting of the punishing blockade of Cuba. It is time to end the U.S.\u2019s economic war on Cuba.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, @crg_globalresearch. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Truthout<\/a>. Reprinted with\u00a0permission<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marjorie Cohn<\/a><\/strong> is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the advisory board of Veterans for Peace. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All Global Research articles\u00a0can be read in 51 languages by activating the \u201cTranslate Website\u201d\u00a0drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).\u00a0
\nVisit and follow us on Instagram at @crg_globalresearch.
\n***
\nThe corporate media have been bashing the Cuban government in response to the recent protests in Cuba, while President Joe Biden claims, \u201cWe stand with the Cuban people.\u201d But they ignore or minimize the leading cause of economic suffering in Cuba: the U.S.\u2019s illegal and punishing economic blockade that Biden has left in place.
\nEvery U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has maintained the blockade against Cuba. Although former President Barack Obama was constrained by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act from completely lifting the blockade \u2014 which is now exclusively within the power of Congress \u2014 he took several steps to ease its effects on the Cuban people.
\nIn 2015, Obama loosened restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and ended some of the economic prohibitions between the U.S. and Cuba. He removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and facilitated the export of U.S internet hardware and telecommunications. Obama established increased cooperation between the two countries in intelligence-gathering, drug interdiction, scientific research and environmental protection.
\nBut former President Donald Trump reversed the progress Obama had made and imposed 243 onerous new sanctions on Cuba as part of his \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d strategy against Cuba. Those punishing sanctions, together with the pandemic, spelled disaster for the Cuban people. Trump also returned Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
\nTrump\u2019s actions included restricting and then stopping remittances from family members outside Cuba. They blocked cruise ships and most flights to Cuba, even though tourism is central to Cuba\u2019s economy. They reinstated a travel ban for U.S. tourists and prevented Cuba from buying medicines and medical supplies on the world market. Trump also slapped sanctions on the transportation of oil to Cuba from Venezuela, which provided one-third of Cuba\u2019s oil in 2019.
\nDuring his presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly hitched his coattails to Obama\u2019s star and promised to lift Trump\u2019s sanctions against Cuba. But Biden has refused to end any of Trump\u2019s sanctions on Cuba, even calling it a \u201cfailed state.\u201d Ned Price, a U.S. State Department spokesman, dismissively called the embargo the \u201cso-called embargo\u201d and refused to admit that the ban on remittances was hurting the Cuban economy.
\n\u201cIf President Joe Biden really had humanitarian concerns for the Cuban people he would eliminate the 243 measures applied by President Donald Trump, including 50 imposed cruelly during the pandemic,\u201d Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on his Twitter account.
\nPurpose of Embargo Was \u201cto Bring About Hunger, Desperation and Overthrow of Government\u201d
\n\u201c[C]urrent events in Cuba are a direct consequence of the interventionism of the US government, be it of the Democratic or Republican Party, and their plans to suffocate the country and cause disorder and chaos, to destroy the Cuban Revolution and its example,\u201d the American Association of Jurists, a nongovernmental organization with consultative status at the United Nations, said in a recent statement.
\nIndeed, since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the U.S. government has sustained a cruel economic, financial and commercial embargo against Cuba. By pressuring other countries not to trade with Cuba, it has become a blockade. The U.S. embargo of Cuba was launched by Eisenhower in response to a 1960 memo written by a senior State Department official, which set forth the U.S. strategy for regime change in Cuba. The memo said:
\nThe only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship \u2026 every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba \u2026 a line of action which, while as adroit and inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.
\nFor the last six decades, the blockade has caused the Cuban people immense suffering. But it has not succeeded in destroying the Cuban Revolution.
\nIn 1997, the American Association for World Health concluded that the blockade had \u201cdramatically harmed the health and nutrition of large numbers of ordinary Cuban citizens\u201d and \u201ccaused a significant rise in suffering \u2014 and even deaths \u2014 in Cuba\u201d as a result of \u201ccritical shortages of even the most basic medicines and medical hardware.\u201d
\nOver the past six decades, the blockade has caused more than $134 billion\u00a0in quantifiable losses as of 2018.
\nThe blockade violates the U.N. Charter, which enshrines the right to self-determination of sovereign states and prohibits forcible regime change.
\nSanctions \u2014 or unilateral coercive measures \u2014 constitute collective punishment of the civilian population, which is prohibited by the Geneva and Hague Conventions. They also violate the Charter of the Organization of American States, which prohibits intervention in the internal or external affairs of another country and the use of economic or political coercive measures \u201cto force the sovereign will of another State.\u201d
\nBlockade Exacerbates Suffering From the Pandemic
\nThe blockade has exacerbated the suffering of the Cuban people during the pandemic. Conditions are dire in Cuba. There are long lines for food, water and supplies. And a gasoline shortage caused by the blockade is preventing food grown in the countryside from reaching the market in the cities. Speaking to protesters on July 12, Diaz-Canel explained that they have had to convert hotels to hospitals because of the spike in COVID-19 cases. This has caused electricity shortages.
