Our Opinions

April 2013
Yoani Sánchez’ visit to Miami left a dramatic and permanent imprint on our exile community. Notwithstanding her positions on the embargo, travel and reconciliation, she brought us together in ways that no one had been able to do before. Expressions of dissent were almost imperceptible, even in the most hard-core corners of exile radicalism.
Shortly after Cuban blogger and pro-democracy advocate Yoani Sánchez visited the White House last week, she was asked by a TV Martí reporter whether she supported an unconditional lifting of the Cuban embargo.
January 2013
As the Senate prepares to question Hagel on his position on Cuba, it should be aware of an incredible irony: Hagel has been accused of being “soft on Castro” for espousing views that are almost entirely in sync with those of the Island’s leading pro-democracy advocates.
This week marks six months since the death of Cuban pro-democracy leaders Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero in Cuba. It also marks the 33rd birthday of Harold.
While John Kerry's views on U.S.–Cuba relations have favored engagement over isolation, ultimate authority rests with a White House that has proceeded cautiously on Cuba during President Obama's first term.
In October 2012, Cuba’s state-run media announced a long-awaited migratory policy that represents the first real political reform implemented by Raul’s government. The announcement follows a steady stream of economic reforms that legalized independent business, the purchase and sale of homes and vehicles, and the lease of idle land for farming, among other things.
December 2012
Earlier this month, USAID subcontractor Alan Grossbegan his fourth year in a Cuban prison. Ever since his incarceration, a debate has raged over whether the United States should halt further efforts to engage with the Cuban people until the Cuban government releases Gross.
April 2012

Cuba and its Diaspora

April 6, 2012

Very rarely do people choose to emigrate for simple personal reasons. Emigration happens when individuals feel that they are no longer able to remain in their country due to a hostile and exclusive political environment, or when living under a non-productive economy that fails to generate necessary job opportunities needed to support their families. With the exception of the poorest countries with a low education level, governments and their policies are the main causes of emigration.
March 2012
Like his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba at a crucial time in the nation’s history. Pope John Paul II visited in 1998, a time when Communist Europe had crumbled and expectations of change were high; Pope Benedict XVI landed during a time of unprecedented internal change.
October 2011
Few times, if any, in Cuba’s modern history has there been such an opportunity to help fuel the seeds of change on the island. The process of economic reforms put in place by Raul Castro, though limited and often contradictory, provide a window of opportunity help thousands of Cuban entrepreneurs succeed in starting and operating their own, independent businesses.
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