Lifting the Cuba Embargo: A Possibility?

Momentum for more open relations with the Cuban government is building, especially from one of the leading Cuban-American groups that pushed for the embargo nearly half a decade ago.

According to the New York Times, the Cuban American National Foundation sent the Obama Administration a new report called “A Break from the Past” that essentially would “chart a new direction for U.S-Cuban Policy.”

The Foundation says their new direction focuses less on Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro and instead turns the attention to the Cuban people.

“For 50 years we have been trying to change the Cuban government, the Cuban regime,” said the foundation’s president, Francisco J. Hernandez, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 to the New York Times. “At the present time, what we have to do is change the emphasis to the Cuban people — because they are going to be the ones who change things in Cuba.”

The new proposal does not call for an end to the embargo. Instead, it recommends infusing the island with American dollars for Cuban families, pro-democracy groups, and providing resources for economic growth. The Obama administration has already said it will allow Cuban-Americans to send more money to the island.

Also, according to the report, the Foundation recommends allowing more travel to the island for cultural, academic or humanitarian purposes. This would return to the pre-George W.Bush era, before his administration tightened limits to travel on the island.

In fact, the $410 billion dollar budget Obama signed in March makes it easier for Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba and send money to family members on the island. It could also pave the way to allow the sale of agricultural and medicinal products to Cuba.

The Foundation’s new report comes just days after a group of lawmakers from the Congressional Black caucus visited the island and met with Fidel Castro.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California frankly said: “It’s time to talk to Cuba,” after her trip, according to CNN.

“Our purpose was to see if there were preconditions on the Cuban side. We heard that there were no preconditions,” Lee said Wednesday. “And, in fact, we wanted to find out if they were interested. We have to remember that every country in Latin America, 15 countries, have normal relations with Cuba…We’re the country which is isolated,” she went on to say.

But not everyone is warming to the idea of more open relations with the communist country.
Cuban-Americans in Congress, especially, are voicing their concern.

“Having tourists on Cuban beaches is not going to achieve democratic change in Cuba,” said Florida Sen. Mel Martinez to CNN. Sen. Martinez was born in Cuba and has been a vocal proponent of the embargo and tough restrictions on Cuba.
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat and Cuban-American, said the Cuban government is “pure and simple a brutal dictatorship…the average Cuban lives on an income of less than a dollar a day,” he said to CNN.

And even more vocal and united, a pair of Republican congressman ripped the Congressional Black Caucus for ignoring what they call a “myriad of human rights abuses”.
Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey and Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, do not want the Obama administration to ease the trade embargo or travel restrictions just yet.

Sources: New York Times, CNN

Cuba Leader Raul Castro (UPI)