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Cuba

Circumstances, politics and the pope lead to a long-sought return to sanity

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro, announced that the two countries would restore diplomatic ties and effectively normalize relations. It was a surprising, but welcome, bit of sanity.

For the Cuban regime, it appears to have been an unavoidable imperative. On Obama’s part, however, it was brilliant and timely. That it also came with the blessing of – and perhaps at the urging of – Pope Francis adds a certain luster. This is a win for both the Cuban people and for the United States.

For decades, the only real questions concerning Cuba have been what comes after Castro and what influence can the United States have on that transition. And in that sense, Castro still means Fidel. Raúl is not a cipher; he has been a major figure in the regime since the beginning. But at this point, he is a place holder, continuing his brother’s reign until history sorts out the next step.

But with its embargo – instituted more than 50 years ago and tightened in 1996 – the United States managed only to hurt the Cuban people economically and eliminate any American influence from Cuban affairs. And it never accomplished its goal.

The United States never isolated Cuba; it cut itself off from the island. Visitors to Cuba (including two members of the Herald’s editorial board) see plenty of non-U.S. airliners, cruise ships and tourists. It has only been Americans that are lacking.

Of course, their dollars have been missing, as well. So, too, have been U.S. agricultural products, technology and investments. Communism inevitably leads to an economic train wreck, but the U.S. embargo worsened matters for the Cuban people – without bringing down the Castro regime.

Fidel allied himself with the Soviet Union. And in exchange for what amounted to an aircraft carrier and listening post off the coast of Florida, the Soviets propped up his failing economy for years.

Cuba has had a similar relationship in recent years with Venezuela. Hugo Chávez, the late Venezuelan dictator, bolstered the island’s continually distressed economy with money from Venezuela’s oil industry while using Cuban help to try to spread his version of Marxism around South America.

With the price of oil in free fall, however, that, too, is a thing of the past. One interpretation holds that with no one else to lean on, the Castro regime had nowhere to turn but north.

From a Cuban perspective, it not only makes sense, it has a sense of inevitability about it. As loathe as they are to match their rhetoric to reality, both Fidel and Raúl have long recognized that their system is not working. Its brokenness is, after all, hard to miss.

In that sense, the Castro regime has the same impetus as the United States. Fidel is 88; Raúl is 83. Everybody knows change is coming, and everybody wants to be involved in deciding what comes next.

With this move, Obama has received support and criticism from both the Republicans and his own party. But that is only to be expected. Cuba has been an emotional topic for longer than most Americans can remember. And more than a half-century of failure and obsession is hard to turn around.

But by re-establishing relations with Cuba – especially with the pope in the middle – Obama has opened the door to real change for a people desperately in need of hope. And this could speed that change. Freedom is contagious, and U.S. culture is corrosive to tyranny.

As Cuban blogger and dissident, Yoani Sánchez has written: “The myth of the enemy is over; the difficult reality of coexistence has begun.”



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