How Biden Can Manage Cuba
By John McAuliff
Five years ago I stood in a mostly Cuban crowd
outside of the US embassy in Havana, excitedly watching our flag be raised for
the first time in 54 years. Two hours later I was at a celebratory
party at the US Ambassador’s residence, a beautiful building designed but never
used as a Winter White House for FDR. Scores of official and
non-official Americans who had worked for normalization were there, along with
diplomats from other countries. No one from the Cuban government
attended because the embassy chose to invite a few prominent dissidents.
The path to this day had not been easy because
of political distrust on both sides and was a tribute to the determination of
both Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro. None of us expected
the future would be simple. However we never anticipated that
virtually everything would be undone by the election of Donald
Trump.
Cuba relations will hardly be the largest
problem or the first priority of a Biden Administration, but it is low hanging
fruit. While special interests are loudly in favor or against US
engagement with the island, two thirds of Americans, including a majority of Cuban-Americans,
were quietly supportive of President Obama’s normalization path and ready to go
further to completely open travel.
Biden can rapidly and effectively build on
Obama’s opening. He will do at least as well with personally affected
Florida voters by convincing them his goal is a positive relationship with the
homeland of their parents, children and other family members. He can
counteract the narrow minded regression of President Trump for whom Cuba
policies were little more than a favor to Marco Rubio and to Vladimir Putin.
Biden will be able to signal his concern for
the well-being of the people of both nations, his desire to strengthen in
practice pro-market reforms and the need to effectively displace growing
Russian and Chinese influence. His Administration could
solidify a historic new chapter of post Monroe Doctrine, post Platt Amendment
US partnership with the hemisphere.
Biden’s campaign is already publicly critical
of the latest punitive pettiness toward Cuba by the Trump Administration,
prohibition of rare private charter flights. He has told Americas
Quarterly, “as president, I will promptly reverse the failed Trump policies
that have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance
democracy and human rights”. https://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2020/08/joe-biden-and-kamala-harris-on-cuba.html
Biden will certainly receive support from his
Vice President. Senator Kamala Harris is among 46 bipartisan
cosponsors of the Leahy bill to end all restrictions on travel to Cuba.
He can also expect an abrazo, a
hug, from the new First Lady whose moving cultural visit to Camaguey and Havana
was portrayed in an Obama White House video. https://youtu.be/hc6NiDbVepI
Biden has four stages of opportunity that will
cut the Gordian knot of six decades of intractable mutually destructive US-Cuba
relations.
1) During the campaign or right after election: Announce
that immediately upon taking office he will restore Obama policies
on individual and group travel licenses, cruises, flights to regional cities,
remittances, import of agricultural products, international shipping, specific
types of investments and banking and as well as facilitation of visas for
educational and cultural exchange. Clarify that Cubans granted visas
for family and professional visits and for study in the US will be deemed
ineligible to claim status under the Cuban Adjustment Act. (Depending on
US success in controlling Covid-19, an announcement of intention allows
planning for the winter season and spring semester by the travel sector and universities.)
2) Within the first year: Fully restaff an embassy gutted by a
Secretary of State and President who opportunistically exploited inexplicable
health problems of US personnel (or just turned tail and
ran). Reopen consular authority and restore visa authority for
immigration and family reunion visits. Support Leahy/McGovern
legislation to totally end restrictions on travel and other bills for
comparable initiatives in agricultural and medical sales as well as on related
financial transactions. Enable collaboration in medicine and
science, including on anti-Covid research, treatment and international humanitarian
assistance. Return to abstention on the virtually unanimous UN vote
against the unilateral US embargo. Resuspend Title III of Helms-Burton to stop
annoyance suits by Cuban Americans for property they lost before they had any
claim as US citizens.
Break new
ground. To test and support economic reforms, terminate application
of the embargo to privately owned small and medium Cuban enterprises,
permitting their exports, imports and US investments. Cooperate with
Cuba to confirm Canadian research that chemical toxins not illusive sound waves
caused illness of embassy personnel and to discover who was responsible. Stop
all US government funding of projects within Cuba that are not vetted through
normal diplomatic channels with the host government.
