translated from Spanish: Biden opts for a tough hand on Cuba and sanctions military for acting in protests

U.S. President Joe Biden showed on Thursday that, at least for now, he has decided to opt for a heavy hand in his policy toward Cuba, by sanctioning the island’s top military officials for their alleged role in the crackdown on protests this month. The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) Minister Alvaro Lopez-Miera and an elite military unit popularly known as “black wasps” or “black berets.” This is just the beginning. The United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for the oppression of the people of Cuba,” Biden said in a statement. NO CONCESSIONS TO CUBAThe sanctions are Biden’s first tangible response to the unprecedented anti-government protests of July 11 in Cuba, which have forced the White House to prioritize policy toward the island. Although, during his election campaign, Biden promised to return to the thaw with Cuba and reverse many of the sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), his calculations appear to have changed since he came to power. After this month’s protests, which have garnered strong support from the Cuban exile in the key state of Florida, the White House does not want to take any steps that could be interpreted as a concession to the Government of Cuba.” I unequivocally condemn the mass arrests and false trials that are unjustly condemning to prison those who dared to express themselves, in an attempt to intimidate and threaten the Cuban people to remain silent,” Biden stressed on Thursday.OAS AIDThe White House also hopes for increased international pressure against Havana , and plans to ask latin american governments and the Organization of American States (OAS) for help in doing so. Specifically, it will ask them to “pressure the (Cuban) regime to immediately release unjustly detained political prisoners, restore internet access, and allow the Cuban people to enjoy their fundamental rights,” Biden said. , restricted on the island after the protests, although little by little it is returning to normal.” We are working with civil society organizations and the private sector to provide internet access for the Cuban people, thus circumventing the regime’s attempts at censorship,” Biden said in his statement. THE SANCTIONS This Thursday’s sanctions affect Lopez-Miera, an Army Corps general who has held the position of FAR minister since April and, at 77 years old, is one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution considered “historical” and a confidant of former Cuban President Raul Castro.” Lopez-Miera and the special national brigade have been implicated in suppressing the protests, including through the use of physical violence and intimidation,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. The Interior Ministry’s special national brigade, popularly known as “black wasps,” is an elite unit of the Cuban army that Washington says also participated in the july 11 crackdown on protesters. The sanctions block any assets that Lopez-Miera or members of that elite unit may have under U.S. jurisdiction, and prohibit those in the United States from negotiating with them. CUBA CONDEMNS SANCTIONS Cuba’s reaction came in a tweet from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who called the sanctions “unfounded and slanderous” and maintained that the U.S. “should apply the Global Magnitsky Act to itself, for the acts of daily repression and police brutality that cost 1021 lives in 2020.” Rodriguez was referring to the base used by Washington to impose such sanctions, a U.S. law that allows it to freeze financial assets and ban travel to those who violate human rights in any country in the world. Documenting such abuses to justify imposing sanctions under the Magnitsky act usually takes weeks, but the White House asked the State and Treasury Departments to “stop everything they were doing” and have it ready in a week, an official U.S. source told The Washington Post.THE PENDING MEASURESThe review of the policy ordered by Biden in light of the protests includes evaluating the possibility of reauthorizing the sending of remittances to Cuba, which has been banned since last November. However, Biden wants to ensure before doing so that the money arrives directly “to the Cuban people, without the regime being left with a portion,” the White House said in a statement. Achieving that goal is complicated, according to experts, but Biden wants to avoid at all costs that remittances sent from the United States “do not reach their recipients” on the island and instead the Cuban Government uses them “as a patch to solve its failures,” added the White House.Finally, the Biden Administration analyzes is the transfer of more personnel to the U.S. Embassy in Havana , drastically reduced after, in 2017, nearly thirty U.S. diplomats suffered mysterious “health incidents” whose motives have not yet been clarified.

Original source in Spanish