Latin America Initiative

There’s a real sense the U.S.-Latin American relationship had been a bit distant and now has new possibilities. The one thing that could spoil that is the situation in Venezuela, so the administration is looking for ways to manage that.

The United States wants to move beyond a Cold War-era approach to one of constructive engagement as a way to support and empower the Cuban people. Cuba needs the United States as an economic engine for its troubled economy and hopes to attract new foreign investment and human capital to update its socialist model, but without undergoing political reform. Building confidence and trust will be critical to the ability to move forward.

In order for Cuba to become truly market-friendly, to have a favorable business climate for international investment, the outstanding [property] claims issue has to be resolved. What’s going to keep this relationship moving forward is, constituencies have to be created in both countries who are gaining from the normalization process.