By Omar Rafael García Lazo on May 20, 2024
US embassy in Havana, photo: Bill Hackwell
The author unravels the true meaning of the recent U.S. announcement on the exclusion of Cuba from the unilateral list of countries “that do not collaborate” with its government in the “fight against terrorism”, while keeping it on another spurious and aggressive list of alleged sponsors of this scourge.
The announcement by the U.S. State Department on the withdrawal of Cuba from the list of countries that “do not fully collaborate” with this country in its alleged fight against terrorism has caused an interesting media stir.
From the outset, it should be made clear that there are two lists: the one from which Cuba has just been excluded, and another more harmful, aggressive and hostile one, which is the one that unilaterally, opportunistically and biasedly lists certain countries as “sponsors of terrorism”. Cuba remains in the latter category, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In the midst of a policy of maximum pressure against the Caribbean island, established by the government of Donald Trump and maintained in a cynical and criminal manner by Joseph Biden, aimed at starving the Cuban people, the news seems to be causing sighs of hope.
Undoubtedly, the decision is a step in the right direction, the one that Biden has avoided since he entered the White House, because, in the first place, it is recognized by everyone that Cuba does not walk hand in hand with terrorism, and better yet, it fights and condemns it, in all its forms and manifestations.
Secondly, more than cynical, it seems schizophrenic to recognize that Cuba collaborates with Washington in its fight against terrorism and at the same time promotes such scourge.
But apparent incongruities in politics always have explanations.
THE U.S. IS IN AN ELECTION YEAR.
The US is in an election year. Biden’s candidacy has been very much criticized from the Democratic ranks for his complicit position with the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, especially when one of his banners, obviously false, has been the promotion and defense of human rights. But for Biden 16,000 children killed by “Israel” with bombs supplied by his nation’s military industrial complex; thanks to federal funds approved by his government, do not constitute a flagrant and gross violation of human rights.
On the other hand, the anti-Cuban Republican ultra-right wing based in Florida, an ally of Trump and his anti-immigrant, racist and supremacist positions, has unleashed a furious campaign against Biden that has worried part of the Obamist wing of the Democrats and, apparently, has forced the president and his mediocre team to respond in some way.
Precisely, after the announcement that concerns us in this reflection, the anti-Cuban congressmen have shown a scathing reaction against the measure, not because of what it could mean in practical and political terms for Cuba, but because, in addition to not tolerating the slightest change in the current policy against the Island, the basis of their electoral vote and their economic security, they know that Biden and the Democrats are moving to unite the Party, placate critical positions within it and send a message to that pro-Obama wing that could determine not only millionaire and political contributions, but also image and votes. And all this puts at risk the election of Trump, the only guarantee to sustain the mafia politicians of South Florida,
Biden’s team should have taken note, in addition, of the campaign that this Floridian and retrograde sector exercised against the emerging private sector in Cuba. For the Miami anti-Cuban mafia, this sector, which is seen by the Cuban government as a complement within the island’s economic system and to which it has given remarkable facilities for its development, is aligned with the socialist policy of the Revolution. Although these extremists are not without reason, deep down they express a contradiction with the liberal postulates that a part of the Democrats are not willing to ignore or sully, since, for other important Obamist and Democratic groups, the development of the private sector in Cuba and the relaxation of the measures of economic asphyxiation, are pillars of the strategy initiated by Obama and interrupted by Trump, aimed at destroying the Cuban Revolution with other methods.
This is the key to understand, on the one hand, the rage of the ultra-right against the process of economic updating of the largest country of the Antilles; and on the other hand, the pressure of some Democrats for Biden to take important steps in relation to Cuba, but with the objectives that we know.
In this spiral of events, the recent visit to Cuba of a delegation of farmers, congressmen and state politicians to participate in the Fifth U.S.-Cuba Agricultural Conference, expresses an interest, still limited but positive, of important business groups of the agricultural and food world inclined to expand their trade with Cuba.
Apart from the fact that the pressure of this group is not enough to break down the barriers imposed by the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the U.S. government against Cuba, and that they also benefit from the payment conditions imposed by Washington, the steps taken and the lobbying they can exert in their respective spheres of influence are still important.
In the field of international relations, the White House should have taken note of the deepening of Cuba’s historic and special ties with China and Russia, of the Cuban Revolution’s upright support for the Palestinian cause and of its firm denunciation of the genocide committed by “Israel” in Gaza and the West Bank.
In important U.S. sectors, there has been a recurrent attempt to silence Cuba with carrots in the midst of its economic limitations. As this tactic is not new, the move to exclude Cuba from this unique list should not be read in isolation from the complex scenario described above.
In short, the Democrats and Biden are moving their chips. They are not looking at Cuba, as that is not the priority today. Up to this minute they are aware of the impact of their strategy of economic asphyxiation, as well as of the determination of the Cuban people not to give up in their determination to defend their socialist model of development.
What is at stake, and has been the focus of these reflections, is that Biden and his Party are trying to ensure party cohesion and with it reelection; or failing that, to leave the way open for someone from their own ranks to reach the presidential chair, stop Trumpism and manage the hegemonic decline of the empire. It is under this premise that one should read the announced exclusion that does not change the White House’s strategy of maximum pressure against Cuba.
Source: Cuba en Resumen