For over 50 years, constant tension and the brink of nuclear war characterized relations between the United States and Cuba. However, new agreements between the two countries signal the thawing of these icy Cold War hostilities.
On December 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would restore diplomatic ties with Cuba. This announcement came after 18 months of secret discussions between President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, mediated by Pope Francis. The U.S will facilitate commerce with Cuba and will allow U.S citizens to use American debit and credit cards in Cuba. American businesses will be permitted to sell goods that will allow Cubans to communicate with the U.S and other countries. Also, the U.S plans to set up an embassy in Havana, Cuba’s capital.
President Obama has asked Secretary of State John Kerry to reevaluate Cuba’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism. These policies went into effect on January 16, 2015. These policy changes signify great progress in the renewal of U.S-Cuba relations over recent years.
When President Obama started his first term in 2009, he lifted travel restrictions for those who have relatives in Cuba, allowed American telecommunication companies to implement more satellite and cellular services in the nation, and permitted travel into Cuba for religious and educational purposes. However, feelings of animosity again resurfaced when U.S Agency for International Development subcontractor Alan Gross was arrested in 2009 in Cuba and sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing Cubans with communication equipment and access to the Internet.
In Obama and Castro’s agreement of 2014, Gross was released and returned to the U.S for humanitarian reasons. Cuba also released fifty three political prisoners. Additionally, the Cuban government released an American intelligence agent in exchange for three of the “Cuban Five,” spies that were arrested in 1998 and convicted of espionage in 2001. Despite all of this, the economic embargo imposed on Cuba still remains in effect to this day and can be lifted only by Congress.
Although many Americans and Cubans are supportive of these new policy changes, others are not. Cuba has an authoritarian government under the power of Raúl Castro. It is also a communist country, and the Communist Party is the only recognized party in the nation.
According to the U.S Department of State, human rights abuses committed by the Cuban government included “the use of government abuses, extrajudicial physical violence, intimidation, mobs, harassment, and detentions to prevent free expression and peaceful assembly.” Because of these human rights violations, some believe that these changes in U.S-Cuba relations will not benefit Cubans much. For example, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez (D) states, “it is a fallacy that Cuba will reform just because the American president believes that if he extends his hand in peace, that the Castro brothers suddenly will unclench their fists.”
Brandon Lu ‘18 has ideas on both viewpoints. Lu remarks, “These new policies are pretty good, but Cuba still has a dictatorship. The US should return Guantanamo Bay.” The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba is under American control, and Cuba has long called for its return.
Similarly, Shivani Pillalamarri ’17 states that “Honestly, reestablishing and securing American-Cuban relations is great and seems to be having a positive effect so far. I do believe that these policy changes will have a bright effect and will hopefully aid in stopping the abuse of governmental power.”
Relations between the U.S and Cuba were not always so contentious. During the 1920s through the 1950s, prior to the Cuban revolution, Cuba was a hotspot for tourism, and its sugar industry thrived. American celebrities, such as singer Frank Sinatra and author Ernest Hemingway, paid trips to Havana. This all changed after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
While wealthy Cubans lived lavishly, there were many who suffered from poverty. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro successfully overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista. In fact, the U.S recognized this shift in power; Castro visited Washington D.C. and unofficially met with Vice President Richard Nixon just three months after he came into power. However, by 1960, Cuba had nationalized more than $1 billion of U.S assets on the island. It was then that the U.S first placed economic sanctions on Cuba.
In 1962, after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, President John F. Kennedy made the Cuban embargo official. This embargo is unlikely to be revoked anytime soon because of Congress’s split views on lifting it. Isabel DiPalo ’18 comments, “I do hope and believe that in my lifetime the Cuban embargo will be lifted, but I don’t think it’s going to happen for a long time.”
There is optimism amongst the people of both the US and Cuba that these new agreements will pave the way for better relations and eventually put an end to the long-standing embargo, but, ultimately, nothing is certain. The only thing that is known for sure is that history is being written before the eyes of America, Cuba, and the whole world.