PROGRESO WEEKLY: Stepping Backward

IN A TIME OF TRUMP’S POSSIBLE ROLLBACK OF IMPROVED TIES WITH CUBA:

Progreso Weekly will be offering, intermittently, under the title “Stepping Backward”, a diverse group of published articles and opinions critical of, or discussing, President Trump’s expected rejection of established measures that offer an improvement in U.S. relations with Cuba. We believe that a reversal of the efforts made in the past two-plus years would be detrimental to the United States’ economy and to U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations.

• A call for action against rollbacks: Just two-and-a-half years after the United States finally took steps to end more than a half-century of hostility and restrictions on trade and travel, President Trump wants us to go backward. Luckily, theres some momentum pushing back. Lawmakers in Congress recently reintroduced the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act (Senate Bill 1287). The bipartisan bill now has 55 cosponsors and would guarantee Americans the right to travel to Cuba. We need to expand, not contract, our engagement with Cuba. Here’s how to tell your senators. (The Nation, June 8. Click here.)

• Recommended reading: The restoration of ties after 50 years of enmity has been good for America’s security and its influence in the region, good for Cuban-Americans and good for the economies of Tampa Bay and Florida. It would be foolish to revert to the failed policies of the past when continued American engagement offers Cubans the opportunity for better lives and the United States an opportunity to expand trade and democracy. (Editorial in The Tampa Bay Times, June 7. Click here.)

• Policy reversal will benefit Putin. Ironically, given the investigations into ties between Trump’s presidency and Russia, worsening relations between the U.S. and its island neighbor would be an opening for Vladimir Putin’s regime, which offered the country $4 billion in economic development projects last year. The Cold War is long over and Cuba is no longer a threat to the United States, said James Williams, president of Engage Cuba. If President Trump reverses course with Cuba, it would be a gift to Putin and the Kremlin. (Quartz, June 8. Click here.)

• Airline industry defends the thaw: Aviation sector leaders gathered in Cancún, Mexico said they are concerned that President Donald Trump may reinstate some political and economic restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba. Airlines, facing uncertainty about a U.S. policy that could make moot millions in recent investments, are loath to criticize the Trump administration’s unpredictability, but the industry is unified in saying the thaw should continue. “Restricting the network of aviation and access to Cuba would be bad news for aviation. Generally we welcome the extension of access to any country by plane,” IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told reporters ahead of the June 4-6 conference. [Reuters, June 7. Click here.)

• Trump’s pivot is the wrong step: Little more than a year after President Obama opened the door to Havana, the administration reportedly is considering reinstating travel limitations and trade sanctions on the island nation. It is as if this president is less concerned about his own legacy than undoing Obamas, at any cost. Politics over policy, every time. Let us count the ways this would be a terrible idea. First, far better to have a non-enemy 90 miles off Americas coast than the alternative, with Cuba more likely to fall into hostile arms if this goes through. Second, this would hurt U.S. business interests, with rural areas dependent on agriculture and manufacturing  as in central Illinois  likely taking the brunt of it. Third, arguably this would only punish the long-suffering Cuban people. Fourth, suppose you must know some history in the first place to learn anything from it, but wed remind the White House that more than a half century of a big-stick approach to the Castros failed to bring them to their knees. (Editorial in The Peoria Journal Star, June 7. Click here.)

• Africa weighs in. Cuba became an important player during the fifth Continental African Conference in solidarity with Cuba held in Windhoek on Monday. The conference was attended by 183 delegates from more than 26 African countries. Apart from Africa reaffirming its commitment to fight with Cuba against the embargo and the illegal presence of the Americans on Guantanamo Bay, it also declared its support for a better world with social justice and equal opportunities. (allAfrica, June 7. Click here.)

• Even the White House seems divided: According to people familiar with the discussion, who informed The New York Times, a split over the future direction of Trump’s Cuba policies has emerged between senior officials and Trump’s legislative affairs operation. The divide surfaced at a meeting in May organized by the National Security Council. In that meeting, the first group pointed to advantages under current regulations that stem from cooperation in intelligence-sharing, drug interdiction, scientific research and a host of other areas. (People’s World, June 5. Click here.)

• Crown Jewel of the Caribbean: In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, Jorge Alberto Angulo-Valdes tells us that as a Cuban marine biologist he has had the opportunity to be part of U.S. academia and facilitate scientific partnerships between the U.S. and Cuba. “Scientists on both sides are very interested in working together,” he says, “and I believe that we owe it to nature and people on both sides to keep this door open.” He calls Cuba “the ecological crown jewel of the Caribbean.” (San Francisco Chronicle, June 6. Click to read.)

