Under ‘No Illusions’ Castro Regime Will Change

Top US Negotiator With Cuba 

by Josh Siegel

The U.S. State Department’s lead negotiator with Cuba said at a hearing today that she has “no illusions” that the Castro regime will change after the two nations announced normalized relations with each other.

In the first of three congressional hearings this week on President Obama’s new Cuba policy, Roberta S. Jacobson, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, took heated questions from a subcommittee led by Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Jacobson, who recently headed a U.S. delegation that traveled to Havana to discuss the restoration of diplomatic relations, argued that Obama’s policy is about “empowering” the Cuban people to pursue a free and democratic life in the face of a regime that she admits is unlikely to change.

“I am absolutely confident that Cuban people will prevail and will be empowered to prevail under this new policy,” Jacobson said. “This policy is not based on the Castro regime changing. We have no illusions over that. It’s about empowering the Cuban people.”


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