Cuba Further Distances Biden from Sanchez

What was anticipated as a trip in which Pedro Sánchez was looking for some oxygen and a chance to gain a leg up in the United States has ended up suffocating him. Because if the damage to the image and interests of our country from his crossing the pond without being received by any high official in the Biden administration was already apparent, the imprudent attitude that he demonstrated during his visit will further exacerbate the deterioration of icy relations between the White House and Moncloa. This is serious for the Spanish people, who have an indispensable and essential ally in Washington. By irresponsibly poking his finger in the eye of the U.S. government in its own house and criticizing its embargo against the the Cuban regime, Sanchez’ behavior. A short course on diplomacy before starting the journey wouldn’t have hurt our prime minister. Because, as Spain’s representative, he cannot stand in any country and censure what their leaders do without the risk of provoking a bilateral crisis.

At the same time Joe Biden was redoubling his pressure on the Castro regime, the Spaniard was criticizing the blockade in an interview on the CNN Spanish network. Sanchez made it clear that he didn’t share Washington’s strategy with respect to Havana and stressed that Cubans should find their own path toward “liberty … without interference.” As if that posture of indignant equidistance hasn’t become a lifeline for dictators in so many cases. From the entrenched situation on the island or in nearby Venezuela largely due to the inaction of the international community,the autocrats benefit while citizens suffer misery and hopelessness. Sanchismo takes a very combative stand against dead dictators like Francisco Franco and is too complacent with those who are still alive, like Nicolas Maduro or Miguel Díaz-Canel. There are paradoxes in history. Today in the United States, our prime minister is claiming that the tyranny in Cuba is the island’s internal affair, just as former U.S. secretary of state, Alexander Haig, spoke of 23-F with a cynicism typical of a realpolitik that we need to overcome.*

Unfortunately, the Spanish government doesn’t have a policy worthy of the name for Latin America, despite the influence that our country should have in the region, and not for Cuba either. And the prime minister is hamstrung by his radical leftist partners to such an extent that, as we have seen, Moncloa has refused to label the bloody Castroist regime a dictatorship. All of that discredits the government as an interlocutor with Biden, who has not hesitated to demonstrate that the Cuban question is a national policy, regardless of whether the White House is occupied by Republicans or Democrats, and who has imposed new sanctions against the top Castroist military for its campaign of harsh repression in the last few days. “This is just the beginning,” the Democrat warned. Let’s hope Sanchez’ roadshow, whether or not he attracts any investors, doesn’t wind up costing us dearly politically and diplomatically.

*Translator’s note: The author is referring to an attempted coup in Spain on Feb. 23, 1981.