Joe Biden wants to return to President Obama’s failed Cuba policy
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden last month granted a rare interview to Miami CBS-4, where he promised to return to former President Barack Obama’s failed Cuba policy that empowered Cuba’s communist government and praised the Castro regime.
Biden’s promise to revert to a policy that President Trump has rightly corrected reveals a deeper truth: the former vice president’s foreign policy views are in line with that of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Democrat Party’s encroaching socialist agenda.
The Biden-Obama Cuba policy was a complete disaster from the start. Even Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez criticized the policy from the beginning, calling it a “compromise on bedrock U.S. values.”
Today’s Democrat Party and its lurch to the left is growing increasingly comfortable with socialism and communist leaders like Raul and Fidel Castro. The disturbing trend in support of socialism, and reverence for communist figures, would come at a great cost if it grabs hold in America.
I understand the cost. I know the extreme brutality of communism and the Cuban government. My parents fled Cuba where the Castro regime imprisoned my father, and countless others, who dared speak out against socialism and the Castro regime.
My parents escaped and set up a new life in Miami, where I was born. They escaped the physical horrors of communism, but the scars remained. My father worked hard and built a successful business in Cuba, but Castro and his communist government took it away. My father refused to accept victimhood as his destiny and worked twice as hard in America to provide for me and our family.
We are full-blooded Americans, but my father never let me forget where we came from. His story of survival and perseverance is a very American story. It is what makes this country great—something Biden and Obama failed to understand when it sided with the Castro regime over the people of Cuba.
The easing of restrictions on travel and trade did not help the Cuban people, but only enriched the Cuban government. The profits from increased investment and tourism flowed directly to the military while the people faced the brunt of the economic hardship.
The Biden-Obama Cuba policy only fueled the government’s oppressive tactics to retain control. It was a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of Cubans oppressed, persecuted and murdered by the Castro regime.
Supporting the Castro regime is antithetical to America itself—a nation founded on the fundamental principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Cuban government spreads violence and instability throughout the entire region. It has worked to spread its repressive and failed ideology throughout the Western Hemisphere, including in Venezuela, where it is deeply involved in propping up embattled socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.
The Cuban government’s military advisers have been in close contact with Venezuelan military officials for years. Fidel Castro was instrumental in helping the oppressive Venezuelan government hold onto power under Hugo Chavez and now with Maduro.
With Cuba’s direct help and training, Maduro has been able to hold onto power despite widespread political opposition and calls for his ouster. Returning to Biden and Obama’s coziness with the Castro regime will only embolden oppressive governments throughout the globe.
President Donald Trump’s administration will not back down to socialist governments. Trump is holding the Castro regime accountable for its dismal human rights record and for its support for oppressive regimes like that of Maduro’s—a regime that supports human trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation. Biden’s promise to cozy up to Castro is part of a larger foreign policy that compromises our national security and weakens our standing in the world. Biden’s rhetoric and the Left’s increasing love of socialism reminds me of another lesson my father instilled in me: Democracy is fragile.
We must fight for our country and what we believe in, just like my father did when he had to restart his life in America. He believed in the American Dream and what could be accomplished through hard work and a sense of civic pride.
We must value the freedoms we have in this country, which are not enjoyed by people living under oppressive regimes in places like Cuba and Venezuela. My father taught me since I was a little girl that Democracy is not the default, and that we must continue to stay vigilant and fight for freedom and the rights of oppressed people everywhere.
It is clear Joe Biden is not prioritizing the same values, as he is more interested in capitulating to the radical left elements that make up today’s Democrat Party—which is why he is siding with the Castro regime over the people of Cuba.
Mercedes Schlapp is a Senior Advisor for Trump 2020 and former Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications at the White House.