Meanwhile, In Cuba...

Via Black Agenda Report:

All eyes have quite rightly been on Palestine for the past year. Joe Biden’s maniacal pact with Israel has killed an estimated 200,000 people, and Israel is poised to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and Lebanon. Their war crimes range from starvation, destruction of hospitals, shooting children in the head, rape and torture, attacking United Nations peacekeeping forces, assassinating Palestinian leaders, and burning hospital patients to death. All the atrocities have been documented, often by the perpetrators themselves, and have been defended vociferously. The genocide is a joint project with the U.S. and has more bipartisan support than any initiative which directly impacts people in this country.

The horror makes it easy to forget that U.S. crimes continue unabated around the world even when we don’t have to look very far to find them. Just 90 miles away from Florida, the people of Cuba are suffering in darkness, denied the ability to access electricity, all because of the damage done by more than 60 years of sanctions which were made worse by a new crime, the State Sponsor of Terror (SSOT) designation.

On January 11, 2021 , with only nine more days in office, the Trump administration added Cuba to the SSOT list. It was strange timing to take an action that could have been carried out at some point during the previous four years. But the Trump team wanted to kill the improvement in relations that began in 2014 when Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations between the two countries. In 2015 he removed Cuba from the SSOT designation and in 2016 traveled there to make an in-person visit. Sanctions were still in place but the thaw in relations was significant, as travel and other restrictions were eased and gave Cuba some degree of breathing room.

Yet despite the fact that the outgoing and supposedly discredited Trump administration made the SSOT designation days away from leaving office, it continues to this day under the Biden administration. SSOT tightens the screws, and makes it nearly impossible for Cuba to conduct financial transactions . As soon as the SSOT designation was made more than 30 financial institutions left Cuba, NGOs and even Cubans living abroad had bank accounts frozen, and nations feared selling Cuba medical equipment for fear of being sanctioned themselves.

Europeans, Australians, and New Zealanders regularly traveled to Cuba but the SSOT designation banned anyone from securing an ESTA visa waiver needed to enter the U.S. if they traveled to Cuba. Tourism was a lifeline for Cuba and the Trump/Biden administration killed off that industry which was an employer of thousands of people and the provider of needed foreign currency.

Now Cuba is suffering after nearly a week of blackouts caused by their antiquated electrical grid. Sanctions prevent Cuba from securing even ordinary supplies such as electrical components  and make it impossible for its grid to function. 

It is important to say what this situation means for the Cuban people. Normal activities cannot take place without electricity. Food is spoiled without refrigeration and so are many medicines. Surgery cannot be performed without lights and x-ray machines and dialysis equipment cannot operate either. Streets are dark and dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike.

Restorations have been intermittent even as hurricane Oscar struck the island. One day most of Havana has power, but the next it may not. The only fix for Cuba’s electricity woes is an end to the SSOT designation and to all sanctions.