President Joe Biden delayed taking a hard look at our concerns in Latin America and the Caribbean — Florida’s back yard — most significantly, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, whose constant political and economic upheaval have an outsize impact on South Florida.
Since taking office, Biden rightly has been preoccupied with freeing America economically and emotionally out of the quicksand of COVID-19 and making nice with G7 world leaders, not Latin American leaders, despite Vice President Harris’ recent trip.
Now, with the dramatic — and historic — events of the past few days in Cuba and Haiti, Biden likely has a case of whiplash.
A day after Sunday’s street demonstrations in several cities across the country, Cuba went dark on Monday because of internet outages and disrupted cell phone service. Yes, the Cuban regime can do that easily. Cuban Americans in Miami who had joined in with their own demonstrations on Sunday couldn’t tell if the protest had continued. Neither could the international media.
Cuban exiles, members of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance, held a news conference in Miami to show their support and ask the international community, led by the United States, “to protect Cuba from bloodshed,” said Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, head of the umbrella group.
On the island, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called “all the revolutionaries in the country, all the communists, to take to the streets and go to the places where these provocations are going to take place.”
Troops to Haiti?
Biden joined in Monday and said the United States supports the people of Cuba.
“We call on the government … to refrain from violence or attempts to silence the voice of the people of Cuba,” Biden said.
When it comes to Haiti, the White House said it had made no decision yet on whether to send troops to Haiti following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
That would be ill-advised. Given this country’s fraught history on the ground in Haiti — including its support for the brutal, but anti-communist, Duvaliers — and some of the enduring problems that it spawned, such intervention is a job for international organizations, such as the United Nations or the Organization of American States.
The question remains: What should the Biden administration do next about these two island countries at political crossroads?
Both countries have made clear the United States can help them in different ways.
Haitian leaders want U.S. troops to stabilize the country. The U.S. sent a delegation, and no further decision on troops has been made.
In contrast, Cuba’s communist leaders don’t want Americans anywhere near their island — but they do want something from Biden.
Cuba’s tired excuse
Díaz-Canel didn’t mince words Monday in blaming U.S. policies, namely the 60-year economic embargo on the island, with sparking the historic, social media fueled protests at both ends of Cuba.
His useless finger-pointing has been the tried-and-true default mode of every Cuban leader.
Díaz-Canel said the majority of people participating in the historic and massive protests were unhappy with the rolling electricity blackouts during the hot Cuban summer and the lack of food and medicine and COVID-19 vaccines, not to mention syringes.
He said U.S. financial sanctions had made it almost impossible to pay for goods abroad, just when the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched resources to the limit in Cuba, the Herald reported.
“This is part of the U.S. playbook to destabilize us, to generate chaos, to break our will and spirit,” Díaz-Canel said.
Really? The cause couldn’t be that Cubans have had enough of government repression? Or that a new generation wants a new direction for Cuba? Díaz-Canel couldn’t possibly have missed demonstrators’ chants of “Freedom” and their calls for him to step down.
Until political issues in Cuba and Haiti stabilize, there are pitfalls for South Florida. Uprisings in Cuba have often been followed by a refugee exodus to South Florida. Same with Haiti.
On Monday, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, well-versed in Cuba matters, issued the same warning to the Biden administration.
In the case of Cuba, the Biden administration should vigorously support the Cuban people and apply political pressure through international channels.
In the case of Haiti, the administration should support the United Nations or OAS in taking the lead to help stabilize the country.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration put Cuba and Haiti on the back burner. They are now boiling over and need more than the president’s platitudes.
