Obama, Cuba and lost hopes

By Leonardo Padura Fuentes

When in April 2009 at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad he first tried out his presidency and the promise of rapprochement towards Latin America, and Obama listened patiently to the calls from almost every nation of the area for lifting of the embargo on Cuba and normalizing relations between the two neighbors, the hopes of many on the island were multiplied. And with reason, at that time the President had decided to eliminate restrictions that made it difficult to visit their country or send remittances to family members for Cuban Americans. Also, academic and cultural contacts were on the path to recuperation and there were talks of possible deals, like the reestablishment of direct mail or the offer of bettering communications with access to the North American optical fiber network.

That is why, when on Oct. 28, the U.S. government declared before the world at the General Assembly of the United Nations that it would not alter the embargo and for the same reasons that eight previous U.S. administrations had sustained them since 1962, hopes faded and many asked: The Obama who decides to sustain the policy of isolation over Cuba, is he the same young, charismatic man who, promising change, rose to power a year ago? The man who accepts sustaining a policy which proposes to defeat a country by way of hunger, is he the same person who has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize? This president who loves distention can seriously believe that the Cuban embargo condemned by nearly the whole world, including countries most critical of the Cuban system, is going to obligate the Havana government to make changes rather than entrench itself? And even more: Is this intelligent man not capable of deducing that the lifting of the embargo could be what induces the arrival of changes in Cuba?