Global Learning
  • Home
  • Defenders of Cuban Socialism
    • UN Charter
    • Declaration of Human Rights
    • Bandung
    • New International Economic Order
    • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Substack editorial column
  • New Cold War articles
  • Friends of Socialist China articles
  • Global Research articles
  • Counterpunch articles
  • Cuba and the world-system
    • Table of Contents and chapter summaries
    • About the author
    • Endorsements
    • Obtaining your copy
  • Blog ¨The View from the South¨
    • Blog Index
    • Posts in reverse chronological order
  • The Voice of Third World Leaders
    • Asia >
      • Ho Chi Minh
      • Xi Jinping, President of China
    • Africa >
      • Kwame Nkrumah
      • Julius Nyerere
    • Latin America >
      • Fidel Castro
      • Hugo Chávez
      • Raúl Castro >
        • 55th anniversary speech, January 1, 1914
        • Opening Speech, CELAC
        • Address at G-77, June 15, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, July 5, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, December 20, 2014
        • Speech on Venezuela at ALBA, 3-17-2015
        • Declaration of December 18, 2015 on USA-Cuba relations
        • Speech at ALBA, March 5, 2018
      • Miguel Díaz-Canel >
        • UN address, September 26, 2018
        • 100th annivesary, CP of China
      • Evo Morales >
        • About Evo Morales
        • Address to G-77 plus China, January 8, 2014
        • Address to UN General Assembly, September 24, 2014
      • Rafael Correa >
        • About Rafael Correa
        • Speech at CELAC 1/29/2015
        • Speech at Summit of the Americas 2015
      • Nicolás Maduro
      • Cristina Fernández
      • Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations >
        • Statement at re-opening of Cuban Embassy in USA, June 20, 2015
        • The visit of Barack Obama to Cuba
        • Declaration on parliamentary coup in Brazil, August 31, 2016
        • Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba on Venezuela, April 13, 2019
      • ALBA >
        • Declaration of ALBA Political Council, May 21, 2019
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 17, 2015
        • Declaration on Venezuela, April 10, 2017
      • Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) >
        • Havana Declaration 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 26
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • International >
      • Peoples’ Summit 2015
      • The Group of 77 >
        • Declaration on a New World Order 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela 3/26/2015
      • BRICS
      • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Readings
    • Charles McKelvey, Cuba in Global Context
    • Piero Gleijeses, Cuba and Africa
    • Charles McKelvey, Chávez and the Revolution in Venezuela
    • Charles McKelvey, The unfinished agenda of race in USA
    • Charles McKelvey, Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist Revolutionary
  • Recommended Books
  • Contact

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Recommended books on Amazon.com; click on image of book to connect

What is Trump changing with his Cuba policy?

6/29/2017

0 Comments

 
Posted June 19, 2017

     President Trump announced on June 16 that his administration’s new Cuba policy will prohibit direct transactions with entities related to the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services.  A number of commentators in the United States have written that this restriction could place serious restrictions on future U.S. commerce with Cuba, because the military, intelligence and security sector is a significant part of the economy.  For example, an editorial by the New York Times asserted that “American companies and citizens will be barred from doing business with firms controlled by the Cuban military or its intelligence services, thus denying Americans access to critical parts of the Cuban economy, including much of the tourism sector.”  Making a similar argument, Ben Rhodes, who played a central role in the Obama opening with respect to Cuba, writes that “large swaths of the Cuban economy [are] controlled by the military.”

      Such commentaries are simply mistaken, as a matter of fact.  The Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, which directs intelligence and security, are a part of the Cuban government; but they in no sense control the government or the economy, nor are enterprises controlled by them an important sector of the economy. There are some enterprises owned and managed by the armed forces in such areas as the tourist and retail sectors, but there are many state enterprises in these and other sectors that are not tied to the military. After reading the commentaries, I talked with members of the Cuban Communist Party, and they all confirmed my previous understanding that the great majority of Cuban state companies in a variety of economic sectors, including tourism, communications, transportation, energy and mining are not tied to the military or to the Ministry of the Interior.  Their sense was that it would not be difficult for U.S. companies to find trading and/or investment partners that would not be included in the new prohibitions.

