nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46136230

April 18, 2026
The delegation told Cuba’s leadership that it had only a narrow window of time to make the economic and political changes demanded by the Trump administration.

[Imperialist vultures circling around Cuba - drive them out!]

The U.S. delegation last week proposed bringing Starlink satellite internet to the island and allowing free connectivity. It also urged the Cuban regime to make economic changes to attract foreign capital, grow the private sector and transition to a market-based economy.

These economic changes, the State Department official said, would also need to include ways to compensate U.S. citizens and corporations that had assets and properties confiscated in the 1960s.

Cuba would also need to release political prisoners, the official added, and allow greater political freedom.

  • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    2 hours ago

    You understand that Trump was also president before Biden, right? And yes, those policies were continued, they were not changed. Choosing not to reverse the 1st Trump admins policies was a deliberate decision. The goal was to further destabilize Cuba, not normalize relations and end our illegal blockade. You can praise Biden all you want. I’m not going to praise our unjustifiable and illegal collective punishment on the Cuban people. This ratchet effect is exactly the problem, normalizing the previous Republican policies, and paving the way for the next Republican admin to expand on the brutality.

    May 2021: The Biden-Harris administration sustained Trump-era Cuba policy by maintaining Cuba on the list of countries certified as not cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts.

    On June 23, the U.S. voted against a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba at the 75th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, signaling their support for the embargo. Each year since 1992, the UN has voted on a resolution to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba and, at all but one meeting, the U.S. has voted against the resolution. In 2016, the Obama-Biden administration historically abstained from voting on the resolution for the first time. Following the abstention, the Trump administration reverted back to voting in support of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

    July 2021: The State Department released the 2021 Trafficking In Persons Report and designated Cuba as one of the 15 countries with a Tier 3 ranking. Countries with Tier 3 rankings are subject to financial penalties, may be subject to restrictions of foreign assistance, and may also face possible U.S. opposition to similar assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The report also listed Cuba’s government as one of 11 governments committing state-sponsored human trafficking. In the report’s launch ceremony, Secretary Blinken specifically noted Cuba’s international medical missions.

    On July 22, the Biden-Harris administration announced sanctions “targeting elements of the Cuban regime responsible for this crackdown… to hold them accountable for their actions.” Specifically, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) instated sanctions on Cuba’s Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), Álvaro López Miera, and the Ministry of the Interior’s (MINIT) Special National Brigade, or “Boinas Negras” (Black Berets).

    On July 30, OFAC announced additional sanctions on Cuba’s Revolutionary National Police, as well as individual sanctions against the chief, Oscar Callejas Valcarce, and deputy chief, Eddy Sierra Arias, of the National Police.

    On August 13, the U.S. State Department announced a third round of sanctions issued by OFAC in response to the J11 protests.

    On August 19, OFAC announced a fourth round of sanctions since the July 11 protests on three top Cuban officials.

    • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      2 hours ago

      The real “blue maga”

      Like when I first hear that term I could not wrap my head around such a stupid term and wrongly it was applied.

      I immediately recognized it as the projection of morons that it was.

      But I might have been off, it’s not a projection from the maga right, it actually does describe you.

      You see you’re just like the maga element that stops the gop from enacting facism because the maga idiots are too “pure” to allow anything less than full out racist conservatism. The lack of middle ground prevented the gop from doing anything meaningful because of purity tests.

      Thats you! You get it! You’re the one putting purity tests on every past liberal admin such that ever lib is a republican and you disapprove of EVERYONE. They are all too weak and zionists…

      You’re the ones stopping even a liberal party from accomplishing anything meaningful based on purity tests.

      All while you label others as “blue no matter who”

      Your blue is any position that is too far left to be possible. You’ll adhere to it no matter what and tell everyone else they are the problem.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 hour ago

        You’re the one acting with the exact type of cult-mentality, defending the administrations, as the MAGA cult

        I hate Liberals for their proximity to the GOP, we are not the same.

        Zohran, AOC, Rashida Talib, Ilhan Omar, there are plenty of representatives that I support. You don’t know shit, you’re just making shit up to get mad about. Talk about a tantrum.

        • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
          12·
          57 minutes ago

          It’s the concept that the world doesn’t change in 4 years that makes you sound about as stupid as anyone can denying that fact. But please cite anything to the contrary

          You sound like a moron that can’t see more than 18 months out. So please cite stuff to prove that wrong rather than accuse me of cult shit.

          Honestly show you’re not in a cult as you cite narrow minded shit before claiming it’s everyone else that’s the problem.

          To cap this off… my original post was that the US didn’t have the issues with Cuba it does now, not while Obama was president.

          Everything past that has been idiots arguing the contrary and trying to say it’s all Biden’s fault.

          The proof is in the BS. These aren’t honest actors

    • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      2 hours ago

      All of this bullshit seems to come from people desperately wanting to blame their problems on Biden while an orange faced liar and his whole party directly rubs shit in their face.

      Real smart crew

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 hours ago

        I blame every president since the Spanish-American war, do you think the US policy on Cuba is a new development???

        • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
          11·
          1 hour ago

          Yes and if your life and emotion is still dictated by the actions of Herbert Hoover then you aren’t a realistic barometer of current times.

          You are broadly calling out all folks from over a century? Then you are a joke, you are too broadly wacky and an over the top expression that straight up cannot be taken seriously.

