What Cuba deal says to Latin America
"I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result," President Barack Obama pronounced Wednesday. "Moreover, it does not serve America's interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse." And with these words, Obama introduced a long-absent element of lucidity into U.S. policy approaches to Cuba.
On the Cuban side, President Raúl Castro also welcomed the renewal of dialogue and committed his government to work with the United States to resolve "profound differences" on a host of issues.
The implications of the action go far beyond Obama abandoning an utterly anomalous policy, one without internal logic, one that was both counterproductive and contradictory -- a policy in fact that contributed to the very conditions it professed to abhor.… Seguir leyendo »