Cuban-Americans Ponder What U.S. Should Do Next

MIAMI -- With the gradual passing of the generation of Cubans who fled their country after former President Fidel Castro seized power, a near consensus is emerging here for the U.S. to ease its harsh policies toward the island, just 90 miles away.

At Little Havana's Sentir Cubano, Fidel Castro toilet paper sells for $6.99.

But now that President Barack Obama has initiated what could become the most radical shift in U.S. relations with Cuba since the 1959 revolution, some Cuban-Americans here are uneasy.

At issue is whether a further relaxation of U.S. policy should hinge on obtaining commitments for reforms from the Cuban regime. The notion divides a community that has softened its stance in recent years as new Cuban immigrants and descendents of older exiles temper the hard line that defined the U.S. policy with Cuba for most of the past five decades.

"The Cuban-Americans who shaped Cuba policy are totally disconnected from Cuba," said Joe Garcia, a Cuban-American activist and Democrat who last year came close to toppling Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), one of the many pro-embargo Republicans elected here over the years. "It's time to do something practical."

Last week, the Obama administration loosened restrictions on visits and the flow of money by Cuban-Americans to the island and suggested more changes could follow if the Cuban government took steps to introduce democratic reforms. Though President Raśl Castro said in response that the regime was willing to discuss "everything," his older brother, Fidel Castro, said Wednesday the U.S. was wrong to believe that meant the Cuban government would heed American demands.

More than half the people of Cuban origin now living in the U.S. have emigrated since the 1980s, according to the Census Bureau. That means that they, unlike the Cuban exiles that