Donald Trump is a teetotaler, but his fondness for the original Cuba Libre is impossible to ignore. On Wednesday, he commemorated Cuba's Independence Day with a statement reinforcing CIA director John Ratcliffe's earlier message to Havana that time is running out to address his concerns. The same day, the Nimitz aircraft carrier group arrived in the southern Caribbean, and the Department of Justice announced an indictment of Raúl Castro and several underlings for shooting down American civilian aircraft in 1996.
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Cuban people in Spanish, the U.S. government wants a new and better relationship with Cuba and has offered to distribute aid money through the Catholic Church or other non-regime channels to alleviate their suffering. A Castro-free Cuba, or one that significantly improves its treatment of its own people and respects American interests, would be a major accomplishment for Trump.
Cuban freedom has long been a cause for Americans. Sometimes they have hoped for the island to join their republic, but they have given the independence movement substantial support too. The Cuban flag was designed and first unfurled in New York City in 1850, and Cuban patriot extraordinaire José Martí organized from there the movement that eventually ended Spanish imperial rule. Cuban Americans may have a special antipathy for the Castros, but many other types of Americans also extend the blessings of liberty southward.
Americans tend to move from passive sympathy to action when threats to their own interests arise from Cuba. President McKinley sent in troops in 1898 because Spain's attempts to suppress the independence movement there threatened to spill over onto American shores. John F. Kennedy ham-handedly tried to oust the Castros and nearly went to war when the Soviets stationed nuclear weapons on the island.
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