An End to the Cuban Embargo

To whom it may concern,

For over forty years, America’s embargo on Cuba has done virtually nothing to end communism and promote democracy in the country. It has arguably done the exact opposite by rallying the people of Cuba around its government and against its large, imposing super-power neighbor. In the past, whenever changes in foreign policy toward Cuba were discussed, a very small yet powerful Cuban-American exile community in Miami has terminated the debate. How can we vilify communist Cuba when we turn around and expand trade with China and Vietnam, supply humanitarian relief to North Korea, and send billions of dollars to socialist Venezuela for oil? While the proximity of a communist country is a slight to the world’s beacon of democracy, the embargo denies the Cuban people what has historically changed public sentiment and ended communism in other countries; the pervasive power of American culture. We have also denied American goods and services to a brand new market, and are currently missing an opportunity with Raul Castro. How will this administration begin to roll back this embargo, and what would be the goal of this change in foreign policy?

GUNNAR HAND, AICP