WSJ on Cuba: "Biden sounds the right notes but there’s more the U.S. can do."

Editorial in the Wall Street Journal - hit the link for the whole thing.

The remarkable protests in Cuba this weekend show that the Cuban people still yearn for a life free of tyranny despite decades of repression. President Biden hit the right note on Monday by expressing American support for the protesters, and let’s hope he follows through by increasing pressure on the regime.

The U.S. can’t dictate events in Cuba, but we were heartened to hear President Biden issue a statement on Monday that Sunday’s protests are a “clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering” dished out by Havana. He also called on “the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.”

The Administration's challenge is to back up those words with real support for the liberation of this long-suffering nation. Step one is not to return to the failed appeasement of Barack Obama that expanded U.S. travel and commerce with the island but achieved nothing in political or economic reform. The regime is more vulnerable since Donald Trump restored some U.S. sanctions, and its allies in Venezuela can no longer provide much oil to keep the lights on and the military well-fed.

The U.S. can tighten the financial squeeze and impose Magnitsky sanctions on Cuba’s human-rights violators. Helping protesters foil Cuba’s internet shutdown would be invaluable, and a warning to Russia and China not to meddle by propping up the regime is warranted. The odds on a freedom revolution may be long, but the Cuban people need to hear loud and clear that America is on their side, and not on the Communist regime’s.

Comments

[maria]

Wait...I don't understand...isn't Cuba supposed to be a socialist paradise?

Of course it's not....our village's Cuban American population has ALWAYS grasped the perils.