The U.S.-Cuba relationship is openly characterized by distrust, contradictions and mutual recriminations, but the wounds are deep and the important issues are more complicated than simple judgments based on limited knowledge of current events. The Cuban-American community had reasons, and still has reasons, for supporting the embargo, despite its apparent failure. The Cuban regime had and has its own motivations for calling the United States imperialist and domineering, and for engaging in seemingly paranoid counter-tactics.
In light of this, a history lesson is in order. Perhaps the best quick and descriptive timeline to this end is in this December 2008 BBC story.
The most recent event on the timeline should be of particular interest in terms of current U.S. concerns, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claims are human rights-based:
18 December 2008: Raul Castro says he is ready to consider releasing some political prisoners as a “gesture” with the US. But he calls for the US to free the Cuban Five – five men who were convicted in Miami in 2001 of spying.
