As Hurricane Irma pounded Cuba, United States President Donald J.Trump renewed trading ban

Story by Caribbean News Now

WASHINGTON, USA — In a late Friday news dump, US President Donald Trump announced the extension of the trade embargo against Cuba for another year just as Hurricane Irma was pounding the island’s north coast.

In a move some US media described as “spiteful”, the White House issued the presidential memorandum on Friday, under the Trading with the Enemy Act on Cuba, extending it until September 14, 2018.

However, since taking office, Trump has not been slow to impose, renew or extend sanctions against any country but one – Russia – and in that case his hand had to be forced by Congress by means of a veto-proof majority resolution into signing new sanctions on the Kremlin – and even then he did it reluctantly.

As regional commentator Melanius Alphonse notes, given that Russia has been systematically rebuilding relationships with Cuba since 2008, perhaps Cuban President Raul Castro should reach out to his friends in Moscow to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to intercede with his best friend Trump.

“Although Russia’s goal is to re-establish geopolitical and economic ties with the US neighbour rather than encourage a better relationship between the US and Cuba, Castro should nevertheless try to take advantage of Putin’s objective of repairing the strained relationship with Cuba,” Alphonse said.

He noted that the partnership between Cuba and the Soviet Union kept Cuba afloat throughout most of the second half of the 20th century. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Kremlin stopped providing economic support for the island. This led Cuba into the well known “special period”, which left it without access to imports, capital, or even basic necessities.

Since then, in 2009, Cuba signed a deal that allowed Russia to engage in oil exploration across the Gulf of Mexico. Russia also agreed to loan Cuba $150 million to buy construction and agriculture equipment to help rebuild struggling sectors. More recently, in 2014, Russia wrote off the majority of Cuba’s $32 billion debt to Russia. On the eve of President Obama’s visit to Cuba last year, Russia agreed to lend Cuba another $1.4 billion to help them upgrade two massive power plants.

In addition, later this year a €1.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) Russian-supported project is expected to be signed that will create an efficient, higher speed rail system that will become a central element in Cuba’s national transport infrastructure.