A revitalized Cuba

By: John DiLorenzo’24

The nation of Cuba has been a notoriously controversial nation for 70 years. As Americans, we often hear about Cuba in an extremely negative light. Given that Cuba is one of 6 nations with a communist government, American news and culture frequently reflect negatively on Cuba and its system of government. Given that Cuba is changing rapidly, it’s important that we, as citizens of a nation once on the brink of war, understand the full picture and draw independent conclusions on whether our nation should conduct relationships and build a more productive relationship with Cuba. The Biden administration’s plan has announced that they will be restoring much of the Obama administration’s plans for Cuba. The Biden plan is simply a series of reversals on the Trump administration policies, intended to revert the US-Cuba relationship back to the Obama administration days. The Trump administration had completely shut down diplomacy with Cuba by placing extreme sanctions and regulations, in the first month of the Trump presidency. Throughout Biden’s campaign, he spoke about the US-Cuban relationship stating that “we will return to Obama-era policies of engagement with Cuba.” 

 Modern Day Cuba

Raul Castro, the former president of Cuba, stepped down from his leadership in April of 2018. The new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel was a natural selection from the late Raul Castro. However, his national approval ratings are quite low, between 24 and 33% approval, with sources saying 33% and others saying 24%, it's hard to pinpoint and give an accurate assessment. Since there have been no credible studies conducted in the last year, it’s safe to assume that the president’s approval ratings have not gone up given how the Nation is experiencing its worst food shortage in the past 25 years, a crashed/crashing economy, and tourism industry obliterated by the COVID-19 pandemic, experts believe that Diaz-Canel’s approval ratings have decreased/stayed stagnant. However, the fighting spirit from the people of Cuba carries on. 

While many think of Cuba as a developing nation, the reality is that as the day goes by, its exports and imports get larger, and its tech advances further. Cuba’s economy opened to more private investors in early February. Cuba used to have 127 private investors, now it has grown to more than 2,000. According to the Minister of Labor, Marta Elena Feito, the government will only control a minority of their economic sector. “Cuba has been growing slowly, without pause but without hurry,” says Peter Kornbluh, Senior Cuba Analyst at the National Security Archive and Director of Cuba and Chile Documentation Projects.

History of Cuban Relations with the U.S

When looking back through American history with Cuba, you will find propaganda, lies, and misinformation, some from the Communist Party, some from the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, and some from the United States government. For many years, the reason for denouncing Cuba was to combat the Soviet Union during the Cold War. While America was getting into a large number of proxy wars with the USSR, Cuba had its revolution. The new self-initiated President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, came to the U.S. for help, aid, and assistance, as they were a nation with newfound principles and no found alliances. Facing pressure from Republicans and fearing the implications of accepting Communism throughout the world, the Eisenhower administration immediately cut diplomatic ties with Cuba and declared them an enemy of the United States.

This would result in the Cuban government reaching out to the Soviet Union for aid and protection. After many assassination attempts on President Castro and many invasion plans, the Eisenhower administration planned the Bay of Pigs, 90 days before John F. Kennedy would be elected to the Oval Office. 

  “Right away President Kennedy is thrown into the Bay of Pigs situation, and he is only now hearing about the plans for invasion,” says Steven Salinger, son of Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary of the Kennedy administration.

The plan for the Bay of Pigs was for elite Cuban exiled soldiers, coming from Nicaragua by boat, to arrive on the beaches and start an insurrection and then eventually overthrow the government. The militias successfully captured the beaches, but no one could have foreseen the amount of military support that arrived to fend off the incoming militia. Eventually, the militia was overrun, and the remaining members were killed or captured. This invasion became known to the public as the Bay of Pigs. The Bay of Pigs would add fuel to the fire of the Cuban-U.S. relationship.  

“I remember taking out the trash one night and reciting the words, ‘I don’t know where the president’s bunker is,’ thinking there were Soviet spies hiding,” says Salinger.

Moving Forward

One of the most complicated issues regarding Cuba is the migration of Cubans to America. During the Communist Revolution in the late 1950s, many Cuban-Americans’ ancestors fled Cuba, causing most Cuban-Americans to be very fearful of communism and socialism. Most Cubans who came to America during the Communist Revolution were well-educated, land-owning upper-class individuals/people. Given that the vast majority of educated Cuban Americans, many Cuban Americans became involved in American politics. Most soon realized that the Democrat party did not want to go to war with Cuba and tear down the Communist Government. This outraged and deeply disappointed many Cuban Americans, leading them to become a critical/important political force for Democrats campaigning in Florida. According to a 2020 study, 58% of all Cuban-Americans are members of the Republican Party. In Florida, the Cuban American Republican establishment has become one of the most loyal factions of the Republican party. 

While Cuba has a famous and deeply rooted legacy of communism, socialism is on the horizon. “The meaning of socialism is evolving in Cuba, and it's taking its place in a globalized world,” says Kornbluh. Heading the front of this philosophical change in Cuba’s policy are the younger generations of Cuba. 

The Biden plan administered a strict reversal of the Trump policies toward Cuba, such as the travel ban, and remittances from Cuban Americans sending money home to their larger families in Cuba, instead it seems to be a more slowly based approach. The administration stated that they will remove travel restrictions and will begin diplomatic relations with Cuba once more. Many attribute Biden’s slow action towards Cuba to not having the congressional numbers and support needed to pass such legislation.

While Cuba has been at odds with the United States for a while, there is a lot of room for it to change economically, sociologically, and politically. “If Cuba is going to change, US Policy has to change with it,” says Kornbluh.

Cuba has the opportunity to use its well-educated workforce as a tool for its potential success. “A fully normal relation with the U.S would help Cuba stabilize its economy,” says Kornbluh. With Cuba emerging from the shadows of the old world, they bring with them the potential for a great thriving nation. It’s simply a question of democracy and whether the government will let it prevail.