It’s also home to two top Republican presidential contenders: Bush, the former Florida governor, and Sen.
Advertisement
Clinton reminded her audience that she had called to end the embargo as her term as secretary of state wrapped up because she “became convinced” that encouraging ties between Cubans and Americans would promote economic and political change on the island.
“We welcome Senator Clinton’s call to end the embargo”, said James Williams, president of Engage Cuba, which favors diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
In a statement, Bush countered that it was “insulting” for Clinton to come to Miami and “endorse a retreat in the struggle for democracy in Cuba”.
Cuban-Americans who support the embargo protested Clinton’s speech outside the hall where she spoke.
> 00:14 “and for all (applause fades)”.
In a speech at Florida global University, the Democratic president front-runner said U.S.-Cuba relations are at a “crossroads”, and that she’ll “double down” on President Obama’s policy of engaging the communist island: “The Cuba embargo”, Clinton declared, “needs to go once and for all”.
The former US Secretary of State will also ask for support for the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba announced in December by the governments of Barack Obama and Raul Castro, sealed on July 20 with the reopening of their embassies in Washington and Havana. “Engagement is not a gift to the Castros – it is a threat to the Castros”. In a 2008 campaign statement, she said that she wouldn’t support normalized relations with Cuba until the country moved towards democracy. Clinton’s call for lifting the embargo would have sounded radical a decade ago; by Friday, it was rapidly approaching conventional wisdom.
During a speech in Miami, she said the embargo has outlived its usefulness.
Many younger voters – both U.S.-born descendants of exiles and more recent immigrants from Cuba – want improved relations or, at the least, simply don’t decide their votes on that single issue.
Speaking to groups of African-Americans and Cuban-Americans at two separate events in South Florida, the Democratic front-runner accused her potential general-election opponents of failing to live up to the promises in their rhetoric, and of supporting policies that haven’t worked in the past and won’t work in the future. Amendments to temporarily lift the embargo handily passed the Republican-dominated Senate appropriations committee this week.
But only Congress can lift the embargo, fully in place since 1962, and Republican congressional leaders are unlikely to do so.
“We have arrived at a decisive moment, the Cuban people have waited long enough for progress to come”, Clinton said.
Advertisement
“The American people deserve principled leaders who will stand up to our adversaries and stand up for our values”. As Sanders continues to strip away Clinton’s liberal base, she needed to take a stance on an issue that will demonstrate for primary voters her liberal bona fides. “Our economies, our communities and even our families are deeply entwined”, Clinton said.
