Democrats are far from unified in their responses to once-in-a-generation protests in Cuba when it comes to which actions the United States can take.
And as they assail Republicans for supporting “Jim Crow 2.0” when it comes to voting rights, they are in a tough spot with praising the anti-regime protests while also having previously supported easing sanctions on Cuba or even defending the communist state.
President Joe Biden released a statement on Monday that said the protests in Cuba represent a “clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.”
But crafting new policies toward Cuba has been on hold as the months-old administration deals with other priorities.
BIDEN CELEBRATES THE ‘CLARION CALL FOR FREEDOM’ VOICED BY ANTI-COMMUNIST PROTESTERS IN CUBA
Some outspoken Democrats who have long been critics of Cuba have fawned at the protests, hinting at how the uprising could provide the Biden administration with an opportunity to support regime change.
On Tuesday night, the Florida Democratic Party resolutions committee approved a measure calling for “additional sanctions against the leaders of the failed socialist-communist regime,” a measure that sounds as if it could have come from a Republican.
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who broke with the Obama administration in 2015 and said that a reopening of relations with Cuba should slow down, had a careful statement about the recent uprisings: “We stand in solidarity w/ thousands of peaceful protestors all over Cuba who are challenging its repressive regime. May their courage and this historic moment bring about real change.”
“The regime has to change in order to let the Cuban people thrive,” said New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the highest-ranking Cuban American in Congress, in an MSNBC interview. “This is an extraordinary moment, one that I hope the United States responds to with a series of actions that can be very helpful to the Cuban people.”
Menendez raised objections to the ideas of allowing remittances to family members or assisting with vaccine access if the Cuban regime is involved and said that Cuba still rationed food and arrested journalists when the Obama administration attempted to reopen relations with the country.
Other Democrats took a starkly different stance.
Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California said in a statement that the “United States should immediately permit remittances and financial transactions from relatives, food, and vaccination assistance, including the delivery of syringes, to the Cuban people.”
Another segment of leftist Democrats finds itself in a tricky position, declining to condemn severely a system with some structural similarities to idealistic socialist systems that they support.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called for ending the U.S. embargo on Cuba altogether in a tweet.
“All people have the right to protest and to live in a democratic society. I call on the Cuban government to respect opposition rights and refrain from violence. It’s also long past time to end the unilateral U.S. embargo on Cuba, which has only hurt, not helped, the Cuban people,” Sanders said.
Last year, Sanders came under fire for defending the Cuban regime.
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“You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?” Sanders said in a 60 Minutes interview.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not chimed in on the uprising in Cuba. Neither have the other three members of the Democratic Socialists of America in Congress: Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush.
