Cuban deal has created another battleground in US elections

News that the US and Cuba are to restore full diplomatic and commercial relations, after a Cold War-style prisoner swap, as detailed in ‘Secret US meetings with Cuba pay off’ (Irish Examiner, December 19), is the latest foreign policy misstep by US President, Barack Obama.

Already, opponents of Obama on this issue are threatening to curtail his plan by withholding funding for a new embassy and blocking the appointment of an ambassador to Havana.

There is also little prospect that Congress will repeal legislation behind the current trade embargo, as several US congressmen are scathing of the deal. Cuba will also feature prominently in jostling by 2016 presidential aspirants, such as Hillary Clinton, and Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida.

Cuba, in its waning days, is a murderous regime led by octogenarians. It has betrayed and abandoned dissidents and pro-democracy advocates. For half a century, it was a totalitarian Marxist regime.

Yet, Cuba, left to her own devices, is confronting the same conflicting forces the world faces: how to balance economic expansion while maintaining social values, how to preserve a local culture while welcoming capitalism.

Cuba does not need American paternalism.

One has to go to Cuba, before the island gets overrun by McDonald’s and Starbucks and while the mood on Havana streets is palpably optimistic.

Gerry Coughlan

Parkhill West

Kilnamanagh

Dublin 24