Engage And Change: Work With Cuba

TW: The Organization of American States voted to allow Cuba back into the organization from which it has been barred since 1962. This is merely one step amidst many to resume "normal" relations with Cuba. Of course, two nations remain opposed to Cuba's re-admission, the U.S. and Cuba. The U.S. because of our increasingly archaic stance towards the Castro regime. Cuba because- playing the victim is a core governing principal of the Castro regime and to actually re-enter the OAS Cuba would have to sign a pro-democracy protocol which would not mesh well with the current Cuban governance structure.

Cuba's governance is less than ideal but we have allied ourselves with far worse over the years and continue to do so today. Furthermore, if anything is obvious, it is that our policy of the past fifty years has not worked. Engage and change, not exclude and stagnate should be our mantra.

Cuba is a large natural, potential market and partner for the U.S. it is time we stop letting nearly every other nation in the world work with them while we suck our collective thumbs.

From the LA Times:
"...the rest of Latin America says it is time to end Cuba's isolation and rebuild hemispheric unity. The region's predominantly left-of-center governments also clearly see this as an opportunity to demonstrate their independence from the United States and to hold President Obama to his word to act in consultation with his allies.

Cuba's readmission to the OAS is overdue, its absence more a Cold War relic than a statement of modern diplomacy. But a short delay may be useful if it allows the Obama administration and Cuban President Raul Castro's government more time to tend to the bilateral relationship first.

Already in the five months since Obama took office, the administration has relaxed travel restrictions on Cuban Americans and limits on remittances to Cuba. The two governments have agreed to resume negotiations over mail service and migration rules that broke down in 2003.

Cuba said it would consider helping the United States fight terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as working together on hurricane disasters. Those are encouraging developments and may foreshadow further progress.

That's essential because Cuba remains an outlier nation. It is the only country in the hemisphere whose leaders are unelected. It has quashed freedom of expression and political dissent, and jailed its opponents -- human rights abuses that cannot be ignored in the pursuit of normal diplomatic relations. But exclusion from the OAS has not brought relief from those miseries.

Engagement, not isolation, will bring change to Cuba. We want to see the U.S. trade embargo lifted so that more U.S. businesses and goods may make their way to Cuba. All Americans should be allowed to travel to the island, to engage with Cubans and exchange ideas. And the multilateral OAS, with Cuba as a member, can serve as an instrument to nudge the country toward democracy."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-cuba3-2009jun03,0,7527373.story