AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
As the Cuban regime doubles down on its brutal treatment of the Cuban people, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats have only continued to relax economic and diplomatic pressure on the communist country. After expressing strong words of support for widespread anti-government protests two years ago, Biden has failed to follow through with any meaningful action, leaving opposition leaders feeling abandoned and dejected.
In a statement published by the U.S. Embassy in Havana last month, Biden praised the bravery of political prisoners being held by the regime, saying, “The United States stands with the Cuban people as they stand up for their human rights and a say in the future of Cuba.” But the facts show that while Biden is saying one thing, he is doing the opposite.
Soon after taking office, Biden began reversing many of former President Trump’s Cuba policies, including many economic sanctions on top figures in the Cuban regime. In June of last year, Biden also lifted restrictions on flights in and out of the country, news that no doubt came as a relief for the embattled Cuban government. These and other concessions will overwhelmingly favor the nomenklatura in Cuba, while leaving ordinary people to suffer.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have pushed for “normalization” of relations with Cuba, in spite of the regime’s brutal treatment of its population. In early December, three Democratic lawmakers, Reps. James McGovern (D-MA), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Troy Carter (D-LA) met with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and expressed a “willingness to improve bilateral relations.”
The lawmakers also relayed a desire to end the trade embargo with Cuba, but made no mention of ongoing human rights abuses by the government on the island. Notably, they also did not meet with any opposition leaders, breaking the Trump-era policy of solidarity with freedom fighters.
A few weeks after that meeting, Democrat Senator Ron Wyden also met with Diaz-Canel and called for ending the U.S. embargo. Though Wyden also met with opposition leaders, the gesture did not impress many freedom fighters, who questioned why Democrats were meeting with the Cuban dictator at all. One dissident posted on Twitter that Wyden’s statements only confirmed that the U.S. government was sympathetic to the regime and the Cuban people were alone.
Another dissident remarked that the Catholic Biden’s attitude toward Havana seemed to be an ironic reflection of Jesus’s statement that “whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.” Indeed, Biden has seemed more than willing to go the extra mile for the Cuban oppressors.
According to one independent Cuban journalist, a month before Christmas, Havana asked the FBI to cancel flights from Miami to Cuba to prevent couriers from entering the country to deliver financial aid to the opposition. As a result, American Airlines grounded hundreds of passengers, primarily Cuban-Americans, to comply with the request.
Biden has also allowed the Cuban government to mandate that Cubans living in the United States supporting their families back home send money through Orbit SA, which is controlled by Raul Castro’s son, Lt. Colonel Raul Guillermo. Instead of dollars, Cuban residents receive plastic vouchers with an assigned value that can be exchanged for goods in certain stores. Meanwhile, the Cuban military takes the hard currency. Because Biden also agreed to increase the limit on money transfers by Cubans living in the United States from $3,600 per year to $8,000 per year, this has meant a huge financial windfall for the Cuban regime.
Additionally, ahead of his first visit as President to the border earlier this month, Biden announced that his administration would allow an additional 30,000 immigrants from four countries, including Cuba, to enter the United States each month via humanitarian visas. But who gets these visas will be decided by the Cuban government – meaning that they will undoubtedly go to those friendly to the regime, rather than opposition figures who actually need to escape the country.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats’ actions have emboldened the regime to intensify its crackdown on the opposition movement. For instance, Cuban activist Rafael Puentes Creme was beaten and imprisoned for visiting the wife of political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer. The regime regularly denies Ferrer basic necessities like water, and prison authorities constantly threaten him with death. Another opposition leader, Berta Soler, was detained while trying to attend Christmas mass last year.
Additionally, as Cuban opposition leaders warned, the brutal actions of the regime has led to a wave of illegal immigration from the island. Over the past five months, border patrol authorities on or around the Florida coast have taken more than 12,000 would-be illegal immigrants into custody, the vast majority of which come from Cuba. Many also perish on the dangerous crossing in makeshift boats and rafts. Earlier this month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was forced to activate the National Guard to address the crisis.
