President Joe Biden is under immense pressure at home to ditch Trump adversarial Directives which reversed Obama's pro-Cuba policies which relaxed diplomatic relations between the two nations. static.politico.com_.jpg
The Pan Afrianist Watchman
Twenty-eight consecutive rejections later, tomorrow (Wednesday 23 June 2021) will mark the 29th time that the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly votes against the criminal six-decades old US Blockade Against Cuba.
In a recent interview at the Cuban embassy in Gaborone, the Cuban Ambassador to Botswana Her Excellency Patricia Pego Guerra told the local media that it is most likely that the US will abstain from the vote this year.
There is a compelling reason. Most significantly, the incumbent 49th President of America, Joe Biden, was Vice President during the Barack Obama administration that moved heaven and earth to ease diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba.
For this reason alone, it is felt that Biden will absolutely do everything within his means, even if it means resorting to executive orders to reverse all the Donald Trump’s counterproductive policies, which were deliberately designed to tighten the effect of the embargo.
But secondly, here is a letter signed by 79 Members of the U.S. Congress calling on President Biden to do way with the embargo. Additionally, the Congress of the State of Illinois has also penned a similar letter.
Both these developments, point to the immense pressure that President Biden is currently under to cancel the blockade and restore the Obama policies.
Below we produce the letter to President Biden.
Congress of the United States of America, Washington DC 20515
March 2, 2021
The Honourable Joe Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600
Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden,
Congratulations in your inauguration as the 46th President of the United States. As you begin to implement your pledge to elevate diplomacy as the United State’s principal tool of foreign policy, we respectfully urge you to promptly reverse the Trump Administration’s cruel policies against the Cuban people and renew mutually productive dialogue with the Cuban government.
Executive orders implemented by the Trump administration tightened sanctions to levels not seen in decades, at a time when Cubans are facing acute shortages of food and medicine exacerbated by the preventive economic shutdown which has helped to limit the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
With the stroke of a pen you can assist struggling Cuban families and promote a more constructive approach by promptly returning to the Obama-Biden Administration’s policy of engagement and normalisation of relations.
Among the policies that should be immediately reversed are restrictions on both remittances sent by Cuban-Americans to their families in Cuba as well as donative remittances.
The US does not restrict remittances to most of the countries targeted by US sanctions and after nearly six-decades of US sanctions, 40 percent of Cuban-Americans send their remittances to their families in Cuba and well over half of Cuban citizens depend on them.
In 2019 the Trump administration placed a cap on family remittances-which were not capped under the Obama-Biden policy to just US$1, 000 per quarter, while prohibiting donative remittances altogether.
In 2020, the Trump administration imposed further restrictions by prohibiting international companies from transferring remittances through the primary entities in Cuba that processed them.
This led Western Union, the leading company used for transmitting remittances to Cuba, to announce an end to its operations in November 2020.
We also urge you to roll back the Trump administration’s restrictions on travel to Cuba. The Trump administration ended people to people travel, prohibited private and corporate air and sea travel to Cuba, resulting in cancelation of nearly 800, 000 US cruise reservations and ended commercial flights to cities other Havana.
The administration also prohibited US citizens and residents from patronising numerous hotels and restaurants including the most historic. These restrictions not only harm Cuba’s economy – including the more than half a million ordinary Cubans who are employed in the tourism sector- but also deprive Cubans and US nationals of important educational and cultural exchange that can help both sides share their values and strengthen the potential for a better long term relationship between our people.
This detrimental Trump administration’s policies, and dozens of other Directives concerning Cuba, were made by Executive Orders modifying the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.
By signing a single Order you have the power to revert these Regulations back to their status on the final day of the Obama-Biden Administration.
We respectfully urge you to do so without delay.
We also urge you to reverse the recent politicised decision by the departing Trump Administration to add Cuba back to the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
This designation will further damage Cuba’s economy and place another roadblock in your path towards improved relations.
