Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Mate.

Joining me is Piero Grésias. He is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, author of conflicting missions, Havana, Washington, and Africa.

And Visions of Freedom, Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the struggle for Southern Africa.

Professor Glacias, welcome to pushback.

Thank you.

I wanted to have you on because you are considered a leading authority on Cuba's foreign policy.

And I think it's an overlooked part of the story right now when it comes to the ongoing

U.S. blockade of Cuba.

Cuba's going through a very difficult period right now, very tough conditions under COVID

and with major scarcity on essentials, including food.

And instead of easing the blockade, as he had promised to do,

Joe Biden is continuing the Trump policy of maintaining the blockade and imposing murderous

sanctions. And in discussions of this and discussions of what the U.S. motives are, the, you know, the fact that there's a huge right-wing exile Cuban community in Florida is a major factor.

Also, the longstanding U.S. desire to crush socialism in Cuba and prevent any sort of alternative model in the world to U.S. state capitalism

is also a very big factor.

But I wanted to ask you about Cuba's foreign policy, which I think is overlooked in the discussion

as a cause of the U.S. animus towards Cuba.

So before we get into that background,

let me just ask you your comments right now

on what Cuba is going through

and Biden's response,

which is basically to try to increase the suffering.

...