Trumps Cuba Contradiction
Last edited Tue Jun 20, 2017, 01:40 AM - Edit history (1)
by Peter Kornbluh June 19, 2017
President Donald Trump traveled to Miami last week to fulfill a campaign promise he made to the hardline anti-Castro community in Little Havana: terminating his predecessor’s carefully constructed détente with Cuba.
“Last year, I promised to be a voice against repression,” he told a crowd of cheering conservative Cuban-Americans packed into the Manuel Artime Theater, a symbolic venue named after one of the leaders of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. “And a voice for the freedom of the Cuban people. You went out and voted and here I am, like I promised, like I promised. I promised you, I keep my promises.”
The President then used his bully pulpit to denounce the Castro government, discredit the Obama policy of positive engagement, and demand that Cuba capitulate its system of government as a quid pro quo for improved relations. In a sure-to-be-futile attempt to coerce Cuba, Trump announced significant new restrictions on the freedom of U.S. citizens to visit the island, as well as on future U.S. commercial interaction.
“Effective immediately,” Trump declared, “I am cancelling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba.”
More:
http://progressive.org/dispatches/trumps-cuba-contradiction/
