Obama learning fast about Cuba and Latin America

Obama Has evidently been informing himself carefully regarding Cuba and Latin America and this began to pay dividends in Trinidad, albeit to the consternation of some.

For starters, the NY Times reported that the views he had on Cuba in 2004 had changed.

"Thus, while Mr. Obama ran for the Senate in 2004 on a platform of lifting the 47-year old trade embargo with Cuba, he acknowledged he had since changed his mind, saying that 2004 “seems just eons ago.”

"He said he has “great differences” with Mr. Chávez and insisted that freedom for the Cuban people would remain the guiding principle of his foreign policy.

“That’s our lodestone, our North Star,” Mr. Obama said.

"...The test for all of us is not simply words but also deeds.

“I am absolutely opposed and condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments.”

The Washington Post added that Obama was ready to act again on Cuba only after the Castro regime responded beyond mere rhetoric.

"Obama noted progress, citing Raúl Castro's recent statement that his country was willing to discuss human rights issues with the United States. Cuba, Obama said, should free political prisoners, reduces its tax on remittances to the island and grant new freedoms to its citizens as a next step in thawing relations with the United States."

'New freedoms to its people'? What might that mean? Cubans had all the freedoms enjoyed by US citizens under its 1940 Constitution, the one Batista and Castro overthrew with their coups of 1952 and 1959 respectively. Hopefully Obama was referring to those freedoms.

Hopefully by 'its people' Obama meant Cuba's and not Castro's, who has never been legitimately elected and therefore has no right to govern.