The Cuban government had erected flags to block the view of the U.S. interest section’s news ticker in Havana.

It’s interesting to hear — but not very significant — that the United States under President Obama has turned off the useless news ticker that was running in the windows atop the U.S. interest section in Havana. The move is one more in a series of steps that leaves U.S.-Cuban relations still awaiting some major breakthrough after 50 years of hostility.

The news crawl was a vestige of the belligerent and unsuccessful U.S. policy toward Cuba during the administration of George W. Bush. The Bush administration pretended that it was a means of providing unfettered news to the Cuban people, but the streaming headlines did little more than to give the Cuban government a chance to rally support against American policies. At the time, Fidel Castro established a freedom plaza in front of the U.S. diplomatic building –- located along the Malecon, Cuba’s seafront — and big black flags obscured vision of the ticker when people drove past.

While Obama has rolled back a few other Bush era measures — allowing easier transit by Cuban-Americans to the island, and dropping strictures on how much money family members were allowed to send to their relatives on the island — nothing else has changed. The Cuban government, under Fidel’s brother, Raul, has toned down anti-U.S. rhetoric hoping for an eventual opening to U.S. tourism and other measures that could bring big economic changes in Cuba.

When I was in Cuba earlier this year, I didn’t see any indication that Cubans on the street were lacking information about the basics of what is happening in the United States and the world. And those I spoke to were also surprisingly willing– on camera — to criticize the government for not providing enough
employment, food and opportunities for improving their lives. Young and old were as enthusiastic as people around the world about the prospect of a vigorous, open-minded president of the United States, who happened to be a person of color. And they hoped that Obama would break the logjam.

Cubans appear to know the score, and they’re just tired of waiting for changes that will give them more contact with their friends and relatives in the outside world. Fifty years of the U.S. economic embargo has done nothing to incite popular insurrection in Cuba — if that was the goal — and most people in the United States, even a majority of Cuban-Americans, think it’s time for the embargo to go.

Political reality in the United States makes that difficult. Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, is promoting phased-in engagement with Cuba, and an eventual end of economic sanctions. The rationale is that increased contact will put the United States in a better position to promote a shift toward democratic change.

His middle-of-the-road approach clashes with hard-line opponents of the Castro brothers who want no change in relations unless Cuba makes a move first on political freedom. They note that several hundred political prisoners are held in Cuban jails. But the United States is unlikely to have leverage to bring any change under the current stagnant formula.

So Cuba and the United States continue plodding along, dealing with vestiges of failed rhetoric and policies passed. The news sign is off on the U.S. interest section, but there’s no sign in the short term that the Obama administration plans to go much further than that.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Indrani Soemardjan under a Creative Commons license.

Barack Obama meets with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

At the 34-nation Summit of the Americas over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama promised a new approach to Latin American relations, meeting with such harsh critics of the U.S. as Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. 

Cuba was a hot topic, as Obama recently loosened travel and remittances restrictions for Cuban Americans. ”The policy that we’ve had in place for 50 years hasn’t worked the way we want it to. The Cuban people are not free,” Obama said at the close of the summit on Sunday. 

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner, the former deputy foreign editor of the Washington Post, puts Obama’s position on Cuba in context. 

No question about it: President Barack Obama brought his A-game to the Trinidad summit of Western Hemisphere leaders over the weekend and upstaged potential efforts to embarrass and castigate the United States over its 50-year embargo against Cuba.

The president was warm to overtures by Cuban President Raul Castro and held out the possibility for real changes; he also disarmed Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, by sprinting across the dance floor to break the ice. As in Europe, as in Mexico, President Obama also talked about a new beginning and said that the United States has made its share of mistakes.

The question is: How soon will action follow all the words?

Antonio Caño of the Madrid newspaper, El País, saw little more than “handshaking and good intentions.” Even that was an accomplishment, he said, compared to disastrous, confrontational meetings during the Bush era. However, he said, the good intentions “will be erased from memory quickly if no there are no quick, recognizable results.”

President Obama’s position on Cuba has to be viewed in context. So far, he’s done little more than roll back restrictions imposed by George W. Bush that limited the ability of Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba or send money to family members. Obama has opened the possibility of licensing telecommunications contacts with Cuba.

In fact, the president hasn’t completely rewound U.S.-Cuban relations to where they had been before the Bush years. It doesn’t take an act of Congress, for example, to quietly resume bilateral talks with Cuba. The president has not reinstated periodic meetings with Cuba as part of a 1995 migration agreement. The meetings, halted by Bush, grew out of decades of periodic chaos caused by Cuban refugees fleeing the island –- sometimes meeting death in the treacherous Florida Straits.

