President Joe Biden must end US embargo against Cuba

For the 29th time the United Nations General Assembly will unanimously vote today (June 23rd 2021) to end the six-decades commercial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba.

This embargo is very absurd, in-fact it is ludicrous to say the least. The irony in all this is that the vote, which for the past 28 years has been a resounding rejection of the ‘blockade’, takes place at the UN headquarters in New York, right inside America!

But, just like the Pharaoh of Egypt, whose heart God had hardened when Moses was sent to tell him to deliver the Children of Israel from his bondage, the US and its leaders, has hardened its heart.

This strict economic, commercial, and financial embargo was unilaterally imposed in 1960. It has outlived countless American Presidents from Dwight Eisenhower; John Fitzgerald Kennedy; Lyndon Baines Johnson; Richard Nixon;

Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; George Bush; Bill Clinton; George W. Bush; Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump.

Incumbent U.S. President, Joe Biden, now carries the unenviable burden of undoing this six-decade long injustice against the peoples of America and Cuba!

This year’s vote will no doubt prove very onerous for the U.S., in-fact, during a recent Press conference, Cuban Ambassador to Botswana, H.E Patricia Pego Guerra said at best she sees the U.S. abstaining from the vote!

It will not be for the first time. They first did so in 2018 towards the end of President Obama’s tenure. It was this Obama that had dared to take the bull by the horns by attempting to change the status quo.

On December 17, 2014, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro - who succeeded his brother, Commandant Fidel Castro - agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations between the two countries including cooperation between them on certain matters of mutual interest.

For a while, there was hope that a seismic political change was about to happen! Anyone who knows his history well knows the wealth of good that healthy US-Cuba relations would portend for both nations as well as for international relations!

But notwithstanding the executive decisions President Obama signed to ease some of the restrictive regulations, the main portions of the embargo affecting trade and travel continue in force to this very day.

Obama’s efforts were all undone by his successor, the Republican, Donald Trump and not only that, Trump also tightened the restrictions to levels never seen before!

So, when the UN General Assembly votes today, it is a foregone conclusion that for the 29th time, they will reject the blockade in its entirety. The question however remains, how will the U.S. vote, given that Joe Biden was Obama’s Vice President, when the U.S. began a policy of normalisation of diplomatic relations with Cuba? I tried asking US Ambassador to Botswana Craig Cloud this question but he was forthright that it was a matter within the purview and executive prerogative of Washington.

Well, as for me – I am compelled to agree with the Cuban envoy that the U.S. will abstain. Besides the external pressure exerted on the U.S., including by its trusted allies, it seems that the straw that will eventually break the camel’s back, is coming from within! There are two very significant documents that are likely to sway U.S’ hard stance to a liberal path – these are, first and foremost, a letter to President Biden written on March 2, 2021 and signed by 79 Members of the Congress of the United States of America.

In that letter the Members of Congress urge President Biden, “to promptly reverse” the Trump Administration’s “cruel policies” against the Cuban people and to “renew mutually productive dialogue” with the Cuban government.

They contend that while executive orders implemented by the Trump administration tightened sanctions to levels not seen in decades, Biden can, with the stroke of a pen assist struggling Cuban families and promote a more constructive approach by “promptly returning to the Obama-Biden Administration’s policy of engagement and normalisation of relations”.

Some of the policies and Regulations that

Trump implemented, which the Members of Congress want reversed include the restrictions on both remittances sent by CubanAmericans to their families in Cuba as well as donative remittances; prohibition of international companies from transferring remittances through the primary entities in Cuba that processed them.

The latter prohibition culminated in Western Union, the leading company used for transmitting remittances to Cuba - ending its operations in November 2020.

Trump also enforced restrictions on travel to Cuba. He ended people to people travel, prohibited private and corporate air and sea travel to Cuba, resulting in cancelation of nearly 800, 000 US cruise reservations and ended commercial flights to cities other Havana, contends the Members of Congress.

Trump’s administration also prohibited US citizens and residents from patronising numerous hotels and restaurants including the most historic.

According to the Members of Congress, these detrimental Trump administration’s policies, and dozens of other Directives concerning Cuba, were made by Executive Orders modifying the Cuban Assets Control Regulations. They contend in the letter to Biden, that by signing a single Order, he has the power to revert these Regulations back to their status on the final day of the Obama-Biden Administration.

They also urge Biden to reverse the politicised decision by Trump Administration to add Cuba back to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which designation, they contend, will further damage Cuba’s economy and place “another roadblock in your path towards improved relations”.

They show that while Cuba was removed for the list in 2015 after an exhaustive review by experts at the State Department and in the Intelligence Community, the Trump Administration on the other hand, did not cite any new facts to justify their decision.

The Members of Congress want diplomatic engagement restarted directly with the Cuban Government, both at senior levels, as well as through the re-staffing of each country’s respective embassies.

Another significant document is the Resolution made by House of Representatives of the State of Illinois calling for the reinstatement of trade with the Republic of Cuba.

It denounced the embargo and travel restrictions imposed on Cuba as prejudicial to the interests of the people of Cuba, the United States, and Illinois and as a violation of the rights of US citizens and residents to travel and ascertain for themselves the real situation in Cuba.

They also resolved to urge President Biden to renew engagement with Cuba, as initiated by the Obama Administration and rescind restrictive regulations, as well as restaff the Cuban embassy in Washington, DC and the US embassy in Havana.

Further, they urged the United States Congress to pass legislation finally ending the harmful 59-year old economic, financial, and commercial embargo, as well as the travel restrictions on US citizens and residents to Cuba and Cuban citizens to the United States.

In light of the foregoing, I remain enthusiastically optimistic that change – the only constant – will surely come to pass for the people of Cuba and the USA.