October 18, 2024

Cuba Under Intensified US Sanctions Confronts Its Greatest Challenge: the Continuity of Obama-Trump-Biden Policy

Roger Harris

Counterpunch

Photograph Source: U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Cristian L. Ricardo – Public Domain

“The majority of Cubans support Castro…every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba…to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

– Lester D. Mallory, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, 1960.

Despite draconian coercive measures by the US – overwhelmingly condemned every year by the UN General Assembly, with the next vote slated for October 29-30 – the Cuban Revolution has had extraordinary successes. This small, impoverished, formerly colonized island nation has achieved levels of education, medical services, and performance in many other fields, including sports, that rival the first world, through the application of socialist principles.

Cuba has rightly become a model of internationalism and an exemplar of socialism. As a consequence, every US administration for over six decades has targeted this “threat of a good example.” Back in its early days, the Cuban Revolution was bolstered by socialist solidarity, particularly from the Soviet Union.

The contemporary geopolitical situation is very different. Most notably the socialist bloc is defunct. Meanwhile, Cuba continues to be confronted by a still hegemonic US. In turn, the Yankee empire is now challenged by the hope of an emergent multipolar order. Cuba has expressed interest in joining the BRICS trade alliance of emerging economies and will attend their meeting in Russia, October 22-24.

Successes turned into liabilities

Today, Cuba is confronting perhaps its greatest challenge. The ever intensified US blockade is designed to perversely turn the successes of the revolution into liabilities.

For example, the revolution achieved one hundred percent literacy, created farming collectives and cooperatives, and mechanized cultivation, thus freeing the campesinos from the drudgery of peasant subsistence agriculture.

But now, most tractors are idle, in need of scarce fuel and embargoed spare parts. Agricultural production has subsequently contracted. In May, I was on a bus that traveled the length of the island. Mile upon mile of once productive agricultural fields lay fallow.

Historical yields of key crops are down nearly 40% due to lack of fertilizers and pesticides, according to a Cuban government statement. The daily bread ration has been slashed, Reuters reports.

In order to feed the nation, the state has had to use precious hard currency to import food; currency which otherwise could be used to repair a crumbling infrastructure. Broken pipes have caused widespread shortages of drinking water.

Under siege, some 10% percent of the population, over a million Cubans, have left between 2022 and 2023. This has, in turn, led to a drain of skilled labor and a decrease in productivity, contributing to a vicious cycle driving out-migration.

Le Monde diplomatique cautions: “Cuba is facing a moment that is extraordinarily precarious. While numerous factors have led to this…US sanctions have, at every juncture, triggered or worsened every aspect of the current crisis.”

The Obama engagement

Of the some 40 sovereign states sanctioned and slated for regime-change by Washington, Cuba is somewhat unique. Until recently, the island did not have the domestic social classes from which a counter-revolutionary base could be recruited.

In Cuba, most bourgeoisie under the Batista dictatorship left the country shortly after the revolution. The large US corporations that they had operated were expropriated. Similarly, when the government nationalized many small businesses in the 1960s, others fled to US shores.

By 2014, then-US President Obama lamented that Washington’s Cuba policy had “failed to advance our interests.” Obama’s new strategy was to engage Cuba in the hope of fostering a counter-revolutionary class opposition.

Obama reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba after a hiatus dating to 1961. Travel and some trade restrictions were lifted. And more remittances from relatives living in the US could be sent to Cuba.

In his famous March 2016 speech in Havana, Obama proclaimed to rousing applause: “I’ve called on our Congress to lift the embargo.” This was an outright lie. The US president had only remarked that the so-called embargo (really a blockade, because the US enforces it on third countries) was “outdated.”

Obama lauded the cuentapropistas, small entrepreneurs in Cuba, and pledged to help promote that stratum. He promised a new US policy focus of encouraging small businesses in Cuba. “There’s no limitation from the United States on the ability of Cuba to take these steps” to create what in effect would be a potentially counter-revolutionary class, Obama promised.

Obama warned the Cubans, “over time, the youth will lose hope” if prosperity were not achieved by creating a new small business class.