Some Cuban dissidents have bitterly suggested that Biden’s policies and seeming abandonment of the Cuban people may be retribution for Cuban-Americans’ increasingly close association with former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. In 2020, Trump nearly won the heavily Cuban Miami-Dade County, where Hillary Clinton had won by 29 points just four years earlier. While Hispanic-American voters more broadly are abandoning the Democratic Party, this shift has been particularly pronounced in Cuban communities, owing in large part to Democrats’ embrace of socialist policies.
It’s also no secret that many Cubans were strong supporters of Trump’s hardline stance toward the Cuban regime, believing that a tough approach to the communist government was the best path forward. Opposition leaders in particular have expressed extreme disappointment at Biden’s about-face.
Whether Biden’s policy shift is an intentional punishment of the Cuban population or not, the result is the same – the regime grows more powerful while the Cuban people suffer.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
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Joe Biden doesn’t like anyone that is smart and works hard. He is the worst President EVER!
Leftist always throw bones to the people while supporting the Marxist leaders of those countries! The Democrats are all Marxists so they are always going to help their fellow Marxists no matter the country. Anything these Marxists say to the people is just to placate the sheep since the people in the eyes of a Marxist are nothing but slaves to be used and controlled! No surprise here!
Our treasonous dem party has the same goals as castro did, just different means and a longer time frame.
PREPARE A NEW AUCHITZ FOR THE libs
SEND ALL OF THE illegals TO biden’s WHITE HOUSE AND TO pelosi’s, schiff’s AND schumer’s HOMES
He must owe the Cuban government something too. He absolutely owes China, this should show Americans once and for all that he is a bona fide socialist and erring on the side of Communism.
Biden and the demo/Marxists would abandon anyone or anything if it would advance the future one-world government. They jump to the tune played by Klaus Schwab and the WEF. They are evil Satanic people.
The Cuban people KNOW all about socialism/communism. They have to fight or flight. Anyone with the courage to paddle a bath tub through 90 miles of more sharks than water deserves freedom. Besides they almost always vote rep because they see through the dem’s bull hockey. Here many people that want socialism have read Marx. Most that DON’T want socialism UNDERSTAND Marx, and I don’t mean Groucho.
People who never lived in worker’s paradise have no clue what it is like and that it is too late by the time they find out to change it They are like kids who grew up in nursery not knowing the real world
to Lose the Hispanic vote more
Miami is the crime capital of the world.
That would be Chicago.
I’d say DC there is the Family syndicate
Cubans should return to Cuba.
We, the people of this country are ashamed of our so called leaders in the Democrat party. They have no idea what real leadership is about. Congress should act immediately to shame them all publicly!
Congress is made up of Republicans and Democrats. The democrats vote as a block. All too many Republicans vote with the Democrats. So how can congress act on anything positive? They should all be ashamed.
America at one time had a department in our government that took care of problem enemy governments such as the one in Cuba, it was known as the CIA.
However, since we now have these same communist believers in our own US government ruling us, the CIA is only used to try and overthrow our allies governments.
Commie Joe Biden only wants to see the USA overthrown by leftist communist loving punks like himself and his family!
The CIA removed a US president on November 22, 1963, maybe they should think about doing it again! At least it would give them something to do!
My heart goes out to the men and women of our country who must look these desperate Cuban immigrants in the face as they desperately try and save their families from communism. May God Bless you all. This is so different than what’s happening on the Mexican border.
Biden is like a fish out of water. He flips and flops all over. How can the American people trust this administration is beyond me. He is a liar and an outright thief (election theft) being the biggest of his schemes. Like I said on a Facebook post, he is crooked as a circle. 
Democrats have favored socialist and communist regimes going back several decades. The Democrat Party itself is now openly a socialistic party in all but name. All their policies openly reflect the principles and ideals of Marxism. They just have re-branded some of their terminology to make what they are pushing more palatable to a largely ignorant public with no real understanding of global history and where such principles and policies lead. So why should the behavior of the Biden administration, relative to Cuba, stand out as anything other than one authoritarian regime favoring another authoritarian regime?
If the American people want a federal government that actually favors human rights and freedoms over that of backing oppressive, autocratic regimes, then they need to stop allowing Democrats to be placed in positions of power. Until that dynamic changes, instances like this related to Cuba and other authoritarian regimes will continue to crop up. We could just as easily point to Iran, where the Biden administration is bending over backwards to try and curry favor with a theocratic dictatorship over the Iranian people in order to try and get a horrendously bad nuclear arms treaty with a regime that has continiuously vowed to destroy us. Sorry if this all comes off as harsh, but that is the simple reality that we as a nation face. If the American people continue to allow any Democrat to occupy the White House or control either chamber of Congress, this is the sort of fallout one has to expect.
