A Sanction Worth Lifting in Cuba
By Mary O’Grady, 9/6/21, Wall St. Journal

Reprisals carried out by storm troopers & secret police
against participants in Cuba’s July 11 uprising have been
widely condemned, including by Biden. But the international
left is trying to help Cuba’s military dictatorship recover
from this public-relations disaster by blaming the U.S.
for the island’s misery.

A petition circulating among supporters of the regime
calls on Biden to lift sanctions imposed by Trump. The
petition alleges that shortages of food & medicine are the
fault of the sanctions, which have restricted the flow of
dollars to Cuba. But the real reason for Cuban privation
is totalitarianism.

The petition, titled “Let Cuba Live,” is aimed at recovering
dollar flows to the regime. But it’s not a solution aimed at
helping the Cuban people. “Let Cubans Fish”—as recommended
by the Center for a Free Cuba in a July 29 brief—would be
infinitely more beneficial.

This is no joke. A Caribbean sea teeming with marine life
contains abundant protein. Yet it’s nearly impossible for
Cubans legally to reel in dinner to feed their families.
This is more proof, as if we needed it, that socialism is
for morons.

Trump sanctions scaled back American travel to the island
& capped remittances that may be sent from the U.S. Without
gringo visitors & large monthly dollar remittances—captured
by the regime & kept offshore—revenues enjoyed by the
military elite are slumping. This pinches their lavish
lifestyles—& the budget for repression.

The regime wants to end the embargo so it can get in on
grants from the World Bank & Inter-American Development
Bank & secure borrowing from U.S. banks. After defaulting
on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from other
countries, Havana is looking for new suckers willing to
extend it credit.

The shortage of dollars that the military dictatorship is
now experiencing is the point of the sanctions. The policy
is designed to tilt the balance of power toward the
Cuban people by weakening the regime.

Havana is feeling the heat. The petition signers—including
Code Pink, Susan Sarandon, Jeremy Corbyn & Oliver Stone —
are worried too. But they have a friend in Emily Mendrala,
deputy asst. secretary for Cuba issues at the State Dept.

Before landing the job in the Biden admin, Mendrala served
as executive director for the leftwing Center for Democracy
in the Americas, where she blamed Cuban misery on efforts
by the U.S. to weaken the police state. On July 29 a regime
trade specialist tweeted a photo of Mendrala in her current
job, smiling alongside activists who want the embargo lifted.

Cuba suffers from a mix of lingering Soviet ideology &
Castro crime-family despotism. For example, as the Center
for Free Cuba’s brief noted, a Jul 2019 fishing law requires
“a cost-prohibitive license & carries additional restrictions
& penalties.” Boat ownership is forbidden too, lest the
slaves flee the plantation. The upshot is that “most citizens
are not permitted to fish for their supper from a shoreline
or fresh water source.” If fines are not paid, perpetrators face prison.

Why is this simplest of tasks a crime? Because if it were
legal, Cubans would have agency, & that would be the end of
the regime. With this in mind, I’d ask whose side the
petitioners are on, but I think we already know.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sanction-cuba-fishing-communists-protests-dollar-remittance-let-cubans-live-petition-emily-mendrala-biden-administration-11630938612