The United States intervenes in Cuba [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By David Brooks Last updated Jul 14, 2021

From La Jornada

The United States government immediately expressed its support for the anti-government protests taking place in Cuba due to the crisis in that country, but did not acknowledge that U.S. measures designed to suffocate the island’s economy, and which the international community just recently condemned for the 29th time at the UN, have that exact purpose. In other words, the measures are meant to generate that type of crisis, not to mention the millions of dollars that Washington dedicates to intervene in the internal affairs of Cuba, including promoting just these types of protests.

President Joe Biden expressed “our support for the Cuban people and their cry for freedom and relief from the tragic consequences of the pandemic and the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.” He added, “the Cuban people are acting with courage in claiming their fundamental and universal rights” and called for the “Cuban regime to listen to its people and attend to their needs in this vital moment instead of enriching itself.”

At a press conference, Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented that “tens of thousands” of Cubans took to the streets to “exercise their rights of peaceful assembly and express their perspectives … calling for freedom and human rights” and criticizing the “Cuban authoritarian regime for failing to meet the most basic needs of the people, including food and medicine.” He urged the Cuban government not to repress the protesters and allow these people to “determine their own future.”

Both statements, like several more of his subordinates in the administration, were notable for what they did not mention: that the policies of the six-decade embargo along with the more than 243 measures enacted during the Trump administration are designed exactly for that: to suffocate the Cuban economy and to cause shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Precisely because of their effects on the Cuban people, they were condemned by an overwhelming majority of the United Nations General Assembly on June 23, including almost all of Washington’s allies with the exception of Israel.

Nor did they mention that Washington continues to distribute more than $20 million annually in “assistance” to Cuban anti-government groups. In the federal budget bill for the next fiscal year, the U.S. government intends to grant another 20 million for “construction of democracy, human rights and civil society programs in Cuba.” Almost 13 million are also proposed for Radio and TV Martí, among other propaganda channels (it is not public how many more million in secret operations).

What has surprised several experts and observers of the bilateral relationship is the decision of the new Biden administration, to date, not to make a turn in policy towards the island, which Biden promised to do in his electoral campaign where it stated that the Cuba’s policies of isolation had failed.

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