Stand with Cuban people as they rise up against communist regime
The Cuban people are rising up against their nation’s communist regime in the largest protests since the 1959 revolution. So, what is President Joe Biden going to do about it?
On his recent trip to Europe, Biden announced that the United States was back and ready to lead the West in the struggle between the world’s democracies and autocracies. Well, here’s his chance. The Cuban regime is one of the world’s most enduring totalitarian dictatorships, but for the first time, it is facing an unprecedented confluence of events that could finally lead to its demise.
First, Cuba is facing the worst economic crisis in decades. The Cuban economy contracted by 11% last year, as the pandemic caused the tourism industry (one of the regime’s primary sources of hard currency) to collapse. During the Cold War, the regime survived thanks to massive subsidies from the Soviet Union. When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the regime turned to its oil-rich socialist ally Venezuela for economic support, including subsidized fuel. But now that Venezuela has imploded, it is increasingly unable to bail out the Cuban regime. So, for the first time, the regime has nowhere to turn for hard currency to keep it afloat.
Second, the regime has infuriated its citizens by using the pandemic as a money-making opportunity. Today, Cubans are not only experiencing the worst blackouts, food shortages and gas lines in decades, they are also dying from the worst pandemic in a century. But instead of using its vaunted health-care system to save their lives, the regime is sending tens of thousands of the country’s best doctors abroad to vacuum up hard currency by treating covid patients in other countries.
Third, more Cubans than ever are aware of the regime’s abuses thanks to the arrival of social media. Cubans got 3G mobile phone service in 2019, giving millions Internet access for the first time. Not only can dissidents now use encrypted messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp to communicate, social media also has facilitated spontaneous uprisings by ordinary Cubans. Many Cubans learned about the protests from videos posted on Twitter and Facebook, and rushed to join them. They used their cellphones to take images that spread across Cuba, sparking protests in other cities. As a result, thousands of Cubans who had never engaged in dissident activity got involved.
Social media has also exposed the regime’s brutality. Once, the state security rounded up dissidents in secrecy. But on Tuesday morning, when regime thugs detained popular Cuban YouTuber Dina Stars, her arrest was broadcast live on television. The video has been seen around the world via social media.
This confluence of economic distress, popular anger and social awareness has created a moment of opportunity. Will Biden seize this moment to support the freedom movement? On Monday, he issued a strong statement, declaring “We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief . . . from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.” That is a good start, but a written statement is not enough. Biden should go to Miami and deliver a speech declaring America’s solidarity with the Cuban people and laying out a strategy to rally the world’s democracies to help them. This is both in America’s interests and Biden’s political interests. The Cuban regime has outlasted a dozen U.S. presidents. If Biden stands with the Cuban people and the regime falls on his watch, he will be a hero to many in Florida’s Cuban American community.
The one thing he should not do is ease the embargo, which would throw a life preserver to a drowning dictatorship. Regime apologists always blame the embargo for Cuba’s ills, but there is no embargo on Venezuela, which is also a socialist basket case.
We should not allow U.S. corporations to replace Venezuela as Cuba’s source of regimesustaining hard currency. The United States must keep the embargo in place and stand with the Cuban people as they demand their freedom.