On June 16, as had been announced, Donald Trump visited Miami and gave a speech before an audience made up of the worst of the Cuban exile population, who had gathered in the Manuel Artime Theatre to hear about the new measures to be imposed against Cuba.

It is interesting to analyze the context in which the act was developed and its concrete results.

Trump, following the model of every US presidential discourse, had someone to write it for him and this person made sure to underline some names and situations that, in addition to clumsiness, showed up Trump’s lack of knowledge on Cuba.

Among the things that the president read, he called the mercenaries of the 2506 Brigade “heroic”, when in fact they had surrendered in less than 72 hours.

The speech touched on an amalgam of facts that instead of benefitting the United States, denigrate them, such as the Peter Pan Operation, organized by the CIA and repudiated by the majority of those forced to come the United States as a result.

He spoke of the disappearance of persons, of assassinations by the police, which recall the time of Batista, the dictator who, thanks to the support of the United States, had ill-governed Cuba until the Revolution triumphed.

He spoke of persons detained when they went to pray in temples and churches. Of the non-existence of freedoms or respect for human rights. Of the danger that Cuba might have nuclear weapons, something that refers to the 1960s of the last century, and that Cuba had sent arms to Korea, which made us wonder whether Mr. Trump knows where Korea is.

It is obvious that this was not so much a speech in Miami, but rather a speech for Miami, full of demagoguery, lies and distortions that were pleasing to the ears of those who came to the theatre to see blood flow.

A reference to Venezuela could not be lacking in this stream of nonsense, and how Cuba has helped that country to carry out its plans against its people.

According to Trump, the United States are the champions of freedom, democracy, the country where there are no violations of human rights, where there are no political prisoners and whose armed forces helped other peoples in the world to remain free.

Their actions against Cuba would work in this sense, to free the Cuban people and let the exiles return to their homes, in addition to reclaiming what were their properties, now with new owners, the Cuban people.

All this he spoke of as if it were true, or at least he seemed to be convinced of what he said, although he might have been fooled, which would imply that it is easy to deceive, as a fool, the President of the United States.

But the main thing was not in the rhetoric, the demagoguery and the phrases uttered so that some would feel happy. Many kisses, embraces, handshakes, applauses, pointing out supposed “heroes” who were in the audience, a feather gift for some of them, all this was part of the show.

The essence was in the executive order that he signed and whether it really implied a change in the relations between Cuba and the United States, according to the “agreements” brought about under the Obama administration.

We can say that there are some changes, some new things, but that on many issues nothing was mentioned. According to the communiqué dated June 16 from the Press Office of the White House on the Executive order, we have the following:

Unless another order is signed tomorrow, the trips to Cuba of persons of Cuban origin continue as now, and the same thing can be said of remittances and travel to the United States to visit family and for other motives, all well ordered through visas.

On airlines that go to Cuba from the United States and transatlantic tourist flights, nothing new.

With respect to the accommodation of US citizens in Cuba, it was ordered that this should not take place in establishments or hotels under the direction of the Grupo de Administración Empresarial, since this is considered to be linked to the Cuban armed forces.

The order ratifies what has long been established, that US citizens may not travel to Cuba for tourism. Visitors to the academic, artistic and other sectors must travel in groups, not individually as was authorized by Obama.

As a policy change, within the indications emitted by Trump, there is an increase of trade with the private sector. Here it is not clear which private sector is referred to, but in Cuban agriculture we have a strong private sector and the Secretary of Agriculture, named by Trump, supports trade with this sector.

The policy of the blockade on Cuba is ratified and the initiatives of the United Nations and other International Organizations to end the blockade are opposed. In September we shall see how the resolution against the Blockade in the United Nations will be voted.

It is said that the improvement of relations between Cuba and the United States will depend on the action of the Cuban government increasing the fulfilment of its laws, the way of life of the people, respect for human rights and an increase in political, economic and religious freedoms. All of which will be judged by the United States.

According to the order, it is the Department of Trade and the Treasury that will establish the corresponding regulations over the coming thirty days, in order to put it into operation. This process, according to the experts, might actually last several months, during which the present regulations will continue to function.

The above is what was mentioned in the executive order. What was not mentioned will remain the same for the moment.

As can be seen, these regulations affect US citizens, determining what they can or cannot do.

The policy change towards Cuba has been reduced to a change of what “the country of freedom” allows its citizens to undertake with respect to Cuba.

It was evident that this activity was not directed at Cuba or the Cubans, but rather to the US citizens of Cuban origin who were present. Not once was the name of Martí, Maceo, nor any of our national heroes mentioned. The crowd shouted U S A...U S A...U S A and at the end, an emulator of Ferruccio Burgos interpreted the Anthem of the United States on a solo violin.

This was a speech for Miami. It could not have been made in another part of the world. I suspect that Trump was making fun of those present.

They are lost.

16/06/2017

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)

Dr. Néstor García Iturbe

Grupo El Heraldo