Trump took a heavy toll on Cuba’s private businesses, despite the fact that his stated policy was to “encourage the growth of a Cuban private sector independent of government control.” President Biden has a unique opportunity to make good on the promise he made last May.

Dodd knows perfectly well that the policy of hostility and regime change toward Cuba is a costly failure; during his Senate career, he consistently advocated ending the embargo.

By restricting the meeting to democracies, the president omitted countries key to addressing the agenda’s top issues.

The experience of other presidents demonstrates that engaging diplomatically with the Cuban government on issues of mutual interest, migration first and foremost, has been an effective way to advance U.S. interests.

Washington has resumed talks with Havana on migration, but will domestic politics prevent the president from moving forward on other issues?

A shrinking economy, frightening new rates of Covid infections, and growing discontent with the government are fueling once-in-a-generation protests.

The U.S. vote in the United Nations General Assembly against the resolution calling on the United States to lift its embargo on Cuba is another example of President Joe Biden’s reluctance to move away from Donald Trump’s Cuba policy. The first signal was the administration’s decision to reaffirm, with no real evidence, Trump’s determination that Cuba is not supporting U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The reason for Biden’s failure to reengage with Cuba, despite promising he would during the campaign, is fear of Florida. Democrats are still suffering electoral PTSD from Al Gore losing the state — and the presidency — to George W. Bush by 537 votes, a loss in which Cuba was a central issue and Cuban Americans played a pivotal role. Gore won just 20 percent of the Cuban American vote in Florida in 2000, far below Bill Clinton’s tally of 35 percent four years earlier. The reason was Elián González, the five-year-old boy found floating in an inner tube after his mother and other Cuban adults drowned trying to cross the Florida Straits. To the outrage of most Cuban Americans, the Clinton Justice Department forcibly seized Elián from his uncle in Miami in April 2000, and returned him to his father in Cuba. In November, Cuban Americans cast a “voto castigo” — a punishment vote —...

Early signals from administration officials indicate that an internal debate is underway between those who favor returning to Obama’s policy, and those who would continue the policy of pressure.