Will Biden Restore Ties with Cuba? Debate Swirls over Next Steps as Florida Loss Muddies Plans
Will Biden Restore Ties with Cuba? Debate Swirls over Next Steps as Florida Loss Muddies Plans
"The election results…have seemingly reduced the space for dramatic policy shift," said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to the Miami Herald.
On the campaign trail, President-elect Joe Biden promised to reverse Donald Trump’s restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. But he stopped short of saying just how far he’ll go in restoring ties with the communist island.
To rewrite Cuba policy, Biden will have to navigate the perilous waters of Florida politics, where a large exile population has turned increasingly Republican. The landscape in Cuba has also changed since former President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations in December 2014…
"It's not the same Cuba as it was four years ago," said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and a former U.S. State Department official. "I think there's going to be a sober reassessment about…did meaningful change happen?"…
"I think the election results were sobering to a lot of people and have seemingly reduced the space for dramatic policy shift, at least in the near term," Farnsworth said. "Because of the election results, which everyone is now aware of, they are going to take a more incremental approach."…
