By Howard LaFranchi
Is President Obama about to take unilateral steps to ease US relations with Cuba?
A number of
recent developments – from Mr. Obama’s recourse to executive action on
immigration to the Spanish foreign minister’s enigmatic statement that
he would be carrying “very concrete messages” from the US government
when he visits Havana this week – have some Republicans fretting that
the White House aims to move even further from decades-old policy of
isolating communist Cuba.
Obama
last took action on Cuba in 2011, when he eased travel restrictions on
Americans visiting the island. But a year ago in Florida, he raised
eyebrows – and the hopes of supporters about a new US direction with
Cuba – when he spoke of wanting “to continue to update our policies.”
It
makes no sense, the president said, to continue with policies from 1961
“in the age of the Internet and Google and world travel.”
Some
advocates of liberalized relations with Cuba are pressing the
administration for concrete steps before April. That’s when Obama is
slated to take part in the Summit of the Americas in Panama, which is
expected to be the first such hemispheric gathering to include Cuba.
In the past, the United States
has vetoed Cuba’s participation on the grounds that the gathering is
limited to the hemisphere’s democracies, but a number of countries have
said they would not attend next year’s summit if Cuba were once again
barred.
But supporters of the
status quo on relations with Cuba counter that if the US has stuck with
policies from the 1960s – notably an embargo – it’s because the Castro
regime that came to power in that era continues today to deny the Cuban
people the democratic governance and human rights that most of the rest
of the Western Hemisphere enjoys.
Last
week Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio used a confirmation hearing
for Antony Blinken, Obama’s deputy national security adviser and his
choice to become deputy secretary of State, to grill Mr. Blinken about
“chatter” in Washington that Obama intends to make “unilateral change”
on US-Cuba policy.
Ending the embargo would require congressional
action, but there are other steps the president could take to redirect
US policy on Cuba.
After
several attempts to get Blinken to rule out executive action on Cuba,
Senator Rubio said, “The thing that concerns me is that I haven’t heard
you say point-blank that, absent democratic openings, we’re not going to
see actions on the part of this administration to weaken the current
embargo and sanctions on Cuba.”
In
response, Blinken said Obama has ideas on how to “help Cuba move in a
democratic direction,” and he added, “If [Obama] has an opportunity, I’m
sure that’s something he would want to pursue.” But he emphasized that
“it depends on Cuba and the actions that they take.”
One
action the administration is looking for is the release of US aid
worker Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since December 2009
for bringing satellite phones and computer equipment into Cuba without a
permit. Mr. Gross was handed a 15-year sentence in 2011 after being
found guilty of “acts against the state” for his role in US efforts to
set up a communications network in Cuba free of government control.
Speculation
has swirled in Washington over the past week that the Spanish foreign
minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, could be delivering to officials
in Havana this week a list of actions the US could take if the
impediment of Gross’s incarceration were out of the way.
On
Monday at the State Department, spokesman Jeff Rathke was asked at the
daily press briefing what Mr. García-Margallo was referring to when he
spoke of having “very concrete messages” from the US government to take
to Cuban officials.
“I have nothing to confirm about that,” Mr. Rathke responded.
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