Over 100 Democrats urge Biden to engage with Cuba, lift restrictions
Source: NBC News
“Protecting human rights in Cuba, including the right to protest, is better served by principled engagement, rather than unilateral isolation," the lawmakers said in a letter.
Dec. 16, 2021, 4:16 PM CST
By Carmen Sesin
Over 100 Democratic House members signed a letter Thursday urging President Joe Biden to lift restrictions that make it more difficult to send remittances and goods to Cuba, including food and medicine.
“We urge you to take immediate humanitarian actions — as the United Nations has urged repeatedly — to suspend U.S. regulations that prevent food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance from reaching the Cuban people,” the letter said. “We also support a more comprehensive shift to deepen engagement with Cuba and move towards normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.”
The letter was signed by 114 Democratic House members, including Barbara Lee of California, the chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations; Rules Committee Chair James McGovern of Massachusetts; and Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory Meeks of New York.
The country's economy shrunk by 11 percent last year, and the government says it began to grow slowly this year at 2 percent. Cuba’s shortages of food, medicine and other basics have been worsened by decades of U.S. sanctions, which were tightened under former President Donald Trump, as well as the country's Soviet-style centrally planned economy. The coronavirus pandemic aggravated the situation.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/100-democrats-urge-biden-engage-cuba-lift-restrictions-rcna9072
Invariably, US "news" photographers and US wire service photographers head directly toward the most wrecked, unrestored area in Havana to grab their "news" shots for stories. Without fail.
After the revolution, and the sanctions, devastating embargo, the revolutionary government realized it had a meager budget to work with, and opted to prioritize its spending where it would do the most good, as in housing for everyone, (many Cubans had been living in shacks, huts, with NO running water, or electricity, and many Cubans also lived with internal parasites.) Their government went after living conditions, employment (most work had been only seasonal), universal medical treatment, and education. Building conditions had to wait, while the government kept working away at improving useable buildings, replacing dangerous buildings, and will continue, of course.
Meanwhile, US political interests steer US "news" photographers to haul ass every time to the very worse spots in Havana, which is hundreds of years old, to remind their viewers not to be communists and live in ancient, unpainted, scary old buildings.
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Last edited Sat Dec 18, 2021, 04:03 AM - Edit history (1)
They are completely familiar with the US approach to "democracy."
Visiting friends in Washington, D.C.
Cuban students protesting Batista in Washington in 1958
Batista during a Washington state visit in 1938
With President Dwight Eisenhower in Panama.
Toasting Richard and Pat Nixon.
Meeting with U.S. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith, 1957
ETC.
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