President Barack Obama landed in Cuba on Sunday and made history as the first U.S. president to visit the country since 1928, when Calvin Coolidge arrived by battleship. The president’s trip reflects significant changes in U.S.-Cuban relations: In December 2014, Obama announced that he would restart diplomatic ties with Cuba, and in August 2015, the U.S. embassy reopened in Havana.
However, the U.S. embargo on Cuba remains in place after 50 years, and the president’s trip has generated controversy, particularly due to human rights concerns. Thus the issue of U.S. policy in Cuba is a hot topic of the 2016 presidential election. Republican presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is the son of a Cuban immigrant, is a particularly vocal opponent of Obama’s approach toward Cuba and penned a critical op-ed Sunday for Politico.
Kenneth Walsh, chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, says that Obama’s Cuba visit exemplifies his concern about establishing his legacy in light of the 2016 presidential election. Walsh asserts, “His trip shows that Obama won't sit back but instead will keep pressing his initiatives throughout the campaign year.”
USA Today’s editorial board praises Obama for visiting Cuba. The editors write, “The mere presence of a U.S. president in Havana is startling, refreshing, novel.” They explain that U.S. sanctions have largely fallen short of their desired effect on the Cuban regime and therefore Obama’s new policy is welcome. “Obama’s approach is more promising, as closer economic ties will embolden a burgeoning private sector and give the United States more leverage to press for change in Cuba's abysmal human-rights record.”
Taylor Millard at Hot Air points out that human rights protestors, including members of the Ladies in White group, were arrested in Cuba before Obama’s arrival. Millard expresses optimism that U.S.-Cuban relations could follow the positive trajectory of U.S.-Soviet relations under President Ronald Reagan’s more open policy. “It might be best to stand up to Cuba when they do something anti-freedom, while letting businesses set up shop in Cuba and turn it from a communist country into a free market one. The only question is whether or not Washington has the stomach for it or will they prefer the past 50 years of mostly failed policy to come back,” writes Millard.
Damien Cave and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New York Times find that the protests underscore the challenge that human rights concerns present to Obama’s new policy in Cuba. They note that the Cuban government is resorting to various methods, ranging from arresting protestors to refurbishing physical buildings, in an attempt to craft the image that they want Obama to see. “Control is the subtext. Some Cubans describe the government’s efforts as the directing of an elaborate, predictable performance,” write Cave and Davis.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Armando Valladares, who was a political prisoner for 22 years under Fidel Castro’s regime, condemns Obama’s visit for the message that it sends to the everyday Cubans, whose experiences undermine the Cuba promoted by powerful political leaders and businessmen. He assets, “In agreeing to meet with Raul Castro, Obama rewards a regime that rules with brutal force and systemically violates human rights. He shrugs his shoulders at the little man. He shows a callous disregard for the human conscience, the single greatest threat to any ruler.”
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- President Barack Obama
WHEN- In December 2014
WHAT- Hope to repair the relationship with Cuba
WHY- They want to break ice
WHERE- Cuba
HOW- in August 2015, the U.S. embassy reopened in Havana.
Keywords：
2.burgeoning(ADJ): 增長迅速的，發展很快的
留言
張貼留言