Obama, "Alms" for Cuba

It was a promise as a candidate. It is now a presidential decision. Before beginning a South American tour, Barack Obama softened United States policy toward Cuba. Immigrants or U.S. citizens of Cuban origin will be able to visit the Caribbean island as often as they want. Fidel Castro has qualified this decision as “alms”.

Barack Obama keeps his promises. Announced during his electoral campaign, the easing of the American policy toward Cuba is becoming a reality. Indeed, before participating in the Summit of the Americas, the 44th U.S. president announced the possibility for immigrants or U.S. citizens of Cuban origin to visit the island in the Caribbean as often as they wish, as well as the facilitation of remittances. In the past, the opportunity to go to the island was granted only once a year. It is a break from the Bush administration, which had hardened policies towards its neighbor.

However, lifting of the commercial embargo – imposed in 1962, after the missile crisis – is not a reality, despite demands by the Castro regime. At the core of the U.S. administration, leaders hope that the new measures announced by the White House will encourage Cuba to initiate Democratic reforms. The new provisions stipulate that U.S. telecommunication service companies and providers of satellite radio and television will be able to ask for permits to operate in Cuba. Barack Obama also asked his government to study the possibility of opening regular air travel with the island. “President Obama has ordered a series of measures to reach out to the Cuban people, to support their desire to live with fundamental human rights,” declared the spokesperson of the presidency, Robert Gibbs. “These are actions geared at opening the flow of information.”

“Cuba will walk with its head held high”

Supporters of sanction relaxation have welcomed initiatives concerning families, which affect the almost 1.5 million Americans with family members in Cuba. In the Havana airport, for decades a theater of heart-breaking goodbye scenes between families separated by the ideological hostility between two countries, Cubans allowed their joy to explode with the announcement of this measure. “It is the most wonderful thing that could happen,” declared Pablo, a 60-year-old man, saying goodbye to his son who was returning to Miami. For those who support a hard line, this opening represents a cash injection for the island, which will allow the Castro regime to maintain itself. “President Obama has committed a serious error,” opined two leaders in Florida, where the majority of the exiled Cuban community lives, criticizing a unilateral decision without compensation.

In Cuba, although the population welcomes the American opening with enthusiasm, the regime itself is more cautious. After 50 years of turbulent and tight relations, Havana is distrustful. The “Lider Maximo”, Fidel Castro, said that his party does not want alms. Always in brilliant form, the old lawyer of eloquent language expressed himself in a letter published on the Internet site, Cubadebate.

“About the blockade, which is the cruelest of the measures, not a word has been said,” affirmed Castro. Cuba “doesn’t blame Obama for the atrocities committed by other governments of the U.S.,” and doesn’t doubt “his sincerity and his desire to change the policies and the image of the U.S. He waged a very difficult battle to be elected, in spite of the prejudice of several centuries,” he added, explaining that this is the reason that his brother, President Raul Castro, expressed his willingness to dialogue “on the basis of the strictest respect of sovereignty. Cuba has resisted and will keep on resisting. She will never give her hand to ask for alms. She will keep walking forward with her head held high, cooperating with the brother peoples of Latin American and of the Caribbean, whether there are or not Summits of the Americas, whether or not Obama presides over the U.S.,” he stressed. On Friday, Barack Obama will go to Trinidad and Tobago, for the Summit of the America with a notable absence . . . Cuba.