Time For A New Cuba Policy

President Obama should repeal the economic boycott of Cuba. In the midst of a Cold War, one could argue that boycotting Cuba's economy was strategic. After all, they were aligned with the Soviet Union, our mortal enemy. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we learned that the Soviets were just a shell of an empire, with its only true power being its nuclear technology. Once America realigned with the Soviets as business partners, it should have immediately lifted the boycott of Cuba.

This policy has stayed in place to placate a couple hundred thousand Cubans living in exile, many of whom, have never forgiven Fidel Castro for running them and the corrupt Batista regime out of the country. The economic boycott has also served our conservative politicians needs to keep a cold war boogie man, long after the Cold War died. Castro too has benefited from the boycott. He has used it to help hold sway on his own people, by peddling paranoia that the United States was plotting another Bay of Pigs invasion.

Castro was never the legendary proletariat that rose to overthrow the corrupt Oligarchy that he proclaimed when the tanks rolled into Havana. Nor was he the devil that Republicans and Democrats have painted him to be the last 40 years. Castro has done some good and he has done some bad.

Now, as he lays dying, he is clearly just a petty dictator waiting to swept away by the tides of the 21st century global economy. If America would have unleashed its corporate thugs on Cuba 20 years ago, its citizens would probably now be free, Democratic and reminiscing about the good ole days - when the Island was not dominated by mega hotels, - a McDonalds on every corner, and everyone had healthcare.

Obama, in his first 50 days, relieved travel restrictions. He should go further and announce at the upcoming G-20 summit that he is repealing the boycott. By doing so he would help Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva help repair US Latin America relations. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has let it be known that Brazilian President speaks for him when he says, "Latin America is ready to have the US as a full partner."

Finally, by repealing this 20th century Cold War policy, Obama will align himself with an emerging group of pragmatic Latin America leaders, many who were educated in the United States. It would also go a long way toward repairing America’s image in Latin America, after eight years of Bush's cowboy diplomacy. Most of all, it’s the right diplomatic move for the first "child of the world" who rose to be President of the United States.