Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro held that well-chronicled meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Panama. They talked. They shook hands. They posed for photographers. They promised to look to the future.
We know that means Cuba will be coming off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It’s a sham that it’s still on it. We also know that the embargo will ultimately be lifted, even if it takes the “biological solution” (the death of the brothers Castro) to expedite it.
But what are the relevant takeaways from this historic meeting of the oddest of Hemispheric couples? Here are a couple from Ted Hencken, the well-regarded “El Yuma” blogger and Cuban scholar from Baruch College, City University of New York.
* Obama, underscored Hencken, clearly understood the “key role of civil society and public support for Cuban civil society.” He was impressed that Obama also met with Manuel Cuesta Morua and Laritza Diversent, two leading Cuban dissidents. Obama stressed that they support his “empowerment through engagement” policy.
* He pointed out Obama’s unequivocal clarification that “On Cuba, we are not in the business of regime change” and stressed that “Cuba is not a threat to the U.S.”
* Hencken noted the “surprising personal regard” that Castro expressed for Obama as “an honest man” who has no responsibility for past U.S. policy.”
* He also stressed that while some had “feared (or hoped)” that the Venezuela/President Maduro issue might steal the Summit show, it never came close to happening. “Maduro did not get support for his condemnation of U.S. sanctions and even had to endure some countries’ expressed concern for his own jailing of dissidents.”
* Hencken detected a “shift in the region away from ideology toward economic pragmatism.” This he attributes, in part, to “the China slow-down, the Russian nose-dive and Venezuelan implosion.” He says the U.S. is likely primed to step in with “strategic economic engagement and oil diplomacy.”