NY Times: President Obama, seeking to thaw long-frozen relations with Cuba,
President Obama and President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Friday.
told a gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday that “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” and that he was willing to have his administration engage the Castro government on a wide array of issues.
Mr. Obama’s remarks, during the opening ceremony at the Summit of the Americas, are the clearest signal in decades that the United States is willing to change direction in its dealings with Cuba. They capped a dizzying series of developments this week, including surprisingly warm words between Raúl Castro, Cuba’s leader, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Other leaders here said that in watching Mr. Obama extend his hand to Cuba, they felt they were witnessing a historic shift. And in another twist, Cuba’s strongest ally at the summit, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, no fan of the United States, was photographed at the meeting giving Mr. Obama a hearty handclasp and a broad smile.
Cuba is not on the official agenda here; indeed, Cuba, which has been barred from the Organization of American States since 1962, is not even on the guest list. But leaders in the hemisphere have spent months planning to make Cuba an issue here.
The White House was well aware that if Mr. Obama did not address it head on, the issue would overwhelm the rest of the summit gathering. This week, the president opened the door to the discussions by abandoning longstanding restrictions on the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel freely to the island and send money to relatives there.
“I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day,” Mr. Obama said, adding that he was “prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues — from human rights, free speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues.”
Mr. Obama’s message was not entirely new; he has said in the past that he was willing to engage with Cuba. But making a public pledge before leaders of 33 other nations, many of whom he had not yet met, gave his words added heft.
He came here with the aim of reaching out to leaders in a region that felt ignored by the United States during the Bush years. Just as he campaigned on the theme of change when running for the White House, he made change a theme of his speech here, saying: “I didn’t come here to debate the past. I came here to deal with the future.”
He said the United States needed to acknowledge long-held suspicions that it has interfered in the affairs of other countries. But, departing from his prepared text, he also said the region’s countries needed to cease their own historic demonization of the United States for everything from economic crises to drug violence.
“That also means we can’t blame the United States for every problem that arises in the hemisphere,” he said. “That’s part of the bargain. That’s the old way, and we need a new way.”
On Cuba, the president’s words were as notable for what he said as for what he did not say. He did not scold or berate the Cuban government for holding political prisoners, as his predecessor, George W. Bush, often did.
But he also did not say that he was willing to support Cuba’s membership in the Organization of American States, or lift the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, as some hemisphere leaders here want him to do.
And his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way here, pointed out that Cuba needed to take concrete action to “bring greater freedom to the Cuban people.”
In his speech, Mr. Obama gave a nod toward these issues, although not explicitly.
“Let me be clear,” he said. “I am not interested in talking for the sake of talking. But I do believe we can move U.S.-Cuban relations in a new direction.”
Miami Herald: Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took the stage at the hemispheric gathering here like boxers in a much-anticipated bout.
Crowds cheered. Women squealed in delight.
But instead of a knockout, Obama and Chávez shared a friendly handshake at the start of the Fifth Summit of the Americas Friday evening.
”With this same hand, I greeted Bush eight years ago,” Chávez told Obama, according to a statement from the Venezuelan government. “I want to be your friend.”
The Venezuelan government called the handshake ”historic” and hinted it was the first step toward thawing chilly relations between the two nations.
Obama, the statement said, approached Chávez first.
”Both leaders gave their hands in a historic greeting, after several years of tensions with the Bush administration, when the relations between Washington and Caracas had deteriorated,” the government said.
Obama also approached and shook the hand of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who took chiding from the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago over his recent hunger strike to pressure the passage of a law that would allow him to seek reelection. Morales, Manning said, should feast on local delicacies to feel like “un nuevo hombre [a new man].”
Anticipation was thick from the moment the American and Venezuelan planes arrived.
Foreign Policy: Does the recent White House announcement on relaxation of U.S. policy toward Cuba signal bigger things to come? Probably. But while these first steps were easy to take, high political hurdles lie ahead — and substantial change in U.S.-Cuban relations is not yet on the horizon.
These moves represent real change. The Obama administration announced it would lift restrictions on remittances, allow Cuban-Americans to travel freely to the island, and ease telecommunications regulations. The announcement wasn’t surprising, given Obama’s campaign trail rhetoric, and it was probably timed to establish a cooperative tone leading up to this week’s Summit of the Americas.
But the White House is also testing the political waters for further changes to its Cuba policy and will probably wait to see if Congress takes the lead on removing the travel ban for all Americans. Obama has the power to sidestep lawmakers by issuing executive orders that don’t require congressional approval that encourage person-to-person communications and the exchange of information with the island. But there are bills pending in the Senate (the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act) and the House of Representatives that would abolish the travel ban altogether. The White House knows these laws might well pass, though they will face a long road through committees and procedural votes. Congressional action would provide Obama with useful political cover.
Cuban leaders would welcome a lifting of the universal travel ban, since it would provide a huge boost for the country’s tourism industry. But they also know there’s an element of White House strategy at work here. The changes to telecommunications policy will allow U.S. companies to work with Cuban carriers to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the two countries, provide roaming services, and offer satellite radio and television service. Cuba’s low level of telephone usage (11 percent of the population, according to one estimate) and broadband subscription reveal huge growth potential in telecommunications.
This leaves the Cuban government with an uncomfortable choice: Open Cuba as never before to ideas and information from the United States, or keep the door closed and accept greater responsibility for Cuba’s international isolation. With Obama administration rhetoric aimed at promoting democracy on the island — ostensibly at the expense of the Castro regime — the Cuban government will remain cautious toward increased and unrestricted communication with the United States.
Despite these (significant) first steps, outright repeal of the 47-year-old economic embargo is not yet on the horizon. Domestic political considerations will continue to weigh heavily on congressional action, despite changes in Cuban-American demographics and evolving political attitudes among Cuban-American communities. A poll conducted in December 2008 by FIU-Brookings suggests that a small majority (55 percent) of Cuban-Americans now favor ending the embargo. But congressional action is required to rescind the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 (known as Helms-Burton) that wrote the embargo into law, and the Obama administration will have to think long and hard about how much political capital it wants to spend on a broader diplomatic opening to Cuba.
Given other foreign-policy and domestic priorities, it won’t be an easy choice. The Castro regime could make the process easier with changes that address criticism of its human rights record and authoritarian governance. Raul Castro, who officially replaced his brother as president in early 2008, has enacted limited economic reforms, but Fidel continues to cast a very long shadow. Until both Castros leave the scene, government tolerance for genuine democratic reform on the island will remain limited.
The good news is that Fidel says Havana is ready for talks with Washington. The bad news: the aging revolutionary probably remains more interested in monologue than dialogue.
