Cubans Look For "Change" To Believe In
Obama's "transparency" and emphasis on change resonates with Milagros Diaz, a 60-year-old cigar maker. It gives her hope that "friendship not war" can exist between the United States and Cuba. "No problems of the type that always end up hurting the people."
Despite the cautious tone taken by their government and 50 years of rocky relations, the average Cuban is feeling optimistic as the first black U.S. president is to be sworn in — his youth and race having caught their imaginations from the beginning.
While Americans face a major economic meltdown, Cubans also are living in a struggling economy — slammed by two devastating hurricanes last year which caused an estimated $10 billion in damages.
Cindi Manuel, 25, says she expects "something positive" to come from Obama, even if "it's not the end to the blockade." That's how Cubans refer to the U.S. economic and trade embargo on their nation.
"There will be economic improvements, openings and an end to some of the restrictions," she says, adding that if the country improves, individuals will also see their living standards rise.
A report the Cuban Government will submit to the United Nations Human Rights Council next month estimates that Washington's nearly five-decade-old embargo has cost the island more than $93 billion in economic losses.
Most of the world seems to agree. At a Latin American summit in Brazil at the end of December, 33 Caribbean and Latin American nations called for an end to the embargo and for the past consecutive 17 years the United Nations General Assembly has weighed in against it — the most recent vote was 185-3.
On a human level, U.S. policy has meant dividing families.
For Felicita Rodriguez, a 55-year-old Havana shop clerk, the fundamental problem is "travel and remittances." Both were severely restricted in May 2004, when outgoing President George Bush limited Cuban American visits to one, two-week visit every three years, and only if they had immediate family living on the island. The policy blotted out aunts, uncles and cousins with the stroke of a pen.
The new regulations limited the amount of money Cuban Americans could send to their relatives, a maximum of $300 every three months, and that's to the immediate family as a whole, not $300 to each individual.
Obama has said he will do away with those restrictions, while maintaining the embargo until Cuba releases all political prisoners and takes steps toward democracy.
The Center for Democracy in the Americas recently released a document entitled, "Nine Ways for Us to Talk to Cuba and for Cuba to Talk to Us".
In short, the individual authors, including retired U.S. Army General and former commander of United States Southern Command, Gen. James T. Hill, urged cooperation and engagement with Cuba as best for the Cuban and American people. The essays suggest the two countries could work together in everything from drug interdiction to disaster management, to medical research.
The U.S. embargo also keeps American business locked out of any participation in Cuba's economy. U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba are a one-way street. Tight controls make it difficult for U.S. businesses to sell to Cuba, and force the Cubans to pay cash in advance of delivery. The embargo does not allow the U.S. to import any Cuban products.
Marvin Lehrer of the USA Rice Federation has repeatedly said that without the embargo Cuba could easily become the largest importer of U.S. rice, a position it formerly held.
Throughout his election campaign President-elect Obama defended a position of diplomacy and speaking to U.S. enemies, including the Castro brothers.
Cuban President Raul Castro has on several occasions reiterated his willingness to meet Obama, but warned not to expect prior concessions from Cuba, instead calling for "gesture for gesture," and direct contacts without intermediaries. "But we are in no rush, we are not desperate," he said on Cuban TV.