Cuba and Haiti must find their own way forward

Political crises erupted in two Caribbean islands this month, exposing failing governments and hungry people. Cuba and Haiti present Joe Biden’s administration and the wider international community with daunting challenges. The roots of the problems are different. In Cuba’s case, rigid central planning and stifling one-party communism are the main culprits, while Haiti is suffering the opposite problem: a slide towards anarchy.

Both states have depended heavily on donors for much of their recent history, which has impeded reform. In Cuba, the largesse of the Soviet Union gave way to the generosity of Hugo Chávez’s now-bankrupt Venezuelan socialist petrostate. Haiti became in essence an international protectorate earlier this century, with United Nations peacekeepers guaranteeing security and billions of dollars of aid propping up the country.

Cubans and Haitians are restive because of their governments’ failure to guarantee decent incomes and adequate food supplies. Coronavirus has exacerbated the problems: Haiti has only just received a first delivery of vaccines, making the poorest country in the Americas also the last to receive them. Cuba’s homegrown vaccines, while trumpeted by the government, have not been deployed fast enough to avoid a surge in infections. 

The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7 risks making Haiti’s problems worse. Moïse had steadily hollowed out Haiti’s institutions and was accused of corruption and links to gangs but his sudden demise leaves a dangerous vacuum.

Cuba’s apparently spontaneous wave of protest erupted four days later, posing a rare challenge to an ossified government lacking the charismatic — and feared — leadership of the Castro brothers. The authorities said one person was killed and human rights groups speak of around 200 arrests, but so far serious bloodshed seems to have been avoided.

What can the international community do? Foreign intervention has a dubious history in Haiti and Cuba. The 13-year, $7bn UN mission to Haiti ended badly amid allegations of sexual abuse and spreading a cholera epidemic. The 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, when a CIA-backed invasion failed to topple the Castros, was the most notorious example in Cuba.

The Biden administration is treading warily, mindful of powerful domestic political lobbies and past errors. Its emphasis on empowering Cubans and Haitians is wise. Yet this must not become an excuse for inaction.

Biden’s suggestion this week that he might send vaccines to Cuba if they could be administered by an international organisation offers a ray of hope. He should go further and drop restrictions on remittances and flights which complicate efforts by Cuban-Americans to feed their relatives. Cuba policy has for too long been held hostage to a disproportionately powerful congressional lobby. Ending the embargo now, when Havana has arrested hundreds of protesters and cut internet access, would send the wrong signal, but the measure’s worst humanitarian consequences should be alleviated.

In Haiti, emergency food and medical assistance would help, as well as a recognition that free elections this year, a previous target of Washington’s, are unrealistic. Haitians need to be encouraged to find a consensus interim government which can hold credible elections. The answer in Cuba is not so different: at some point a regime which has run out of ideas needs to engage with its own people in an honest search for peaceful change. But in both countries, foreign intervention should be firmly ruled out.