Beyond an impassioned moment involving a seemingly quixotic gulp of water, Marco Rubio’s response to the State of the Union was rather impressive. Rubio is an imposing figure and an eloquent orator, and his efforts in shepherding an immigration bill through the Senate may help Republicans attract sorely-needed minority and centrist voters.
In his response, Rubio spoke movingly about his family’s humble Cuban roots. Yet it is also Rubio’s roots that have gotten him in hot water in years past. Rubio speaks of his parents fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, yet in reality Rubio’s parents left Cuba more than two-and-a-half years before Castro ever attained power. If Rubio runs in 2016, you’ll likely hear a lot more about this episode and about how the Cuba Rubio’s parents left is probably not as bad as the Cuba he’d like you to believe they left.
Whichever side one takes on this story, one can only hope that Rubio’s running in 2016 will push this country towards having a genuine policy debate regarding Cuba.
Yes, most of the problems facing America today are difficult. If they were simple, they would have been solved quite some time ago. The issue of Cuba is one we pushed off the table decades ago, and one that we’ve never quite talked about since.
With the Cold War is over, US foreign relations have changed substantially. China is now United States’ biggest trading partner, and significant progress has been made in working with Russia to eradicate nuclear arms. Despite these changes, Cuban-American relations remain frozen: a decades-long trade embargo remains in place despite widespread controversy, and there is no talk of reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba any time soon.
The dynamic doesn’t make sense—does anyone honestly think that Cuban communism holds the potential to infiltrate America today? And realistically, the Castro brothers’ hold on Cuban politics won’t diminish as a result of trade restrictions—the country has already survived the worst of the current embargo. It’s important to acknowledge that Cuba remains a potential market for American products. Cuba’s substantial reserves of oil are some which American petroleum companies would be interested in gaining access to. There is also a significant environmental factor at play. As a recent piece by Fareed Zakaria points out, if there were ever a Cuban oil spill similar to the Deepwater Horizon spill, current embargo laws dictate that America’s experts and technicians—the very best in the business—would not be allowed to help with any recovery. That’s not just spiteful, but dangerous to the United States’ own shores.
Beyond the practical arguments, the most important reason behind ending the embargo on Cuba is a moral one. Rubio’s family may not have suffered as much as the Senator is wont to speak of, but conditions are extremely difficult and oppressive for many Cubans. The island has an Internet usage rate in the low teens: a mere one-sixth of the population has access to sites such as YouTube, and most incredulously, only a tenth of Cuba’s population has access to a mobile phone.
Decades of empirical data have proven the Cuban embargo less efficient than originally imagined. If the United States were to open trade policy with Cuba, it would help break down barriers in ways the embargo and diplomatic hostility have not.