      Another specific changed announced by the Trump administration is the elimination of the individual people-to-people authorization for travel to Cuba.  The people-to-people program had been developed years ago, on the basis of the belief that the people of the United States, interacting with the Cuban people, would influence thinking in such a manner that the people would push for changes in the socialist political-economic system.  Prior to Obama, U.S. travelers in the people-to-people program were required to go through specific agencies, mostly in the Miami area, that had been authorized to conduct the program. These agencies were expected to conduct a full program of activities that involved interchanges with the people, and not with government representatives.  The Obama administration modified the program, permitting U.S. travelers to travel and develop their activities on their own, with the same guidelines, but self-administered.  With Trump’s elimination of the individual people-to-people program, U.S. travelers to Cuba wanting to use the people-to-people program will have to go through authorized agencies in the United States.  No doubt, given that the number of U.S. travelers to Cuba has accelerated rapidly since the Obama opening, these agencies will launch advertising campaigns to attract travelers.  In light of the growing number of direct commercial flights between the United States and Cuba, which the Trump prohibition does not touch, and the expanding number of hotels and rental rooms in Cuba, such expansion of the group people-to-people program is a definite practical possibility.

      The biggest difference between the Trump and Obama programs is rhetoric.  The Obama administration spoke in a respectful tone, but it in fact moved slowly in easing restrictions.  The Trump administration invokes a hostile rhetoric, but it leaves intact the important changes initiated by Obama, and it leaves open the continued possibility of step-by-step improvement in relations between the two countries.  It is possible that Trump’s rhetoric will slow the process of expanding relations, but given the number of forces that are in motion, the process will likely continue to evolve.

     The difference in rhetoric, however, is not insignificant.  It is a difference in projection: the Obama administration anticipated a normalization of relations, without demanding changes from Cuba; whereas the Trump administration insists on changes in the Cuban political-economic system as a condition for easing or eliminating the “embargo.”  We should keep in mind, of course, that for the Unites States of America, normal relations include interference in the affairs of other nations, seeking to ensure access to raw materials and markets, as is evident today with respect to progressive Latin American governments.  Accordingly, Obama, like Trump, wanted to change the Cuban system, because it is a system that is not designed to respond to U.S. interests.  But Obama was trying a different strategy, recognizing that the embargo has not been effective in promoting U.S. interests.  Obama intended to affect changes in Cuba through measures that would expand the growth of small private enterprise, with the expectation that this sector would be a natural ally of U.S. interests in relation to Cuba.

      Cubans overwhelmingly view the Trump June 16 speech as a “show” and as full of comments about Cuba that are entirely inconsistent with Cuban reality.  Some dismiss him as an “idiot;” others, as a “clown.”  A joke is going around that, since there is a shortage of clowns for the Cuban circus, perhaps Trump would be interested.

      But it would be a mistake to dismiss Trump as a clown or a jerk, either in Cuba or in the United States.  In certain respects, the Trump “show” of June 16 was politically shrewd.  It was a move to consolidate his right-wing base by obtaining the support of political actors who not only demand a tougher rhetoric against Cuba but also play a central role in the U.S. aggressive policy toward progressive governments in Latin America, a policy pursued by the Obama administration.  The rhetoric against socialist Cuba is more consistent with U.S. policy toward Latin America as a whole.  Moreover, the Trump policy avoids conflict with those businesses that want to develop commerce in Cuba, by leaving intact new structures and new possibilities for commerce and travel to the island.  At the same time, the hostile rhetoric appeals to an important sector of U.S. public opinion.  Trump presents himself as defending U.S. interests in Cuba, overturning an agreement with Cuba in which the United States gained nothing (other than improvement in its international image).  Trump declares himself to be defending America, unlike the rest of the political establishment. Moreover, his speech recalls the former days of American glory, when the United States stood proud as a defender of democracy in the world, thus invoking an image that distorts international reality but that continues to have much popular appeal, inasmuch as it never has been effectively delegitimated by progressive tendencies in the United States.

      Beyond the issue of U.S. policy toward Cuba, the Trump project as a whole has a certain logic, even though it ensures the continued decline of the United States and constitutes a threat to humanity.  I will discuss further the logic of Trump in a subsequent post.
        
   
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author: Charles McKelvey

    Retired professor, writer,  and Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist revolutionary

    Categories

    All
    American Revolution
    Blog Index
    Bolivia
    Charismatic Leaders
    China
    Critique Of The Left
    Cuban History
    Cuba Today
    Ecuador
    Environment
    French Revolution
    Gay Rights
    Haitian Revolution
    Knowledge
    Latin American History
    Latin American Right
    Latin American Unity
    Marx
    Marxism-Leninism
    Mexican Revolution
    Miscellaneous
    Neocolonialism
    Neoliberalism
    Nicaragua
    North-South Cooperation
    Presidential Elections 2016
    Press
    Public Debate In USA
    Race
    Religion And Revolution
    Revolution
    Russian Revolution
    South-South Cooperation
    Third World
    Trump
    US Ascent
    US Imperialism
    Vanguard
    Venezuela
    Vietnam
    Wallerstein
    Women And Revolution
    World History
    World-System
    World-System Crisis

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

More Ads


website by Sierra Creation