          You have shown you can’t see past your own nose. You have nothing to offer MODERN discourse as you desperately clutch for excuses already made decades old…

    • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
      11·
      2 hours ago

      I’ll give separate response to you citing OH SO MUCH to show Biden kept with the same policy for most every president in the past half century, while being lazy on the improvements Obama AND HIM had championed.

      When did Biden blockade the island?

      Again this was while inflation was rampant a d everyone was blaming Biden for gas prices despite us being at the gas prices we have now.

      So again, yes as you cited, many aspects stayed the same. The admin voted in the UN the same as past admins had…

      When did Biden blockade the island?

      Tell me where Biden threatened invasion? Or praised allah while telling Cuba they’re next?

      What policy like that you see now in Trump, was EVER reflected in Biden prior?

      When did Biden blockade the island?

      When was it reported that BIDEN was reviewing invasion plans?

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 hours ago

        You’re missing the point so much, I’m actually impressed. Do you know any history of US control over Cuba?

        • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
          11·
          2 hours ago

          Do you have any understanding of the past decade? Or do you need to go back a century to make a sense that clearly makes no sense right now?

          I mean if this eas the 70s you’d have a point. But the Obama admin proved you wrong while you desperately cling to a past that isn’t now.

    • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
      22·
      2 hours ago

      Yes that was my point in stating that Trump had fucked up a LOT of shit in 4 years so after Biden had bigger issues than Cuba.

      So throwing a tantrum cause Biden didnt completely reverse Cuban policy as top priority, compared to say all the other bills and fixes that were addressed…

      You missed the point.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        2 hours ago

        Calling out the unjustifiable policies of Biden on Cuba is ‘throwing a tantrum?’ Grow up, I’ll call out good and bad policies from any president. I don’t care about your dogmatic support, you can make excuses all you want. Doesn’t change the harm of the blockade and sanctions.

        Ahead of the UN vote, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released its annual report outlining the material effects of the blockade in numbers. According to the report, the cost of 25 days of the blockade are the funds necessary to meet the requirements of the country’s National List of Essential Medicines for one year. Damages as a result of the blockade are USD 421 million a month, more than USD 13.8 million a day, and more than USD 575,683 per hour.

        Trump then obviously comes in, imposes 243 sanctions, puts Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, and takes this very extreme position towards Cuba. Many people voted for Biden expecting that he would reverse this, that he would honor the legacy of his previous Democratic president. But reality has shown that Biden, like every other US president since 1959, has a zero sum mentality of the Cuban revolution, that it must be overthrown by all means. The US has seen in Cuba’s difficult moments the opportunity to further tighten the noose on Cuba.

        Obviously, that hasn’t worked to the extent that the US would hope, because despite the noose being tightened on Cuba, the Cuban people haven’t given up on their independence, they haven’t given up their sovereignty, they haven’t given up their political project and their democratic process that they’ve designed and they’ve made a choice to build.

        https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/10/23/as-cubans-face-blackouts-us-based-activists-organize-material-solidarity/

        • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
          12·
          2 hours ago

          You don’t call out anything other than the continuation of lame policy. While completely ignoring Biden’s role during the Obama admin, and ignoring all context of the time of the Biden admin.

          It sounds like a tantrum given the total lack of historical justification, combined with your desperation to make a villain out of the wrong guy.

          You cite a UN vote that aligns with a century of UN votes and US policy. Policy I disagree with but I’d have to be fucking stupid to claim it’s all Biden’s fault. Thats a simpletons take.

          It sucks but you are woefully shy of making Biden the boogieman given current events.

          You sound and probably are ignorantly reacting to your first knee jerk.

          • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            1 hour ago

            When did I claim it was ‘all Biden’s fault?’

            Quit making shit up and projecting, this is sad

            • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
              12·
              1 hour ago

              You have only mentioned Biden’s fault. You have not mentioned Trump or any others fault. You have spent a majority of your statements on Biden.

              It’s not weird to say that you are implying a certain persons fault.

              It’s plainly obvious to say you’ve completely missed other players fault.

              You aren’t even mentioning other things. The best defense you’d have would be to talk about anyone other than Biden BUT YOU HAVENT.

              • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
                21·
                1 hour ago

                I literally said I blame every president since the Spanish-American war. Why would Biden’s continuation of Trump’s policies of Cuba be a problem for me if I didn’t also oppose Trump’s policies? You’re making no sense. Obama’s policy was a significant improvement over all other administrations but still falls significantly short. Because the Cuban people have continued to be under our collective punishment policies. If I oppose not only the policies of Biden, Trump 1, all previous presidents since we started exploiting Cuba (pro-revolution), why the fuck would you think I support Trump’s 2 policies? Please, use a crumb of critical thinking. Go ahead and search my history for Trump as see what you find.

                • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.caEnglish
                  11·
                  58 minutes ago

                  Again, for the deaf folks in the back…

                  If you have to back farther than Hoover to justify your current beliefs you are too out of touch to weigh in on current shit.

                  You clearly have shown you just aren’t up to the challenge.

                  Please by all means stay home and keep focusing on the Spanish American war. All while ignoring any current US approach, decisions, admin or otherwise that went contrary.

                  You clearly don’t get it. But since you so get it maybe you just stay home.