While normalizing relations with Cuba, Obama took a more adversarial stance toward Venezuela. He declared the oil-rich South American nation an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and imposed “targeted sanctions” on March 2015. The successes of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution in promoting regional integration were challenging US influence in Latin America, prompting Washington to adopt a “dual-track diplomacy” of engagement with Cuba and containment with Venezuela.

Obama spoke of the “failed” US policy on Cuba, which had not achieved “its intended goals.” Often left unsaid was that the “goal” has been to reverse the Cuban revolution. Obama’s intent was not to terminate the US regime-change policy, but to achieve it more effectively.

His engagement tactic should not be confused for accord. Obama still championed the three belligerent core elements of the US policy: a punishing blockade, occupation of the port of Guantanamo, and covert actions to undermine and destabilize Cuba.

Trump undoes and outdoes Obama

Donald Trump assumed office at a time when the leftist Pink Tide was ebbing. Taking advantage of the changed geopolitical context, the new president intensified Obama’s offensive against Cuba’s closest regional supporter Venezuela, while reversing his predecessor’s engagement with Havana. His “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela devastated their oil sector, thereby reducing Cuba’s petroleum subsidies from its ally.

Trump enacted 243 coercive measures against Cuba. He ended individual “people-to-people” educational travel, banned US business with military-linked Cuban entities, and imposed caps on remittances. In the closing days of his administration, he relisted Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, which further cut the island off from international finance.

Biden continues and extends Trump’s policies

Joe Biden, while campaigning for the presidency, played to liberal sentiment with vague inferences that he would restore a policy of engagement and undo Trump’s sanctions on Cuba.

By the time Biden assumed the US presidency, Cuba had been heavily impacted by the Covid pandemic. Temporary lockdowns reduced domestic productivity. Travel restrictions dried up tourist dollars, a major source of foreign currency.

Once in office and Cuba ever more vulnerable, Biden continued and extended Trump’s policies, including retaining it on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, Belly of the Beast reported how scarcities in Cuba fueled anti-government demonstrations on July 11, 2021. Eleven days later, Biden imposed yet more sanctions to further exacerbate the scarcities.

As an article in the LA Progressive explained, “Cuba’s humanitarian crisis – fueled by the sanctions maintained by Biden – seems to have only encouraged his administration to keep tightening the screws,” concluding “his policy remains largely indistinguishable from that of Trump.”

Biden, however, continued the Obama policy of empowering the Cuban private sector. He allowed more remittances, disproportionately benefiting Cubans with relatives in the US (who tend to be better off financially). He also facilitated international fund transfers involving private Cuban businesses. Amendments to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations enhanced internet access to encourage development of private telecommunications infrastructures for “independent entrepreneurs.”

What about Democratic Party presidential hopeful Kamala Harris?

“When evaluating the impact of a possible Kamala Harris electoral victory on the United States’ Cuba policy,” On Cuba News admits, “the first thing that should be recognized is the lack of evidence or antecedents to form a well-founded forecast.” Likewise, the Miami Herald finds Harris’s current Latin American policies a mystery with “few clues and a lot of uncertainty.”

Going back to when she was on the vice-presidential campaign trail in 2020, Harris commented about the possibility of easing the blockade on what she called the “dictatorship.” She said that won’t happen anytime soon and would have to be predicated on a new Washington-approved government in Cuba.

Alternative for Cuba

If Cubans want to see what an alternative future might be like under Yankee beneficence, they need only look 48 miles to the east at the deliberately failed state of Haiti.

In the US, the National Network on Cuba, ACERE, and Pastors for Peace are among the organizations working to end the blockade and get Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

As the US Peace Council admonished: “No matter how heroic a people may be, socialism must provide for their material needs. The US blockade of Cuba is designed precisely to thwart that and to discredit socialism in Cuba and anywhere else where oppressed people try to better their lot…The intensified US interference in Cuba is a wakeup call for greater efforts at solidarity.”

Roger Harris is on the board of the Task Force on the Americas, a 32-year-old anti-imperialist human rights organization.

 

Transforming our thinking, 

and doing it fast, 

is the key for success…

Diaz-Canel visited the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus on Friday, October 11, 2024. Exchanges and tours shed light on the paths that will make it possible to overcome the complex moment that Cuba is experiencing today

Author: Alina Perera Robbio | perera@juventudrebelde.cu

Picture of Oscar Alfonso Sosa

Experimental Station Granos de La Sierpe has successfully created more than 60 varieties of rice, and the seeds of corn, sorgho, beans and chickpeas.

