For most Cubans living on the island, Democrat Joe Biden is a stranger, a stranger, but they are sure that any president of the United States will be better than Donald Trump.
“I shouldn’t trust any American president, but as things stand, I prefer the other and not Trump,” Pablo Zaldívar, 57, a driver, told AFP.
After Barack Obama’s historic policy of opening up to Cuba, the Trump administration was a bucket of cold water for the socialist country.
His re-election would have been “a disaster or an Armageddon threat” for Cuba, says political scientist Jorge Gómez Barata.
In four years, Trump has applied 130 measures to tighten the blockade, many of which directly affect the population and the emerging private sector, such as restricting family remittances, suspending cruise travel and most direct flights, in addition to closing the consulate in Havana.
- Trump, “not in painting” –
“I don’t want Trump or painting, as the Cubans say. May he (Biden) win so that we can improve, ”said Aidelvis Blanco, an employee at the“ El Mandarín ”restaurant.
According to Oniel Díaz, director of private consultancy Auge, Biden’s victory is “extremely welcome news for the Cuban business community. The private sector was one of the most affected by the Trump administration’s policy ”.
But Cubans do not forget that since Fidel Castro’s 1959 triumph, his revolution has faced 12 American leaders and the strongest measures against the island have been imposed by Democrats.
John F. Kennedy (1961-63) authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion, imposed the embargo in 1962 and starred in the missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Bill Clinton (1993-2001) signed the Helms-Burton Act, tightening the embargo.
Although little known on the island, Biden has a great point in his favor: he was deputy to Barack Obama, fostered collaboration in several sectors after the reestablishment of relations in 2015 and contributed to the family unification of Cubans on both sides of the Strait of Florida.
His election “means a return to the balance of foreign policy initiated with Obama, in which the commitment to support democracy is compatible with political dialogue, non-isolation and the flow of relations between the two countries”, says opponent Manuel Cuesta Morúa .
- Biden, “an opportunity to take advantage” –
The official Cuban apparatus has refrained from commenting until now, because although it wanted to get rid of Trump, it avoided putting high expectations on Biden.
“Biden will not insist on lifting the embargo,” predicts Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
Its purpose will be “to empower the Cuban people and promote democracy on the island”, he adds.
But what “is not clear exactly is what commitments or concessions (Biden) will require this government to improve relations between Cuba and the United States”.
In an interview prior to the vote for the opposition digital media CiberCuba, Biden announced the prompt “lifting of Trump’s restrictions on remittances and travel, which harm the Cuban people and keep families apart.”
“I will demand the release of political prisoners and defend human rights in Cuba,” he said.
If Trump’s accusations that Biden is a socialist reverberated among Florida Hispanics who voted for the Republican in Cuba, with six decades of socialism, no one doubts the new president’s positions and interests.
But Biden is “an opportunity that we must know how to take advantage of”, says Gómez Barata, referring to the advances that Cuba can make, especially in economic matters, with more relaxed relations.
“Biden’s arrival at the White House, along with the recent economic measures announced by the Cuban government that open up more space for the private sector in the country, has the potential to generate an extremely beneficial situation,” says consultant Díaz.
