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"Over winter break, my family and I took advantage of our dual citizenships and traveled to Cuba. Walking the streets of Havana and talking to people, we found a country stagnated by stale revolutionary reforms and haunted by the presence of an ailing yet omnipresent leader. With banners everywhere in celebration of Fidel&amp;#x27;s 80th birthday declaring, &amp;quot;Viva Fidel&amp;amp;#8212;here&amp;#x27;s to 80 more!&amp;quot;, it seemed impossible to imagine Cuba without Castro. Now, only two months later, Fidel is out. And George W. Bush is next to go. Perfect timing? I can&amp;#x27;t help but think yes: Castro&amp;#x27;s political death fits right in with the out-with-the-old feel of our presidential race, and the candidates have to seize this chance to create a new kind of rhetoric for dealing with supposedly problematic nations. For far too long, Cuba has been a ghost issue, and this campaign season is the perfect opportunity to revive it. Pressuring candidates to take a stance on the future of US-Cuba relations can be just the trick to measure the potential directions of American foreign policy under a new commander-in-chief. I believe that America must loosen its restrictive embargoes against Cuba. They are punitive and solve nothing. Barack Obama has indicated that he would consider this, along with easing travel restrictions and opening talks. Hillary Clinton supports the embargo but has softened her stance recently, while John McCain staunchly supports the embargo (and has been endorsed by some Cuban-American leaders). &amp;quot;Cuba&amp;#x27;s future should be determined by the Cuban people,&amp;quot; wrote Obama last August. I agree&amp;amp;#8212;and hope that our next president can allow the Cuban people to make that choice without further harm from US policies. &amp;amp;#8212;Fernanda Help us improve the site for you! Take a minute and share your thoughts with us by taking this survey."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/glamocracy/2008/02/why-cuba-matters>