US-Cuba Relation: Was It Justifiable?

Last Wednesday, President Obama took to the podium announcing that the U.S. has now

   gained full diplomatic realations with Cuba. This comes after it was announced that Alan Gross, an American contractor will be released as part of a landmark deal with Cuba. Mr. Gross was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to five years in a Cuban prison for trying to deliver satellite telephone equipment capable of cloaking connections to the Internet.

  After winning re-election, President Obama made Cuba a priority for his second term. Pope Francis encouraged the talks with letters to President Obama and Mr. Castro and had the Vatican host a meeting in October to finalize a deal. President Obama spoke with Mr. Castro by telephone last Tuesday to seal the agreement in a call that lasted more than 45 minutes, the first direct contact between the leaders of the two countries in more than 50 years.

     The United States will ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking, while Cuban will

allow more Internet access and release 53 Cubans identified as political prisoners by the United States. Although the embargo will remain in place, the president called for an "honest and serious debate about lifting" it, which would require an act of Congress.

      While many are optimistic that this will truly unite the two countries, critics like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida slam President Obama for his decision.

       "The president has proven today that his foreign policy is more than just naïve,

it is willfully ignorant of the way the world truly works," Rubio told reporters Wednesday afternoon,

 after the president's remarks from the White House. "What these changes are going to do is, they will

tighten this regime's grip to do is, they will tighten this regime's grip on power for decades to come."

  Rubio suggested that he would use his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to block the president's new policy toward Cuba. "I anticipate I will be the chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of Foreign Relations, and I anticipate we are going to have a very interesting couple of years discussing how you're going to get an ambassador nominated and how you're going to get an embassy funded," Rubio said.

   "The Congress is not going to lift the embargo," he added, referring to the 114th Congress,

which will begin in January, with both houses controlled by Republicans.

On the other side of the issue, Newsweek reported, the president and those who support his actions on Cuba argue that after five decades, the U.S.'s policy toward the island has failed and its time to try something new. They argue that the increasing presence of American travelers, many and information in Cuba will ultimately empower the Cuban people.

   

 Personally, I myself believe its time for change and the president made the right decision

in establishing a full diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. It just seems wrong to

put restrictions and sanctions on a country that's only 90 miles from the United States. Plus, we can't go on and on on something that happened half a century ago. There Cuban people in the U.S. that can't visit their family because of the embargo and sanctions. In order for these people to be proud of their country, the government including the president must do whats best for their families. This is certainly what President Obama has done. We can't keep holding grudges on people; you have to forgive and move on. Unity forms this way.

Peter, Baker

U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility

The New York Times

Americas

2014/12/17

Restoring Full Diplomatic Relations

Melinda, Carstensen

Restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba: What it means for American medicine

Fox News

Medications

2014/12/23

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Miranda, Leitsinger

Cuba- U.S. Relations: From Cold War Frost to a New Thaw

NBC News

U.S. News

2014/12/17

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cuba-u-s-relations-cold-war-frost-new-thaw-n270561

Pema, Levy

Rubio Leads Opposition to Obama's Cuba Shift

Newsweek

U.S.

2014/12/17

http://www.newsweek.com/rubio-leads-opposition-obamas-cuba-shift-292947

BBC News

Timeline: U.S.- Cuba relations

Latin America

2014/10/12

Cuba-U.S. Relation Throughout History