• Political Ploy 2: The Cuban American Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), one of the most vocal critics of Obama’s policy, reportedly extracted a commitment from the White House to be tough on Cuba as the price for his vote to repeal Obamacare. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the other main proponent of turning back the clock, sits on the Intelligence Committee investigating the Trump Campaign’s Russian connections. Instead of draining the swamp, the Trump team has apparently decided that to swim in it, you have to feed the alligators. It would be exquisitely ironic if Trump adopted Marco Rubio’s failed Cuba policy in order to curry favor with him in hopes of blunting the Senate’s Russia investigation and by so doing ceded to Moscow a dominant geostrategic position on our doorstep in Cuba. [HuffPost, June 5. Click here.]
• Political ploy: A reversal of [the existing] policies would cost the American economy $6.6 billion and affect more than 12,000 American jobs. The hardest-hit areas will be rural communities that rely on agriculture, manufacturing and shipping industries, as well as Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, all of which supported Mr. Trump in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump’s approach to Cuba reflects a craven desire to curry favor with his political base, in this case conservative Republicans from Florida who are viscerally anti-Castro. That might help him get re-elected in 2020, but it would help no one else. Strengthening ties with Cuba cannot guarantee Cuban reforms, but it is the best bet. [Editorial, The New York Times, June 5. Click here.]

• Closing a window: During his presidential campaign Donald Trump promised to rollback Obama’s openings with Cuba. Many groups and media sources are reporting that the president may be ready to fulfill that promise in June. Fighting back are groups like Engage Cuba which released a report last week that estimated American companies would lose $6.6 billion and more than 12,000 U.S. jobs over Trump’s first term if he reversed course. (USA Today, June 2. Click here to read the complete story.)

• A Conservative View: Restoring relations with the Cuban government and lifting some of the useless restrictions on travel and business were the right things to do. They were overwhelmingly popular with Americans and Cubans alike, and given time they would have benefited the people of Cuba far more than the bankrupt policy that they replaced. Undoing some or all of these measures would return the U.S. to a mindless policy of trying to punish the Cuban government while mostly just hurting the people that Washington claims to be concerned about. [The American Conservative, June 1. Click here.]

• Rapprochement no more: Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by U.S. companies in Cuba since the Obama-Castro announcement of Dec. 17, 2014. And although the opening between the countries helped funnel travel dollars to Cuba’s military-linked tourism conglomerates, it also opened a new market for American corporations, with JetBlue and American Airlines operating from gleaming new Havana offices and tens of thousands of private bed-and-breakfasts listed on Airbnb. (Santa Fe New Mexican, June 2. Click here to read the complete story.)

• Republicans push back: Multiple congressional and advocacy organization sources say the Trump administration is now looking to push an executive order that would change a number of regulations that could affect American citizens’ increased access to Cuba. The plans could face a stumbling block in the form of the 54 senators who support lifting the U.S. trade embargo entirely. (Daily Mail, June 4. Click here to read.)

• Lifting the embargo: While Trump insists he will tighten the screws on Cuba in spite of the opening that began in 2014, there are others around the U.S. who think that the embargo should be terminated so that the people of the U.S and Cuba may continue the business of reconnecting. (The Durango Herald, June 3. Click here to read.) 

• American tennis, in Cuba: Tennis Channel traveled to Havana, Cuba to chronicle a most unexpected transformation: the rebirth of the country’s National Tennis Center by a group of Americans. Originally built for the 1991 Pan-American Games, the NTC’s courts had fallen into utter disrepair, a playing surface in name only. (Tennis Channel, June 3. Click here to read.)

• The Trump Doctrine: Some are calling it “Erasing the Black Man’s Legacy,” which includes pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord; withdrawing from TPP; repealing Obamacare; ending restroom protections for transgender students; rolling back “Let Girls Learn” and “Let’s Move” education and nutrition regulations and guidelines; talk of reversing open policies with Cuba and cancelling the Iran deal; or returning two U.S. compounds back to Russia. (Huffington Post, June 2. Click to read more.)

• On the cutting board: A New York Times editorial clearly states: “To the long list of Barack Obama’s major initiatives that President Trump is obsessed with reversing, we may soon be able to add Cuba.” It goes on to say that “Soon after his election, Mr. Trump declared, vaguely but ominously, that if Cuba did not ‘make a better deal” he would “terminate deal.’ He gave no specifics and no decisions have been announced. But details of what a policy reversal could look like are emerging.” (New York Times, June 5. Click to read.)