Open letter to Obama calls for new steps to promote change in Cuba

An open letter composed and signed by forty-four policy reform advocates and former U.S officials calling for all Americans to be allowed to travel to Cuba has been sent to President Obama. The letter released on Monday was signed by John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence under President George W. Bush, retired Admiral James Stavridis, who stepped down last year as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and several former senior State Department officials and prominent Cuban Americans. 

This is just one of the latest increase in pressure on President Obama to enact change upon the Cuban embargo. The embargo has continued on ineffectively since the Cold War as it's original intent being to bring Fidel Castro out of power. Fifty four years have passed with the embargo put into place, and the Castros are still going strong. Even more confusing is that the embargo and travel restrictions/remittances continue regardless of the change in demographics of the Cuban American population.Scholars have found throughout various polls done on the Cuban American population, that a majority of Cuban Americans oppose the policies that have been put into place by the United States on to Cuba. The blending of post-Revolution immigrants, Mariel-boatlift immigrants, and post-Mariel immigrants is the reason for this new majority taking place. Before the influx of post-Mariel immigrants, the Cuban embargo was held strongly into place by interest groups such as the Cuban American National Foundation and the Cuban Liberty Council. There was strong support for the policies the United States was implementing onto Cuba due to the fact most of the immigrants in the U.S. from Cuba at that time had been uprooted by Castro and the Revolution and forced to give up their high-class status in the new communist regime.

Those who immigrated during the Mariel-boatlift ( Castro allowed for anyone who wanted to leave the island to do so in 1980, resulting in over 125,000 Cuban immigrants) had grown up under the communist regime and were more adapted to the Castro regime. They immigrated for more economic reasons rather than political. Post-Mariel immigrants have immigrated mostly due to family economic status. They come to the U.S. to earn money to send back to their relatives in Cuba. With more post-Mariel immigrants beginning to crowd the Miami area, opinions are shifting. Pressure to change the embargo has been growing in the past few years as more and more polls reflect opposition to U.S foreign policy. The open letter is just one of the few. However, it focused more on the travel restrictions and remittances to Cuba rather than the economic embargo itself. Reducing U.S. restrictions on travel and financial activity in Cuba would help "by giving greater freedom to private organizations and individuals to directly and indirectly serve as catalysts for meaningful change in Cuba," the letter said.This is important because it is reflecting the opinions of the post-Mariel immigrants rather than those who came before them. The post-Revolution immigrants and Mariel boatlift immigrants have shown in polls that they are less likely to travel back to Cuba, do not plan to ever return to Cuba, and send less money on average to family members than post-Mariel immigrants. Post-Mariel immigrants are more connected to their relatives in Cuba and keep close ties with them, sending back large amounts of money whenever possible. 

The director of the US-Cuba Democracy PAC, (a special interest group that has been very influential on U.S foreign policy) Mauricio Claver-Carone, rejected the open letter proposal and stated that "History has proven that Castro only eases economic measures when he's forced to, not as a 'good-will' measure" It will be interesting to see what other Cuban American interest groups have to say about the open letter and politicians who have been receiving large campaign funds from Cuban interest groups to keep the embargo going. 

Tess Godhardt

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/19/us-usa-cuba-policy-idUSBREA4I0AU20140519