This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, December 18th, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The end of the embargo with Cuba will mean greater liberalization at least in one direction.

Juan Carlos Adagu, a policy analyst for Latin America at the Cato Institute, argues that the

ailing Castro regime may well find reasons to undermine those liberalizing reforms in order to maintain power.

Well I think that President Obama is right in saying that not only the policy has failed to bring about democracy and freedom to Cuba,

but it also has been counterproductive.

It actually has empowered the regime in Havana and it has provided them with an scapegoat

you know to blame the sorry state of the Cuban economy on the embargo.

So moving towards a normalization of relations, I think, plays into America's interests

of bringing about more freedom to Cuba and empowering the Cuban people vis-à-vis their government.

As for Cuba, well, there's going to be a lot of discussions on what is in Cuba's interests out of this.

People who support the status quo will say that this is providing a life saving measure to the regime

given that they're probably counting on the fact that the Venezuelan

government has its days counted by severely

rapidly deteriorating of the economy of his economy but I think that this is more in the interest of the United States, you know,

if you look at diplomatic relations between the United States and Latin America and even around the world you will notice

that the embargo had become the number one issue regarding U policy towards Latin American

Latin American governments will always bring about the embargo in their discussions

with the United States.

The UN will vote overwhelmingly every year to condemn the United States because of the embargo.

And well, the embargo hasn't been removed. It depends on Congress, but at least we're moving in a direction where hopefully we will see an end to this failed policy in a few years.

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