Phillip Brenner, a professor at American University who specializes on Cuban-U.S. relations, told me U.S. overtures so far “will move the two countries towards a normal relationship only a little.”

“Cuban officials rightly view President Obama’s decision as signifying nothing more than fulfillment of a campaign promise to Cuban-Americans.”

He said the U.S. plan on telecommunications with Cuba “was couched in the same language the United States has used for fifty years. They are intended to bring ‘freedom’ to Cubans, which Cuban officials see as code for ‘regime change.’ ”

President Obama has enough problems as he deals with the ongoing economic crisis, and the dire problems of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Certain to face conservative ire, including a vocal minority in Congress, how much Cuban political capital is the president willing to spend?

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user El_Enigma under a Creative Commons license.

In an online column, the ailing former president Fidel Castro said the U.S. had announced the repeal of “several hateful restrctions,” as he put it. But “of the blockade, which is the cruelest of measures,” said Castro, “not a word was uttered.”

Peter Eisner, who recently spent several weeks in Cuba reporting for the Worldfocus signature series “Cuba After Fidel,” joins Martin Savidge to discuss how these changes will impact the average Cuban, if more changes on the part of the U.S. are expected and if the U.S. will ask the Cuban government for changes.

For a background on U.S.-Cuban relations, listen to our online radio show on Cuba and the U.S., featuring Peter Eisner.

Another move could represent one of the biggest breakthroughs in Cuban-American relations since Fidel Castro took power 50 years ago —  the perjury indictment that attracted little attention last week when it was issued in El Paso, Texas, against an 81-year-old Cuban exile linked to bombings in Cuba. Worldfocus correspondent Peter Eisner reports on the implications of the indictment.

Cubans in line for food. Photo: Peter Eisner

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner recently reported on the signature series Cuba After Fidel. He describes political life in Cuba and the changes in society he’s seen over the last couple of decades.

Before my recent reporting trip to Cuba for Worldfocus, I hadn’t been back to this island nation for 14 years.

I’d spoken with Cubans here and kept up with developments, but with the Fidel Castro era at the crossroads, I was interested in reporting firsthand what might be changing on the political and economic fronts as well as on the street.

Politics in Cuba is largely a guessing game. Since Fidel Castro receded from view, his brother, Raúl, has tantalized the country with scenarios hinting of a new era — do they await a Cuban glasnost?

Cubans have been encouraged to debate more in public, and the gregarious islanders are doing that, gingerly. I heard little griping in public back in 1995. This time I found Cubans, old and young, far more willing to speak outside the party lines, and give their names.

Not enough food, too much bureaucracy, too few jobs — the complaints came from people not about to jump on inner tubes and make their way to Florida. I spoke to people who complained but also valued what the Cuban revolution had accomplished.

Some wanted to leave, no question; but I heard mainly political discontent far short of insurrection, from people intent on staying. They did not mass behind the old party line. I was hearing both the complaints and the aspirations of people who were frustrated enough to try out the freedoms that apparently were being offered them. Stay tuned.

Cubans have more food to eat than they did back in 1995, the toughest part of the “Special Period” when the Soviet Union stopped its food supplies and financial aid, further isolating its statist model in the Americas.

Back then, I spent time with a group of Cuban writers and was overwhelmed by their creativity, their poetry and their generosity of spirit. One day back then, at lunchtime, I was hanging out with a group of five or six writers; one pulled out a package wrapped in paper from his shoulder bag. It was two homemade flour tortillas with processed cheese melted in the middle. Everybody tore off small pieces of the tortilla and they offered a bit to me — they called it Cuban pizza. There was hardly enough lunch for six.

It is evident — and Cubans agreed when asked — that life is much better now. State-controlled rations “guarantee” a decent amount of food to everyone, though there are often shortages in the stores where ration coupons can be used. Scrounging the money for extras, and sometimes for basic necessities such as shampoo, requires conniving or bending the rules and working the black market.

Cuban government officials argue that the U.S. trade embargo is not only unjust, but also anachronistic. While we were there, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet came to town for the annual Cuban Book Fair. Progressively, other countries have disregarded the U.S. trade embargo, which a succession of presidents enforced with pressure tactics on U.S. allies, especially those in the hemisphere.

That policy has collapsed; Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the Cuban National Assembly, told me that at first he considered the U.S. trade embargo a nearly successful effort to isolate or even annihilate the Cuban revolution. But he was proud to say that Cuba survived, and “few countries could have withstood that pressure for even three months.”

Now, 47 years later, “it is the United States that is isolated,” he said.

- Peter Eisner

The change from Fidel to Raúl Castro has allowed for increased political expression, and rap group Anonimo Consejo fills the space of artistic protest, admiring past icons of the revolution while demanding more from their country.

