This Friday, President Trump is expected to travel to Miami to roll back President Obama’s historic change of American policy towards Cuba. Obama’s historic announcement ended 55 years of isolation and stagnation and was internationally heralded as one of Obama’s greatest legacies in office. The new policy, devised by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Fidel Castro’s nephew, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), will likely restrict US companies from doing business in Cuba and will limit American travel to the island to one visit per year.
President Trump’s previous and possibly illegal business interests on the island should be noted. Though Trump vowed to never spend his company’s money in Cuba until Fidel Castro was removed from power, the Trump company allegedly spent $68,000 on the communist island in 1999. On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump’s views on doing business with Cuba were favorable. Referring to Obama’s decision to reestablish diplomatic relations, the 2016 candidate declared, "I think it's fine, but we should have made a better deal. The concept of opening with Cuba is fine." Trump went further in an interview with the Daily Caller: “50 years is enough," for the policy of isolation towards Cuba, he said.
This was before Senator Rubio became a frequent White House visitor in order to craft Trump’s new Cuba policy. Trump even dined with Senator Rubio early last week, preceding Rubio’s surprisingly softball questioning of former FBI director James Comey. Sounds like politics as usual. So, why does this matter?
A reversal of our current Cuba policy would be a substantive and political blunder of epic proportions.
Obama’s opening to Cuba not only ended decades of diplomatic isolation in our hemisphere, but fostered private enterprise in Cuba to expand in ways never before seen on the island. By 2016, over 500,000 Cubans held self-employment licenses, 28,000 Cuban rooms were listed on Airbnb, over 3 million Cubans had mobile phone lines, and over 4,000 homes had been converted into private restaurants serving Cubans and tourists alike. Additionally, Obama’s policy expanded opportunities for Cuban-Americans to visit family and loved ones, and send both goods and information between their two homelands faster than ever. Trump’s new policy is posited to restrict American visits to once per year, which would not affect American tourists’ plans, rather, the once-a-year rule would affect Cuban-Americans and their families.
Our normalized policy with Cuba as it stands is supported by the majority of Americans (75%), the majority of Cubans (96%), the majority of Cuban-Americans (69%), the international community (191-0), and even the majority of Miami-Dade county (56%). The move to restore relations was applauded by international human rights organizations like the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. American farmers from Arizona to Tennessee are in favor of free trade with the island. There has been no substantial pushback on Obama’s opening to Cuba.
In a democratic system, the wishes of the people should prevail. There is no reason to end a Cuba policy supported by the majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans. By rolling back our opening to Cuba and promotion of free trade with the island, President Trump is equating the personal agenda of two Miami politicians with the wishes of the entire Cuban-American population, and in effect, the entire American population as a whole. This is the exact opposite of how a democracy is supposed to work. Someone tell the jamonero in charge.