Richard Feinberg’s new book, Open For Business, draws on his recent, extensive research on the Cuban economy and U.S.-Cuban relations and on his travels on the island. The result is a multifaceted, balanced and personal portrayal of the island’s challenges and its people.
President Barack Obama and his historic trip to Cuba provide the central themes on Latin Pulse this week. The program includes news about various details of Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina, and in-depth analysis of the political, human rights, and business changes resonating through both countries after the trip.
President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba this past week returned U.S. and world attention to the small Caribbean island of 11 million people and the long, curious history between it and the United States. It’s hard to think of a similarly sized country that has had such a memorable, tumultuous, often romantic hold on U.S. history and imagination.
Está claro que América Latina no es un solo país. Asimismo, a Estados Unidos no le ha quedado otra opción que muchas veces mirar la región como una misma masa de países. Porque si bien los que siguen “gritando contra el imperio” son cada vez menos, los que callan ante esos gritos son cada vez más. Nadie se atreve, en la región, a frenar la ola de discursos vacíos de mea culpa.
It was a cringingly awkward moment. After their press conference, Cuban President Raul Castro clumsily grabbed Obama’s arm and attempted to lift it into the classic raised fist of revolutionary struggle. Embedded in the viral image is the difference between what each leader needed to get and convey from the historic visit.
Obama’s opening to Cuba could be one of his policy’s most convincing successes. But there’s a problem. In the time since his executive actions permitted greater U.S. personal and commercial contact with the socialist island, the autocratic Cuban regime has failed to meaningfully improve its human rights record.
The Brooklyn-based research and advocacy group Global Americans welcomes the new round of U.S.-Cuba regulatory changes announced by the Departments of Commerce and Treasury today.
While Cuba’s foreign minister of trade travels to the U.S. to enhance commercial relations, Venezuela’s economy falls deeper into a crisis that seems to have no end.
In terms of U.S. national interests, the more important of President Obama’s stopovers on his March trip won’t be Cuba, it will be Argentina. Here’s why.
With few concrete human rights improvements since he announced his embargo changes over a year ago, President Obama’s decision to travel to Cuba could be a surrender of U.S. principles or a master stroke of democratic diplomacy. It all depends how he plays it.
