Normalization of Relations of Relations With Cuba
President Obama has announced that the policy of isolating Cuba will be changing. This is a huge change for countries in the Caribbean and South America. Ironically the drop in the price of oil and not the embargo may have been the catalyst for the change in policy towards Cuba. Venezuela was donating 100,000 barrels of oil to Cuba. Russia also had some kindly trade terms with Cuba. The steep drop in oil prices has hit two of the countries that helped prop up Cuba has left those two countries in shambles over the last six months or so. Fidel is alive but out of the picture and Raul may not have been getting his phone calls for help being answered. The embargo has been used by the Brothers Castro to cover up their own failures to move their own people forward.
Cubans have been coming from Cuba to Miami, Florida, and the United States for over fifty years and before Castro there was a lot of travel and immigration between Miami and Havana. The older exiles are much more anti-communist than the more recent arrivals from Cuba who faced desperate economic conditions and often risked their lives to come to Miami. The exile and refugee experience is really something no long time resident of Miami can ignore even if they don't agree with the exile and refugee politics. Diaz Balart, Rubio, Ros Lehtenen, are supported by other local political leaders that are also exiles or refugees and their views on the situation in Cuba and the embargo are fairly uniform.
On the other hand, Cubans in Miami can visit relatives, send stuff from Miami to relatives and send money to help family members. This humanitarian aid undercuts a lot of what the embargo was supposed to being doing. The Cuban government adds fees for all these transactions. Cubans not only go to the United States, they are spread out in a variety of Spanish speaking countries.
The normalization of relations is a lot more contentious in South Florida than the rest of the country, but it seems that opposition to anything that might change existing policy isn't quite as vigorous as it might have been 20-30 years ago even in South Florida.
The times they are a changing, rapidly. What will become of the Cuban Adjustment Act is now open for discussion.
Cubans have been coming from Cuba to Miami, Florida, and the United States for over fifty years and before Castro there was a lot of travel and immigration between Miami and Havana. The older exiles are much more anti-communist than the more recent arrivals from Cuba who faced desperate economic conditions and often risked their lives to come to Miami. The exile and refugee experience is really something no long time resident of Miami can ignore even if they don't agree with the exile and refugee politics. Diaz Balart, Rubio, Ros Lehtenen, are supported by other local political leaders that are also exiles or refugees and their views on the situation in Cuba and the embargo are fairly uniform.
On the other hand, Cubans in Miami can visit relatives, send stuff from Miami to relatives and send money to help family members. This humanitarian aid undercuts a lot of what the embargo was supposed to being doing. The Cuban government adds fees for all these transactions. Cubans not only go to the United States, they are spread out in a variety of Spanish speaking countries.
The normalization of relations is a lot more contentious in South Florida than the rest of the country, but it seems that opposition to anything that might change existing policy isn't quite as vigorous as it might have been 20-30 years ago even in South Florida.
The times they are a changing, rapidly. What will become of the Cuban Adjustment Act is now open for discussion.
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