The Obama administration is embarking on a “policy shift” to normalize diplomatic and economic relations between the United States and Cuba, according to senior administration officials who spoke with reporters on background Wednesday morning. One official described the current Cuban policy as “past its expiration date.”
The administration officials said the shift, which will include reestablishing an American embassy in Havana and opening up some trade, is the “most significant change to our Cuban policy in nearly 50 years.” The government will be licensing travel by Americans to Cuba, though it will not be lifting the travel ban, which administration officials say will require legislation from Congress. Cuban cigars will not be available for commercial importation, though the officials noted Americans traveling to Cuba will be allowed to bring back to the U.S. up to $100 of alcohol or tobacco products.
Many members of Congress, including Democratic senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Republican senator Marco Rubio of Florida—both Cuban Americans and among Congress’s harshest critics of the Castro regime—condemned the Obama administration’s actions. Rubio made a point of pushing the possible normalization of Cuban relations during the confirmation hearings of Tony Blinken to the number-two spot at the State Department earlier this year. Blinken, who was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate, did not rule out the administration might act on Cuba.
“Anything that in the future might be done on Cuba would be done in full consultation” with Congress, Blinken said. It’s not clear if Congress was consulted, and administration officials only said that President Obama “has had a number of conversations with members of Congress…leading up to this [policy change].”
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke with Raúl Castro, the communist president of Cuba and brother of aging former dictator Fidel Castro, for around an hour, the first interaction between heads of states of the two nations since the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations in 1961. Administration officials said Obama explained to Castro the forthcoming policy changes as well as the details of Wednesday’s return of convicted Cuban spies imprisoned in the U.S. in exchange for a jailed American intelligence asset. An American contract worker imprisoned for 5 years in Cuba, Alan Gross, was also released Wednesday on what the administration refers to as “humanitarian grounds.”
One official noted that the current U.S. policy toward the communist nation has been a “severe problem” because of the disapproval of other nations in the region.
“We’ve been severely criticized by most countries in this hemisphere,” the officials said. “We believe this policy shift will greatly help our policy initiatives around the hemisphere.” Another official cited a change in position among younger Cuban Americans on the issue of the Cuban embargo as an impetus for the shift in policy. Additionally, Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church wrote a letter to both President Obama and Castro urging the change. Some of the negotiating American and Cuban officials met at the Vatican. Negotiations began in the spring, many of them taking place between government
One consequence of the policy change is the United States will not object to the Cuban government’s participation in a summit of the Organization of American States in Panama next year. An administration official called the U.S.’s Cuba policy is a “huge burden” for the country in its relations with Latin American countries. The official noted a recent United Nations vote that overwhelmingly urged a change in American policy. Only the U.S. and one other country voted against the change.
“The rest of the world has moved on from these policies,” said the official.
