The U.S. Has Lost Its Path Towards Cuba

Some will argue that the American continent south of the Rio Grande was seldom a top priority for the U.S. Surely, the American fight against communist subversion in Latin America did take place during the Cold War. A hyperactive Soviet base ninety miles from Florida was reason enough for the U.S. to understand it had a role to play. While American aid to freedom’s call was inconsistent and often unreliable and ill-planned, it was, at least, U.S. state policy. The fall of Soviet communism proved to be a blessing in disguise for socialism in the Americas, thanks to the West’s flawed post-USSR path. The U.S. lost in the peace that it had won in the war.

The forced change in strategy, from bellicose war to the asymmetric variant, was decided upon by Fidel Castro when he reorganized the Western Hemisphere’s Left and convened the Sao Paulo Forum in 1990. The new Marxist methodology of waging war to attain political power in Latin America was something American politicians have yet to successfully understand and, worse, respond to with adequate weaponry. No American administration has been as negligent in its relationship with its southern neighbors, judged from the prism of democracy-fostering, as the combined governments of Barack Obama’s two terms and Biden’s current (what many believe to be Obama’s third).

The fact that the U.S. on February 7 celebrated its sixth high-level law enforcement meeting with communist Cuba since 2015, confirms the position that America has abandoned all courses to abet freedom and democracy on the island. This is the Obama-Biden reset with Cuban communism. It consists of trying tacitly to enhance the current path towards a Putinist transition to kleptocratic socialism with Cuban characteristics. On the 11th of July, 2021 (J11), massive nationwide protests in Cuba and the ensuing brutal crackdown undoubtedly presented a problem of optics for the current Democratic government. Instead of taking advantage of the Cuban people’s steadfast demonstration that they were willing to do what it takes to rid themselves of communism, Biden continued to reward the Castroist regime. In May 2022, for example, he established a pathway for American investors to invest in Cuban-owned “private” businesses. This was the first of its kind since the Eisenhower presidency.

In Cuba today, no “private” business can function without the blessing and collaboration of the dictatorial regime. It should come as no surprise that the bond between Cuba’s new entrepreneurial class and the Marxist government is well entrenched. This is a grave step above crony capitalism. It is the pretentious use of “private” economic activity by parastate actors that are rewarded for their political conformity and position. It is the formation of a politically engendered oligarchy, safeguarded by the rigors of a totalitarian structure that harbors ideological affinity for pragmatic socialism.

The collapse of the rule of law at the U.S. southern border is not an isolated phenomenon. Castro-Communism quickly took note of the anarchic American immigration under the Biden-Obama government and seized the moment. Benefiting itself with its much-experimented emigration warfare, the Cuban regime has gained in multiple ways from this new exodus. It has facilitated its social domestication objectives after the J11 mass peaceful uprising. Tolerating and accommodating the exiting of Cubans is also big business. This is the case for the Castro regime, as well as its Nicaraguan neo-colony, López Obrador’s México, and the drug cartels, which are the transport militias. The lucrative endeavor of exporting Cubans is, not only, for purposes of potential remittance redistribution schemes. It also weighs the utilization of its power over those who enter Cuba. Suppose a Cuban in the U.S. wants to return and visit a family member. In that case, the communist authorities hope to influence the political conduct of those residing abroad by weaponizing entry to the island.

Another important targeted objective of Cuban communism, with its exodus-producing machine, is to gain broader influence over U.S. foreign policy decisions. Democracies share sensibilities about electoral procedures that dictatorships do not have to concern themselves with. The latter must only concern itself with repressing, controlling social behavior, and avoiding coups or palace revolutions. The Cuban regime knows well how the American sociopolitical system works. They have been manipulating it for over 65 years.
Freedom and democracy in Cuba specifically, and Latin America in general, should not expect solidarity or policies consistent with American democratic values until there is a change of occupant in the White House. For the moment, this will have to be a Republican. It is not because Democrats have not historically been capable of producing honorable politicians. The Democrats must first purge themselves of Obama’s hegemony over the party before they can yield a figure capable of finding a freedom ethos applicable to Cuba that is appealing. The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State, institutions already under question by Americans, should never have hooked up with the political police and intelligence forces of the Cuban dictatorship.

First published at: cubanamericanvoice.com/article...ts-path-towards-cuba