3) Within the first two years: Align with Hemispheric and European
goals by achieving through comprehensive negotiations a political settlement in
Venezuela and an end to the unilateral US embargo of
Cuba. Open consulates in at least one Cuban and one US
city. Allow ferry service between US and Cuban
ports. Support with governmental, corporate and foundation
funds wide ranging cultural, educational, professional and business
exchanges. Seek reciprocal dampening of interventionist hostility by
state funded publications, broadcasts and social media, replaced by ongoing
multi sectoral dialog about conflicting values and ideologies.
4) Within the first term: Follow the road map to restore full Cuban
sovereignty of the Guantanamo base that was developed by Ben Rhodes and
Alejandro Castro during the Obama Administration’s normalization
discussions. Explore transforming the military outpost and
prison into a free trade zone, hemispheric medical research center and cruise
port.
Cuba is the most immediate opportunity for the
Biden Administration to creatively and positively roll back Russian advances.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russia's active measure campaigns
is limited to the election period. It does not connect dots to the
through line of President Trump's policies that have appeared to benefit
President Putin. Frequently noted with suspicion are his pro-Russian
dispensations with NATO, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Ukraine, European allies,
nuclear weapons, international institutions and climate change, not to mention
his frequent secretive meetings and calls. Also fitting that pattern was
his abrupt barely noticed worldwide withdrawal of all Peace Corps volunteers (excused
by Covid) and his constant efforts to discredit governmental norms and
practices at home.
Cuba is seldom discussed in this context
although it's hard to imagine greater Trump Administration help for Russian
interests. Because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's role of
protector against US threats and subsidizer disappeared resulting in the national
calamity of the Special Period of the 1990s. While many Cubans had
ideological and personal ties to Russia as it had been, distrust and distancing
grew with Russia as it was becoming, a center of oligarchic capitalism.
As the result of the Obama-Castro opening real
differences were emerging in Cuba about whether reconciliation and mutual
respect with the US was truly possible or a Trojan Horse. Had a path
become available to sustained sovereign development, at variance with the
choice of 60 years of total dependence followed by 60 years of total
resistance? If that were the case, would Cuba still need a big foreign
friend for security and economic development?
Barter of doctors and teachers for Venezuelan
oil and trade with China had filled some of the gap. Funds from Cuban
American family remittances, visits and investments and the growth of cruises,
tour groups and independent travelers were building the national economy and expanding
the role of private business and entrepreneurs. The natural propensity of
economic and cultural relationships between neighbors with linked populations
was beginning to take hold and the space for the Russians was
declining.
President Trump's harsh renewal of cold war
era hostility foreclosed the discussion. Cuba again needed a friend and
Russia was only too happy to reenter with naval visits and leadership exchanges,
even discussion of reopening its Cuba based center for electronic surveillance
of the US. Did Russia just accept what fate and Donald Trump delivered or
did it help things along? The scientific evidence from Canadian
researchers that chemical toxins were responsible for the medical problems
suffered by their diplomats requires rigorous investigation of whether the
Americans were similarly targeted. The question naturally arises whether
the Russians applied their notorious skills in this field. The Cubans may
be able to help eliminate the problem by recognizing and controlling Russian
behavior based on private collaboration with US scientists, doctors and
security officials. However, they cannot be expected to publicly
acknowledge a Russian role until it is undebatable that the US has truly
abandoned its regime change agenda, even in a soft power mode.
The policies I have suggested for the Biden
administration move us in the right direction, but real trust is impossible as
long as the US maintains a devastating unilateral embargo and refuses to
restore the Guantanamo base to national sovereignty, consistent with US
principles elsewhere in the world.
Q:
What would a future government of yours and that of the Democratic candidate Joe
Biden do to reverse the policies that Trump has adopted towards Cuba? Would you
personally advocate for an end to the blockade?