{"id":5671,"date":"2021-07-23T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T15:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5671"},"modified":"2021-07-23T15:49:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T15:49:17","slug":"bidens-cuba-policy-is-suddenly-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5671","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s Cuba policy is suddenly in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Cuba\u2019s economic problems largely predate the pandemic<\/a>, but the coronavirus sharpened them. It decimated Cuba\u2019s tourism industry, a huge slice of the island\u2019s economy. Trump-era sanctions<\/a> \u2014 which the Biden administration has not rolled back<\/a> \u2014 have added to the pressure. And the pandemic itself is taking a toll: Cuba is currently experiencing a record surge in cases and deaths<\/a>.”
…
“Biden said the US supports Cuba\u2019s \u201cclarion call for freedom and relief.\u201d Both Democrats<\/a> and Republicans<\/a> have backed the protests, but US lawmakers are split over how to approach the demonstrations and acute humanitarian crisis on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden promised during his 2020 campaign to roll back Trump\u2019s sanctions on Cuba, but he hasn\u2019t acted. Now, the issue is urgent \u2014 both for those who want to see the sanctions gone and for those who feel Biden must keep them in place to continue pressuring the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s best-laid plans on foreign policy didn\u2019t include Cuba as a priority. But now a crisis in Cuba is here. What the US should do is always a complicated decision, but it\u2019s clear Biden can\u2019t just ignore Cuba.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After the protests, Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel<\/a> blamed much of the unrest on the United States, claiming US-backed mercenaries caused the unrest. He called on supporters to also go to the streets and \u201cdefend the revolution<\/a>.\u201d About 100 people were arrested, according to human rights groups<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The specter of United States interference remains powerful in Cuba, given, well, a very long history<\/a> of US intervention there. Fast-forwarding to the Cuban Revolution in 1959, communist revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew the US-backed dictator and began to pursue closer ties with the Soviet Union \u2014 an absolute no-no for the US during the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US tried to overthrow Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion in the 1960s, but after that failure, the US strengthened an economic embargo that largely blocked Americans from doing business or trade with Cuba. There have been tweaks on the margins since, but the embargo has long outlasted the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama began a historic diplomatic opening with Cuba<\/a>, and as a result of the process, rolled back some economic restrictions tied to the Cold War-era US embargo and opened up travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, as president, vowed to reverse those policies<\/a>; he did throughout his time in office, significantly stepping up the pressure starting in 2019<\/a>. He imposed renewed travel restrictions<\/a> and other sanctions, including designating Cuba as a \u201cstate sponsor of terror\u201d in his final days in office<\/a>. A key pillar of Trump\u2019s sanctions severely limited remittances to the island<\/a>, which cut off another economic spigot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As experts said, Cuba\u2019s problems are deeper than US sanctions alone, but the Trump-era policy, especially coming during the pandemic, is adding to the strain. And that is creating a dilemma for Washington.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22573703\/biden-cuba-protests-trump<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Cuba\u2019s economic problems largely predate the pandemic, but the coronavirus sharpened them. It decimated Cuba\u2019s tourism industry, a huge slice of the island\u2019s economy. Trump-era sanctions \u2014 which the Biden administration has not rolled back \u2014 have added to the pressure. And the pandemic itself is taking a toll: Cuba is currently experiencing a record surge in cases and deaths.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Biden said the US supports Cuba\u2019s \u201cclarion call for freedom and relief.\u201d Both Democrats and Republicans have backed the protests, but US lawmakers are split over how to approach the demonstrations and acute humanitarian crisis on the island.
\nBiden promised during his 2020 campaign to roll back Trump\u2019s sanctions on Cuba, but he hasn\u2019t acted. Now, the issue is urgent \u2014 both for those who want to see the sanctions gone and for those who feel Biden must keep them in place to continue pressuring the regime.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s best-laid plans on foreign policy didn\u2019t include Cuba as a priority. But now a crisis in Cuba is here. What the US should do is always a complicated decision, but it\u2019s clear Biden can\u2019t just ignore Cuba.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“After the protests, Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel blamed much of the unrest on the United States, claiming US-backed mercenaries caused the unrest. He called on supporters to also go to the streets and \u201cdefend the revolution.\u201d About 100 people were arrested, according to human rights groups.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The specter of United States interference remains powerful in Cuba, given, well, a very long history of US intervention there. Fast-forwarding to the Cuban Revolution in 1959, communist revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew the US-backed dictator and began to pursue closer ties with the Soviet Union \u2014 an absolute no-no for the US during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

The US tried to overthrow Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion in the 1960s, but after that failure, the US strengthened an economic embargo that largely blocked Americans from doing business or trade with Cuba. There have been tweaks on the margins since, but the embargo has long outlasted the Cold War.<\/p>\n

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama began a historic diplomatic opening with Cuba, and as a result of the process, rolled back some economic restrictions tied to the Cold War-era US embargo and opened up travel.<\/p>\n

Trump, as president, vowed to reverse those policies; he did throughout his time in office, significantly stepping up the pressure starting in 2019. He imposed renewed travel restrictions and other sanctions, including designating Cuba as a \u201cstate sponsor of terror\u201d in his final days in office. A key pillar of Trump\u2019s sanctions severely limited remittances to the island, which cut off another economic spigot.<\/p>\n

As experts said, Cuba\u2019s problems are deeper than US sanctions alone, but the Trump-era policy, especially coming during the pandemic, is adding to the strain. And that is creating a dilemma for Washington.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[588,409,483,1210,660,221,217,165,780,1001],"class_list":["post-5671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-cuba","tag-dictatorship","tag-donald-trump","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-joe-biden","tag-sanctions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5672,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5671\/revisions\/5672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}