Obama’s Cuba half-step

last updated 8 January 2015

President Obama made some “long overdue” changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba, said Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times, allowing Cuban-Americans to freely visit and send money to relatives on the Communist island. But he “should go much further” and invade Cuba—with U.S. tourists. “Hordes of Americans complaining bitterly about the lack of Wi-Fi” would do more to foster change than our failed trade embargo.

Two million tourists already visit Cuba each year, and that hasn't exactly brought democracy, said Maria Werlau in The Wall Street Journal. So both engagement and the “ethically justified” U.S. embargo have failed. What we need is “conditional engagement,” with the U.S. and the international community wielding carrots and sticks together.

The ball is now in the Castro brothers’ court, said The Miami Herald in an editorial. Obama’s “commendable” and popular first step needs to be met by some “reciprocal gestures.” If Cuba responds by freeing political prisoners and opening the Internet to more Cuban, maybe we can take another step forward.