Biden Announces Largely Symbolic Sanctions on Cuba

After two weeks of protests in Cuba, the Biden administration is taking action against the communist regime. Some argue it’s not enough, or even anything at all.

Summary

In its “first significant policy response” to the Cuban protests and government crackdown, the Biden administration announced new sanctions on various Cuban government officials.

• The sanctions are part of a wider policy announced Wednesday that includes increasing internet access for people of the communist island nation 90 miles off the coast of Florida.
• Biden’s announcement was criticized by the Mayor of Miami, which has a sizable Cuban population, who said it wasn’t strong enough and should include humanitarian aid and the cooperation of the Organization of American States.
• The impact of the sanctions, which affects “any assets under U.S. jurisdiction and bar U.S. travel for the officials” is largely symbolic since there’s very little trade and travel between the United States and Cuba.

• CNN’s report highlighted efforts to re-staff the American embassy in Havana to “provide consular services to Cubans.”
• The New York Times noted Biden’s role as Vice President during the Obama administration’s push to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba, a position he has since abandoned.
• The Washington Post’s report on the sanctions said the Biden administration is under “increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans” to ramp up support for Cuban protestors.

• Fox News interviewed a Cuban exile who criticized the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones, of historically-illiterate 1619 Project fame, for Jones’ statement that “Cuba has the least inequality between black and white people” in the West “largely due to socialism.”
• The New York Post’s opinion section published former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey, who characterized the latest immigration and refugee policy pronouncements from the Biden administration as cruel to Cubans seeking refuge from communist oppression while allowing hundreds of thousands to stream over the southern border.
• RedState compiled the criticism of President Biden from the right, arguing he is “ignoring Cuban oppression” and not “taking any concrete actions to improve the situation.”

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© Dallas Gerber, 2021