Follow us on social

Shutterstock_2006478167

Why Biden should ease burdens on humanitarian aid to Cuba

US domestic politics are overshadowing multiple crises on the island nation, which only prolongs the suffering of the Cuban people.

Analysis | Latin America

In addition to the political and economic crises in Cuba, there is a genuine humanitarian crisis, and the U.S. embargo is making it more severe. Worse still, the embargo hurts ordinary Cubans much more than it does the government.

On July 11, protests erupted throughout Cuba. Citizens called for action and change from their government on a wide array of issues. While the protesters' calls were directed at internal change and grievances and not at U.S. sanctions or the U.S. embargo, Washington can help facilitate this internal change through lifting sanctions and removing the embargo.

Cuba’s government responded with violence, repression, and detentions, which remain ongoing. One does not have to downplay the repression meted out to protesters by Cuba’s government in order to criticize the many failures of the 60-year embargo. One does not have to ignore that arbitrary detentions of peaceful protestors and a lack of due process violate Cuba’s new constitution in order to seek a more just, humane, and effective U.S. policy towards Cuba.

For too long, Cuba has been used as a proxy for ideological battles within the United States. This tendency continues in response to the widespread protests in Cuba as the spin machines of both extremes go into overdrive. Neither calls for military intervention, as expressed by the Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez, nor reflexively blaming the United States for all of Cuba’s ills does anything for the Cuban people.

Between these extremes there is a great deal of middle ground where President Biden could take action to support the Cuban people without conceding anything to their government. Cuba is currently facing an economic and humanitarian crisis, including mass food, electricity, and medicine shortages, further exacerbated by an increase in COVID-19 cases and tightened U.S. sanctions. Any response by Washington must address the humanitarian crisis.

During a July 12 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted that the U.S. embargo allows humanitarian goods to reach Cuba. Though there are humanitarian allowances under the embargo framework, in practice, there are severe limitations and obstacles to delivering humanitarian assistance to Cuba. Companies and individuals from other countries that wish to help the Cuban people at this complicated moment through the sale of medical goods are limited by U.S. sanctions that restrict the percentage of U.S. content allowed in foreign sales to Cuba to less than 10 percent.

Furthermore, U.S. sanctions on Cuba are so far-reaching that many foreign companies are hesitant to run the risk associated with such a bureaucratic maze. At the start of the pandemic, a shipment of face masks and other coronavirus aid from China was thwarted when the shipper declined to complete delivery for fear of risking prosecution under the embargo.

U.S.-origin donations of medicines and medical equipment to Cuba, such as testing kits and respiratory devices, require a specific license, which takes time and a tremendous amount of paperwork. Additionally, onerous end-user verification requirements for the exportation of medical supplies, instruments, and equipment, can severely restrict the ability of such goods to reach the Cuban people and should be removed. Six months ago I purchased a nebulizer for my cousin in Cuba. I still have not discovered a way to actually ship it to her.

The administration has insisted it is fast-tracking humanitarian licenses. They could also apply that to medical sales, or even offer short-term general licenses for those categories of sales or donations. The American people are eager to assist their neighbors. A recent campaign to raise money to send syringes to Cuba in the face of the island’s shortage garnered support from thousands of Americans and raised over $500,000. Even President George W. Bush offered bilateral humanitarian aid to Cuba in 2008 after Hurricane Ike.

President Biden’s announcement directing the administration to examine remittances to Cuba is a good and necessary first step. By lifting restrictions and caps on family and other donative remittances, we can let Cuban Americans exercise their right to send, or not send, remittances. Is it really the business of the U.S. government to tell Cuban Americans whether or not they can help their families suffering through the pandemic? President Biden’s concerns about remittances being confiscated by the Cuban government have been thoroughly addressed.  Allowing the flow of remittances empowers both Cuban Americans and the Cuban people.

Cuba’s government would be ill-advised to read any of these actions as a concession or as a measure of support. The Biden administration has placed support for democracy and human rights as it’s lodestar in its efforts to empower the Cuban people to determine their own future. Efforts by the Cuban government to suppress peaceful protest, including the use of force against protestors, and to delegitimize civil society are wrong, counter-productive, and misguided.

Regardless of future actions on the part of Cuba’s government, Washington can and should provide critical support to Cuba’s civil society so that it has the tools and the resources to play a critical role in determining the country’s future. This support should come with transparency. For civil society to be effective, it must be independent and not seen — or made susceptible to be seen — as merely an arm of the United States.

Loosening the regulations on humanitarian aid would achieve President Biden’s goals of empowering the Cuban people without aiding the government and still allow Biden to defend human rights and condemn the government’s repression.

Now is the time for diplomacy and dialogue, not general sanctions that disproportionately harm ordinary Cubans, especially Cuban women, Afro-Cubans, and LGBTQ+ Cubans, who are also the people most affected by the domestic crisis. During this difficult period, there is rightfully a great desire to help the Cuban people. We cannot simultaneously stand with them and subject them to draconian conditions of isolation and hunger. President Biden can take these actions and continue to press Cuba on human rights abuses. By centering our policy efforts on the humanitarian needs and desires of the average Cuban, without wavering in our support of human rights, the Cuban people can become more than a political football in the ideological and domestic political battles in the United States. 


Photo: Fernando Medina via shutterstock.com
Analysis | Latin America
Trump shocks supporters with US 'own' and 'rebuild' Gaza plan
Top photo credit: US President Donald J. Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. (Reuters)

Trump shocks supporters with US 'own' and 'rebuild' Gaza plan

Middle East

From his days as a scrappy 2016 candidate in the wake of the 9/11 "forever wars" Trump has been pretty adamant that the United States should not be in the business of "nation building" or putting our men and women in uniform in harm's way to solve other countries' problems. Until now, it seems.

In remarks that sent shock waves across the American political spectrum, left and right, Trump said he wants the U.S. to empty the Gaza strip of its nearly two million inhabitants, and develop it like a property owner. In fact he said he wanted the U.S. to "own it" and did not rule out sending our troops to get the job done. Here's the video.

keep readingShow less
Trump stuns: Top Iranians 'do not want...a nuclear weapon'
US President Donald J. Trump during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. via REUTERS
Trump said what you're not allowed to say about Iran

Trump stuns: Top Iranians 'do not want...a nuclear weapon'

QiOSK

Most headlines today will rightfully focus on Donald Trump’s shocking declaration that the United States is going to take over Gaza. America has committed countless mistakes in the Middle East, some of which Trump has been far more willing to acknowledge than other American presidents. But none will be as cataclysmic — and as contrary to U.S. interest — as committing American troops to taking over Gaza while pushing 1.7 million Palestinians from their land into Jordan and Egypt.

Trump’s declaration is an example of a rejection of conventional thinking gone wrong. But only an hour earlier, Trump did it the right way.

keep readingShow less
Virginia House passes Defend the Guard 99-0
Top Photo: Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers bound for Africa mission, Dec. 2023. (photo by Pennsylvania National Guard )
Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers bound for Africa mission, Dec. 2023. (photo by Pennsylvania National Guard )

Virginia House passes Defend the Guard 99-0

QiOSK

The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill on Tuesday that bars the deployment of Virginia’s National Guard into active combat in a conflict that Congress has not explicitly authorized.

“I understand that war is sometimes necessary, but I expect Congress to display an ounce of the courage they expect out of the men and women they send overseas to fight those wars by fulfilling their constitutional obligation to declare war,” Del. Nicholas Freitas (R-62), a veteran and a primary sponsor of the bill, told RS.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.