Hillary Clinton Calls for End to Cuba Embargo in Attack on 'Outdated' Policy

By Sabrina Siddiqui, Guardian UK

01 August 15

Democratic presidential frontrunner calls out Republican opponents for looking through ‘cold war lens’ and calls for improved relations with Latin America

illary Clinton on Friday called out her Republican rivals for approaching foreign policy “through an outdated cold war lens”. In a speech that advocated for greater diplomatic engagement with Latin America, the Democratic presidential frontrunner also called on Congress to lift the 50-year US embargo on Cuba.

The former secretary of state said the US had reached a “decisive moment” in the thawing of its relations with Havana, following an unprecedented shift in policy by Barack Obama in December.

“The Cuban people have waited long enough for progress to come,” Clinton said. “The Cuba embargo needs to go, once and for all. We should replace it with a smarter approach that empowers the Cuban private sector, Cuban civil society and the Cuban-American community to spur progress and keep pressure on the regime.”

Clinton has been publicly supportive of the Obama administration’s decision to re-establish ties between the US and Cuba, which has included the lifting of certain sanctions, the removal of Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list and exchange of embassies in Washington and Havana.

Although it was Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, who signed sanctions against Cuba into federal law, the former secretary of state was reportedly instrumental in helping to orchestrate negotiations between the two countries for the first time in a half-century.

On Friday, Clinton publicly argued her case in detail for the first time in Miami – the original home of the Cuban exile community and the backyard of two of her chief Republican opponents, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and US senator Marco Rubio.

“We have the chance for a fresh start in the Americas,” Clinton said. “No region in the world is more important to our long-term prosperity … and no region in the world is better positioned to emerge as a new force for global peace and progress.”

That progress had been promised to Cuba for 50 years, she added, and the time had come to acknowledge that the US could no longer wait “for a failed policy to bear fruit”.

Clinton delivered her speech at Florida International University, where Rubio is an adjunct professor of political science. The Florida Republican, who was born to Cuban immigrants, has been a staunch opponent of resuming US-Cuba relations, as has been Bush.

Clinton sharpened her attack on both Republican presidential hopefuls – albeit indirectly – for supporting ideology over evidence.

“Most Republican candidates running for president would play right into the hardliners’ hands,” she said. “They would reverse the progress we have made. Fundamentally, most of the Republican candidates still view Cuba, and Latin America more broadly, through an outdated cold war lens. For them ideology trumps evidence, and so they remain incapable of moving us forward.”

It was Clinton’s second thinly veiled critique of Bush in one day. Earlier on Friday morning, she laid into the former governor’s positions on healthcare, voting rights and the minimum wage at a conference where both she and Bush addressed a predominantly African American audience.

Bush hit back at Clinton’s Cuba announcement in a statement issued from Miami, calling it “insulting” for her to “endorse a retreat in the struggle for democracy in Cuba”.

“This city has become a home and a refuge to thousands and thousands of Castro’s victims,” Bush said. “Secretary Clinton’s call to abandon the embargo – and the principles of democracy and freedom for the Cuban people – in exchange for nothing in return from the regime in Havana adds insult to the pain they and their families feel.”

Bush also disputed the notion that the embargo was a “relic of the cold war”.

“The American people deserve principled leaders who will stand up to our adversaries and stand up for our values,” he said. “Secretary Clinton’s politically expedient embrace of President Obama’s unilateral concessions to Cuba makes clear she will do neither.”

Clinton said Republican candidates “have it backwards” by insisting that renewed diplomatic relations will further embolden the Castro regime.

“Engagement is not a gift to the Castros, it is a threat to the Castros. An American embassy in Havana isn’t a concession, it’s a beacon,” she said. “Lifting the embargo doesn’t set back the advance of freedom. It advances freedom.”

“We will let Raúl [Castro] explain to his people why he wants to prevent American investment,” Clinton added.

The visit to Florida marked Clinton’s first to the key battleground state since launching her presidential campaign in April. Although the state’s Cuban-American vote has traditionally been a stronghold for Republicans, the political dynamics have shifted vastly in recent years.

Polling has shown that a slim majority of Cuban Americans in Florida now favor ending the trade embargo – a number that rises dramatically among younger voters. Nationally, too, support has been on the rise for Obama’s reversal in Cuba policy.

The surveys have had little impact on Bush and Rubio, who have not only opposed the new chapter in US-Cuba ties but also committed to reversing the steps taken by the current administration to normalize relations if elected president. Rubio responded to Clinton’s embrace of Obama’s policy ahead her speech, calling it a “grave mistake” to engage with the Castro regime.

“Unilateral concessions to the Castros will only strengthen a brutal, anti-American regime 90 miles from our shore,” Rubio said. “President Obama and Secretary Clinton must learn that appeasement only emboldens dictators and repressive governments, and weakens America’s global standing in the 21st century.”