Feb. 28, 2009

Multimedia Narrated slideshow: Afro-Cubans Comments and Views What's up with the former Cuban leader? Listen here for insight from Daniel Erikson, author of "The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution." Read Transcript Should the U.S. continue the Cuba embargo? Play to hear the views of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican. Read Transcript What's behind the thorny relationship between the U.S. and Cuba? Here's an overview from Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow and Director, Cuba Program, Center for International Policy Read Transcript Further Reading U.S. State Dept. Cuba Missile Crisis (pdf) Missile Crisis Photos UN on Afro-Cubans (pdf) Afro-Cubans (pdf)

US, Cuba poised for change?

New leadership opens window of opportunity

By JoAnne Allen
AU Cohort11/Digital Storytelling

Are Washington and Havana ready for engagement?

Change in leadership in both capitals has prompted a lot of talk about a window of opportunity
for Cuba and the United States to move toward normal relations after a half century of political
enmity. It also has fueled speculation about what will happen next.

U.S. President Barack Obama, 47, raised hopes for improved relations with the communist-ruled Caribbean island by saying that he is open to dialogue with Cuban leaders, in a sharp reversal
from the hardline policy of his predecessor George W. Bush.

"We really have the first U.S. president in recent memory who has not had his political or policy
views shaped by the Cold War," said Daniel Erikson, director of the Inter-American Dialogue's
Cuba Program. "He's really a post Cold War-president. So that, I think, provides him with the
possibility of looking anew at the U.S.-Cuba relationship, perhaps trying to make this a more
modern relationship."

Relations between the United States and Cuba have been chilly for nearly 50 years, since Fidel
Castro seized control of the Caribbean island in 1959. Younger brother Raul Castro, 78, formally
replaced him as president in 2008. An ailing Fidel Castro, 82, has been off the public stage since
July 2006, although he continues to meet privately with foreign leaders and writes a column that is published on the Internet.

Cuban flag in center of Santiago (Miami Herald/MCT)

Cuba experts and some U.S. lawmakers agree that Obama is positioned
to make significant changes in how Washington deals with Havana.
And there are a growing number of suggestions on how the new
president should proceed.

A Brookings Institution panel is urging Obama to ease U.S. restrictions
on Cuba to encourage democratic change without waiting for Havana
to make reforms first.

Carlos Pascual, vice president of the Washington think tank, said the combination of a new Democratic administration in the United States
and the installation of Raul Castro created "a unique opportunity" to
improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

The organization's U.S. Policy Toward a Cuba in Transition panel stopped short of calling for an
outright end to the 47-year-old U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, instead recommending steps to
ease restrictions on travel and trade.

Washington imposed the embargo after Fidel Castro nationalized American-owned
properties and declared Cuba a socialist state. The United States broke diplomatic relations with
Havana as Cuba became a close Cold War ally of the former Soviet Union. The Missile Crisis of
1962, when Moscow began building missiles on the island, was the closest the world has ever
come to nuclear war.

Obama does not have the power to lift the embargo -- that would have to be done through an act
of Congress. But the president can immediately change some policies with executive orders.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born south Florida Republican, said she believes Obama will
make good on a campaign pledge to lift restrictions on family travel and on the amount of money
that family members can send to Cuba. She also said she thinks Obama will be more liberal in granting
visas to academics and artists.