PD Editorial: Returning to a failed policy on Cuba

President Donald Trump promised to shake things up in Washington, to steer the nation away from the failed policies of the past.

When it comes relations with Cuba, however, Trump is turning back the clock.

The United States isolated Cuba for a half-century, through nine presidential administrations, in hopes of pushing Fidel Castro from power.

It was a quintessential failure of Cold War foreign policy with bipartisan fingerprints. The Cuban people suffered, and so did U.S. relations with the rest of Latin America. Castro endured, while blaming his failures on the United States. When he finally stepped down, he transferred power to his brother Raul.

President Barack Obama shifted directions on Cuba, restoring diplomatic relations, easing travel restrictions and relaxing sanctions - not because Raul Castro had changed his brother's repressive ways but because engagement has proven to be a more effective approach.

Rapprochement had support from both major parties as well as U.S. tourism, manufacturing and telecommunication companies. But three years later, Trump is dusting off the Cold War playbook. “Effective immediately,” he said Friday in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, “I am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba.”

As is so often the case with Trump's pronouncements, there's more bluster than substance here. His executive order will make it more difficult for Americans to visit Cuba - as 285,000 did last year - or do business there, but he didn't sever diplomatic relations, restore special treatment for Cuban immigrants or prevent Cuban-Americans from visiting their homeland.

Trump framed his decision as a defense of human rights. “We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer,” he said Friday.

But there's ample reason to believe that Trump was most concerned with reversing the policies of his predecessor and rewarding the hard-line Cuba expatriate community in Florida that lined up behind him during last year's presidential campaign.

To be clear, the Castro regime has a dreadful record on human rights and deserves condemnation until it restores democracy and stops imprisoning critics of the government.

Until now, however, Trump has shown little interest in such matters, embracing dictators in Egypt, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Speaking in Riyadh during his first trip abroad as president, Trump said: “We are not here to lecture. We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership - based on shared interests and values - to pursue a better future for us all.”

That sounds a lot like engagement, the diplomatic strategy widely credited with pushing China toward a more responsible approach to climate change and persuading Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program.

Although he didn't mention Cuba specifically, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson endorsed a policy of engagement in an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a few days before Trump's announcement. “History has shown that the United States leaves a footprint of freedom wherever it goes,” he said.

If Trump is serious about ending repression in Cuba and, in his own words, helping its people find “prosperity and liberty,” he won't succeed by returning to a policy that already failed.