OPINION:
Last week, the Biden administration made a catastrophic error in judgment by easing Trump era sanctions against Cuba’s military dictatorship. But even worse, it demonstrated either stunning ignorance — or deception — by suggesting the new changes would actually help the Cuban people when in fact they will only help enrich regime officials who are in firm control of the island’s economic channels.
The State Department has justified the move in a published statement, insisting that easing the Trump-era restrictions “will support donative remittances to Cuban entrepreneurs, both with the goal of further empowering families to support each other and for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses.” The new changes will supposedly also make it easier for NGOs to send money for humanitarian purposes.
These assertions raise serious questions.
First, it is deceptive because, while the Biden administration may want to take credit for removing the $1,000 remittance cap for transfers to so-called entrepreneurs on the island, that exception already existed under the Trump era sanctions. The already-existing U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Cuban Assets Control Regulation 31 CFR §515.570(g) already granted a ‘general license’ for entrepreneurs to receive remittances without the $1,000 limit.
Second, the notion of entrepreneurs or independent contractors conducting business freely under the Cuban military dictatorship is a myth. No one on the island gets to conduct any business without regime approval or connections, which makes the notion of independent business ownership both a legal and factual impossibility. On May 10 the U.S. issued a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control permitting a U.S. company to finance a Cuban company — an act which almost certainly violates the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, which outlawed U.S. credit to Cuba.
As Sen. Bob Menendez said in a statement that lashed out against the easing of sanctions, “For years, the United States foolishly eased travel restrictions arguing millions of American dollars would bring about freedom and nothing changed. And as I warned then, the regime ultimately laughed off any promises of loosening its iron grip on the Cuban people and we ended up helping fund the machinery behind their continued oppression.”
Third, the administration’s ease of sanctions came just 48 hours after the Cuban regime approved a new draconian penal code to silence dissent by making it a serious criminal offense punishable up to 10 years in prison for journalists, NGOs and individuals to have access funds or material assets “with the purpose of defraying activities against the State and its constitutional order.” In Cuba, human rights advocacy and public dissent are typically considered activities against the state. Thus, the notion that the easing of sanctions will in any way help NGOs is pure fantasy.
The Biden administration’s move could not come at a worse time since the regime was finally on the brink of both economic and political collapse. Last year’s July 11 island-wide protests were the largest demonstrations against the regime since Fidel Castro’s illegal seizure of power in 1959. Hundreds of Cuban dissidents, democracy activists and even some minors have been imprisoned in terrible conditions with absurdly draconian sentences. In one analysis, 128 protestors were collectively sentenced to 1916 years in prison.
Last week, Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Bill Cassidy and Jim Risch, and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gimenez, Mark Green and Michael McCaul signed a joint statement rightly calling the administration’s move a “betrayal.”
“During Cuba’s historic anti-regime protests last year, President Biden said ‘[t]he United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime.’ Yet today, while hundreds of activists remain unlawfully imprisoned, the White House is resurrecting President Obama’s failed policy of unilateral concessions to the Castro/Diaz-Canel criminal dictatorship,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Rather than supporting their pleas for freedom by expanding democracy programming, broadcasting, global diplomacy, and sanctions against their oppressors, the Biden White House is rewarding the Western Hemisphere’s longest-ruling communist dictatorship. … The Biden Administration’s repeated appeasement to the Cuban dictatorship is a betrayal of America’s commitment to human rights and freedom, and to the long-suffering Cuban people who are struggling for a genuine democratic transition.”
Not coincidentally, Mr. Biden’s decision comes amid the largest Cuban migration since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift with as many as 35,000 Cubans crossing illegally into the U.S. last month alone. Already, the regime is negotiating with the administration to accept repatriated Cuban immigrants in exchange for the U.S. reinstating a family reunification parole program. This will effectively result in the U.S. returning Cubans who wanted to escape communism back into its clutches — while enabling the regime to send others with more pro-regime values instead.
Everything about what the Biden administration is wrong — legally, politically and morally. With the stroke of a pen, President Biden threw a lifeline to a dying oppressive regime while crushing the hopes of democracy activists who have spent years risking their lives to see Cuba finally set free. This speaks volumes about the lack of compassion and conscience from those running the Biden administration while raising even more questions about what American companies may benefit from stripping prior financial restrictions.
There is no moral justification for this. Mr. Biden’s explanation is simply more Orwellian doublespeak — and just another example of what Americans have tragically come to expect from this administration.
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