WASHINGTON, December 23 (Sputnik) — Efforts by Congressional opponents of US President Barack Obama’s Cuba policy will likely be unsuccessful in blocking the reopening of diplomatic ties between the US and Cuban governments, US and Cuban-American experts said Monday.
“I think it’s very hard for them to do much to reverse this,” President Emeritus of the US think-tank the Inter-American Dialogue Peter Hakim told Sputnik.
Threats by Obama’s opponents in US House and Senate to cut funding for the current US mission in Cuba are “foolish,” Hakim stated. He noted, however, that the Obama administration “may not be able to confirm an ambassador…for reasons of political gamesmanship.”
Congressional opponents of Obama’s re-engagement policy with Cuba have “really hurt themselves more than they have helped themselves on this issue,” chairman of the Cuba Study Group Carlos Saladrigas claimed at a Monday meeting of the Inter-American Dialogue.
The most vocal opponent of Obama’s policy, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio argued that the reopening of relations between the countries will not benefit the people of Cuba. Saladrigas criticized Rubio as “looking very unpresidential on this issue,” and argued that despite the senator’s personal feelings about the policy, “we [the United States] need to move forward.”
Attempts to interfere with re-engagement efforts could impair the limited ties the United States currently has with Cuban civil society through the diplomatic mission in Havana, according to statements Ted Piccone, Latin America expert at the Brookings Institute, made to Sputnik on Monday.
“That mission is providing direct support to civil society, human rights activists – they have libraries and computers,” he said, adding he did not believe cutting funding to the mission was a winning argument.
Peter Hakim further emphasized that the actions of the Cuban government would be very important for moving forward.
“To the extent the Cuban don’t change anything, they crack down, then this will make it more difficult for the US to open any more, and will give the opponents something really to grasp onto”, Hakim said.
Obama announced a historic change in US-Cuban policy on December 18, following a prisoner exchange which included the return of US intelligence agent and aid-worker Alan Gross.
The two countries have had severely limited interactions since 1961.
Obama faces vocal opponents in the Republican party including Senator Rubio, and Florida Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. The Republican leadership, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is looking at measures the Congress can take in response to Obama’s unilateral policy change on Cuba.
