Latin America & the Caribbean

Cuba is increasingly going to focus on that relationship with the United States...On the rhetorical level, it's going to mean that Cuba and Venezuela are going to get out of sync.

That’s been an ongoing problem for the Cuban government for some time now, trying to figure out how they can diversify their economic relationship so they weren’t so dependent on Venezuela. When they looked at their options, they realized that better relations with the United States were critical to their economic strategy.

Public opinion in Florida and in the country is moving to moderation on Cuba, and Obama is effectively using his political capital to make a long-anticipated shift that history and the U.S. public will support.