The New York Times published a diagnosis about it the fall of man Cuban-American Senator Bob Menéndez could pave the way for the Joe Biden administration’s foreign policyparticularly to introduce changes in its relations with Havana.
According to an opinion piece in the influential US newspaper, the MP’s resignation as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to corruption allegations against him would represent an opportunity for the White House.
“Menéndez has long been one of the most warmongering Democrats on Capitol Hill, on issues ranging from Latin America to the Middle East.” and was never afraid to oppose or criticize members of his own party on issues that interested him,” the article recalls.
The Times Awards his successor, Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, as “someone with a closer personal relationship to Biden.” and is more likely to accommodate their agenda.”
Menéndez’s positions in the Senate on U.S. policy toward Cuba are part of the story cited by the newspaper, such as when In May 2022, Biden eased some travel restrictions on Americans visiting the island, and the senator expressed his opposition.
“I am dismayed,” the Cuban-born American said in a statement, calling reports the next day that the White House had begun easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil “a strategy that is doomed to fail.”
“For Biden officials, the friendly fire from a fellow Democrat was jarring, if not surprising,” the article said.
The Times stresses that this is not the first time that Menéndez’s absence from office has led to unexpected foreign policy moves. The newspaper refers once again to Cuba, recalling that when the senator was previously indicted and tried in a trial that spanned between 2015 and 2017, the Barack Obama administration changed its historic approach to the Raúl Castro regime, the later Donald Trump, followed almost completely the opposite way.
Menéndez has been a constant problem for Biden: when the US wanted to resume the nuclear deal with Tehran in 2021 and 2022, he claimed that the president was making a very dangerous mistake; Recently, among other things, the plans for Sweden’s admission to NATO became complicated.
The Cuban-American, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, said that despite temporarily stepping down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he would continue to speak out on a range of issues.
“Unless Congress is a simple formality of an administration’s domestic and foreign policy, it has the constitutional right to act as a counterweight,” he said.
Benjamin Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, told the Times Menéndez was “a pain in the ass on several counts,” but none was worse than Obama’s attempt to restore relations with Cuba.
“Menéndez has used the presidency of this committee as a space for intimidation and revenge, to increase the costs of everything he does not like,” said Rhodes, who is not satisfied with Biden maintaining tough sanctions against the regimes of Venezuela and Venezuela Cuba did during the Trump administration.
As for Cuba, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week asked reporters to give him “a little more time.”but he pointed out that he represents an idea of ”collaboration” with Havana, which is hardly Menéndez’s philosophy.
It is therefore understood that the official press of the island regime is happy with the bad times currently ahead for the senator.
For example, Omar Rafael Garcia Lazothe diplomat from Havana who Bogota expelled from the Cuban embassy in that country in 2021 for inciting actions against “Colombian citizens and companies” and who now writes for the Arab network Al Mayadeen, He welcomed the allegations against Menéndez, whom he questioned about his “anti-communism, his racism and his extreme right-wing and reactionary vision.”
The official Radio Rebelde program “Chapeando bajito”, hosted by Arleen Rodríguez derivativethe journalist who accompanies Miguel Díaz-Canel on almost all of his trips and is part of his press team, He assured that “Karma is taking its toll on Bob Menéndez.” (…) We will see if there really is justice for those who have lived off anti-Cuban politics for so long.”