Watch the group’s members explain their role in the Cuban hip-hop movement and rehearse their song “Liberate.” This video was produced by Peter Eisner, shot by Ara Ayer, and edited by Bijan Rezvani.

Worldfocus special correspondent Peter Eisner and producer Ara Ayer venture to Cuba and report that from agriculture to medicine to oil, the island is a sea of lost opportunity for American businesses.

Also, listen to our radio show exploring the roots of U.S.-Cuban relations and potential changes under President Barack Obama.

But despite significant shifts, many Cubans are still unable to raise their standard of living, report Worldfocus correspondent Peter Eisner and producer Ara Ayer. 

Also, listen to our radio show exploring the roots of U.S.-Cuban relations and potential changes under President Barack Obama.

Jan. 1 marked the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, when the nation’s U.S.-backed government was overthrown and Fidel Castro took power. A few years later, in 1962, the U.S. instituted a trade embargo against Cuba designed to pressure the communist government.

President Barack Obama has said he plans to ease travel and remittances restrictions for Cuban-Americans, but will keep the embargo in place.

Half a century after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Worldfocus looks back to the roots of U.S.-Cuban relations and forward to the potentially changing relations under President Obama. Worldfocus.org and anchor Martin Savidge discuss what Americans don’t know about Cuba and the history of American policy.

Martin Savidge hosts a panel of guests to discuss U.S.-Cuban relations:

Peter Eisner is the editorial consultant for Worldfocus and a long-time Latin American foreign correspondent. Peter is a 30-year veteran of international news and has held editorial positions at The Washington Post, Newsday and The Associated Press. Peter is also working on a book about the history of Cuba.

Arturo Lopez-Levy is a lecturer at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado. Born in Cuba, Arturo served in the Cuban army and graduated from the Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana. He then worked as a political analyst for the Cuban government, but resigned after two years and later moved to the U.S. He holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Denver.

Wayne Smith directs the Cuba Program at the Center for International Policy. He is a visiting professor of Latin American Studies and director of the University of Havana exchange program at Johns Hopkins University. During his 25 years with the U.S. State Department, Wayne served as executive secretary of President Kennedy’s Latin American Task Force and chief of mission at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In addition, he served in Argentina, Brazil and the Soviet Union.

Associated thumbnail courtesy of Flickr user trailofdead1 under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Stephen Puschel

The retiring Central Intelligence Agency chief said last week the drug violence in Mexico could pose a bigger problem for President Obama than Iraq. Another report by the U.S. military says Mexico is at risk of “sudden collapse.” 

Meanwhile, Cuban President Raul Castro has expressed an interest in working with President Obama — while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday that the new Obama administration already has what he called the “stench” of the Bush administration.

Shannon O’Neil, a specialist on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how President Obama might tackle Mexican drug violence and relations with Cuba and Venezuela.

Read more about world reactions to Obama’s inauguration: The world watches as President Obama takes office.

Anthony DePalma, a former New York Times correspondent who reported extensively from Cuba and is the author of the book “The man who invented Fidel,” joins Martin Savidge to discuss where Cuba and American-Cuban relations might be headed under Raul Castro in Cuba and the forthcoming Obama administration in the U.S.

A poster in support of the “Cuban Five.”

Cuban President Raul Castro has proposed a prisoner swap with the U.S.

Political dissidents imprisoned in Cuba would be released in exchange for the “Cuban Five,” who were arrested in 2001 for conspiracy and espionage charges in a controversial case.

The exchange could lead the way toward talks between Castro and the Obama administration.

John McAuliff of “The Havana Note” wants to see prisoner releases prior to Barack Obama’s assumption of office and wrote Presidents Castro and Bush urging for a release.

Kyle Munzenrieder at “Riptide 2.0″ thinks the same of prisoner release under the Obama administration and says of the potential talks “don’t expect anti-Castro Cuban-Americans to let him bring the ‘Cuban Five’ to the table.”

Blogger Circles Robinson suggests that the exchange could please people on both sides, noting that the Cuban Five are “considered heroes and are never far from most people’s thoughts” in Cuba.  Castro’s offer closely resembles what Robinson proposed as a “win-win deal” in March of 2007.

Billy Burnett and Judi Lynn of “Democratic Underground” are against the prisoner exchange, claiming that the “Cuban Five” did not act against the U.S. state and that among the “dissidents” held by Cuba are terrorists who acted against the Cuban state. 

“CharlesD” of the “CubaMania” forum disagrees, and writes that if the exchange takes place, “the only…winner will be Castro,” arguing that the offer is little more than a publicity stunt.

International and online opinion on the “Cuban Five” varies, but the U.S. federal appeals court upheld their convictions in June.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Hartlandmartin under a Creative Commons license.