Former Florida House Speaker and current U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
On a Miami Spanish-language radio station this week, Sen. Marco Rubio (D-Fla. announced that the Obama Administration has been putting out “trial balloons” on easing some restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba. Rubio took advantage of the occasion to reiterate his hard-line position on the embargo:
A push for the easing of travel and economic restrictions on Cuba is long overdue. Not only is it blatantly illiberal to prohibit American citizens from visiting a foreign country, the fifty years of the Cuban embargo have produced exactly zero positive democratic reforms. If anything the apparently smooth transition of power between the Castro brothers implies that the regime has successfully institutionalized itself and no longer depends upon the personality of a single individual to survive. Meanwhile the economic consequences on Cuba, which remains a small, poor island, have been devastating.
However, although many commentators have suggested that a younger and more liberal generation of Cuban-Americans in South Florida might result in greater opposition to the embargo, the landscape of the current Congress is not cause for optimism. As one interviewer pointed out, the absence of Sen. Chris Dodd, who was the most prominent advocate in the Senate for Cuban policy reform, as well as Rubio’s status as a new and powerful actor within the resurgent Republican Party both point to increased restrictions rather than fewer in the near future. The rhetorical strength of hypocritical neoconservative opposition to negotiating with certain dictatorial regimes, combined with the intransigence of an older generation of political refugees unwilling to accept the damage that their pet policy has wrecked on a poor island nation, are both reasons why the Obama Administration might be trying to keep their openness to reform a secret.
Nicolas Mendoza is a staff writer with Campus Progress.
Rubio went on to highlight the year-old case of American Alan Gross, a political prisoner in Cuba, and speculated that potential liberalization of Cuba policy might represent some attempt on the part of the Obama Administration to negotiate for Gross’ release. By opposing such a negotiation Rubio joins other neoconservatives in their desire to label every dialogue a Chamberlain-like appeasement.I was against the changes that were made in [the Clinton] Administration and now they are talking about more changes. …It is important not only for this community but for these elected officials, specifically those in the federal government, that it be made clear that our position on this issue has not changed. And it’s not going to change. What has to change is the Cuban government, not the policy of the United States. If anything the policy has to become more firm.
A push for the easing of travel and economic restrictions on Cuba is long overdue. Not only is it blatantly illiberal to prohibit American citizens from visiting a foreign country, the fifty years of the Cuban embargo have produced exactly zero positive democratic reforms. If anything the apparently smooth transition of power between the Castro brothers implies that the regime has successfully institutionalized itself and no longer depends upon the personality of a single individual to survive. Meanwhile the economic consequences on Cuba, which remains a small, poor island, have been devastating.
However, although many commentators have suggested that a younger and more liberal generation of Cuban-Americans in South Florida might result in greater opposition to the embargo, the landscape of the current Congress is not cause for optimism. As one interviewer pointed out, the absence of Sen. Chris Dodd, who was the most prominent advocate in the Senate for Cuban policy reform, as well as Rubio’s status as a new and powerful actor within the resurgent Republican Party both point to increased restrictions rather than fewer in the near future. The rhetorical strength of hypocritical neoconservative opposition to negotiating with certain dictatorial regimes, combined with the intransigence of an older generation of political refugees unwilling to accept the damage that their pet policy has wrecked on a poor island nation, are both reasons why the Obama Administration might be trying to keep their openness to reform a secret.
Nicolas Mendoza is a staff writer with Campus Progress.
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