{"id":5632,"date":"2021-12-12T23:12:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T23:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/?p=5632"},"modified":"2021-12-15T09:30:37","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T09:30:37","slug":"sen-leahy-slams-biden-white-house-over-cuba-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/sen-leahy-slams-biden-white-house-over-cuba-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Leahy Slams Biden White House Over Cuba Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined at left by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., rips a copy of the committee rules of procedure as he charges current Republican chairman Lindsey Graham with breaking the rules to bend to President Donald Trump on immigration policy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.<\/strong> \u2014 Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) delivered a blistering reproach from the Senate floor on Monday condemning the White House policy on Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs someone who has observed the evolution of relations between the United States and Cuba for nearly 50 years, I find the situation between our two countries today bewildering, tragic, and frankly exasperating,\u201d said the 81-year-old Senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leahy said six decades of sanctions, isolation, and threats, had failed to achieve any strategic objective for the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis administration\u2019s policy has been dictated by a tiny, vocal constituency in this country that has always opposed U.S. engagement with Cuba,\u201d Leahy continued. \u201cThey\u2019ve done this for decades but the policy, history has shown, is doomed to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leahy decried missed timelines at the State Department, like a review of the Trump policy of designating Cuba as an official state sponsor of terror that Leahy said was promised six months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened to the review? What did it say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe COVID pandemic provided an obvious opportunity between American and Cuban scientists,\u201d said Leahy. \u201cThat opportunity, like so many others over the years, was squandered due to politics, distrust, and spite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remittances to Cuba have been restricted by the Treasury Department under President Biden, another leftover policy from the Trump administration with which Leahy also took issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShouldn\u2019t Cuban Americans have the right to decide for themselves whether to send their own money to their relatives, rather than having that decision dictated by the White House?\u201d he asked. \u201cRemember those remittances help Cubans become less dependent on the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe White House has repeatedly said that human rights are at the core of its policy toward Cuba,\u201d Leahy added. \u201cI have asked, but I have no idea what the Administration\u2019s practical objectives are in Cuba, or how it proposes to achieve them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senator called on President Biden, his longtime colleague in the upper chamber, to change course on Cuba by reimplementing President Obama\u2019s policies of loosening sanctions and strengthening bilateral dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we maintain an intricate web of unilateral sanctions that every nation in this hemisphere opposes, the Russians and Chinese are aggressively filling the vacuum as anyone who visits Cuba today can readily see,\u201d noted Leahy, referring to the various trade agreements between the three countries and the recent infrastructure projects China has led on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1999, Leahy has traveled multiple times to Cuba with his wife Marcelle as part of multiple congressional delegations to the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis administration has had ten months to demonstrate that continuing the failed Trump policy of trying to bludgeon the Cuban authorities into submission can produce positive results,\u201d Leahy said. \u201cAre we going to waste another year and another after that? I hope not, but that is what will happen if the White House does not change course and show the kind of thoughtful leadership on Cuba that we saw during the Obama Administration, and that was welcomed by a large majority of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis administration can do better. It needs to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pablo Manr\u00edquez is the Washington correspondent for Latino Rebels. Twitter: @PabloReports<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) delivered a blistering reproach from the Senate floor on Monday condemning the White House policy on Cuba. 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Time to move on As the Cuban government celebrates the July 26 Day of the National Rebellion \u2014 a public holiday commemorating the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks that is considered the precursor to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Featured"","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/category\/news\/featured\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Revolution_Square.jpeg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Revolution_Square.jpeg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/Revolution_Square.jpeg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4598,"url":"https:\/\/www.cubasupport.ie\/latest\/biden-should-make-normalizing-relations-with-cuba-a-priority\/","url_meta":{"origin":5632,"position":2},"title":"Biden Should Make Normalizing Relations With Cuba “A Priority”","author":"Editorial Team","date":"June 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Biden ignores the crisis in Cuba at his own peril.byMedea Benjamin Silvia from Miami, Eduardo from Hialeah, Abel from Lakeland. 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