The United States has doubled down on its tough stance and sanctions on Cuba following historic protests on the communist-ruled island last month and said it would seek to support protesters
But many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that still suffers from Washington’s support for coups during the Cold War and has shifted to the left in recent years, are asking it to back down.
President Joe Biden called Cuba a “failed state” after the 11-12 July protests over the economic crisis and restrictions on freedoms. His administration imposed new sanctions on those who cracked down on protesters and promised the politically significant Cuban-American community that new actions, such as trying to help Cubans circumvent “censorship”, would follow.
While the new sanctions are largely symbolic, they suggest that a return to the period of détente under former President Barack Obama is not in sight.
The right-wing governments of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras joined the United States last week in issuing a statement condemning the mass arrests and calling for a full restoration of disrupted internet access.
However, only 20 foreign ministers around the world have joined in signing the letter, signalling how relatively isolated Washington is in its policy towards Cuba, analysts said. Even US allies such as Canada, which has condemned the Cuban crackdown and supported the protesters’ right to freedom of expression, have not signed.
Meanwhile, Cuba’s leftist allies in Latin America and other Caribbean island states have focused their reactions on the contribution of the US embargo to the country’s current humanitarian crisis, calling on Washington to lift sanctions. Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia have sent aid.
Some countries in the region have also warned against US interference in Cuba’s internal affairs.
These regional divisions became apparent last week when the Organisation of American States was forced to postpone a meeting on the human rights situation in Cuba over the objections of more than a dozen member states.
“Any discussion can only satisfy political hawks targeting the US midterm elections, where a victory in South Florida with the support of Cuban immigrants will be the prize”, – wrote Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the OAS, Ronald Sanders, in a column published on digital platform Caribbean News Global.
“The mission of the OAS should be to promote peaceful relations and co-operation in the western hemisphere, not to fuel divisions and conflicts.”
He sent a letter on behalf of the 13 countries of the Caribbean Community or CARICOM, which, although small, represent a significant bloc of voices in the OAS, urging the body to reconsider the “unproductive” meeting, while other countries have sent similar messages.
OAS REJECTION, FOREIGN INTERVENTION
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said last month that the OAS should be replaced by a “truly autonomous body and not someone else’s lackey”, a view echoed by Argentine President Alberto Fernández.
He also said he thought Biden should decide on the embargo against Cuba, given that “almost every country in the world” was against it, while Fernandez said no other country should decide what Cubans should do.
Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia have all moved to the left in recent years, while Peru voted for a socialist leader last month and Chile and Brazil look set to move to the left in elections due this year and next.
“We appreciate the countries that have defended the dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean”, – said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who accused US-backed counter-revolutionaries of being behind the protests after years of open US funding of democratic programmes on the island.
The chairman of the OAS Permanent Council described objections to the meeting in Cuba as particularly unusual.
A US State Department spokesman said he was “deeply disappointed” that the OAS meeting did not take place, adding: “The people of America have a right to hear from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the situation in Cuba.”
“We will continue to work within the OAS to promote democracy and human rights in Cuba and throughout the Americas and are confident that this informative meeting will indeed take place in the coming days.”
William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University in Washington, said the problem was that OAS Deputy Secretary General Luis Almagro “has taken a strident partisan stance that is completely in line with US policy”.
Biden inherited a regional foreign policy from former US President Donald Trump, focusing mainly on Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, which have alienated much of Latin America, LeoGrande said, pointing out that a Latinbarometer opinion poll showed a sharp decline in the image of the United States.
The OAS secretariat general declined to comment, while a State Department spokesman said Almagro’s “leadership in supporting democracy and respect for human rights in the Americas” returned the OAS to its original goal.
Biden, a Democrat, vowed during his presidential campaign to ease some of the sanctions against Cuba tightened by his predecessor Donald Trump, a Republican, raising hopes of a return to Obama-era détente.
But analysts say the protests have made it harder for him to get a free pass, especially after he performed worse than expected with voters in South Florida’s anti-communist Cuban-American community, which backed Trump’s tough policy on Havana and helped him win the state’s presidential election.
The Democratic National Committee last week launched a digital ad campaign in Florida highlighting Biden’s “commitment to the Cuban people and condemnation of communism as a failed system.”
Sarah Marsh, REUTERS