In this presentation, Raul Rodríguez will discuss what is really new in President Trump’s approach to Cuba and its possible impact on the island's economic and political evolution, its relations with other international actors, as well as Cubans in the United States.

The United States' use of its Cuba policy as a coin to exchange to favor the Cuban American right-wing in South Florida is not new. It was President Obama who really introduced a new dynamic by not taking that community into account in his December 17, 2014 re-establishment of relations with Cuba.

While it was unlikely that bilateral relations would remain as they were, President Trump’s regulatory changes do stall progress and introduce uncertainty regarding the business climate and tension with the political environment.

This event is free and open to the public. For details, please contact Silvia Pedraza at spedraza@umich.edu.

Jet Blue was the first airline to arrive on a regular scheduled flight to Santa Clara, Cuba, after 54 years, on August 31, 2016. Here the Cuban workers at the Santa Clara airport greet the flight with enthusiasm (Reuters).

Raúl Rodríguez is a professor/researcher and the Director of the Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies at the at the University of Havana, Cuba. Dr. Rodríguez holds a Ph.D. in History from the School of History and Social Sciences at the University of Havana and a degree in English from the Higher Institute of Foreign Languages. At the University of Havana, he teaches introductory and post-graduate courses on U. S. history. Since 2004, he has also been teaching courses in English on Cuban history and the history of U.S.-Cuban relations to undergraduates from several American universities, such as Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, American University, and the University of Alabama.