Guantánamo Bay: Change We Can’t Believe In

This week, speculation is circulating in Washington that the Obama administration will issue an executive order to relax restrictions on the Cuban travel ban before Labor Day. In addition, the State Department added Daniel Erikson, senior associate of the Inter-American Dialogue and author of The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States and the Next Revolution, to its Western Hemisphere Affairs staff. Some analysts point to these steps as evidence that President Obama is prepared to redeem pledges that he made during his campaign and make a change in U.S. relations with Cuba, particularly because Erikson has implied that he supports lifting the decades-old embargo. Erikson has also described the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay as an example of “the craziness of the U.S.-Cuba relationship.”

Erikson’s appointment and the rash of speculations about relaxing the travel ban come a mere two months after a New York Times article accused President Obama of suspending efforts to close the Guantánamo base due to fierce opposition. If the administration has indeed put its Guantánamo agenda on the back burner, President Obama will fail in his commitment to closing the prison before the end of his term. While appointing more enlightened leadership in the State Department and expanding the right to travel to Cuba would be a step in the right direction, the administration’s efforts in warming relations will prove fruitless if the detention center remains open. A continued U.S. presence at Guantánamo will pose a massive obstacle to the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations due to the questionable manner in which the area was acquired and the notorious reputation it has obtained over the last seven years as a major force of the U.S.-anti-terrorist.

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Elizabeth Gavin