Don’t refrain from the truth. Tell it like it is. Maybe some day. the populace will wake up. I know, this is wishful thinking.
The thing is most people don’t want to hear the truth. Some people do, but most people don’t. The vast majority of people prefer to be told everything will just work itself out without the people having to do anything but electing or re-electing the same “do nothing” or corrupt professional class of politicians over and over again. Fixing our myriad of problems are not particularly hard nor overly complex. It really isn’t. Will it be somewhat painful, because we have allowed so many things to deteriorate so much for so long? You betcha! However, it will be far more painful in the long run, if the American people continue to do nothing but the same old same old. It just takes an American people that has the will to do what has been shown to be effective elsewhere around the world throughout history and the present.
As an example, President Trump accomplished so much simply by disregarding the “do nothing status quo mentality” of Washington and simply went about addressing issues head-on like any effective and successful business person would address them. All despite the almost unified opposition and foot-dragging he faced from all directions since Day One. Disregard the nay sayers that just want to endlessly talk about the problems, while offering no real solutions. Focus on what needs to be done to correct the situation and then simply implement a well thought out plan to correct the problems. That after all, is what the American people supposedly elected him to do. Fix problems and improve things.
Of course that upset the professional political class, but honestly so what? In the business world, 95% of the people in Congress wouldn’t last a month on the job. They bring ZERO real value to the table in terms of ability to understand and address complex issues that impact our country on a daily basis. In the business world, such “do nothings” or “status quo” types would be quickly shown the door. The same holds true for most career bureaucrats that make-up the administrative state that is Washington. They bring no value to the table and are actually a liability to solving problems on behalf of the American people who pay their salaries and depend on them to competently and honestly handle their tasks. In politics, you just can’t fire incompetent people you encounter. The American people have to do that and its pretty plain that a lot of people don’t select their politicial respresentatives by level of competency and drive to get things done. That’s why I keep saying what we desperately need is a more intelligant and well-informed citizenry making better decisions at the ballot box. We also need a return to a more honest and fair election system, but that is a whole other discussion for another day.
If you’re familiar with the old saying ” “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”and understand its meaning, then you’ll understand why we have become a nation of very, very soft men and women unwilling to do anything to solve the situation we find ourselves in. The populace can’t “wake up” from what they have completely forgotten and are apparently unwilling to re-learn.
I know, way too honest and direct.
As far as I consider, you are on the money. Most people are asleep in right field and are missing the game. The “WAKE UP CALL” will come too late for most people.
If you don’t elect democrats to office the CFR will simply move more operatives into the republican party where there are far to many now. You people need to wake up to who is manipulating the world and realize you are just a small part of a world wide conspiracy. Learn who the enemy that needs to be removed really is.
I agree totally with the other two comments. Biden abandons any one, or anything that won’t line his pockets. He is the worst politician this country has ever seen. The deep state assassinated JFK. It amazes me that they have left this worthless POS untouched.
Biden abandons the Cuban people? Well get in line, he absolutely abandoned the American people first.
No, Biden and the Democrats are busy transforming the country into the sort of socialist Utopia that all Democrats have constantly campaigned on for decades. Except that Utopia has always ended up historically being a decimated country populated by impoverished and miserable people. All one has to do is simply look at every other country around the world where the exact same policies have been implemented before us. The outcomes have all been the same.
The well being of the American people don’t even factor into the overall equation for Biden or the Democrats as a whole. The American people are simply viewed as cattle or sheep to herded in one direction or another, depending on the needs and whims of the ruling elite. Biden was NEVER for the American people. Nor were any of the other Democrats that have ALL been running on the exact same set of principles and policies.
As usual, your second paragraph states it all.
Biden doesn’t like people protesting his own quasi communist regime. One look at how he treats his opposition right here at home speaks volumes about his lack of sympathy for the oppressed!
All communists should die, all of them. We should have liberated Quber in 1993, when the former USSR was incapable of responding. The Castro’s should have received the Ceaușescu treatment. ????????????????????