A New Cuba
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2014
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“There had been eighteen months of secret negotiations, seven meetings that took place in Canada, under the good offices of the Canadian government, and also by Pope Francis in the Vatican, to help make this happen,” Jon Lee Anderson says about the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Anderson joins his fellow New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos and host Dorothy Wickenden on this week’s Political Scene podcast to talk about the new relationship between the two nations. They discuss the differences between Raúl and Fidel Castro that made the agreement possible, the impact that Marco Rubio’s opposition could have on his Presidential campaign, and the diplomatic lessons we can draw from U.S.-China relations. “China today is still a one-party state. It’s not like Cuba is going to wake up next year and suddenly have freedom of expression, freedom of worship, rule of law, judicial independence, human-rights protections,” says Osnos. “We will still represent an oppositional political culture that is not going to be relieved just because we have this new, much more open economic relationship.”
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| 1:10.6 | This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and editors about |
| 1:15.3 | politics. It's Friday, December 19th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of the New Yorker. |
| 1:21.4 | Today, the United States of America is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba. |
| 1:26.8 | And the most significant changes in our policy in more than 50 years, |
| 1:31.2 | we will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, |
| 1:36.7 | and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries. |
| 1:41.2 | That was President Obama from the White House yesterday. |
| 1:49.0 | John Lee Anderson and Evan Osnos join me to discuss this country's new relationship with Cuba and the larger question of how best to encourage democratic change in authoritarian regimes. |
| 1:54.0 | John Lee, this is a huge moment. |
| 1:56.0 | You have written about Cuba from the revolution to the presidency of Raul Castro. Tell us about how this |
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