Biden’s redo of Obama’s historic Cuba policy shouldn’t ignore Cuban Americans in Miami | Opinion

The battle over what President Joe Biden’s new U.S.-Cuba policy will look like is on.

From Miami to Washington, D.C., the partisan groundwork in support of and in opposition to whatever Biden adopts is being dutifully laid out by both sides.

There are thoughtful assessments based on preliminary points of what could be Biden’s plan, shared with insiders, and from public comments made by Biden, his spokeswoman and Vice President Kamala Harris.

There are silly schemes, for and against a revision of former President Trump’s sanctions, to stage more caravans and Freedom Tower demonstrations.

Sigh. A calming cup of tilo would serve us all better at this time.

Meanwhile in Cuba, the state was busy crushing dissent — in a public way — a week into Biden’s presidency.

Ever heard of the Minister of Culture of any other country stepping out of his office and violently pushing and shoving independent journalists and young artists asking for a dialogue on artistic freedom?

Is the Cuban government sending, encrypted in the viral confrontation, a message to Washington while Cuban diplomats and leaders on Twitter demand respect from a new U.S. administration that has said human rights will drive foreign policy decisions?

“They’re fixing things so that Biden can’t do anything,” a Cuban-American academic with connections in Cuba tells me. “There’s a faction in Cuba that dreads opening up to the United States. It has always been that way.”

Role of Cuban Americans

On the other side of the Florida Straits are the Cuban Americans, divided and in discord. Some are invested in the status quo and are trying to sabotage a Biden reassessment of Trump policy.

The noise can get so loud that it’s no wonder some are advocating for Biden to focus on U.S. national security interests alone when dealing with Cuba — and ignore whatever political fallout may come from Cuban Americans over his decisions.

This line of thinking promotes the idea that ethnic groups can’t be trusted, so keep them at a distance.

As a former Cuban-American politician who supported President Obama’s engagement policy put it: “They see us as the rock in the road.”

Hands off Cuba altogether, others say, let them work it out themselves.

This approach is short-sighted.

Cuban Americans are U.S. citizens and stakeholders in the future of relations between the two countries. We aren’t a monolithic group, as too many people outside Miami think, and have plenty to contribute to the conversation.

Biden needs us and our expertise. Cubans in Cuba need us to advocate for them.

What happens in Cuba affects Miami — and vice versa. And, as a voting bloc, we have an impact on the national body politic, as past elections have shown.

Biden’s press secretary seems to understand the role of Cuban Americans.

“Our Cuba policy is governed by two principles,” Jen Psaki said at a White House press briefing. “First, support for democracy and human rights — that will be at the core of our efforts. Second, is Americans, especially Cuban Americans, are the best ambassadors for freedom in Cuba.”

Cuba policy rollout to come

Higher-priority issues notwithstanding, there’s no doubt we’ll soon see an official rollout on Cuba policy from Washington, sources tell me.

This week, leadership and staff with Cuba policy experience took their places at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, and Biden delivered his first foreign policy address declaring that, “Diplomacy is back at the center.”

One of the key hires is Emily Mendrala, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs covering Cuba and regional migration.

Mendrala contributed to the policy paper “The United States and Cuba: A New Policy of Engagement,” prepared by the Center for Democracy in the Americas and the Washington Office on Latin America. It was released in December. It’s billed as “a road map for how the Biden-Harris administration may implement a policy of engagement toward Cuba.”

I read through it, and it’s Obama redux, with the caveat that there are “two obstacles to re-engagement: the still-unsolved mystery of what caused the injuries to U.S. diplomats and others serving in Havana; and the crisis in Venezuela.”

I would add a third: the Cuban hard-line, the castristas who put Miguel Díaz-Canel in power, don’t want the American presence on the island — and they’re scared of the overwhelmingly positive response to engagement the Cuban people openly demonstrated. The castristas want U.S. dollars, but not American influence. That’s why they sabotaged engagement, most likely with the help of the Russians, who in Trump’s end of detente, found the perfect ally to return to dominance in Cuba.

And I would also add a “buyer beware” label: The paper glosses over Cuban Americans, putting too much confidence in the possibility that an engagement policy will bring back for Democrats the Cuban vote margin Hillary Clinton enjoyed in 2016, and Biden didn’t in 2020 because of the fear inculcated by the GOP of a socialist takeover of the United States.

On Venezuela, the paper’s authors argue: “Like it or not, engaging with Havana is a necessary condition for reaching a Venezuelan settlement that works. Under the right conditions, Cuba can play a constructive role.”

Hard to envision Cuba helping the United States solve Venezuela’s political and humanitarian crisis when it’s beating up its own people, but I understand the principle of diplomatic engagement as a necessary road to be traveled for the greater good.

Ending restrictions on travel, remittances

All bets point to an Obama policy look-alike with Biden that ends restrictions on travel and remittances, which have hurt the Cuban people most. But Biden, who has more foreign policy experience than President Obama had, has only said that he’s reviewing Trump policy, whose “approach isn’t working.”

It’s true.

Trump didn’t deliver results. His rhetoric and actions, while pleasing to Cuban Miami, only entrenched repression and dictators in Cuba and Venezuela.

“Cuba is no closer to freedom and democracy today than it was four years ago,” Biden said on the campaign trail in South Florida. “In fact, there are more political prisoners, and secret police are as brutal as ever. And Russia, once again, is a major presence in Havana.”

“So much for his policy,” he added.

Trump’s supporters, in turn, argue that Obama’s engagement didn’t lead to respect for human rights or democracy. But how can we know that when engagement only lasted a little more than two years?

You don’t change 60 years of ingrained Castroism in a few months. Who knows how many years it’s going to take for this side to come out of the spell of the cult of Trump.

Seems like a lifetime ago when the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba and engagement enjoyed widespread bipartisan support. But, surely, Miami is more bitterly divided now, thanks to the former president.

Truth be told, the bad-behaving Cuban government deserved Donald Trump, both sides of him, the raunchy deal-maker who sought for decades to do business on the island and the manipulative president who imposed several sanctions to secure the Cuban-American vote in Florida.

It also deserved Trump’s ill-intended parting punch returning Cuba to the list of sponsors of terrorism, which makes the shaping of a new Cuba policy tougher for President Biden.

But the Cuban people didn’t deserve Trump — and they’re the ones hurt the most in the pocket, in the soul.

Division and discord among Cuban Americans shouldn’t hold up new policy that brings relief to those on the island.

Some people are never going to support anything that falls short of toppling the regime. But there are others who did give Obama’s historic opening a chance — and were left wanting to see it bear fruit for the Cuban people.

They saw the possibility of a better future.

They dared to hope, then — poof! — in a political dance of extremes, it was usurped.

No, long-suffering Cubans, who reveled in the return of American presence and influence on the island during the Obama opening, didn’t deserve to lose it all.

A thoughtful, strategic and stratified policy from Biden — his own, with the necessary input and participation of Cuban Americans — is the way to go.

But whether Cuba reciprocates and does its part to restore relations remains to be seen.

The president should proceed cautiously but with commitment.

In Havana, after Biden was declared the winner, drivers honked their horns, and people on the streets broke into applause.

It’s a good sign, but history has shown that Cuba almost always ends up breaking our hearts.