Mon 3 Oct 2011
U.S. and Cuban Relations
The current relations between Cuba and the United States of America still have lingering doubt about trusting the each other. The U.S. is a democracy where people vote for their leaders and have many rights. Cuba was run by a tyrant named Fidel Castro, who has ruled his country with an iron fist and destroyed all ties with the U.S. The two countries have been at odds for almost half a century dating back to when John F. Kennedy was President. Cuba is pressing for improved relations with the U.S. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, is one who is trying for Cuba to work with the U.S. saying, “It will be the beginning of a dialogue aimed at solving bilateral problems like the smuggling of drugs and humans.”
Several incidents in the past have led the relations between Cuba and The U.S. to be stressed with constant distrust. Fidel Castro and the Communist party took control in 1959, after a Cuban revolution ending with the execution of 15,000 people. Three months after John F. Kennedy was elected into office, the Bay of Pigs, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban Government with U.S. trained Cuban exiles, had failed. Another incident that hurt relations between the U.S. and Cuba was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Cuba was going to let the Soviet Union station nuclear missiles there. Nuclear weapons close enough to destroy many U.S. cities if a nuclear war was to break out with the Soviet Union. In the same year an agreement was made between the Soviet to dismantle their weapons from Cuba and ship them back. Recently, Fidel Castro has ridiculed President Barack Obama’s ideas, and has made little attempt to improve relations. In 2008, Fidel Castro resigned his duties as the Cuban President to his brother the vice president Raul Castro. Fidel had grown sick from what some believed was a stomach disease that was not terminal.
Below is a picture of President Fidel Castro (left) with his brother vice President Raul Castro (right) in 2001.
U.S. Cuban relations are important for Latin America because much trading is done around the two. Since the two countries are only now slowly normalizing their relations with each other, trading and other legal services are not up to speed. Latin America can benefit, because if Cuba and the U.S. are satisfied with each other, then many more opportunities including tourism, trading, and alliances can be possible. Countries will not have to pick any sides, or be judged by the two countries for their decisions. There are still problems with the two countries, but with hard fighting officials to become civil and stay calm with each other, peace and prosperity can be one day achieved.