 

Transforming our thinking, and doing it fast, is the key for success. It has been demonstrated in the places where good things are taking place in favor of Cuba. Early in the morning this Friday, the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, shared this reflection during the Extraordinary Plenary session of Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Ciego de Avila.

He shared his thoughts on a cardinal issue such as food production. And to the people of Avila, due to the results that are being felt. The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba said: “I am confident that you can be from the provinces that demonstrate that you can have food sovereignty.” In this sort of stop on the road that seeks to reach the end of 2024 in better conditions, the Head of State spoke about the value of banishing the philosophy of complaining about what one does not have, and enthrone the question of what can be done despite what is missing.

During this meeting, with chief of the Cadres’ Policies Department of the Central Committee, Humberto Camilo Hernández Suárez, emerged a portrait of life in the province experiencing palpable achievements in crucial aspects such as militancy life and food production. Ciego de Ávila has launched an integrated work system this year, allowing for differentiated attention to the Party, the Union of Young Communists and other societal organizations. At the same time – as the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, Julio Heriberto Gómez Casanova explained during the meeting, special attention has been given to the process of delegates’ accountability, which is going well, to sanitization of the environments and exchange with agricultural producers at the base.

Militancy and the importance of growing that membership, active participation in Social Networks, Health indicators, Economy indicators, the Banking penetration process, Crime – which has, in a general sense, decreased – were some of the topics addressed.  Julio Heriberto Gómez shared details about these aspects and alluding to an issue as vital as food production, he said: "The food of Ciego de Ávila is in our fields."

Leaders of the territory joined their voices explaining experiences and working methods, and ratifying, among other ideas, that the cadre policy must be worked on every day, also affirming that the most important thing is the people, to which all possible offers and services must be presented. During the day of analysis, an interesting starting point was the happenings, for the better, in La Cuba Agricultural Company, municipality of Baraguá. In La Cuba ongoing exchanges with producers have led, among other good things, to a notable increase in production. In this regard, President Díaz-Canel mentioned that "Now, with fewer resources, we are recovering things. The main theme is work, intelligence, collective participation, the use of science and, the theme is also about, leadership."

In this province, from January to September, agricultural production has grown fivefold. The use of agroecology has been essential to this leap. But, first we had to change our ways of thinking, because among other limitations, Diaz-Canel reasoned, "The import mentality closed our horizons." Discussing the sugar harvest, which has not achieved goals, Diaz-Canel commented on the value of turning the program from a sugarcane-sugar into a sugarcane-sugar derivatives program. Thus, he said, the sugar production plants would be busy all the time. Towards the end of the day, possible actions to reduce the fiscal deficit were also discussed, and Díaz-Canel returned to a concept he has shared in the most recent session of the National Assembly of People's Power, "The moment is extremely complex, but not insurmountable, it can be overcome and we are going to overcome it." To do it we have to work efficiently and intelligently, performing with compromise and optimism.

 Exemplary militancy is a cornerstone for the effective work of the Party. Participation is the formula to consolidate unity. Training the leaders that Cuba needs, strengthening Party structures, attending to the new generations –who are the main target of the empire's strategy of cultural colonization, ensuring an orderly economy and developing a culture of detail. Diaz-Canel addressed all these issue, and stressed to clarify that "one thing is lack of resources and another is lack of order." To those attending the Plenary, the president commented that according to indicators and experiences discussed the people of Avila are working with a sense of responsibility and following their very own way of doing things.

Trip to Sancti Spiritus territory

The second part of the agenda the Cuban President fulfilled on Friday was a stop at another place of economic interest, the municipality of La Sierpe in the province of Sancti Spíritus. The first point in that itinerary was Pastoreo Cuatro, belonging to the Sur del Jíbaro Grain Agro-Industrial Company. This is not just any company: it gravitates with great weight in the national production of rice but, due to multiple reasons – such as lack of fuel, fertilizers or other resources, deficiencies in the organization or in work styles – this structure reaps today about 20% of its historical yields.  On his arrival to Pastoreo Cuatro, the President highlighted the importance of diversifying productions as is done there, venturing into the production of meat and root vegetables. He was also interested in exploring the salaries of people working there, the beneficial influence of science, and the possibility that profits make it feasible improving living conditions for workers.

