As I said in one of my previous posts, Obama has lifted traveling and money transfer restrictions on Cuba. A large signal that the U.S. will be taking further steps to better its ties with the Cuban people. However, there are many arguments over this relationship as a result of Cuba still being a communist nation; many people feel that the U.S. should only take further steps if Castro makes democratic reforms. However in May, Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton took a 3-day trip to Latin America and came back announcing that the U.S. would re-establish immigration talks with Cuba. However, in 2003 the bush administration ceased these talks with Cuba as a result of their non-cooperation. How could this possibly change in a matter of six years? Some people argue that the new leaders Obama and Raul Castro will be able to reach a consensus, but who knows?
By studying the past talks with Cuba and the U.S. on immigration, we can see a trend of this non-cooperation. Cuba refused to talk about certain things which include but are not limited to: the issuance of exit permits for all qualified migrants, Cuba’s cooperation of holding a new registration for an immigration lottery, Cuba’s responsibility to allow U.S. diplomats to travel to monitor repatriated migrants, and “Cuba's obligation to accept the return of Cuban nationals determined to be excludable from the United States.” If Cuba is still under the communist regime, what makes people think they will suddenly want reform? In order to successfully establish these talks and bring progress, Cuba needs to go in agreeing to address these issues so the Cuba- Miami immigration problems can be settled.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053101078.html
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What do you think is the best way for the U.S. to improve relations with Cuba? Many people argue that economic sanctions could force Cuba to change their ways while others argue that this will have minimal effect. Also, how are Cuba's relations with other countries of the world? Is it simply a U.S. Cuba dispute or in general is Cuba a diplomatically isolated country? I agree with you that simply talking to Cuba and asking them to change their ways is not sufficient. More must be done if a change is to occur.
ReplyDeleteThe best way Cuba could better their relations with the U.S. is by enforcing statutes that will be laid under the immigration talks. However, it may be difficult to do this, therefore the administration needs to find a way to effectively moderate the treatment of repatriated Cuban citizens. Cuba does hold some diplomatic ties with countries such as Venezuela or whose government are corrupt in some way. However, it lacks the support of many super power countries as a result of having declared itself communist.
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