Flirting With Cuba, Courting a Hemisphere

SINCE Fidel Castro gave up power last year, the long standoff between Cuba and the United States has taken on the measured rhythms of a minuet, delicate steps from Havana met with restrained advances from Washington, each side hiding behind a pose of purpose that may mask their true intentions.

In his first 100 days after formally taking over for his ailing older brother, Raúl Castro made it seem as if he was interested in changing Cuba’s relationship with the United States. He quickly lifted a number of restrictions so that Cubans on the island could stay at tourist hotels, buy cellphones and toasters, and in certain cases, farm state land, things Fidel Castro never allowed.

Some parts of “la familia Cubana” — the extended family of Cubans on the island and Cuban-Americans in the United States — welcomed the steps as long overdue indicators of a new, post-Fidel era. But many others in the family felt the steps were superficial, and a year later, it appears that they were mostly right. Those changes have not turned out to be the precursors of a major shift toward freedom, democracy or a better life for the Cuban people. It is not even clear that Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public in over two and a half years, is not still pulling the strings. Political prisoners remain in prison, cellphones remain luxuries for the few, and Cubans are no freer to express their opinions.

Now it is Washington’s turn to lead. Last Monday, before the end of his first 100 days in office, President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to lift restrictions so Cuban-Americans could visit relatives on the island as often as they like and send them as much money as they want. Mr. Obama also said he would make it possible for American companies to vastly increase cellphone service in Cuba, enabling Cubans whom Raúl Castro allowed to buy cellphones to actually get to use them.

Once again, reaction to the changes is split, with some members of la familia Cubana feeling the moves don’t go nearly far enough, and should have been extended to all Americans, as a bill before Congress proposes. In that, they agree with Fidel Castro himself, who wrote that he considered the moves “positive although minimal,” because the 47-year-old economic embargo was left in place. Others say that lifting the restrictions gives the Castro brothers too much without their giving anything in return. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban-American