A lot of things are called historic, but President Obama’s trip to Cuba truly is. Never mind that Cuba’s economy is smaller than the District of Columbia's, or that the days of it posing a security threat are long over. Cuba is a country of immense symbolic importance for Americans, its image freighted with memories of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the 1962 missile crisis, and the ongoing exodus of Cubans seeking a better life in America.
For nearly 60 years, its government has done two things exceptionally well: repress its own people and make a mockery of U.S. efforts to compel change through economic sanctions.
And that's what makes Obama's trip so important. He cannot unilaterally lift sanctions embedded in a number of laws dating to the early 1960s. But he has made some much needed policy adjustments. Most recently, he loosened restrictions on banking and travel. This trip will provide momentum to make these changes stick and to make further reforms inevitable.
The mere presence of a U.S. president in Havana is startling, refreshing, novel. No president has been there since Calvin Coolidge in 1928, a time when presidents visited few countries and went by battleship if they did. For those and other reasons, this visit will garner far more attention than a typical foray.
During his three-day visit, which began Sunday, Obama will meet with Cuban leaders and entrepreneurs. He'll make the case that the United States and Cuba will get more out of working together than resenting each other from afar.
Without question, U.S. economic sanctions have been an exercise in frustration. They have not prompted a popular uprising or compelled the Cuban regime to open up. If anything, they have been counterproductive, allowing the Castro regime to blame its woeful economic performance on vindictive U.S. policies, rather than on its failed communist ideology.
Obama’s approach is more promising, as closer economic ties will embolden a burgeoning private sector and give the United States more leverage to press for change in Cuba's abysmal human-rights record. As the two economies become more intertwined, the Cuban government itself will become reliant on its wealthy partner. Its hotels and state-run industries will likely derive too much revenue from the USA to contemplate a pullback.
Cuban policewomen remove dissidents in Havana on March 20, 2016.
Critics of the improving relations have a point when they say that the U.S. should demand more from the Cuban government. The Castro regime continues to suppress dissent and no doubt is hoping to transition to Chinese-style authoritarian capitalism. Just hours before Obama arrived on Sunday, dozens of dissidents known as the Ladies in White were arrested.
The president should use his time on the island to speak out on behalf of greater political and economic freedom for the Cuban people. No, sweeping change won't come from a single presidential visit or speech. In fact, there’s a chance it won’t come at all. But after 55 years of unsuccessful U.S. efforts to isolate or ignore Cuba, Obama is right to try a new approach.
Source
USA Today
No comments