Understanding the Impact of U.S. Policy Changes on Human Rights and Democracy in Cuba and U.S. Cuban Relations--The Way Forward

President Obama's announcement that the United States would begin the process of normalizing relations with Cuba will have wide-ranging impacts. For more than 50 years, the United States pursued a sanctions policy designed to isolate Cuba. The goal was to undermine the Castro regime and promote human rights and democratic reform. This policy has failed to achieve any of these goals. Instead of isolating Cuba, America has isolated itself-alienating regional and international partners. For the past 23 years, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to condemn the United States unilateral embargo against Cuba. So rather than undermining the Castro regime, America's embargo has helped the Castros maintain authoritarian control over Cuba by restricting the free flow of information and contacts between Americans and Cuban citizens. And it has given the Castro regime a very convenient scapegoat for the suffering of the Cuban people. Far from ushering in democratic change and improved human rights for Cuba's 11 million citizens, Cuba remains a one-party Communist state that continues to restrict the most basic rights of its citizens and targets its opponents using intimidation, harassment, surveillance, and arbitrary arrest and detention.