Biden's Cuba Crossroads
Biden's Cuba Crossroads
The U.S. cannot inject itself strongly into the unrest because it must be viewed as “an issue between the Cuban people and their oppressors," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to RealClearPolitics.
President Biden is projecting a tougher tone on Cuba as the world watches the government’s violent crackdown on the most widespread and fervent uprisings across the island nation in more than six-decades of communist control.
After a few days of tepid statements on the protests, late last week the president surprised some in his party by labeling Cuba a “failed state” that represses its people and communism “a universally failed system.”…
Eric Farnsworth, who has led the Washington office of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society since 2003, views this moment as the “opportunity of a lifetime” to push for change in Cuba. But while he believes the administration needs to wholeheartedly back the Cuban people, Farnsworth argues the United States cannot inject itself too strongly into the unrest because the matter must be viewed by the world as “an issue between the Cuban people and their oppressors.”…
Farnsworth observed that “when Democrats got the results in [Florida] in November, they were sobering – and it was Democrats in Florida who were asking the president to be careful not to throw open the doors to full liberalization, which I don’t think the president’s instincts would take in that direction any way.”…
“That is a huge impediment to our changing any sort of our posture toward the island,” Farnsworth said…
Getting Canada and Spain to take a stronger stand in support of the Cuban people should be a goal, but trying to rally Latin America countries is a taller order, Farnsworth said. Mexico last week threw its support behind the Cuba government amid the first few days of protests and called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo with Havana. “There’s a history here of using Cuba as a foil to the United States – there’s fear of organizing the left-wing supporters in your own country against your government,” he said…
One very specific thing Biden can do, as the White House last week promoted its role in flagging COVID vaccine misinformation on Facebook and Twitter, is to compel social media companies to shut down the Cuban government’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“Why is [Cuban President] Miguel Diaz-Canel still on Twitter?” Farnsworth asked. “Why can’t we use these regulatory actions to compel these companies to shut down these accounts?”…
“If the international community is clear and speaks with a loud voice that this behavior from the Cuban regime is not just unacceptable but will not be tolerated, even by the French and others who have traditionally run interference for Cuban internationally, then the regime is at least going to take notice and presumably will trim itself at least until the lights are turned down and the temperature has receded a little bit,” Farnsworth said…
