Change is coming to Cuba

Change is coming to Cuba
MARCH 19, 2016

WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA travels to Cuba on Sunday with his family, he is
making a vital foreign policy statement, and not just about the small
island off the tip of Florida. The bigger principle at play is the value
of diplomatic engagement over isolation, cooperation versus Cold War
thinking. The visit — the first time a sitting American president has
been to Cuba in almost 90 years — is a manifestation of the hope that
democratic ideals can spread over time once normalized relations are
established.

Obama will not only be meeting with President Raul Castro, but also with
middle-class Cubans, entrepreneurs, and political dissidents, a symbolic
yet reassuring move on behalf of democracy and fairness. Already the
opening of relations is bearing fruit, with new businesses sprouting and
a flourishing tourism industry taking root.


The Obama administration has relaxed travel restrictions, making it
easier for Americans to visit Cuba, and has allowed Cubans to open US
bank accounts. Nonstop flights between the two nations have been
restored and for the first time in 50 years direct mail has been
reestablished.

Yet there's more work to do. The trade embargo still stands as a major
obstacle, a politically charged issue that only Congress can fix.
Entrepreneurial success in areas like the tourism industry and
commercial development, along with more political tolerance in Cuba,
will go a long way toward helping to lift the embargo.

Indeed, the ball soon will be in Cuba's court, and its political
posture, especially toward dissidents, will be an important element in
maintaining the momentum. Critics of Obama's new policy of rapprochement
contend he didn't ask enough concessions from Cuba in return, giving the
dictatorship the better end of the deal. But isolating Cuba has proved
to be a failed endeavor. It was supposed to cripple the Castro regime
and undermine the Cuban economy but it has instead created a useless
artifact from the Cold War. The embargo has been effectively used by the
Cuban government to maintain a self-serving narrative: blame the US for
everything. It was time to try something different and Obama delivered
boldly. To allow business to flow, slowly but surely, is the best bet
for bringing about positive change in Cuba.

"Economic exchange can be a potent political force," said Richard
Feinberg, a former senior Clinton administration official and expert on
Cuban economic reform, at a recent hearing before Congress on the
opportunities of trade with Cuba. "This makes more likely the
advancement of fundamental US interests: the peaceful transition to a
more pluralistic and prosperous Cuba, to a Cuba more open to the world,
where the new normal is the free flow of goods, services, capital, and
ideas."

Cubans on the island seem to agree, and are hoping that the renewed
relations won't be dissolved by a new administration. Indeed, the next
president would be wise to embrace Cuba, which, if Obama is right, will
evolve into a good neighbor rather than a thorn in the side.

Source: Obama to Cuba: The power of engagement - The Boston Globe -
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/03/19/obama-cuba-the-power-engagement/C1dFJzBIBcExzLkWMBjqgJ/story.html