US Blockade against Cuba, a political design that will endure

Modifying US policy towards Cuba is a promise of President-elect Joe Biden, but he will have limited powers against the blockade and will have to face legislation designed to last, doctor in legal sciences Seida Barrera explained.

Barrera emphasized that the core of the hostile policy against Cuba is made up of several laws, such as the Torricelli and Helms-Burton laws, which only the US Congress can eliminate.

According to the expert, back in 1959 Washington considered that a socialist system could threaten its position of power in the region, so it took measures to eliminate this threat: the blockade of Cuba began legally in 1962, with proclamation 3447 of then-president John F. Kennedy.

'The president does not have the powers to order (the blockade's) repeal, however, he can suppress orders, proclamations, notifications and determinations of the executive related to it,' the expert said.

In addition, he has the power to act on federal agencies and departments under his command, with the most recurrent in this regard being those of the Treasury, State and Justice.

Barrera, who is also a specialist from the Center for Hemispheric Studies and the United States, stressed that the options to repeal the provisions of the blockade could take years given the complexities of the congressional legislative mechanism.

'It was designed in that way, taking advantage of the fact that accumulation is an inherent phenomenon in that system, therefore, you remove one obstacle and there are several more left.'