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The terrible nature of the communist regime in Cuba is well known. For decades, the dictatorship has terrorized its own people, murdered opponents, imprisoned both activists and artists, and fueled chaos in the Western Hemisphere by supporting authoritarian regimes and guerrilla terrorist movements. The key question facing any U.S. administration is how to respond to such a brutal regime.
During his administration, President Donald Trump and his team promoted policies that supported the Cuban people by holding the Castro and Díaz-Canel regime accountable for decades of repression. This policy represented a much-needed shift from the weak stance of the Obama era, which was overseen, supported, and praised by President Joe Biden and many of his closest advisors.
Now, President Biden must decide whether to continue with the Trump-era policy and stand with the Cuban people or grant the Havana regime international legitimacy at their expense.
The first announcements from Biden's team suggest that he will prioritize the appeasement policy toward the regime, and we will get indications of this very early into the new administration.
Biden will face intense pressure from regime supporters, who will advocate for using the upcoming Summit of the Americas at the end of 2021 to signal a reset in relations with Havana by inviting the Cuban regime to the U.S. for that hemispheric event. Under no circumstances should the Castro and Díaz-Canel regime be granted such a significant public relations victory.
Furthermore, beyond the perception, that invitation would not be a trivial matter either on the island or in our hemisphere. There is a very practical reality: the reopening of diplomatic channels with the dictatorship will inevitably lead the Biden administration to lift the restrictions targeting individuals known to have committed serious offenses, such as members of the Castro family and their associates.
There will be other decisions along the way, and it seems that Biden and his team will prioritize a naïve policy toward an "approach" that rewards the Castro and Díaz-Canel dictatorship for its increasing acts of repression.
Biden's "engagement" would mean changing the current economic policy by urging the U.S. Congress to end the embargo and establish trade relations with the dictatorship. This would be mediated through the Cuban military's puppet organization, the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA), a conglomerate currently on the list of restricted entities by the State Department. This conglomerate controls nearly 60 percent of the economy on the island. GAESA is used to suppress the Cuban people by managing and thereby limiting access to trade within the island. It is also an openly corrupt enterprise, led by a Brigadier General of the Cuban Armed Forces and a member of dictator Raúl Castro's family. Normalizing relations with Havana would mean injecting more money directly into the coffers of GAESA.
For Biden's team, the "approach" will also require constantly minimizing the national security threat posed by Havana. The Cuban regime's alliances with the world's leading authoritarian leaders and the worst human rights violators—Xi in China, Putin in Russia, the Mullahs in Iran, Kim in North Korea, the Ortegas in Nicaragua, and Maduro in Venezuela—speak for themselves.
These ties also pose a direct threat to our national security due to arms agreements and Cuba's geographical proximity to the United States, which is utilized for intelligence gathering.
The "approach" towards Havana would also entail turning a blind eye while Cuba continues to support the illegitimate narc regime of Maduro in Venezuela, prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people and exacerbating the largest humanitarian and migration crisis in our region, which also means exhausting the resources of our allies.
The Cuban dictatorship has repeatedly supported and provided refuge to Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) designated by the State Department. This includes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which carried out a suicide attack last year against the National Police Academy in Bogotá, Colombia. This blatant support from Havana for terrorist organizations led to the Trump administration formally designating Cuba again as a state sponsor of terrorism. This designation should not be changed under any circumstances by President Biden.
There is no reason to deceive ourselves into believing that the " rapprochement" with Havana will lead to a change in its customs. Nor is there any reason to think that the regime will suddenly abandon its long history of repression against political opponents and independent journalists, or alter its system of human trafficking and violations of human rights within the island.
We can also anticipate that the Biden administration will try to integrate the dictatorship into the Latin American community through efforts such as police cooperation. Let’s consider for a moment how well this strategy has worked out for Caracas: today, Maduro is so isolated from the Venezuelan people that he has had to resort to a Cuban security scheme. Similarly, the new administration may be contemplating creating more opportunities for cooperation on public health issues. However, the so-called medical missions abroad organized by the Cuban regime are recognized as a form of human trafficking that exploits Cuban medical professionals through forced labor, all to bolster the regime's propaganda efforts.
By ignoring the regime's history, foreign policy groups advocating for "engagement" are also dangerously out of touch with the actual conditions on the ground.
The Castro and Díaz-Canel regime is involved in a brutal repression against the San Isidro Movement (MSI), a group of artists, academics, and activists who are engaged in peaceful protests against the regime.
And, of course, it is clear that the safety of our diplomats on the island cannot be guaranteed. In violation of international treaty obligations, they were subjected to direct attacks with microwave energy and suffered brain injuries. The denials from Havana are utterly unconvincing.
The shift indicated by President Biden to "engage" with Cuba will mean rewarding an authoritarian regime that continues to imprison, punish, censor, and kill dissenters and journalists. Instead, the Biden administration should stop ignoring the voices of those who know the regime firsthand—Cuban Americans both in our country and abroad—and recognize that the Havana regime cannot be rewarded for its atrocities.
President Biden and his team need to take a stance. During his confirmation hearing, the nominated Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, suggested that he would frequently consult with the United States Senate on these issues. I sincerely hope he keeps that promise. Currently, it seems that the Biden administration may end up on the wrong side of history, and the Cuban people will suffer even more as a result of that historical mistake.
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