USA-Cuba in 2022, the new thaw?

Havana, Dec 30 (RHC) Recent visits to Cuba by U.S. congressmen and businessmen from the agricultural sector, the resumption of migration talks, and other events discreetly impacted bilateral relationships during 2022.

A new thaw? Experts and the media wonder when referring to the issue in a year in which there were slight signs in this regard, after the setback experienced during the Donald Trump administration (2017-2021).

The Republican was in charge of reversing the steps taken by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama (2009-2017), who in the last stage of his term led a change in the policy towards Cuba characterized by the carrot and not the stick.

However, Trump chose a policy of maximum pressure that included the reinforcement of the blockade with 243 additional measures and, almost at the end of his stay in the White House, the decision to include Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

A position that his Democratic successor, Joe Biden, promised to reverse upon his arrival at the executive mansion, but it became clear after he took office in January 2021, that there was no¨ urgency¨ under the argument that “Cuba is not a priority”.

The continuity of Trump’s coercive measures, which characterizes the Democratic governor, has a damaging multiplier effect in a context that was aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On December 14 during the inauguration of an annual academic event organized by the Center for International Policy Research, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba said that the international scenario showed changes in 2022.

But relations between Cuba and the United States did not experience “truly perceptible” changes, Fernández de Cossío affirmed, although he acknowledged bilateral steps such as migration cooperation.

It must be taken into account that an irregular migratory phenomenon affects both countries and requires dialogue, communication, and collaboration.

“Unfortunately, since a round of talks that took place in 2018, migration-related exchanges between the two countries had been suspended, and there have been significant breaches of the agreements,” the vice minister stressed.

In April this year, they resumed those talks in Washington DC, and then in November, in Havana, which did not result in new agreements but did ratify their validity and importance.

In the fiscal year that ended on September 30, the United States Government complied for the first time since 2017 with the commitment to grant 20,000 visas per year provided for in the 1994 agreements, something that had not been fulfilled for five years.

In addition, the White House announced that on January 4, 2023, all of these services will return to its embassy in Havana, thus closing the existing processing center in Guyana.

Exchanges of specialists on false documentation, operational contacts between the Cuban Border Guard Troops and the United States Coast Guard Service, and the coincidence in the importance of holding talks on application and compliance with the law, are points that marked the bilateral agenda this year that is about to end.

He also highlighted possible cooperation in dealing with oil spills, in the field of health and environment.

“This year, given two disasters that our country has suffered, there was an offer of humanitarian aid from the United States government, without political conditions, and that Cuba thanked and accepted,” explained Vice Minister Fernández de Cossío, recalling the fire at the supertanker base in Matanzas in August and Hurricane Ian a month later.

In both cases, this aid was offered without political conditions and was appreciated and accepted, according to the Cuban authorities.

In the opinion of Fernández de Cossío, in 2022 there was also a greater degree of dialogue between the State Department, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other government agencies of that country. “All these are mutual steps of a bilateral nature that are important and cannot be ignored,” he stressed.

LIMITED ATTEMPTS

The Biden government announced on May 16 a group of provisions in areas such as immigration, travel and exchange, private sector financing, and remittances, considered limited steps in the right direction.

But these measures did not change the essence of the blockade that has been trying to suffocate the Cuban people for more than six decades.

In that sense, the policy of maximum pressure inherited from Trump shows no signs of disappearing and Cuba remains on Washington’s unilateral list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

In addition, travel limitations, the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the prohibition of commerce, restricted entities, as well as financial persecution persist.

More recently, the designation of the island as a country of “special concern in terms of religious freedom” shows that although these minimal advances were achieved in 2022, there is a scenario in the opposite direction.

As Havana denounced, this designation was made without any real foundation.

It became clear that if the justification was political pressure, the mid-term elections on November 8 showed that trying to compete with the Republicans in aggressiveness towards Cuba did not win the Democrats a single vote in Florida, according to Fernández de Cossío in the mentioned academic event.

Meanwhile, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel received a flow of visits on December 10: a delegation of congressmen led by the Democratic representative of the state of Massachusetts James McGovern.

While in November another group of legislators from the northern country visited the headquarters of the National Assembly, at that time with food production as the central theme.

For Dr. Rosemarie Mealy, an activist and university professor, the actions of the solidarity movement with the island contributed to the visits of congressmen to Cuba.

She said that despite the restrictions to travel to the Caribbean nation, “more and different sectors of American society continue to visit (…) which contributes to changing public opinion regarding the continuous policies of the Biden administration towards Cuba”.

She said that on the global front, the decisive position of the UN vote in 2022 that called on the United States to end the blockade further isolated Washington and even some of its closest allies.

Once again, Cuba emerged victorious at the United Nations General Assembly as in the previous 29 years. This year 185 votes were in favor of the resolution on the need to lift that unilateral siege, she added.

Two abstentions were registered in the vote, Ukraine and Brazil, with the opposition of the United States and its unconditional ally Israel.

Mealy highlighted in this context “the independent voices of African, Caribbean and Latin American states.”

VERY DISCREET STEPS

In rendering an account of his management in the National Assembly (Parliament), Díaz-Canel recognized “very discreet steps” in advancing cooperation with the United States, especially in the area of ​​migration, despite the persistence of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade against the island.

“We have taken very discreet steps aimed at directing bilateral cooperation for compliance with migration agreements and also in other priority areas between both countries,” Díaz-Canel pointed out.

However, he pointed out that “the fundamental and defining characteristic of the bilateral relationship continues to be the economic blockade” and warned about the “open policy of subversion” and “attempts to destabilize” Cuba promoted by Washington.

Likewise, several experts agree that the Biden administration has been the most aggressive and effective throughout history. In the first 14 months of his presidency, the blockade caused losses valued at more than 6.3 billion dollars.