Cuba has haunted the United States in modern times since Theodore Roosevelt's days. It is superfluous to try resuming the many aberrations and dramas which have occurred since Fidel Castro overthrew the corrupt Batista gang in 1959. Unfortunately, Castro's impulsive magnetism got hold of the better persona in him and might well have pushed the world into a global conflict. Now President Obama has taken the decision to "normalize" the bilateral relations. Cuba is to the United States what the United Kingdom is to continental Europe, an air carrier on its maritime borders.
Obama is right to put a halt to a prehistoric situation which no longer delivered any credible dividend to Washington. On the contrary, Cuba became a reference for countries like Venezuela and Bolivia, and a convenient occasional partner for Russia and China. By taking this action the United States has deprived Cuba of its historical exceptionalism, removing the sting from its raison d'etre. Cuba, by taking the bait, swaps ipso facto a legend for a story.
The American right and the elderly Cubans in Miami will scream. The younger generation of Cubans in the United States will applaud.
Cuba is not going to change overnight. Neither should the Americans try to get involved in murky plots, out of Godfather II. The Cubans will be happy to feel that change comes with benefits and investment, freedom and more tolerance. Those added values take time to be realized but, contrary to the opportunistic Chinese or Russian injections, they last and do change lives.
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