The sin eaters return

By: Pedro Corzo - 01/01/2025

It is not new for American politicians and officials to believe themselves responsible for all the ills suffered by their neighbors, as can be seen in a recent letter that former diplomats and National Security officials addressed to President Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, in relation to Cuba.

The United States is very prone to producing “sin eaters” – people who, through rituals, free recently deceased or near-death individuals from their sins. Perhaps the most conspicuous of these sin eaters is President Barack Obama, who reestablished relations with the Cuban tyranny without demanding changes on the Island.

In my opinion, these individuals missed the target because the letter should have been addressed to the dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel, since they acknowledge in the letter to the Executive of their country that it is the provisions of the Cuban Government itself that have been "insufficient and incoherent political reforms that have largely caused this crisis." However, the sin-eater appears when they claim to believe that "the current policy of the United States has exacerbated the difficulties of Cubans."

There are people who have never stopped blaming the United States for the failures and errors of Cuban totalitarianism, claiming that the embargo and Washington's policies forced Fidel Castro to be hostile towards this country, overlooking the fact that the Cuban system has been in existence for 66 years with political prisoners and a people plunged into misery due to the failed policies of the regime and not because of real or supposed foreign aggressions.

Furthermore, I remember reading opinions from compatriots who, in the context of demands that the United States lift the embargo and reestablish relations with Havana, blamed the opposition and Washington for having led Fidel Castro to ally himself with the Soviet Union, overlooking the fact that before the triumph of the insurrection, on June 5, 1958, he wrote to Celia Sánchez: “When I saw the rockets they fired at Mario’s house, I swore to myself that the Americans are going to pay dearly for what they are doing. When this war is over, a much longer and bigger war will begin for me: the war that I am going to wage against them. I realize that this is going to be my true destiny. Fidel.”

These officials are not short on their requests; they also request that Cuba be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, ignoring the fact that the three leaders that the Island has had in these more than six and a half decades have systematically supported violent groups that have tried to destroy American democracies, including this country.

Finally, they are discreetly asking the White House to be the savior of tyranny by increasing humanitarian aid and simplifying the rules for Cuban citizens to access the American financial system.

These individuals are well informed about the critical situation of Cubans, but they apparently prefer to ignore who is responsible for the situation they describe by saying: “The country's energy grid is failing, child malnutrition is on the rise, basic services are deteriorating and the majority of Cubans have lost hope, precipitating the largest exodus of migrants from Cuba in its history.”

Many of the signatories of this document are former officials of Barack Obama's administration, such as former ambassador to Cuba Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who denies that the Obama-era thawing policy was a failure, without presenting evidence that it was successful, or as Vice President Harris said in 2020 when she said that the embargo policy only helps those in favor of confrontation, ignoring the fact that the only ones who have promoted confrontation are Cuba's rulers, from the Castro brothers to the designated dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Gentlemen, please do not play the game of the enemies of democracy, unless some of the writers are enemies. A license that allows US citizens to invest in Cuban companies will not change the situation of Cubans for the better, since the Spanish and Canadians have made large investments in Cuba without the island context prospering. Finally, the Cuban State under Castro's totalitarianism was failing long before some of you voted for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

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