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**JULY 26, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

**Cuba Quandary**

****

What's with Joe Biden's Cuba policy? Barack Obama opted for a policy
of greater openness, allowing direct fights to Cuba and more U.S.-Cuba
tourism and commerce. Obama's bet was that a kind of glasnost would
gradually liberalize the Cuban regime.

Donald Trump reverted to the traditional cold war against Cuba,
rescinding the Obama policies. Remittances are limited to $1,000 per
quarter. Restrictions that had been lifted were re-imposed. Flights are
again limited. The embargo was tightened. All told, Trump imposed 243
separate sanctions.

In April 2020, candidate Biden pledged to restore the Obama policies,
but he has not done so. Not surprisingly, Trump's new restrictions led
to economic privations, and the privations have led to protests. The
protests in turn led to a government crackdown.

Last week, a group of left activists and entertainers took out a
full-page ad in

**The New York Times**, as an open letter to President Biden
.
They said, in part,  "We find it unconscionable, especially during a
pandemic, to intentionally block remittances and Cuba's use of global
financial institutions, given that access to dollars is necessary for
the importation of food and medicine."

But Biden has taken a hard line
,
identifying with the protesters, condemning the Cuban government's
crackdown against them, and announcing new sanctions.

"The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and
peaceful assembly as all people. The United States stands with the brave
Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression
under a communist regime."

So what's going on here?

Basically, there are two theories of change, compounded by Biden's
takeaway from the 2020 election, especially in Miami-Dade County, which
broke heavily for Trump. Obama's theory was glasnost.

****Biden's theory is to pressure the regime by doubling down on pain.

Without taking sides on the divisive issue of whether the Cuban
Revolution was pure despotism, or offered help for Cuba's working
people, or was both, the practical question is which strategy is likely
to work better. Six decades of tough sanctions did not bring democracy
to Cuba.

Alas, Biden's doubling down on Trump's Cuba policy seems more about
U.S. domestic politics and less about what might produce a durable
democratization and economic progress for the Cuban people.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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