President Joe Biden intends to impose “hard-hitting sanctions” on the Cuban officials responsible for the repression of widespread protests against the regime, according to a senior State Department official.
“We are going to focus on applying hard-hitting sanctions on regime officials responsible for the brutal crackdown,” State Department acting Assistant Secretary Julie Chung tweeted Wednesday. “Cuban officials responsible for violence, repression, & human rights violations against peaceful protestors in Cuba must be held accountable.”
Chung, who is leading the Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau in the absence of a political appointee, aired that threat while outlining a multifaceted plan to respond to the political uproar on the island. Cuban officials have accused the United States of orchestrating the protests, which featured thousands of Cubans denouncing the regime’s brutality and its mishandling of economic and public health crises.
“The Cuban government continues to repress and punish virtually all forms of dissent and public criticism,” the Human Rights Watch’s Jose Miguel Vivanco told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Tuesday. “At the same time, Cubans continue to endure a dire economic crisis, which impacts their social and economic rights.”
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Vivanco argued that Biden should lift the decades-old embargo on Cuba, on the grounds that “rather than isolating Cuba, the embargo and isolation policy have isolated the United States, enabling the Cuban government to garner sympathy abroad while alienating Washington’s potential allies.”
That argument has drawn opposition from other human rights activists and Cuba hawks, including the daughter of a killed dissident who testified at the hearing alongside Vivanco.
“Do not negotiate with the regime, no one is entitled to speak for the Cuban people, but please, elevate their voice that demands freedom,” said Rosa Maria Paya, the founder of Cuba Decide. “The president and Congress should make no unilateral concessions, but ask for irreversible steps that should include: the unconditional release of all political prisoners, the end of repression, respect in law and in practice of freedom of expression, association (including independent political parties), public assembly, and economic freedom.”
Biden’s team instead wants to expand internet access on the island and is contemplating more limited diplomatic overtures and economic relief for the people in Cuba.
“We’re setting up a Remittance Working Group to figure out how to get that [money] directly into the pockets of the Cuban people,” Chung said. “A strong and adequately staffed embassy is vital to our efforts to support the Cuban people. We’re looking at ways to safely augment staffing to facilitate diplomatic, consular, and civil society engagement.”
Then-President Barack Obama announced in 2015 that he would reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana, but a wave of American diplomats in Havana suffered several mysterious brain injuries, prompting Donald Trump’s administration to withdraw most U.S. diplomats from the mission.
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“In 2020 alone, U.S. companies exported $176 million of goods to Cuba, including food & medicine,” Chung also noted. “We will expedite any request to export humanitarian or medical supplies to Cuba’s people. We encourage our international partners to increase humanitarian assistance to Cubans.”
