From this article:
" President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of the law used to impose the trade embargo on Cuba, disappointing those who favored allowing the law to expire as a friendly nod to Havana while reassuring others who oppose easing the sanctions.
The extension of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA) was largely symbolic. While it was used by President John F. Kennedy as the legal basis for slapping the embargo on Havana, another law would have kept those sanctions in place even if Obama had not signed the extension."
I debated posting this in MPSIMS instead of here, but this seems to be the forum to discuss politics.
From my perspective this is a good political move for the President, he does not need to be seen getting closer to communists just at the time when he is being accused of being a socialist.
And there may be more to this than meets the eye, just last month Bill Richardson was in Cuba on a free trade mission, calling for more open trade between the US and Cuba. This move by the President is strictly symbolic and does not affect the current trade situation. The Cuban embargo is governed by the Helms Burton act, and removing it would require Congress to change the law. So maybe this signing is Obama’s way to having his cake and eating it too. He can say he upheld the embargo, and at the same time if Congress modifies the embargo or removes he can sign that into law and not be seen as supporting a communist government.
However I hope that any change in the embargo takes into account some reciprocity from the Cuban government. Just a few days ago from the following article:
" The Cuban government has denied exit permits to about 30 Cuban college students who had been offered U.S. government-funded scholarships for academic programs at American academic institutions.
Not only did the students lose the chance to attend classes for free in the United States, but some were accused of ideologically losing their way and were expelled from their colleges in Cuba. Those who were members of the Communist Youth Union were booted out, several students said.
``I’ve been told that I have been expelled from the university and that I have a hearing pending with the Communist Youth, where I am to receive a temporary sanction due to the fact that, in self-criticism, I acknowledged having applied for the scholarship,‘’ wrote a student selected for a leadership program in the United States. "
And from last week:
" HAVANA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A Cuban appeals court on Thursday upheld a two-year prison sentence for a Havana man who was jailed last month after he appeared in a widely viewed YouTube video shouting there was hunger in Cuba.
In a hearing closed to the press, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Marcos, known as “Panfilo,” asked that his sentence for the crime of “dangerousness” be reduced, but a panel of judges refused the request, said Richard Rosello of the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights."
Read that again, sentenced to two years in prison for saying he was hungry. This is called “dangerousness” in Cuba. (They would have been better off sentencing for something like public drunkenness because, if you see video, Panfilo was wasted!)