Dear Editor,
 
For over a year now, those of us of Cuban heritage and residing in the United States have been flooded with information about the relations, or lack thereof, between the countries and the many missed opportunities by the Obama administration to change Cuba policy, to match what Cuba is doing about its way of governing and its economy, boiling down to "what one country does and the other does or does not".
These are maximized by the expectation of many in the United States that the government should make further changes to its policies (the legitimacy and/or value of these policies are not going to be debated here) towards Cuba as a result of the changes that Cuba is in the process of putting into effect or has already done.
I, for one, do not agree that any changes need to be made as a direct result of the ongoing changes that the Cuban revolutionary government is making or proposing to make.  I also do not agree with any of the sanctions now in place with regard to Cuba, nor do I subscribe to the theory that Cuba is "a terrorist nation" - the furthest thing from my belief.  But I do not tie one country's internal changes to another's foreign policies.
What is happening in Cuba is the direct result of erroneous economic, and to a certain degree political, decisions in the past.  Some of them were derived from the Cold War mentality, which still prevails in some circles of both governments.  Others came about as a result of mismanagement and/or lack of managerial ability.  But these are Cuban problems, these are Cuban decisions taken at this time, I trust, to correct the problems from the past mistakes that were made and make life better for its citizens.
Once again we continue to interfere in the internal affairs of Cuba, and we do it with other nations too.  I noted with keen interest that Raul Castro (I believe it was him) said in days past that if an individual is caught in this country (i.e. United States), receiving money from Cuba, he/she is prosecuted under several of our laws, unless registered as a representative of a foreign country - which if done I would imagine that our government's radars would be on that individual or group 24/7/365!  And yet the United State criticizes Cuba for the prosecution of those that are actively taking money, and orders, from the United States' government and dressing themselves as "periodistas", but without journalism degrees. This, at the very least is total hypocrisy.
The conclusion is simple.  Whatever Cuba does internally is the problem of its government and its people, and nothing should be expected or demanded by them or others as payment for their changes.  On the other side of the coin, the United States government needs to discontinue two things:
1) The flow of money - taxpayers' money - to individuals and organizations that "promote" democracy or regime change in Cuba.  This is direct interference in the internal affairs of another country.
2) Disengage the "this-for-that" policies and realize that the embargo has been a failure, and an excuse, and that Americans should be able to travel to Cuba as they please.
 
- Jose A. Gonzalez

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian