After campaigning on reversing Trump’s regressive policies in the region, Cuban Americans are frustrated by the president’s subsequent passivity.
Last week, Cuban Americans fanned out on Capitol Hill and at the State Department with a warning for Democrats and the Biden administration: Act now to stop America’s complicity in the economic suffering of millions in Cuba or risk alienating a key group of supporters going into a close presidential election.
It was a reminder that hard-right enthusiasts of maximum pressure against Cuba do not speak for all Cuban Americans—maybe not even for a majority of them. The blitz of office visits to members of Congress and State Department officials hammered home a consistent message that was summed up in an accompanying blunt letter addressed to President Biden and signed by more than 100 organizations and about 650 individuals: “We are shocked and disappointed by your indifference toward the suffering of Cuban families both in Cuba and here in the United States.” The campaign also demonstrated that while Biden faces high-profile pressure from activists within the Democratic Party and the progressive base because of his administration’s continuing support for Israel’s war in Gaza, there is another aspect of his foreign policy that is drawing fire and dampening enthusiasm—but with much less public attention.
