Ambassador Otto J. Reich, president of the Center for a Free Cuba, on January 31, 2020 in his OpEd, "Trump administration can cripple both Cuba and Venezuela at the same time" in The Miami Herald offers three concrete steps the White House can take to further leverage the Castro regime to get out of Venezuela:
First, Cuba should be returned to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Its ongoing cooperation with, and provision of safe haven to, narco-terrorist organizations such as Colombia’s FARC and ELN, refusal to extradite most-wanted American criminals and cooperation with other terrorist nations such as Iran, Syria and North Korea, justifies this measure. Restoring the Castro regime to its rightful place as a state-sponsor of terrorism carries with it sanctions that reinforce existing U.S. policy, while bolstering the stigma of trading with a terrorist country will deter foreign investment.
Second, the Trump administration can actively expose the abusive nature of the Castro regime’s lucrative overseas medical “missions.” Cuban defectors have testified that the program is nothing but a money-making scheme operating under the cover of humanitarianism. Today, the money earned by the regime from this scheme — approximately $10 billion annually — is by far its largest source of hard currency.
The administration can strike a blow for human rights and cut into the regime’s revenue stream, by restoring the pre-Obama program offering refuge to Cuban medical personnel. The administration should also pressure the Pan American Health Organization to reveal the details of its lucrative role in brokering a scheme to send Cuban doctors to Brazil, and to compensate Cubans for the abuses they endured while serving in Brazil. President Trump should exercise his authority under the International Organization Immunities Act to revoke PAHO’s claimed immunity for its role in the scheme. This would expose more details of Cuba’s nefarious practice and put other countries on official notice that the enterprise constitutes human trafficking and violates international law.Third, the United States should curtail another immoral revenue source for the Castro regime: deal-making with foreign corporations. One example: The Obama administration allowed Cuba to renew an expired trademark registration for the confiscated Havana Club rum. The Trump administration should reverse that action and demonstrate to unscrupulous foreign companies that there are grave risks to economic deals with a regime that has stolen billions of dollars in properties from Americans and Cubans, and thus stop dishonestly enriching the Cuban government.
Ambassador Reich's recommendations will provide the United States with additional bargaining chips to restore democracy to both Venezuela and Cuba. Below is the entire article by the Center for a Free Cuba's president.
The Miami Herald, January 31, 2020
Trump administration can cripple both Cuba and Venezuela at the same time | Opinion
January 31, 2020
Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, left, and Cuba’s Raul Castro in Havana, in 2017. Yamil Lage Getty Images
One year after opposition leader Juan Guaidó assumed the interim presidency of Venezuela, the country remains in crisis. Autocrat Nicolás Maduro and his accomplices repeatedly have demonstrated they will use any and all means — including deadly force — to prevent a transition to democracy.
Because of assistance from undemocratic foreign governments, Maduro has become more headstrong. To help Venezuela’s democrats, Maduro’s external sources of support must be diminished.
As a U.S. official recently said publicly, “Maduro remains in power only because of the support he receives from Cuba and Russia. The United States will cut off Cuba’s remaining sources of revenue in response to its intervention in Venezuela.”
No country has more at stake in keeping the Maduro regime in power than Cuba. The island depends on Venezuelan oil to keep its moribund economy from fully collapsing. To prop up Maduro, Raul Castro has sent thousands of military and security operatives to help maintain control.
Since the Trump administration already has imposed myriad sanctions on Venezuela, the best way to increase pressure on the Maduro regime is to hold its Cuban patrons accountable for their destructive role in Venezuela. While the U.S. government has taken steps to end the Obama administration’s appeasement of the Castro regime, there is more that can be done.
First, Cuba should be returned to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Its ongoing cooperation with, and provision of safe haven to, narco-terrorist organizations such as Colombia’s FARC’s and ELN, refusal to extradite most-wanted American criminals and cooperation with other terrorist nations such as Iran, Syria and North Korea, justifies this measure. Restoring the Castro regime to its rightful place as a state-sponsor of terrorism carries with it sanctions that reinforce existing U.S. policy, while bolstering the stigma of trading with a terrorist country will deter foreign investment.
Second, the Trump administration can actively expose the abusive nature of the Castro regime’s lucrative overseas medical “missions.” Cuban defectors have testified that the program is nothing but a money-making scheme operating under the cover of humanitarianism. Today, the money earned by the regime from this scheme — approximately $10 billion annually — is by far its largest source of hard currency.
The administration can strike a blow for human rights and cut into the regime’s revenue stream, by restoring the pre-Obama program offering refuge to Cuban medical personnel. The administration should also pressure the Pan American Health Organization to reveal the details of its lucrative role in brokering a scheme to send Cuban doctors to Brazil, and to compensate Cubans for the abuses they endured while serving in Brazil. President Trump should exercise his authority under the International Organization Immunities Act to revoke PAHO’s claimed immunity for its role in the scheme. This would expose more details of Cuba’s nefarious practice and put other countries on official notice that the enterprise constitutes human trafficking and violates international law.
Third, the United States should curtail another immoral revenue source for the Castro regime: deal-making with foreign corporations. One example: The Obama administration allowed Cuba to renew an expired trademark registration for the confiscated Havana Club rum. The Trump administration should reverse that action and demonstrate to unscrupulous foreign companies that there are grave risks to economic deals with a regime that has stolen billions of dollars in properties from Americans and Cubans, and thus stop dishonestly enriching the Cuban government.
By subjecting the Castro regime to moral, as well as financial, pressure, the United States will hasten the day that Cubans and Venezuelans can enjoy the freedoms for which they have struggled for 60 and 20 years, respectively. The two dictatorships depend on one another.
Maduro has been exposed as an illegitimate despot presiding over a failed and repressive state that has caused the biggest refugee crisis in the history of the Western Hemisphere. If the Trump administration now moves decisively, two long-lasting hemispheric dictatorships can come to an overdue end.
Otto J. Reich is a former US Ambassador to Venezuela and Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. He currently serves as an advisor to business and government leaders throughout the US and Latin America.
Ambassador Otto J. Reich, president Center for a Free Cuba
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article239823088.html