Biden Says He Would Restore Relations With Cuba If Elected

[Judi Lynn]

The more 50 years U.S. blockade against Cuba is overwhelmingly condemned by international community. | Photo: AFP

Published 29 April 2020 (37 minutes ago)

United States presidential candidate for the Democratic Party and former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday he would go back to former President Barack Obama’s policies toward Cuba if he wins the presidential election in November.

“In large part, I would go back,” Biden said in an interview with CBS. “I’d still insist they keep the commitments they said they would make when we, in fact, set the policy in place.”

Under Obama’s administration, the U.S. and the Caribbean nation started a process of normalizing their relations, leading to the re-establishment of diplomatic ties, and flights between both countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump decided to reverse Obama’s policy toward Cuba and reimposed economic sanctions in June 2017. He also imposed travel restrictions and abandoned diplomatic engagement with the island nation.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Biden-Says-He-Would-Restore-Relations-With-Cuba-If-Elected-20200429-0018.html

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Watching Little Marco and other Cuban emigrees promising

The downfall of the Havana regime reminds me of the antics of the old so-called “China Lobby” praying for the downfall of the People’s Republic and the restoration of Chiang Kai-Chek and the Nationalist Party when I was much younger. Even Richard Nixon gave that up 30 years after Mao took over the Chinese Mainland.

[sandensea]

4. And what's more, Little Narco and his Cuban exiles now presume to run ALL of Latin America

Through the control they've been allowed to exert over the State Dept.'s Western Hemisphere office, in the CIA, etc., they've become the self-appointed arbiters of what Latin governments are "democratic" and which ones are "totalitarian."

Basically, any right-wing regimes like Bolsonaro's are 'democratic' - even known human rights abusers and narco-regimes like Honduras' Hernández and Colombia's Duque (source of a record 1,000 tons of yayo last year alone).

But progressive governments that raise living standards, and actually make their countries better markets for U.S. exports? Like Brazil's Lula da Silva, Argentina's Kirchners, Ecuador's Correa, and Bolivia's Morales?

Like the dictator in Woody Allen's Bananas, they believe that "they are communists!"

[Jake Stern]

2. It's time to stop worrying about the political fallout

and do the right thing by repealing Helms-Burton. This embargo is unconscionable and should have been shitcanned looooong ago.

[Hoyt]

3. Sure hope so.

[BComplex]

5. If he does that, he's going to lose Florida -- a key state in the upcoming election.

They don't like Cuba down there.

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Maybe not

I think Biden has a better chance than, say, Michael Dukakis would have back in the day. A lot of the people who really, really hated the Castro brothers have been taken off the voter rolls these last couple of decades by the Grim Reaper, so it won’t matter so much.

[McKim]

7. Not necessarily True Anymore

This is not necessarily true anymore. Younger people from Cuban exile families are not rabidly against restoring relations with Cuba. Also Cuba has a health care system that is admired the world over, though they lack medicines because of our embargo. They have made some interesting advances in medical research and we should be collaborating with them. International cooperation is the key to a healthy future.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. The myth of the Cuban voting block remains powerful because

While the right-wing Cuban presence remains strong within the Florida Republican Party, it is less strong in the general election.