By Mirta BaleaWhen Barack Obama was succeeded by Donald Trump in the presidency of the United States, he acknowledged that differences of interpretation of democracy and human rights persisted with Cuba, but he hoped that the "bilateral interaction" would end up solving it. The ratification of the Cuban Constitution last February, without variations in the essence of exercising power, does not seem to be in line with the detente sought by the former Democratic leader.
What the outgoing president did not tell the public about the consequences of his policy of opening to Havana, was that the new tenant of the White House would clash with the issue of political prisoners on the island and compensation for confiscated US assets, and Cuba, at the other hand, would deliver a long list of claims among which would appear, in a relevant manner, the payment of a minimum of 833 billion dollars as compensation "for the human and economic damage" caused by the embargo that lasts a century.
What would appear before Obama's eyes as a roadmap for Trump backed by the changes introduced the traditional US policy toward Cuba, has stumbled on the road with de Venezuelan power keg and the interest of holding the regime accountable for the oppression and abuses of human rights as it has been happening since the 1960s. The US Administration has blamed Cuba of the crisis in Venezuela, where it says that the Cuban military controls the Bolivarian Armed Forces.
Trump considers Cuba part of a tyrannical troika - which feeds back- ot which Venezuela and Nicaragua are also part. The ratification of the Constitution in a country that a decade before acted as a revulsive in Latin America and the Caribbean on behalf of the creation of a platform of allied nations within the so-called socialism of the 21st century, now has another reading with the departure of two giants: Argentina and Brazil. Obama launched two important migratory decisions just before ending his mandate and little after visiting Havana and having met four times with Raul Castro after the resumption of relations on December 14, 2014. These presidencial directives eliminated Bill Clintons migratory policy called wet feet/dry feet added to the Law on Cuban Adjustment. It cames to say that Cubans intercepted at sea with the intention of reaching America coasts would be returned unless they set foot on land, in which case they would obtain a work permit, initial help, and after a year, they could apply for residency. Panic became evident among those eager to leave the country that suspected Cuban Adjustment Law could ruined either as a whole. The immigration increase was notice in the use of Latin America as a bridge. Cubas allied Nicaragua closed the borders, citing security and sovereignty risks and transferred to Panama and Costa Rica the care of those dissable to continue traveling to the US. The Cuban Ajustment Law was born after de mass exodus of rafters in the mid-1990s. The second decisión had to do with the elimination of the program known as parole for those cuban phisicians on misión in third countries to seek asylum in any US Embassy. This was launched en 2006 by the Republican George W. Bush. The deceased Fidel Castro denounced it as a "brain drawn", of what can be blamed on all the countries of the world. One of those who most condemned Obama's last-minute decisions was Cuban-American congressman Mario Diaz Balart, arguing that were concessions to the Havana regime and a betrayal of the United States' commitment to human rights. The president carried out the program despite the reluctance of the Congress regarding the normalization of relations with Cuba.
Trump's policy since his inauguration has been to reaffirm the embargo and oppose the calls to lift it from the UN or other international forums. With his collaborators, he has resumed periodic reports on Cuba's progress in terms of political and economic freedoms.
Obama's immigration directives were publicized as a way to consolidate the supposed advances in the thaw for which he made them irreversible. Havana, as expected, said it would accept the repatriation of Cubans expelled from the United States as they had been doing and uncovered the double standards of Washington's bosses.
The measures also served to define the interests of Obamas, such as the expansion of bilateral trade and the promotion of economic reforms, evading mentioning the Golden rule, the opening to a democratic system, a fundamental requirement for all previous American governments. The presidential directives came after nominating the first ambassador in Havana after half a century of rupture. Trump warned during his campaign that he would revert all concessions to Cuba "until the freedoms were restored", although everyone knew that he would get involved in a cumbersome, long and complicated process, despite having said before to be good with the process of normalizing relationships. Nobody have to tear his clothes for this. The president has accustomed people to send contradictory messages and if one looks at his own trajectory you can see that this performance has been his way of acting since he was a successful businessman, which attracted politics.
