Will Cuba Use Political Prisoners To Curry Favor With America..

US President Barack Obama’s breeze through Jamaica may be a savory moment for the Portia Simpson Miller led admin­is­tra­tion in Kingston, but Jamaica will see pre­cious lit­tle from his pit-stop tour though the Island Nation.

China’s grow­ing influ­ence in the region is not lost on Washington. As such tra­di­tion­al allies has large­ly been ignored since Obama took office. Jamaica’s pit-stop stop in was not much more than a farewell tour for Obama on American tax-pay­ers dime.
Chinese influ­ence is on the rise in the Caribbean and Latin America, as it is in many oth­er regions of the Globe.
As America grap­ples with main­tain­ing it’s empire , while jug­gling hot-spots some cre­at­ed from ill-advised wars, the Chinese are large­ly allowed a free hand in Africa and the America’s.
Of course the Chinese come with cash and lots of it.
The Caribbean like oth­er regions of the world has seen America’s influ­ence chal­lenged by Chinese cash.
Unlike the Soviet-era Ideological clash between east and west, this clash of influ­ence is all about who has mon­ey to dole out.
Obama under­stand loy­al­ties are influ­enced by mon­ey so a quick pit stop to an old ally Jamaica will keep the Jamaicans hap­py for a few more years.
Relaxing the embar­go on Cuba .….
That’s a dif­fer­ent mat­ter , after half a cen­tu­ry of eco­nom­ic block­ade the Cuban Revolution is still intact.
The last thing America needs is a new set of com­mu­nist lead­ers after the Castro broth­ers exit the stage who are friend­ly with a bel­liger­ent Russia and a cash-strong emerg­ing China.

For it’s part, Cuba ever anx­ious to shed the shack­les of eco­nom­ic stran­gu­la­tion will be will­ing to play ball with America.
Already the Cuban President Raul Castro has demon­strat­ed his affec­tion for Obama, say­ing Obama is a hon­est man.
Of course Obama will be look­ing to extract some valu­able con­ces­sions from the Cubans in order to start nor­mal­iz­ing rela­tions between the two countries.
The America right-wing will not relent unless it sub­jects it’s ene­mies to embar­rass­ment and humil­i­a­tion. As such, Barack Obama will be forced to demand stiff con­ces­sions from Cuba before the Right wing Republicans and even some Democrats will be will­ing to con­sid­er nor­mal­iz­ing rela­tions with the com­mu­nist Island.

Cuba has been home to many dis­si­dents some of whom have fled from America.
The ques­tion now, is whether Cuba flush with excite­ment will offer up these polit­i­cal pris­on­ers to cur­ry favor with America.
After all they have no eco­nom­ic value.
They have already served their pur­pose as pro­pa­gan­da pawns in the 50-plus year long psy­cho­log­i­cal war between the two countries.
Only time will tell.…