The second stop on the tour of La Sierpe was the Grain Experimental Station, belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture. Throughout its history, this scientific entity – of 90 hectares – has achieved more than 60 varieties of rice, and also seeds of corn, sorghum, beans and chickpeas. There Díaz-Canel asked if workers feel that research and its results have an optimal application throughout the country, and when learning that all these contributions are not being financially remunerated, he stressed the relevance of seeking fair financing schemes.

The “Españoles Base Business Unit” (UEB), an industrial plant processing wet rice from the field belonging to Sur del Jíbaro, was the final point of the day in La Sierpe. This plant has a processing capacity of 300 tons per day. Díaz-Canel inquired about workers' salaries, whether they have profits or earnings translate into self-consumption or payment in kind.  The plant is in optimal conditions thanks to the innovative zeal of its members, so the President stressed the importance of doing everything today without ignoring the country’s focus on conserving energy. The tour this Friday made it very clear than what is taking place in La Sierpe may very well decide the well-being of the municipality, even the entire province.

_________________________________________

 

Like a Rising Sun, the friendship between Japan and Cuba.

During decades Japan has kept solid relationships of cooperation with Cuba. 

 

Jorge Ernesto Angulo Leiva | jorgeernestoanguloleiva@gmail.com

 

September 15th, 2024

 

In the middle of the covid pandemia, Japan donated to Cuba, on top of medical supplies, urban public transport buses.

 

“Cubans have the responsibility and the capacity to move forward, and we walk with them in the implementation of the objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Plan, as expressed in their National Plan of Economic and Social Development (Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Económico y Social)”.

 

Kenji Hirata, Japan’s Ambassador in Cuba for the last three years, in recent conversation shared with Granma his views regarding the results, scope and cooperation perspectives between Japan and Cuba.  «In spite of economic, political and social differences, even of the geographic distance between our two nations, we need to congratulate ourselves in sustaining this relationship which has strong historic roots,” he pointed.

 

–In what stage are our bilateral links?

 

–We have increased little by little the tools favoring cooperation, above all since the visit of our then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in 2016.

 

«He personally participated in the delivery of four of the eight Large-Scale Non-Refundable Financial Assistance programs, initiated since 2018. I was also present in 15 donations to communities, and in humanitarian aid for the effects of Hurricane Ian in 2022.

 

–What level of importance do you concede to technical cooperation?

 

–In total, since 2002 we have implemented 26 projects based precisely in that kind of cooperation. “Knowing how to do” resides in people, so only them can transmit this knowledge to others.

 

«Our country exists thanks to huge sacrifices made by our people in the reconstruction effort after World War II; those experiences, successes and challenges, can provide a lot of knowledge, probably indirectly, because of the specificity of each context.

 

“For instance, in a new field for the economy of this island, like mipymes, Japan has a long tradition in fomenting them, tradition that we believe can offer very useful insights in how to best design Cuban policies about this type of management.

 

«In 2023, we invited six businessmen and a similar number of governmental employees to Japan, mainly to show them how similar initiatives function in our case, so they could pick up the ideas and practices that best serves them.

 

–What is the purpose of the Financial Assistance No Refundable in Large Scale?

 

We have to clarify that it does not take place in a unilateral manner, it is a relationship in which both parties have to cooperate to achieve desirable outcomes, with the objective of transforming donated assets into benefits.

 

–Within this modality, why working on an electrical energy storage and management system in the Island of Youth?

 

The electrical energy flowing from solar panels is unstable as it depends very much from the conditions of the climate.

 

«The Island of Youth is bringing together renewable energy with energy obtained thanks to the use of other more traditional sources of energy, and this system of storage and management makes it possible to increase or decrease energy provision   through alternative ways, in sync with solar exposure of photovoltaic parks. Allowing in this way to ensure and warrant a stable supply.  

