Washington’s ever-tightening embargo has thrown Cuba into the worst economic and healthcare crisis in its history. The U.S. is using its spurious inclusion of Cuba on the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism” to wield increasingly punitive measures that limit the supply of food, fuel and basic medical supplies. To bolster this inhumane policy, right-wing members of Congress are slipping new, outrageous sanctions into broad budget legislation aimed at keeping the U.S. government running.
The U.S. is refusing to remove Cuba from its “terrorism list” even as Washington and Havana regularly hold counter-terrorism cooperation talks instituted during the Obama administration. This “terrorism” designation blocks Cuba from accessing the international banking system and prevents other countries from carrying on normal trade with Havana.
In Congress, Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Jose Diaz-Balart (R-FL) have recently succeeded in gaining enactment of new extreme legislation against Cuba. Now Washington will not remove Cuba from the “terrorism list” until it becomes a “multiparty democracy,” unlike, for example, key U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.
And, seemingly contradicting Washington’s aim of encouraging privatization in Cuba, another new measure prohibits U.S. funding for “business promotion, economic reform and entrepreneurship” on the island. Washington will also now seek sanctions against countries that pay Cuba for services by Cuban doctors.
These developments on Capitol Hill reflect a policy of generating stark privation and chaos in Cuba, with the goal of provoking an internal collapse of its society. The Biden administration says, meanwhile, that they will not reconsider its Cuba policy for the foreseeable future. By maintaining and strengthening his aggressive embargo, President Biden continues to break his campaign promise to move toward the normalization of relations with Cuba.