What Will the Death of Castro Mean To Future US Relations?
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The death of Fidel is curious timing for many reasons.
Despite some reforms which have led to more private enterprise and granting of some personal freedoms, Cubans are increasingly dissatisfied with the speed of change, with the economy weakening and growing at only 1%.
Photo: My maternal great-grandfather, Gabriel Martin Garcia Menocal, the brother of the third President of the Cuban republic, Mario García Menocal.
The average Cuban takes home only $20 a month, and the economy has slid dramatically from a high in 2005.
Why is this happening?
Venezuela’s subsidies and tight economic ties with Cuba are all but done as Venezuela is imploding, which means a major cash crunch and reduced oil imports from Venezuela.
The Castro regime is effectively backed up against a wall, as they have very few other friends in the region, and none as powerful as was Venezuela. This is good and bad for the US, Obama began to build the bridge towards normalizing relations with Cuba in 2014 by easing certain restrictions and reestablishing the US Embassy in Havana with the hopes of lifting the embargo entirely.
With only a little over a month until the inauguration of the President elect, the Obama Administration has a very small window to once and for all repeal the 1960 embargo instituted by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Killing the embargo will effectively eliminate the last vestige of the old Fidel Castro regime and his longstanding fight against “American imperialism”, no more excuses for the Cuban government to hide behind.
Next- What could it mean to the US economy? 3 Possibilities On Lifting of the Embargo
