Cuba’s Raul Castro steps down, ending the period of his well-known clan on the nation’s helm
Things have not worked out exactly according to Castro’s plan.
As Castro announced he was stepping down on Friday, his country is deep in crisis. The tourism-dependent island has been battered by the pandemic; the economy shrunk at least 11% in 2020 according to government estimates. Cubans each day spend hours in long lines to find increasingly scarce food, medicine and other necessities.
With then-US President Barack Obama, Castro mended long fraught US-Cuban relations, only to see those ties blown up again under the Trump administration which enacted some of the toughest economic penalties on the island in decades.
But so far, current President Joe Biden has been reluctant to engage with the communist-run island despite the most significant change in leadership in Cuba in decades.
“Regardless of what administration we have, Republican or Democrat, it’s a good time to engage,” said former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a rare member of the GOP to push for improved relations, who met…
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