 

«Many agents of the National Electric Union (Union Nacional Eléctrica) are including in our training opportunities in the use of this technology, even though they already have a very advanced education, and in this manner we optimize and shorten their learning time.

 

«This experience can become very useful for a mega-projects of 2000 megawatts generated through panels, because power delivery can be synchronized with the National Electric System, and a mechanism to ensure stability is required.

 

–What kind of medical equipment have you brought?

 

“In 2018 endoscopy and pathological anatomy devices for 34 hospitals in 12 provinces were received in Cuba. Crucial because about 30 minutes after a biopsy is initiated you can determine if an organ is affected by cancer or not.

 

«In 2022, with support from the UN Children Fund and within a program focusing on Strengthening Health Capacity for the Covid-19 Crisis, we contributed to ensure the vaccination campaign against coronavirus, with syringes and cold chain equipment, was possible in 255 clinics.

 

«Cuba faced that pandemic in a very efficient manner and again, I congratulate the Cuban government. It makes me proud that we have been able to contribute in some manner to that struggle.

 

«In 2022 also we facilitated the work of 64 hospitals by providing suction equipment and portable ultrasound and X Rays equipment. The first ones named extract fluids linked to risk of suffocation in patients with respiratory challenges.   

 

«In the meantime, in the context of the mentioned virus, equipment generating medical images available in specifically designed rooms, lowered the chances of spread and contagion within hospitals as the mobility of patients was limited.  

 

–How is Japan contributing to Cuban agriculture, in particular rice cultivation?

 

–You know last names ending in «ta», like mine, are very common among us because “ta” means «rice paddy». The cultivation of rice is the basis of our culture for millennia, and our main food. Because of the importance of rice in Cuba, it is only natural for us wanting to share the knowledge we have in this area.

 

«We act in two ways: technical cooperation and assistance in large scale. Regarding the first one for 18 years now we are working in identifying the best seeds for the conditions prevailing in Cuba. We also focus in ensuring production and distribution of seeds and many farmers have them in their hands today.

 

«We have also introduced new equipment, and I have seen personally the new equipment in the field in Cienfuegos and in Pinar del Rio but I know it is already present in nine territories in Cuba.

 

–What has been Japan response in connection with humanitarian aid in dealing with natural disasters?

 

–The most important is speed, first local authorities need to identify the needs to repair damages, then a call for help and finally the provision of materials in keeping with the needs in the country requesting help and availability in the one providing assistance.

 

«We have centers for the storage of materials and, if the need coincides with what we have available at that moment, we can be very fast. During 2022 I delivered a package that contained 23 water purifiers and similar number of simple tanks to store the liquid and 50 roles of cables and adapters.

 

–What impact has the Non-Refundable Financial Assistance for Human Security Projects at local level?

 

–They are small, each can cost a maximum of 130 000 dollars but they provide solutions to the challenges of small communities.

 

«For example, in intricate small towns in Cienfuegos we installed pumping equipment functioning with renewable energy, people benefitted from a more stable supply of water while government saved on fuel.

 

–What is your thinking about the effectivity of local food security?

 

–We have installed irrigation systems functioning with photovoltaic energy, donated nets to weaken the incidence of the sun over crops, in addition to tractors and other equipment. We also backed the processing of foodstuff with equipment like blenders, to commercialize and add value to the products.

 

–What can you tell us about cultural assistance?

 

–Until 2014 we implemented 12 projects, but since then they stop. Among the benefits obtained, installation of sound equipment in theatres, also musical instruments for the National Symphonic Orchestra, and the building of the Planetary of Havana.

 

–What learning have the master plans left?

 

–In a sense, as a final report, I would say that the teams of Japanese and Cuban experts working and learning together and establishing links of trust has resulted.

 

“The final report analyzes the challenges and makes suggestions. It only has value if those who work in this actually study it and use it in practice with financial resources and sufficient human forces.

 

“There are already two plans of that kind in motion: transport and renewable energy. In the first plan the key for success is in great measure strengthening logistic management. While training in the management of renewable sources and on the systems that connect electric energy are fundamental for the second plan.

 

“Japanese cooperation brings a message of solidarity and hope both deserved and needed. You are one of our friends; and, we encourage them to greater efforts to achieve your national goals.