Sorry Mom and Dad

I didn't know, until I heard it on the news this morning, that there is a provision in the Omnibus bill to ease travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba.

CUBA TRAVEL AND TRADE

Obama has made clear he favors relaxing limits on family travel and cash remittances by Cuban Americans to Cuba, although he has said the U.S. trade embargo should stay in place to press for democratic reforms.

The Cuba proposals do not lift the overall U.S. embargo on the communist-run country, but would prohibit the Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.

The legislation proposes to allow Americas with immediate family in Cuba to travel there once a year instead of once every three years and broadens the definition of immediate family.

"It's being done in a haphazard way without real clarity about the implications that it all will have," said Republican opponent of the provisions, Senator Mel Martinez from Florida, which is home to thousands of Cuban exiles like himself.

So this is where I feel I may need to apologize to my parents but why stop there?
Why not just completely do away with the embargo?

As the daughter and granddaughter of Cuban immigrants, I know what I am about to say goes against everything I should probably stand for (at least as far as my parents and grandparents are concerned)but here it goes: First of all what exactly is the embargo accomplishing? When it started 40-odd years ago the intent was to isolate the Castro Regime, who at the time was allying with the USSR. They posed a national security threat and the intention was to isolate and undermine the regime and lead to its downfall. Since 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union Cuba really poses no threat and we are the only country with an embargo against Cuba and the Castro Regime is still in power. So I ask is it really working? What exactly is it achieving?

Well, in a speech Dan Griswold of the CATO Institute had this to say:

As a foreign policy tool, the embargo actually enhances Castro's standing by giving him a handy excuse for the failures of his homegrown Caribbean socialism. He can rail for hours about the suffering the embargo inflicts on Cubans, even though the damage done by his domestic policies is far worse. If the embargo were lifted, the Cuban people would be a bit less deprived and Castro would have no one else to blame for the shortages and stagnation that will persist without real market reforms.

Think about it, if Castro is using the embargo as propaganda to show the Cuban people how evil the Americans are and how all their suffering is because of the American embargo then who will he have to blame when the embargo is lifted? Who will they blame when there is no one left to blame for their failed policies.
And it's not just the Cuban government, but other countries blame the US for the economic hardships in Cuba. They don't bother to mention that not only do other countries, Canada, the EU and Latin American countries, trade with Cuba but that Cuba does have limited trade with the US:

In 2000, Congress approved a modest opening of the embargo. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 allows cash-only sales to Cuba of U.S. farm products and medical supplies. The results of this opening have been quite amazing. Since 2000, total sales of farm products to Cuba have increased from virtually zero to $380 million last year. From dead last in U.S. farm export markets, Cuba ranked 25th last year out of 228 countries in total purchases of U.S. farm products. Cuba is now the fifth largest export market in Latin America for U.S. farm exports. American farmers sold more to Cuba last year than to Brazil. Our leading exports to Cuba are meat and poultry, rice, wheat, corn, and soybeans.

So I say, in the spirit of transparency, go ahead and lift the embargo and lets see what happens. If the embargo hasn't fulfilled it's purpose yet then lets see what we can do when we are allowed to go to Cuba and spread our ideas and money on that island. Lets see what we can do when the government cant blame us for their problems anymore.