Former President Jimmy Carter lauded the decision to normalize diplomatic relations with and ease sanctions imposed on Cuba, steps he said would benefit the Cuban people and not the country’s autocratic rulers.
Carter said President Barack Obama’s decision to change the dynamic of the U.S.-Cuba relationship “very wise and courageous” and said he hopes Congress will move to end the embargo on Cuba.
“I think this is a good move, for both Cubans and Americans. I think it will be a major step forward to bring about more freedom and democracy and more respect for human rights in Cuba as well.” Carter said Wednesday on CNN. “It’s long overdue.”
Obama settled a landmark deal to normalize relations between the two countries in a phone call with Cuban President Raul Castro this week. The call between the two leaders capped more than a year of secret discussions to secure the release of American aid worker Alan Gross. Obama released three convicted Cuban spies, but secured the release of 53 political prisoners held in Cuba, a Cuban national who spied for the U.S. and won concessions from Castro to free up Internet access in Cuba.
Carter jumped to Obama’s defense following a chorus of attacks from Republicans led by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida who say Obama’s decision amounted to appeasement of a totalitarian government that will lead to anything but democratization.
“It is a lifeline for the Castro regime that will allow them to become more profitable … and allow them to become a more permanent fixture,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said Wednesday on CNN. “The embargo is leverage, these sanctions are leverage.”
Carter, who has traveled to Cuba several times and met with both Fidel and Raul Castro, called Rubio’s comments “absolutely ridiculous.”
“[The embargo] doesn’t hurt the Castro brothers, it just hurts the people of Cuba — about 11 million of them — who have had to suffer because of our own imposed economic sanctions,” Carter said.
Carter added that Obama’s decisions to ease the trade embargo — which will include allowing the export of telecommunications equipment to Cuba and more travel authorizations to the country — will help open up Cuban society and foster democracy.
And Carter added that Americans could also benefit if the embargo is lifted.
“We’re the only ones that can’t go to Cuba,” Carter said, referencing the ban preventing Americans from going to Cuba as tourists.