Cuba still receives about fifty-five thousand barrels per day of oil from Venezuela at subsidized prices in exchange for the services of Cuba medical personnel-oil that is essential for the economy in the midst of Cuba's current recession due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Trump administration's economic sanctions.
Cuba can play a constructive role in Venezuela under the right conditions.
Cuba supported the 1987 Esquipulas peace agreement in Central America, which ended conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
In partnership with Norway, Cuba helped mediate the peace accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was negotiated in Havana in 2016.
Washington's ongoing sanctions on Cuba are an enormous obstacle, both because they exacerbate Cuba's dependence on cheap Venezuelan oil and because they are a disincentive for Cuba to cooperate with Washington on anything.
If it makes sense for Biden to reduce sanctions on Venezuela as an incentive for Maduro to negotiate with the opposition, then it makes just as much sense for him to reverse Trump's sanctions on Cuba in order to gain Havana's cooperation in the Venezuelan peace process.
William M. LeoGrande is a professor of government at American University in Washington, DC, and co-author with Peter Kornbluh of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/road-peace-venezuela-goes-through-havana-189557
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