By Patricio Montesinos
The current US president recently announced a review of his predecessor’s aggressive policy towards Cuba, however, after almost two months of Joe Biden entering the Oval Office, the sinister ghost of Donald Trump continues to reign in the conduct of Washington to the largest of the Antilles.
Statements a few hours ago by the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, confirm that nothing new has happened with Biden regarding the hostile US posture towards the Caribbean island.
Psaky expressed, according to press reports, that an eventual change in policy towards Cuba is not among the priorities of the now head of Washington, a bad omen for the attempts to normalize relations between the two countries that the former Democratic administration of Barack Obama initiated. in his second term, and that Trump totally derailed.
And it is true that the aggressiveness promoted by the former Republican leader continues intact until today, as drastic coercive measures persist derived from the inclusion of Cuba in the illegal US list of nations sponsoring terrorism.
A few days before his expulsion from the White House, Trump once again included the island in that spurious list, after Obama had excluded it in 2015.
He also resorted to false pretenses to apply more than 240 restrictive measures that are causing great harm to Cubans, and that also harm US citizens.
The so-called worst president in US history was so immodest that he tightened the old blockade on Cuba in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the malicious purpose of strangling it once and for all.
The numerous sanctions that it imposed as part of the blockade are so comprehensive that they interfere in the relations of the largest of the Antilles with third countries, and in commercial and financial transactions with international companies and banks.
Analysts agree that it is paradoxical that diplomatic relations and embassies exist between the two close neighbors, and that the White House continues to treat Havana as an enemy, in addition to the fact that bilateral and cooperation exchanges are practically null.
The same experts agree in the same way that Biden can make use of the prerogatives he has as president and remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, as well as abolish sanctions that prevent travel and the free flow of remittances between both nations.
They add that, in a similar way, the now occupant of the Oval Office can suspend Chapter III of the Helms-Burton Act, and commit to also stop applying IV of that cruel regulation, imposed on Cubans to tighten the economic, commercial siege. and financial.
Biden could also end the persecution of fuel supplies to the oldest Antillean archipelago, and with the constant attacks on its health workers, internationally recognized for their human and solidarity values, which they have demonstrated once again in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 80 Democratic congressmen have asked their president to reverse Washington’s policy towards Havana, while hundreds of Cubans residing in the United States and millions of people in all corners of the world demand and wait for the same determination. The question then is: Will Biden be capable and really intend to get rid of the evil spirit of his predecessor?
"An Island on a Continent" 