CSC Statement: New threats to Cuba from Trump administration
Campaign News | Friday, 20 January 2017
Donald Trump speaking at the Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 during the campaign trail
CSC Statement: New threats to Cuba from Trump administration
CSC is concerned about the future of Cuba-US relations under the new Donald Trump administration in the United States.
CSC welcomed the change in US policies towards Cuba under Barack Obama, including the re-establishment of diplomatic relations and the signing of a range of bilateral deals. However, despite the progress under the previous Obama administration, the US blockade remains in place; Guantánamo Bay continues to be US-occupied and US intervention in Cuba continues.
The election of Donald Trump with Republican Party majorities in both chambers of Congress threatens to undo the limited progress in Cuba-US relations.
Just days before the presidential election, the now Vice President Mike Pence said:
“Well let me make you a promise: When Donald Trump is president of the United States, we will repeal Obama’s executive orders on Cuba.”
“We will support continuing the embargo until real political and religious freedoms are a reality for all the people of Cuba. Donald Trump will stand with freedom-loving Cubans in the fight against Communist oppression.”
Speaking at a rally in Miami in October, Trump said:
“All of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro Regime were done through executive order, which means the next president can reverse them – and that is what I will do, unless the Castro Regime meets our demands."
Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress will bolster the influence of hard-line Cuban-American members of Congress to derail any potential anti-blockade legislation introduced in the future. And Trump’s appointment of the director of the biggest blockade lobby in Washington, Mauricio Claver-Carone, to his cabinet, is alarming for friends of Cuba.
It remains unclear as to how the Trump administration will act on Cuba, but the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s priorities in 2017 remain the same; end the US blockade once and for all and return the occupied territory of Guantánamo Bay to Cuba.
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