Adios Fidel, Hola Cuba?*

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 02.19.08 | 10:09 AM ET

What does today’s big news of Fidel Castro’s retirement mean for American travelers now barred from visiting Cuba? Likely very little in the short term, experts agree. But Reuters, among other outlets, is taking the opportunity to review the presidential candidates’ positions on Cuba. Who knows? They could actually be relevant now.

Hillary Clinton hasn’t sounded eager to change U.S. policy, saying significant change in Cuba “has to be a precondition” to normalizing relations with the country.

John McCain “has vowed not to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Havana until it holds free elections,” Reuters reports.

Barack Obama has given the most hope to Americans who’d like to see the travel embargo lifted, saying, “I will grant Cuban-Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island.” His call to lift travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans—which conventional wisdom says wouldn’t help him win the conservative state of Florida, prompted Time magazine last year to ask, Will Obama’s Stance on Cuba Hurt?

Given today’s news, the candidates will no doubt be further explaining their positions in the coming days.

* Updated, 10 a.m. PT: Obama and McCain have chimed in, calling for the release of political prisoners in Cuba. “Mr. Obama…said that the United States should be prepared to take steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the longstanding embargo on trade with the island nation, if its government ‘begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change,’” reports the New York Times.