Time to Ditch the Cuba Embargo

Fifty years to the day after Che Guevara marched into Havana, the Los Angeles Times says it is time to end America’s economic blockade of communist Cuba. “Since that New Year's night in 1959, 10 U.S. presidents have tried to overthrow, undermine or cajole Castro, to no avail,” the paper argues in an editorial. “Fifty years of failure is too long. The incoming Obama administration should move quickly to embark on a rapprochement with Cuba and bring an end to punitive policies…Tourists carrying books and ideas serve as ambassadors for democracy. Manufactured goods speak for the creativity of an open economy.” The key is Obama’s unique freedom of action. In the presidential election, Obama won Florida without the support of Cuban0American hard-liners, freeing himself from restraints that inhibited his predecessors.