Clinton calls for lifting Cuba embargo, says GOP critics have 'it backwards'

Clinton calls for lifting Cuba embargo, says GOP critics have 'it backwards'
Published July 31, 2015 Associated Press

Drawing a sharp distinction with her main Republican rivals in Florida,
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday called on the GOP-run Congress to end
the trade embargo the U.S. has imposed on Cuba since 1962.

The Democratic presidential favorite said an open economic relationship
would do more to bring "dignity and democracy" to the island nation than
continuing the hardline isolationism that lasted through five decades of
Republican and Democratic administrations, including her husband's two
terms.

President Barack Obama has normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba and
has called for Congress to lift the economic embargo, as well.

Clinton acknowledged that she previously supported sanctions in Cuba,
but she told an auditorium of students, faculty and others at Florida
International University that she changed her views during four years as
Obama's secretary of state. During that time, there also has been a
softening of public opinion among the million-plus Cuban-Americans who
hold considerable sway in Florida voting.

Clinton accused Republican presidential candidates -- without calling
them by name -- of approaching Cuba and Latin America "through a Cold
War prism."

"They have it backwards: Engagement is not a gift to the Castros; it's
a threat to the Castros," Clinton said. "An American embassy in Havana
isn't a concession; it's a beacon. Lifting the embargo doesn't set back
freedom; it advances freedom."

She framed their stance on the embargo as part of broader foreign
affairs errors.

She didn't name any Republican presidential contenders, including
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, both vocal
critics of Obama's December decision to establish diplomatic relations
with Cuba.

But she said, "We cannot afford to let out-of-touch, out-of- date,
partisan ideas and candidates rip away all the progress we've made."

Bush, who earlier shared a stage with Clinton at a National Urban League
conference in nearby Fort Lauderdale, embraced their disagreement,
saying it was "insulting to many residents of Miami for Hillary Clinton
to come here to endorse a retreat in the struggle for democracy in Cuba."

Rubio had pre-emptively criticized Clinton, issuing a statement before
her speech. "President Obama and Secretary Clinton must learn that
appeasement only emboldens dictators and repressive governments and
weakens America's global standing in the 21st century," he said.

U.S.-Cuba relations have long been a flashpoint in Florida politics. The
generations of Cuban-Americans who were born in Cuba and fled shortly
after the Castro-led revolution in the late 1950s generally supported a
hard line, including the embargo that keeps American businesses from
trading with Cuba and blocks Americans from traveling in the country and
spending money there as tourists.

For decades, south Florida politicians and presidential candidates vying
for the state's electoral votes reflected those views, regardless of
party. Clinton's husband was among them, even as he quietly attempted to
engage Fidel Castro in the 1990s.

Now, says Florida pollster Fernand Amandi, an expert on Cuban-American
public opinion, that once solid voting bloc is "a community in
transition," giving Clinton an opening.

U.S.-born Cuban-Americans, Amandi said, are consistently more supportive
of normalized relations than their Cuban-born parents and also are less
likely to consider themselves one-issue voters. "The younger generations
are more like any other immigrants -- they care about pocketbook issues,
jobs, their kids' educations," he said.

In addition, Cuba-born immigrants in the past few decades "lived under
the sanctions and concluded that it just emboldened the Castro regime,"
he said. "So think after 55 years of failure, it's time for something else."

Beyond the Cuban-American community, a majority of adults in the U.S.
support normalizing relations with Cuba. A Pew Research Center survey
conducted July 14-20 found that nearly 73 percent of Americans approve
of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, while 72 percent support
ending the trade embargo, both double-digit percentage increases from
January, immediately after Obama's decision.

Pew found the same trends though lower numbers among Republicans, with
56 percent of such voters backing a diplomatic bond and 59 percent
supporting an economic relationship.

Source: Clinton calls for lifting Cuba embargo, says GOP critics have
'it backwards' | Fox News -
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/31/in-miami-clinton-set-to-call-for-lifting-cuba-embargo/