Cuban security personnel detained a member of the Ladies in White dissident group during a protest on International Human Rights Day in Havana, Dec. 10.
ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/REUTERS By Jeff Jacoby GLOBE COLUMNIST DECEMBER 24, 2015
Cuban security personnel detained a member of the Ladies in White dissident group during a protest on International Human Rights Day in Havana, Dec. 10.
WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMAdeclared 12 months ago that he intended to normalize relations with Cuba, he claimed that rapprochement with the Castro regime would uphold America’s “commitment to liberty and democracy.” Liberalizing US policy, the president predicted, would succeed “in making the lives of ordinary Cubans a little bit easier, more free, more prosperous.”
He affirmed that message seven months later, as he announced the reopening of the US embassy in Havana. Life on the island might not be “transformed overnight,” Obama conceded, but he had no doubt that more engagement was the best way to advance democracy and human rights for Cuba’s people. “This,” said the president, “is what change looks like.”
Reality-check time.
The Obama administration’s year-long outreach to Cuba has certainly been frenetic. The American flag was raised over the US embassy in August, and in Washington the Cuban embassy was reopened. President Obama held a face-to-face meeting with Raul Castro during the Summit of
ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/REUTERS By Jeff Jacoby GLOBE COLUMNIST DECEMBER 24, 2015
Cuban security personnel detained a member of the Ladies in White dissident group during a protest on International Human Rights Day in Havana, Dec. 10.
WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMAdeclared 12 months ago that he intended to normalize relations with Cuba, he claimed that rapprochement with the Castro regime would uphold America’s “commitment to liberty and democracy.” Liberalizing US policy, the president predicted, would succeed “in making the lives of ordinary Cubans a little bit easier, more free, more prosperous.”
He affirmed that message seven months later, as he announced the reopening of the US embassy in Havana. Life on the island might not be “transformed overnight,” Obama conceded, but he had no doubt that more engagement was the best way to advance democracy and human rights for Cuba’s people. “This,” said the president, “is what change looks like.”
Reality-check time.
The Obama administration’s year-long outreach to Cuba has certainly been frenetic. The American flag was raised over the US embassy in August, and in Washington the Cuban embassy was reopened. President Obama held a face-to-face meeting with Raul Castro during the Summit of
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