Cuba was removed for the list in 2015 after an exhaustive e=review by experts at the State Department and in the Intelligence Community and the Trump Administration did not cite any new facts to justify their decision.
In addition to these immediate steps we also support a more comprehensive effort to deepen engagement and normalisation. This includes restarting diplomatic engagement directly with the Cuban Government, both at senior levels, as well as through the re-staffing of each country’s respective embassies.
Engagement on key areas of mutual interest that were pursued by the Obama-Biden administration should be resumed, including bilateral groups on migration, disaster response, environment, and law enforcement issues such as counter-narcotics and money laundering.
Engagement on medical cooperation should be a particular priority, especially as the fight to combat Covid-19 rages on. As demonstrated by the joint efforts of the US and Cuba to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Africa, these efforts can provide real benefits to people around the world.
The US should end the policy of pressuring other countries to reject healthcare cooperation with Cuba, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, as Cuba’s foreign medical missions often provide assistance in countries and regions that often face inadequate healthcare services.
These initial steps should be part of an ongoing process that seeks an ultimate end to the harmful and extra-territorial ‘embargo’ (also called an economic blockade) against Cuba.
Ending the embargo is supported by a majority of people in the United States, and it negatively impacts the US global leadership, as evidenced by the 28 years of consecutive votes condemning it by early all members of the UN General Assembly including our allies.
US businesses should be allowed to sell and provide services to Cuba and to import from Cuba, an initiative started under the Oba-Biden administration.
According to a 2015 Washington Post poll conducted in Cuba, 97 percent of Cubans believe better relations with the United States are good for Cuba, and Reuters reported that ordinary Cubans in Havana celebrated the potential for your win to translate to a reversal of the draconian Trump policies that have harmed ordinary Cubans.
For the sake of both the Cuban and American peoples, we hope you will return our policy towards Cuba to a constructive direction, and we look forward to working with you to create a new chapter in US-Cuba relations.
Thank you kindly for your attention to this important matter
Sincerely,
Members of Congress
Bobby L. Rush; Steve Cohen; Barbara Lee; Gwen Moore;
Also signed by the following Members of Congress
Jake Auchincloss; Karen Bass; Donald S. Beyer Jr; Earl Blumenauer; Anthony G. Brown; Corrie Bush: Andre Carson: Joaquin Castro: David N. Cicilline: Yvette D. Clarke: Emmanuel Cleaver II: Jim Cooper: Jim Costa; Angie Craig: Danny K. Davis: Peter A. DeFazio: Rosa L. DeLauro: Debbie Dingell: Mike Doyle: Anna G. Eshoo: Dwight Evans: Jon Garamendi: Jesus G. Chuy Garcia: Al Green: Raul M. Grijalva: Brian Higgins: Jared Huffman: Pramila Jayapal: Eddie Bernice Johnson: Henry C. Hank Johnson Jr: Marcy Kaptur: Robin L. Kelly: Ro Kahnna; Daniel T. Kildee: Ann Kirkpatrick: Rick Larsen: Brenda L. Lawrence: Sheila Jackson Lee: Andy Levin: Ted Lieu: Alan Lowenthal: Carolyn B. Maloney: Betty McCollum: James P. McGoven: Jerry McNernie: Gregory W. Meeks: Joseph D. Morelle: Jerrold Nadler: Grace F. Napolitano: Marie Newman: Eleanor Holmes Norton: Alexandria Oceasio-Cortez: Ilhan Omar: Donald M. Payne Jr: Ed Perlmutter: Dean Phillips: Chellie Pingree: Mark Pocan: Katie Porter: Ayanna Pressley: David E. Price: Jamie Raskin: Jan Schakowsky: Adam Smith: Mark Takano: Bennie Thompson: Rashida Tlaib: Paul D. Tonko: David Trone: Juan Vargas: Nydia M. Velazquez: Maxine Waters: Peter Welch: Nikema Williams: John Yarmuth:
