The Daily Campus

As a Cuban-American who came to this country in 1962, I thank you for a voice of reason. It is increasingly embarrassing to see presidential hopefuls pander to a small group in Miami's Cuban American community that is holding our foreign policy hostage, contrary to our legitimate best interests. These are the same extremists that have been sumptuously rewarded with US tax dollars in the lucrative "anti-Castro" industry. They profess to want for Cuba the democracy and dignified form of government they do not practice in Miami, and did not practice in Cuba before the majority there said, "Enough!" and ousted them.

The embargo is a failed policy because Cuba adheres to its own historical commitment; the right to self-determination. The embargo is criminal because it attempts to weary and conquer people by material exhaustion, denigration and humiliation. It has cost a great deal of human suffering and even deaths, and extreme financial losses. The exact figures are well documented and reported annually to the United Nations. It has without a doubt affected the lives of 11 million people there.

The embargo against Cuba is also a violation of every American's constitutional right to travel and freely associate. It is a grotesque human rights violation prohibiting family reunification and in the best case, allowing only Cuban Americans with parents, spouses, children or siblings, to visit them every 3 years. Aunts and uncles, cousins, etc., are not considered family.

Then, in order to make some "notable" Cuban American in Congress happy, the US Interest Section will not comply with the agreed number of visas to be issued, while the Cuban Adjustment Act remains intact, thereby encouraging the treacherous and often fatal illegal exodus. The images of rafters, etc., are great publicity for some. While the fight for terrorism has been the banner for massive raids and deportations of other Latin Americans, often time without their US born children, human trafficking has increasingly become a more lucrative business than the ever increasing drug trafficking in Miami. Go figure!

I agree with you, Greg. I'm a Cuban living in Canada.

I'm also a Cuban-American and I could not agree more with the previous comment. It's time for this country to change its policy towards Cuba. After all, time has demonstrated that it did not work, all the opposite. It has given Mr. Castro an excuse: Cuban is in trouble because the American embargo and not because the system does not work. Nobody is happier with the embargo than Fidel Castro.