Cuba embargo an 'albatross,' so end it, says Clinton

Campaigning Friday in Miami, Hillary Rodham Clinton said that engaging with Cuba is a choice between a 21st-century foreign policy and a return to “cowboy diplomacy.”
Campaigning Friday in Miami, Hillary Rodham Clinton said that engaging with Cuba is a choice between a 21st-century foreign policy and a return to “cowboy diplomacy.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Friday for lifting the embargo on Cuba, saying closer relations with the island nation will bring about change and new freedoms.

In a speech in Miami, Clinton said the country "must decide between engagement and embargo, between embracing fresh thinking and returning to Cold War deadlock," as she sought to position herself as a forward-looking alternative to Republican supporters of the economic blockade.

Last year, President Barack Obama announced that after a half-century, he was moving to re-establish diplomatic relations with the Cuban government.

"The upcoming presidential election will determine if we chart a new path forward or turn back to the old ways of the past," she said in Miami at Florida International University.

In her remarks, Clinton framed the opening with Cuba as a choice between a 21st-century foreign policy and a return to "cowboy diplomacy." She also called the embargo "an albatross" on the United States in its maneuvering in Latin America.

She argued that exposure to more U.S. commerce and travelers, and the Internet, would be more effective in changing the policies of a government that continued, she acknowledged, in "beating and harassing" its political opponents and "cracking down on free expression and the Internet."

"I understand the skepticism in this community," she said, but added: "We have to seize this moment."

Clinton's Republican opponents, especially those from Florida, disagree. Sen. Marco Rubio, a leading advocate for the embargo, said in a statement released Friday that Clinton "is making another grave mistake. Unilateral concessions to the Castros will only strengthen a brutal, anti-American regime."

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, who has deep political roots in Miami's Cuban-American community, called it "insulting to many residents of Miami for Hillary Clinton to come here to endorse a retreat in the struggle for democracy in Cuba."

Earlier in the day, in Fort Lauderdale, Clinton and Bush appeared together at the same event, a first for the 2016 campaign. They spoke to a predominantly black audience at the annual conference of the National Urban League, one of the nation's largest civil-rights organizations.

Bush said the country's decades-long efforts to fight poverty are failing and that his record as Florida's governor, especially in education, serves as a blueprint for a future presidency.

"For a half-century, this nation has pursued a 'war on poverty' and massive government programs, funded with trillions of taxpayer dollars," Bush said. "This decades-long effort, while well-intentioned, has been a losing one.

"So many people could do so much better in life if we could come together and get even a few big things right in government," Bush said. "I acted on that belief as governor of Florida. It's a record I'll gladly compare with anyone else in the field."

Within moments of taking the stage, Clinton sought to draw distinctions between herself and Republicans, including a reminder of the federal government's poor response to Hurricane Katrina a decade ago during the administration of Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush.

She also took an indirect shot at Jeb Bush, not using his name but that of his super political action committee, Right to Rise.

"I don't think you can credibly say that everyone has a right to rise and then say you're for phasing out Medicare or repealing Obamacare," Clinton said. "People can't rise if they can't afford health care. They can't rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on. They can't rise if their governor makes it hard for them to get a college education, and you cannot seriously talk about the right to rise and support laws that deny the right to vote."

Bush delivered his own set of reminders to the Urban League audience. He said that as Florida governor, he ordered the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol, raised the number of black judges and tripled the state's hiring of businesses owned by members of minority groups.

He zeroed in on his efforts to overhaul education in the state by expanding school choice and raising test standards, hoping to connect with the audience on what he called a critical issue to the nation's future.

"If we don't create an education system that allows young people to reach it, we're setting them up for a lifetime of failure," Bush said. "So you and I have to call this situation what it is -- the worst inequality in America today, and the source of so many other inequalities."

Information for this article was contributed by Jason Horowitz of The New York Times and by Sergio Bustos and Kelli Kennedy of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/01/2015

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