He was part of the Democratic ranks until 1987 when he went to the Republicans for two years. He spent a short time in the Reformation Party and in 2001 he returned to the Democratic Party, which could hold him until he decided to renew with the Republican Party and stand for the 2016 elections. It can be said that he is the first president in the White House without political experience or in elective processes and still won.
The constant changes in an individual are considered in psychology expression of some source of discomfort, although another motivation could be the simple desire to change. People - contrary to what one might think - do not change in a strict sense of the term, so lurching from one Party to another had the objective of finding the most beneficial hole in their life and interests. The personality traits, however, do not vary, and this is why we speak of a president who retains the form of expressing himself of the businessman, acting with certain histrionics, showing a narcissistic side and that in many occasions gives the impression of acting on impulse. As a businessman, he invested years in creating a character as a hallmark and this is what underlies his mandate.
John Bolton, National Security Adviser, a man at the moment of all his confidence, came to say, in 2002, that Cuba was a biological weapons factory and this seems to be in charge of plotting its policy in that direction. He has recently denounced Caracas for his financial assistance to Cuba and Nicaragua, which have been acquiring oil at preferential prices, just as Havana did before with the Soviet Union until Gorbachev turned off the tap. The oil diplomacy went to garate with the collapse of prices in 2014, which has significantly reduced the purchase of Cuba. At present, it receives 50 thousand barrels a day, but until very recently the amount was 115 thousand, with which it covered a large part of its consumption. In return, he sent doctors and experts in key areas such as Security and Intelligence to the Venezuelan regime. When Trump decided to explicitly support Juan Guaidó he placed himself in the line of overthrowing Nicolás Maduro.
It began by cutting off all access to money for the sale of oil on US soil of state-owned PDVSA, which obtains 90% of its profits from that market. Preventing access to Venezuelan funds has meant that the country can not import goods or reverse declining oil production. It has also complicated the payments of the public debt. The numbers speak: the PDVSA produced almost three million barrels per day in 2014 and in January of this year, barely extracted 1.1 million barrels, in a nation with the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Trump decided to give the shoe at the table a few days ago by reducing the validity time, from five years to three months, of the B2 visa for tourism and visits to relatives. Cuba reacted by saying that this constitutes an additional obstacle for Cubans to visit their relatives and adds to the closure of consular services in Havana and to the interruption of the granting of visas, forcing the islanders to travel to third countries.
Washington suspended the granting of visas when it evacuated 60% of its embassy staff for alleged "sonic attacks" on its diplomats. I say presumably because most journalists wonder what Havana would gain if it had the means to do so with such provocations at a time when Obama's openness falters, not to say that it has been disappearing. Everything indicates that the doctors diagnosed hearing loss and cerebral edema from severe headaches and other cognitive impairments in the victims. The State Department accused the Cuban government of not guaranteeing the security of the delegation. All of Trump's decisions are always directed at his mass of voters, many of whom are opposed to continuing the policy of normalizing relations with Cuba. On September 9, 2017, the embargo was extended for another year in retaliation for Cubans to urge the UN General Assembly to urge the United States to lift it. The extension will be valid until September 14 of this year, according to a memorandum signed by the president, protected by the Trade with the Enemy Act.
The president shortened to 45 days the six months foreseen until now so that the nationals affected by the expropriations in 1960 of Fidel Castro could claim their old properties. The suspension in January of this year concerns the Law for Freedom and Democratic Solidarity, approved by Bill Clinton in 1996 regarding titles III and IV of the norm also popularly known as the Helms-Burton Act.
Since Clinton, all governments have waived this part of the rule. The news agencies have indicated on more than one occasion that they could reach 200,000 lawsuits. The suspension will take effect on the 19th and will end on April 17, according to the State Department. Foreign firms would be exempt, but not those of the "black" list because they are associated with the regime, most of them dependent on the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, along with hotels in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Varadero.
This type of policy aims to channel economic activities outside the military sphere, including travel-related transactions, with the aim of putting pressure on the regime to allow the expansion of the private sector in Cuba. Washington have considered the military control on all the profitable sectors of the Caribbean nation the main obstacle for their prosperity and economic freedom.
