Opinion - The Cuban people deserve better. Here’s what President Biden can do

Ten years ago this month, we greeted each other at a military air base in Cuba. Alan Gross was finally being released after spending five years incarcerated in Cuba for “acts against the territorial integrity of the state.” Patrick Leahy, then a senator from Vermont, had worked to obtain his freedom.

On Dec. 17, 2014, Leahy, along with Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), flew to Havana on a blue and white “United States of America” plane to pick up Alan and bring him home — part of a secret prisoner swap that included the release of a U.S. intelligence asset imprisoned in Cuba, in return for three Cuban spies who had served years in prison in the U.S.

When President Obama informed the world of Alan’s release, he also announced a new policy of engagement with Cuba, ending more than half a century of hostility, unilateral sanctions and isolation that had achieved none of their goals. Hundreds of thousands of Americans traveled to Cuba over the next two years, and the two governments signed 22 agreements for cooperation on everything from migration and maritime security to academic and cultural exchanges.

Critics of the new policy labeled it a failure because Cuba’s Communist Party remained firmly in control. But it had also been in control during more than 50 years of U.S. sanctions. Human rights remained a subject of strong disagreement, as critics of the Cuban regime continued to be harassed and jailed after sham trials. But no one who understands Cuba and supported Obama’s change in policy was so naïve as to think it would become a democracy in a mere two years.

What did happen, in addition to government-to-government cooperation on issues of shared interest, was the expansion of a fledgling entrepreneurial sector, buoyed by American visitors with dollars and the gradual relaxation of restrictions on access to the Internet. These two developments reinvigorated Cuban civil society, giving Cubans far more personal freedom than they had before.

Perhaps most important, the prospect of normalized relations with the U.S. gave Cubans a sense of hope for a better future.

Then came Donald Trump and his “America First” policy. He methodically reversed almost everything Obama had done, reimposing a web of sanctions. Travel by Americans to Cuba screeched to a virtual halt. Family remittances fell by two-thirds because of U.S.-imposed limits. With Cuba reeling from COVID-19, Trump relisted it as a state sponsor of terrorism which prevented Cuba from partaking in normal international financing, weakening the private sector.

Four years later, President Biden, who had other priorities, kept most of the Trump sanctions in place. As Cuba’s economy contracted due to COVID and official mismanagement, living conditions worsened significantly, resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, with shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity. In July 2021, the regime cracked down on public protests, sentencing hundreds to prison. Since then, more than a million Cubans have left the island, most seeking refuge in the U.S.

While the lives of the Cuban people have gone from bad to worse, our global rivals have benefitted. The Cuban government, forced to look elsewhere for economic support, has turned to Russia and China. Drawn to Cuba’s large reserves of strategic minerals, they are quickly filling the vacuum we left and expanding their presence just 90 miles from Florida.

If anyone should be a bitter, fervent supporter of punitive sanctions, it’s Alan, who languished in a Cuban prison for acts that would not be a crime in most countries. But he firmly supports positive engagement with Cuba. We both agree that after a decades-long policy of economic, trade and travel restrictions, Cuba is no closer to becoming a democracy today than it was in 1961 and the human rights situation is worse than in 2017.

Our sanctions have impeded U.S.-Cuba cooperation on important issues, infringed on the right of Americans to travel, and prevented U.S. agriculture, construction, biotechnology and other companies from competing in the Cuban market. It is harder for Cuban Americans to send help to their relatives, and harder for families to visit one another.

The U.S. routinely engages with authoritarian regimes with which we have profound disagreements. We do so not as a favor to them, but because a pragmatic approach best serves U.S. national interests and is far more likely to benefit the people of those countries. Cuba is no different. In fact, Americans have far more in common with Cubans than with the people of many countries that are ruled by autocratic regimes, some of which are U.S. partners.

There is simply no justifiable or practical reason to continue a failed policy of sanctions against a country whose government poses no threat to us, and whose leaders have long profited politically by blaming our sanctions to deflect domestic criticism of their own repressive and bankrupt policies.

With time running out, President Biden should immediately remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which at this point has no factual or legal basis and depreciates the credibility of the list; and restore the right of Americans to travel freely to Cuba, as they can to every other country except North Korea. He should end the Trump-era “Cuba prohibition lists” that restrict where Americans can stay, where they can eat, and what they can buy and bring home.

While far short of restoring the Obama policy, these two steps would make a world of difference to the Cuban people. They will be the ones to ultimately determine the future of their country, but they desperately need and deserve our help today.

Patrick Leahy is a former U.S. senator from Vermont and President Pro Tem of the Senate. Alan Gross is an American citizen who looks forward to being able to visit Cuba again.

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