By Manolo De Los Santos
October 19, 2022:
Information Clearing House
- Hurricane Ian
lashed at western Cuba on September 27,
2022. I waited desperately for a phone call from
my friends in Puerto Esperanza, a small fishing
village on the northern coast of Pinar del Río.
Over a crackling phone line, my friends told me
that the hurricane had ripped off the roofs of
their houses and had cut their electricity
supply. But they were safe. What comes next for
them and their recovery from the loss and
devastation caused by the hurricane is uncertain
under the weight of a
U.S. blockade that is now being overseen by
U.S. President Joe Biden.
Since the Cuban Revolution
triumphed in 1959, the United States has
been at odds with the island’s independent path.
This led to the
start of a blockade on all trading
activities between Cuba and the United States in
February 1962, and the continued
imposition of the blockade has put maximum
pressure on the 11 million people who live on
the island. Cubans have been resilient while
dealing with these sanctions, which is “the
longest embargo in modern history.” However,
over the past five years, the United States has
tightened its blockade by putting in place
243 new sanctions, reversing the process of
normalization that
began under former U.S. President Barack
Obama in 2014 (and culminated in Obama’s
visit to Cuba in 2016). Despite Biden’s
campaign promise to ensure a more balanced
foreign policy toward Cuba, compared to the
approach followed by former President Donald
Trump, Biden has
increased pressure on the country.
Maximum Pressure
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Cuba was
fortunate to have a robust public health care
system and an innovative biotechnological
industry. However, under Trump—and later Biden—sanctions
put enormous pressure on Cuba’s ability to
respond to the pandemic. As the number of Delta
variant cases grew in Cuba, its only oxygen
plant was rendered
nonoperational due to the inability of the
plant’s technicians to import spare parts
because of the U.S. blockade. As thousands of
Cuban patients gasped for air, oxygen had to be
rationed. Washington
refused to make an exception. Cuban
scientists
created five vaccine candidates; only after
most Cubans were vaccinated with these vaccines
did Washington make an
offer of donating U.S.-made vaccines to
Cuba.
Back in 2017, the United States said that the
Cuban government had used sonic weapons to
attack its embassy—a
phenomenon called “Havana syndrome”—which
was shown to be untrue. Nonetheless, it served
as a pretext for the United States to freeze
relations with Cuba. For example,
tourism began to collapse, and the island
lost revenue as
more than 600,000 people from the United
States stopped traveling to Cuba annually. The
U.S. government’s sanctions under Trump led to
Western Union’s seizing operations on the
island in 2020, cutting off the ability of
families to send and receive remittances. Visa
services were
suspended by the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and
the
largest wave of irregular migration since
1980 began as Cubans were forced to trek through
Central America or across the Florida Straits to
arrive in the United States.
Cubans suffered through this tightened
blockade with the U.S. offering no respite. The
gross domestic product of the country began to
shrink as the government and other entities
could no longer purchase food, medicine, and oil
because banks refused to handle these basic
commercial transactions.
Using Pain to Put More Pressure
On July 11, 2021, people across Cuba took to
the streets to
protest the difficult living conditions due
to the scarcity brewed by the sanctions imposed
by Washington. The U.S. government, from
Biden to the lowest employee at the U.S.
Embassy in Havana, did not waste any time before
making a statement about the need to change the
government in Cuba in response to the protests.
They
tried to spin the Cuban people’s protests
over sanctions-related deprivation into an
uprising for regime change, a core
demand of a Miami mafia of Cuban exiles. The
Cuban government was able to withstand that
attempt by being as
forthright as possible with the people about
the range of problems that they face.
The year 2022 has not been any easier for the
Cuban people. In August, the national energy
grid began to
suffer major signs of decay after years
without repairs or renovations. Power cuts, a
stark reminder of the “special period” during
the 1990s when Cuba faced a
similar power situation, have become
ever-present from one end of the island to the
other. Some provinces go without electricity for
eight to ten hours. Then came the
explosion of the Matanzas oil storage
facility that left Cuba without urgently needed
fuel and resulted in dozens dying while fighting
the fire that raged on for five days. While
Mexico and Venezuela immediately sent
firefighters and equipment, the United States
could only contribute with technical advice over
the phone despite the
call by U.S. activists, clergy, and
intellectuals to provide more sizable aid.
Hurricane Ian’s assault on the island on
September 27, 2022, has left behind
devastation, with more than
50,000 homes damaged, Cuba’s tobacco crop
deeply impacted, and its electricity grid
damaged (although it is functional again for
now).
Washington’s Rigidity
All eyes turned to Washington—not only to
see whether it would send aid, which would be
welcome, but also if it would
remove Cuba from the state sponsors of
terrorism list and end the sanctions. Cuba’s
inclusion on the list had been a
last-minute decision made by Trump as he was
leaving the White House (despite Cuba’s
recognized role in the Colombian peace
process). These measures mean that banks in the
United States and elsewhere are reluctant to
process any financial transactions, including
humanitarian donations, for the island. The
United States has a mixed record regarding
humanitarian aid to Cuba.
Rather than lift the sanctions even for a
limited period, the U.S. government sat back and
watched as mysterious forces from Miami
unleashed a torrent of Facebook and WhatsApp
messages to drive desperate Cubans onto the
street. In Havana, a few hundred people
spread across the city banged pots and pans
and demanded water, electricity, and food.
Foreign journalists eagerly expected scenes of
heavy repression and mass arrests, but this time
Cuba’s response was one closest to its political
tradition. Leaders of the Communist Party began
to arrive at protests to speak to the people.
Angel Arzuaga Reyes, responsible for the party’s
international relations department, while
speaking of his experience in the Diez de
Octubre neighborhood, said that in those tense
moments, promises or immediate solutions
couldn’t be made, but explanations and
information could be given to all those
protesting.
The Cuban people are not the kind to give up
easily and have a history of resilience. Many
Cubans are facing the crisis by laughing and
fighting through it. Walking in Havana only a
few days after the hurricane, the signs of
recovery were clear. Brigades of electricians
working nonstop reestablished power back in
record time and volunteers have cleaned most of
the city leaving very little trace of Hurricane
Ian’s destruction. After his fourth visit to
Pinar del Río since September 27, Cuban
President Miguel Díaz-Canel, surrounded by an
anxious crowd,
said, “what we can’t do is surrender or
remain with our arms crossed.” There is yet much
to do, but Cubans are determined to overcome all
obstacles that come their way.
Manolo De Los Santos is the co-executive
director of the
People’s Forum and is a researcher at
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
He co-edited, most recently, Viviremos:
Venezuela vs. Hybrid War (LeftWord
Books/1804
Books, 2020) and Comrade of the
Revolution: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro
(LeftWord
Books/1804
Books, 2021). He is a co-coordinator of the
People’s Summit for Democracy.
Views expressed in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
in this article are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Reader financed- No
Advertising - No Government Grants -
No Algorithm - This
Is Independent
