US must normalise relations with struggling Cuba

THE winds of change are potentially blowing in Cuba’s direction, and an end to the US blockade of 59 years has never been more urgent.

Cuba is facing a devastating food crisis with people lining up for hours, sometimes days, for basic commodities that are unaffordable and sometimes impossible to find.

Cuba has been facing one of the worst food shortages in 25 years, with severe shortages of cooking oil, rice, chicken, corn, beans, fruit, toothpaste, personal hygiene products, medicine, fuel, fertiliser and raw materials.

Cuba imports 80% of its food, and has to pay for imports in dollars and euros. With a lack of hard currency in the country it is difficult, if not impossible, to purchase essential imports.

The situation has reached crisis proportions as a result of former US president Donald Trump’s tightening of the economic embargo against the island nation, and his administration’s concerted efforts to go after Cuba’s sources of currency. In 2019, Trump restricted travel by Americans to Cuba, and even ended charter flights to the island.

Remittances sent to the island from Cuban-Americans were also restricted as the Trump administration forced Western Union, which was an important conduit for remittances, to close its shops in Cuba.

All the measures caused a severe shortage of hard currency in the country. Without it, Cuba cannot afford to buy food.

Last year, exports from Brazil to Cuba fell by 23%, exports from Spain to Cuba fell 36%, and exports from the US were down by 45%. As Covid-19 wreaked havoc in the international community, Cuba found that its tourism industry came to a virtual standstill. Covid-19 also led to serious job losses for Cuban-Americans living in the US, drastically reducing the amount of remittances that could be sent via other means.

But despite the desperate situation Cubans find themselves in – suffocating under the most unjust economic blockade imposed by the world’s largest economy on a tiny island nation whose main export is sugar – Cuba has found ways to help other nations.

It has fanned out across the globe, sending its experienced medical doctors to assist in the fight against Covid19 in some of the most badly affected countries.

The new chairperson of the US Senate Finance Committee, Democrat Ron Wyden, recently said: “Our nation’s embargo on Cuba is an artefact from the 1960s … To continue this outdated, harmful policy of isolation would be a failure of American leadership.”

The most senior member of the US Senate, Patrick Leahy, has lobbied President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to establish full diplomatic and trade ties with Cuba after six decades of failed US policy.

There might be pushback, however, from Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, who is a hawk on Cuba and is the new chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But the Biden administration has signalled that limits on remittances will be removed and Western Union services are to be restored. More travel will be allowed between the US and Cuba, and the US will resume issuing visas to Cuban nationals. Indications are that Biden will renew diplomatic talks and rebuild the staff component at the US embassy in Havana.

At the end of his tenure, Trump declared Cuba to be a “state sponsor of terrorism”. But it is expected that the Biden administration will correct this fabrication. Designating a country as a state sponsor of terrorism is usually done only after an extensive review by the State department and consultation with Congress – none of which was done.

The normalisation of relations with Cuba by the US will be a critical turning point, as it was five years ago when US steps towards normalisation led to the EU starting to normalise its own relations with Cuba. The EU is Cuba’s top commercial partner and investor, and co-operation between Cuba and the EU has tripled over the past two years, according to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

It is for the rest of the world to pressure the US to enable Cuba to engage in normal trade and political relations with the rest of the world, and feed its people.

Cuba has found ways to help other nations even when it is starved of help itself