news-record.com

When U.S. Rep. Mel Watt  traveled to Cuba earlier this month, he was curious to meet President Raul Castro , the younger brother of the island’s long time leader, Fidel.

During his previous trip to Cuba in 2004, Watt said, one rarely heard about Raul , who ran the military but was not much of an up-front figure.

“I thought he would be a lot more restrained and a lot less outgoing” than his older brother, Watt said. “But, you know, Cubans like to talk. Raul is just as outgoing and loquacious as Fidel is.”

Watt, who represents parts of Guilford County, was part of a seven-member Congressional Black Caucus trip to the island.

The trip was a timely one, as Watt and other members of the delegation returned only days before President Barack Obama  lifted some travel restrictions on Cuban Americans traveling to the island.

Later the same week, Raul Castro said he would be willing to discuss “everything, whenever they want” during a speech to leftist leaders in Venezuela.

For a half-century, Cuba has been the subject of U.S. sanctions and a trade embargo aimed at forcing Castro from office, said Gregory Weeks , an associate professor at UNC-Charlotte who studies Latin American issues.

“You can say that after 50 years, it really hasn’t worked,” Weeks said. “There’s very little that the United States could do to make the Castros more deeply entrenched.”

Opinions on what the United States should do about Cuba vary within the Cuban American community, Weeks said.

Older Cubans, often those who fled during the revolution, tend to hold a harder line. And their voices have carried extra weight because of Florida’s important role in the presidential map and the Cuban communities’ importance in swaying statewide elections there.

But, Watt points out, Obama “announced during the campaign that he was going to change some of the policies toward Cuba and he still won Florida.”

Weeks said that illustrates there’s increasing sentiment toward relaxing restrictions on the island, particularly among younger Cuban Americans.

“It’s a generational change,” Weeks said. As that shift happens, he said, U.S. policy toward the island will probably soften.

That would suit Watt, who called Obama’s lifting of restrictions “a good first step” and said Congress should vote to end the embargo.

“I don’t think you try to strangle your neighbor to death just because you don’t like their religious position or their political position or their economic philosophy,” Watt said.

Watt said Castro displayed the same readiness to meet with the United States he talked about in Venezuela during the congressional visit earlier this month.

“They don’t understand what we would be asking for,” Watt said. “But they make clear whatever issues we want to discuss they’re willing to discuss — short of changing their political or economic system.”

Likely, the United States would want to talk about free speech rights, the release of political prisoners and other issues, Weeks said.

Even before Obama’s softening of travel restrictions, Weeks said, governors and business leaders had been traveling to the island. And the U.S. sold about $700 million in food products to the island last year, according to trade figures.

“It would be a wonderful tourist destination,” Watt said. “It would be a wonderful trading partner.”

Both Watt and Weeks said U.S. policy appeared to be moving toward more open relations with Cuba.

“It’s clear that attitudes are changing,” Watt said. “But how long it will take for politicians to catch up with those attitude changes, I can’t tell you.”
 

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com