In a huge step for diplomatic relations with Cuba, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the country since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. The president traveled to Havana this week with a congressional delegation, including Massachusetts Congressmen Jim McGovern and Seth Moulton.
Moulton joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Boston Public Radio to discuss the trip, the embargo, and where U.S.-Cuba relations are headed in the future.
Margery: Before we get to the serious issues, do you smoke cigars?
Moulton: I do, on occasion.
Margery: What is so special about Cuban cigars?
Moulton: I am not a cigar aficionado, but what people tell me who know a lot more about the ins and outs of different cigars is that for some reason, they’re just really good at making cigars, and they always taste better. You wouldn’t believe how many people—I mean people I run into on the streets, very good friends and people who just happen to know I went to Cuba, they all say, where’s my Cuban cigar?
Jim: What’s your connection to Cuba? How did you end up as part of the president’s delegation?
Moulton: A lot of people have asked this, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t know. The White House just called, and said the president would like me to come on this trip, quick calendar check… and I said yes.
I’ve been a consistent advocate, even as a member of the armed services committee, for diplomacy and political engagement for our foreign policy. I just don’t think we can win all of our foreign policy battles by dropping bombs and sending troops. That’s what this trip was about. I actually think the embargo was well-intentioned. Look, there are people out there who think that we should never have had an embargo, but this is a communist regime that oppresses its people, we wanted to change their government, and we thought the embargo would accomplish that. But it just hasn’t worked. The Castro’s are still in power, it’s still a communist regime, they’re still oppressing their people… I think the way to change that is now to get rid of the embargo, open up interaction, business, government, academic and tourist interaction between Americans and Cubans, I think that’s what will ultimately change the conversation.
Jim: The fear is that the business opportunities are going to exacerbate the divide between the United States and Cuba, that not enough of it is going to go to the people who need it most, and a disproportionate share is going to go to the people who have it already. What’s your analysis of that?
Moulton: I don’t think we were there long enough to deeply understand that, I think it’s a legitimate concern. We went by slums where there were these big apartment buildings, and we were told that the families living in these apartments make $20 a month, which is just unbelievable.
Margery: What do these apartment buildings look like?
Moulton: Soviet-block style, clothes hanging out the windows, dreary, drab, mud all around… but here’s the one thing I’ve gotta say—I thought the most exciting part of the visit would be the state dinner, I’ve never been to a state dinner before, or the ceremony of Air Force One touching down, but by far the best part was going out and meeting the Cuban people, who were, as far as we could tell, just unanimously supportive of this. There were Cubans who were just cheering us in the streets, every time they would see our delegation come through, they would line the roads and wave and give us a thumbs-up, and they all wanted selfies with us, and I had one gentleman who just begged me for my American Cuban-flag pin, because he said his wife wanted one so badly.
Margery: Do you remember if people said why they wanted this so much?
Moulton: I think they just feel that they want a chance at the freedoms that we enjoy every day, just 90 miles away. They think that this can come, and the interesting thing is that for over 50 years, the embargo hasn’t made a difference, it’s just frankly, given them fewer resources and even more poverty. But in just the last few months since this new diplomatic opening, they have access to the internet, which they didn’t have before… the democratizing effect of this opening with the United States I think is pretty significant, and we’re already seeing it start to occur.
Seth Moulton is an American former Marine Corps officer, a member of the Democratic Party, and U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 6th congressional district. To hear his full interview with Boston Public Radio, click on the audio link above.
