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1/ #Cuba is hopeful U.S. President Joe #Biden will swiftly reverse his predecessor’s hardline approach toward the island and resume the policy of detente begun by the Obama administration, top official @CarlosFdeCossio told Reuters. https://reut.rs/3p7p20q
2/ Donald #Trump took more than 200 measures to reinforce the decades-old U.S. embargo on #Cuba, unraveling Barack #Obama’s historic detente. While this was popular in the U.S. swing state of Florida, it plunged the Cuban economy deeper into crisis, worsening citizens' plight.
3/ Cossio said he interpreted #Biden's campaign pledges on #Cuba as aiming to revert back to the Obama-era detente, when the #USA recognized it was best to pursue a respectful relationship w/ the island and work together on solutions to issues like crime, health etc
4/ “Everything could be rolled back in the short term if that were the government’s will,” Cossio said in an interview, reiterating #Cuba’s stance that it would not make political concessions in return for an easing of #USA sanctions but was open to a mutually beneficial dialogue
5/ Cossio said it was positive #Biden’s team included several people with extensive experience interacting with #Cuba and who would not be swayed by simplified narratives.
“This team has more experience than any other in the past 60 years,” he said.
“This team has more experience than any other in the past 60 years,” he said.
6/ #Biden transition team members w #Cuba experience include: Roberta Jacobson (appointed to deal w/ migration from LatinAm at NSC), former head of Havana embassy Jeff DeLaurentis, Emily Mendrala @EMendrala (from Center for Democracy in the Americas) &Frank Mora
7/ "Es importante que nosotros interactuemos con funcionarios que realmente conocen Cuba, no con quienes hablan por lo q les cuentan o por la influencia que reciben," said Cossio, noting that the new president's wife Jill Biden visited in 2016
8/ Still, analysts say there are political obstacles to a new detente like the unresolved issue of the U.S. (and Canadian) diplomat health incidents in Havana and #Cuba's support of #Venezuela's Maduro which could prevent #Biden rolling all #Trump's sanctions back immediately.
9/“There’s a danger ... the Biden administration will fall back into the old habit of a piecemeal, quid pro quo approach in which the #USA takes only limited steps & demands Cuban concessions on its internal politics,” said expert @WMLeoGrande. “That’s a formula for paralysis.”
10/ Cossio was optimistic tho: "Si prima el pensamiento que defendió la administración Obama-Biden,si prima el criterio que tuvieron los funcionarios de aquel momento,muchos de los cuales están en la administración actual y si se respeta la voluntad de la mayoría del pueblo EEUU
11/ "..esos no deben constituir obstáculos para producir un avance en la manera en que se han comprometido", Cossio said, pointing to #Biden's campaign pledges to roll back Trump sanctions that hurt the Cuban people. Anything else would be political opportunism, Cossio said.
12/ One of the top hopes of many Cubans is for the #USA to reopen its consulate in Havana and to resume the pace of visa processing. #Cubans currently have to travel to #Guyana to pick up their US visas but there are no flights there due to the pandemic, leaving them in limbo.
13/ We spoke with Angel Garbey, 28, who applied for a U.S. visa two years ago but is still waiting for an appointment to collect it. That means he hasn't been able to meet his son whom his U.S. wife gave birth to five months ago, and doesnt know when he will be able to
