Can Cuba and the U.S. be friends again?

Published 7:00 am Saturday, February 28, 2015

After a 50-year embargo, relations between Cuba and the United States seem to be heading along a more amicable course, but will it prove successful?

Friday, Cuban and U.S. officials met to negotiate terms to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Reuters.

The news source reported that both Cuban and U.S. officials met to discuss opening embassies in one another’s country and the exchanging of prisoners in an effort to normalize their rocky relationship.

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In the past, the two countries haven’t seen eye to eye.

The chain of historical events which led to the tumultuous divide between the two include, the spread of communism by Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and other events during the Cold War.

Decades later, President Barack Obama announced in December that both countries were interested in seeking to normalize relations, according to Whitehouse.gov.

While working together might help both countries grow economically, it might also prove disastrous.

If a new kind of government was set in place in Cuba, it might seem like a smarter option to start building a future relationship and sweep the past under a rug.

However, the country is still under Castro’s control. Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, is serving as Cuba’s president.

Can the Cuban government be trusted to uphold any future promises when it has not shown it in the past?

However, the U.S. has proven that two countries can move past their differences. Currently, the U.S. holds diplomatic relations with China and Vietnam, according to Whitehouse.gov.

While it’s nice to believe that the U.S. and the Cuban government can start anew, only time will tell what becomes of their relationship.