\nEven before the pandemic, there were serious food, medical and fuel shortages. In 2020, seven UN special rapporteurs and independent experts concluded that the blockade was \u201cobstructing humanitarian responses to help the country\u2019s health-care system fight the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d
\nAs a result of the pandemic, Cuba is unable to buy ventilators or personal protective equipment. It can\u2019t receive financial transfers from foreign companies and humanitarian organizations. The blockade has had a \u201cdrastic effect on Cuba\u2019s vaccine industry\u201d by making it difficult to obtain the raw materials to make the vaccine, according to Oxfam.
\n\u201cEven so, the state\u2019s generous and long-term investment in health care and education means it was able to develop its own COVID vaccine \u2014 only to then face a shortage of syringes, the blockade making it difficult to buy them from manufacturers,\u201d Branko Marcetic wrote at Jacobin.
\nIn March, 80 House Democrats urged Biden to repeal the Trump administration\u2019s \u201ccruel policies against the Cuban people.\u201d They told Biden that, \u201cwith the stroke of a pen, you can assist struggling Cuban families and promote a more constructive approach by promptly returning to the Obama\u2013Biden Administration policy of engagement and normalization of relations.\u201d
\n\u201cThe embargo is absurdly cruel and, like too many other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point,\u201d Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) said in a statement. \u201cI outright reject the Biden administration\u2019s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day people.\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador and former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva all laid the blame for the conditions in Cuba on U.S. policy.
\nBlack Lives Matter condemned \u201cthe U.S. federal government\u2019s inhumane treatment of Cubans\u201d and urged it \u201cto immediately lift the economic embargo,\u201d which it called a \u201ccruel and inhumane policy, instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans\u2019 right to choose their own government,\u201d noting that it is \u201cat the heart of Cuba\u2019s current crisis.\u201d
\nIn June, for the 29th straight year, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The vote was 184-2. Only the United States and Israel voted against the resolution.
\nThe U.S. Has Defended Terrorism Against Cuba
\nBesides its cruel blockade, the U.S. government has encouraged and facilitated terrorism against Cuba while calling Cuba a \u201cstate sponsor of terrorism.\u201d
\nSince 1959, anti-Cuba terror groups based in Miami have carried out several terrorist attacks against Cuba and people who advocated normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Those terrorist organizations include the Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, Commandos F4, Independent and Democratic Cuba, and Brothers to the Rescue. They have operated with impunity in the United States \u2014 with full knowledge and support of the CIA and the FBI.
\nLuis Posada Carriles planted a bomb on a Cubana airliner in 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard. He has never been criminally prosecuted in the United States even though declassified FBI and CIA documents at the National Security Archive show that Posada Carriles was the mastermind of the airplane bombing.
\nIn the face of this terrorism, five men from Cuba, known as \u201cthe Cuban Five,\u201d gathered intelligence in Miami in order to prevent future terrorist acts against Cuba. They peacefully infiltrated criminal exile groups and then turned over the results of their investigation to the FBI. But instead of working with Cuba against terrorism, the U.S. government arrested the five men.
\nAt trial, former high-ranking U.S. military and security officials testified that Cuba posed no military threat to the United States. None of the five Cuban men had any classified material in their possession or committed any acts to injure the United States. They were nonetheless convicted in 2001 of acting as unregistered Cuban agents in the United States and of conspiracy to commit espionage. The Cuban Five were sent to prison for many years and were eventually released.
\nThe Obama administration removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. But Trump added Cuba back onto the list. The 80 House members also urged Biden \u201cto reverse the recent politicized decision by the departing Trump Administration to add Cuba back to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. This designation will further damage Cuba\u2019s economy and place another roadblock in your path towards improved relations.\u201d The letter noted that, \u201cCuba was removed from the list in 2015 after an exhaustive review by experts at the State Department and in the Intelligence Community, and the Trump Administration did not cite any new facts to justify their decision.\u201d Biden says he is reviewing the designation.
\nIt is high time for Biden to make good on his pledge to reverse Trump\u2019s sanctions against Cuba. Congress should listen to all of the countries of the world who have repeatedly urged the lifting of the punishing blockade of Cuba. It is time to end the U.S.\u2019s economic war on Cuba.
\n*
\nNote to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, @crg_globalresearch. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.
\nCopyright \u00a9 Truthout. Reprinted with\u00a0permission.
\nMarjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the advisory board of Veterans for Peace. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.\u00a0
\nShe is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
\nFeatured image is from\u00a0OffGuardian<\/p>\n

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