Editorial | Must Cuba suffer more?

Cuba needs powerful, vocal friends right now as it faces a growing energy crisis. Their national grid suffered several blackouts in recent weeks and is reported to have sustained further damage Thursday when category 3 Hurricane Rafael crippled its entire power grid for 24 hours. This comes weeks after the system was battered by Hurricane Oscar, creating a dire situation for a country challenged by food and fuel shortages.

President Miguel Díaz -Canel says a large part of his nation’s energy emergency stems from the fact that Cuba does not have a stable supply of fuel to operate the system at full capacity. And this is blamed on the six decades-old US economic blockade which has persisted even in the face of strident calls for it to end.

Note, sanctions are an essential tool of US foreign policy. The Cuban embargo is the oldest and longest series of sanctions against any country in the history of the US. Other countries similarly restricted are Iran, Syria and Russia.

Friends of Cuba from Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, in various fora, have called for an end to this blockade which has variously been described as an epic US foreign policy failure in its initial goal of inciting regime change.

Since 1992, the majority of nations attending the United Nations General Assembly have called for an end to sanctions against Cuba. They say the embargo is hindering the development of the country and impoverishing its population.

Incoming US president Donald Trump was not sympathetic towards Cuba during his first presidency, for, between 2017 and 2020, he introduced more than 200 new measures aimed at tightening the hardships of the commercial blockade. Indeed, the Trump administration swiftly ended progress made under the Obama administration, which had introduced reforms aimed at boosting commerce and engaging in civil society discourse. This included putting back Cuba on the list of states sponsoring terrorism, reducing travel, and cutting back on remittances.

CANNOT BE IN THE INTEREST

It cannot be in the interest of the USA to be surrounded by instability and poverty, as in Haiti, and now Cuba, for these woes will likely come ashore on its borders. An estimated 11.4 per cent of Cuba’s population has emigrated in the last three years, and these are overwhelmingly people of working age. Preventing a humanitarian crisis in one’s backyard is reason enough to consider new, creative options to political disagreements.

Cuba has demonstrated that it can be counted on to support humanitarian efforts, from deploying its “white coat army” of doctors to fight COVID-19 to dispatching more than 60,000 doctors and other medical professionals to 67 countries, including Jamaica. Even in the face of tighter sanctions during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the cancellation of ventilator sales from a Swiss company, Cuban resilience shun through as it developed its own COVID-19 vaccines which achieved a 90% rate in their country.

Cuba’s voice resounded at the UN General Assembly in September of this year when its Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez called for a new civilised coexistence among nations where solidarity, international cooperation, integration and the peaceful settlement of disputes prevail. He saw the embargo as a determination to control the destiny of Cuba, an old US ambition anchored in the Monroe Doctrine.

It may have escaped most people’s attention that July 28 was commemorated as the International Day Against the US blockade of Cuba. Cuban immigrants gathered at Miami International Airport, and they carried flags and placards while calling for an end to the debilitating embargo. But, who heard those voices?

We believe it is time for a real Cuba thaw. If the answer is seen as a diplomatic resolution, where are the bold, constructive international voices to achieve this thaw? Which multilateral institutions can be relied on to trigger decisive action? Maybe we should look to a billionaire investor to cast his eye on Cuba as a potential business venture.

No one really benefits from these sanctions, bottom line.