A New Day for the United States and Cuba

The Obama Administration’s historic policy changes towards Cuba will be good for the US, the Cuban people and for the hemisphere.  

For the Cuban government, this rapprochement is an acknowledgement of their own need to change and open up to their long standing enemy and to the rest of the world.   The change inside Cuba that got us to this point was a far more difficult journey than what our nation has and will have continue to travel.   In addition to the prisoner exchanges today, Cuba announced that it would release political prisoners, open up to more international institutions, give its citizens greater access to the Internet and allow higher levels of travel and remittances to the country.   While our own President took a courageous step today, the steps taken by the Cuban regime were far greater and more significant, amounting to a renunciation of the central organizing principle of their state which has guided them for over fifty years.  They are in essence throwing in the towel.  This was no easy thing particularly for a leader named Castro. 

For the United States, rapprochement with Cuba, along with our recent steps to reform our immigration system, will allow far greater American engagement in the Americas.   As our own population today is more than 15% of Latin American descent, and expected to climb to more than 30% in decades to come, further political and economic integration with Latin America is a natural evolution of who America is becoming.   These recent steps by President Obama can usher in a new and far more constructive period of hemispheric relations, something that is not just good for economically and geopolitically, but will be demanded by our growing domestic Hispanic population. 

It is a bit hard to understand the defense of the status quo by many Republicans.   Current policy clearly hasn’t worked, while harming American interests in the region.  The new path is resorting to a patient strategy of economic and political engagement that has been the bi-partisan strategic cornerstone of US foreign policy since the end of WWII.  So this is no radical path.  

Current Cuba policy has also been a political failure for the Republican Party.  The Cuban American community in Florida has gone from being an overwhelmingly Republican voting block to one which is now marginally Democratic.   This shift has also helped make Democrat a “lean blue” state at the Presidential level.   Given that neither the policy nor the politics of the current Cuba policy has worked, it is just hard to see why so many Republicans are defending it. 

At NDN, we have worked alongside many other leaders and organizations to bring about these historic changes.   In 2004, we ran the first ever Spanish language campaign in Miami challenging the Republicans on their failed Cuba policy.   We helped develop the policy the Obama Administration adopted in 2009 which relaxed some restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba for Cuban Americans.  This policy of letting Cuban Americans take the lead in establishing better ties has helped create the political space in Florida allowing these new more ambitious steps.  And of course, our good friend and former NDN, Joe Garcia was elected to Congress as a Cuban Democrat in 2012.   While Joe lost in November, he is even a more powerful voice for change than ever before. 

Taking bold steps so clearly in the national interest of the United States is what we expect from our Presidents.   We thank you for your courage and vision, for giving the people of Cuba and the region a chance to chart a better course.  And to our members how have partnered and funded our work that has helped bring about these critical changes we say thank you.   We have done a lot of good here, together.

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