Earlier this year, I went to a talk by acclaimed Cuban historian Louis A. Perez Jr. on “Cuba after Castro” in which two very different views of Cuba under Castro were presented. During the talk, Perez talked about the need for a new policy towards Cuba, on that stresses communication and cooperation vs. isolation and embargo. At the time of the talk, I found the conversation nothing more than interesting because there was an silent assumption, even by Perez, that Cuba would rebuff any US action to restore relations, so it was unlikely that progress would occur. This was assumed for a wide variety of reasons, the most obvious being that further US involvement in Cuba threatens to undermined the Castro regime. However there are other, more implicit reasons such as the wide and long standing history of US oppressive policy in Cuba which has created an American distaste in Cuba.
I was therefore highly surprised by Cuba’s reaction to recent action taken by the US to increase relations with Cuba, in which Raoul Castro stated that he was willing to talk with the United States on increasing relations. While, I do not know enough about Cuba to speculate further I find this development very interesting and promise a more in-depth article in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, since you have only been waiting a year for a new post, keep an eye on the US/CUBA relationship as it relates to the BP Deep Horizon oil leak. It will be interesting to see how these two counrties interact as the oil from this massive disaster reaches closer to their shores.
