Sarah Stephens

As President Obama makes his way to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas -- "to tout his trade record and convince millions of Hispanic voters back home he cares about the region," as Reuters tartly reported -- I found myself thinking back three years when he last...

Cuba-bashing by both political parties is a four-season sport in American politics, but it's always more extreme around election time.

With Florida's primary and two debates immediately before us, it's worth remembering just how big a role campaigns play in sustaining this failed, Cold War-era policy and toughening the...

According to news accounts, Cubans lined up Thursday morning to buy newspapers that explained the biggest change to their economy in decades.

Cuba has created a private market for housing. Effective November 10, Cubans will have the right to buy and sell their homes at prices they set. While the...

Next Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly will debate the "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."

This will be the twentieth year the General Assembly has considered a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo. In every previous...

It is both untrue and a travesty to paint Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism as the United States government did in its annual report on the subject last week.

For twenty-nine years, Cuba has appeared on the list, which comes with considerable economic and diplomatic costs. It disqualifies...

On October 19, 1960 President Eisenhower put in place an embargo against Cuba that has lasted to this day. Fifty years later, the Obama administration is enforcing these sanctions in some high profile areas with greater vigor than even the Bush administration.

Now we're learning that while the United...

In today's Washington Post, George Will reaches the conclusion that many of us have held as an abiding faith for some time -- America's Cuba policy doesn't work and its counterproductive. His column (available in full here) concludes as follows:

Today, the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba by...

Just hours after the Cuba political prisoner deal was announced, a civil society leader said to our delegation of Americans visiting Havana: "Fariñas won, Spain won, the church won, and Cuba won." Of course, he made no mention of the U.S. since we played no role.

Against the backdrop of...

When Darsi Ferrer, a Cuban dissident emerged from nearly a year's confinement for buying black market construction materials, a reporter asked him who should get the credit for his release.

He credited the Cuban Catholic Church. And then he said, "What should be the solution in Cuba? Dialogue. The dialogue...

Twenty-seven Members of Congress have asked Secretary of State Clinton to send a member of her team on a human rights mission to Honduras. As we mark the first anniversary of the coup which toppled the democratically elected president Mel Zelaya from office, it is critical that she...

Seventy-four of Cuba's most politically prominent dissidents -- including Miriam Leiva, the well-known blogger Yoani Sanchez, and the hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas -- have signed a letter to Members of the U.S. Congress asking them to support legislation to legalize travel to Cuba for all Americans and to increase sales...

The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is about to raise some important new questions about the costs and limits of U.S. policy toward Cuba.

According to Brad Johnson, a climate researcher at the Center for American Progress, oil from the spill carried by the Loop Current is likely to reach the...

In a few hours, President Obama will visit the home of Emilio and Gloria Estefan for a fundraising event that will cost attendees $30,400 per couple.

What could possibly motivate the Estefans and their closest friends and business contacts in South Florida to write such astoundingly large checks? Good government?...

Today, President Obama welcomes Mauricio Funes, the president of El Salvador, in what is his first meeting with a Central American head of state at the White House.

If you're thinking about a vacation this year, may I recommend North Korea?

I am not kidding. If you visit this website, "North Korea 1 on 1," you will see some pretty impressive itineraries. They offer a 13-day trip coinciding with the annual May Day Festival. Other trips enable...

After a sub-par performance in Latin America during 2009, the Obama administration has truly risen to this occasion with its forceful response to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti. President Obama has ordered his agencies to put this disaster on the top of their agendas, and has already committed $100 million...

Our organization, the Center for Democracy in the Americas, works on straightening out U.S. policy toward the region. We're trying to understand how and why the Obama administration has gotten off track in its relationship with the hemisphere. Our Cuba policy associate, Collin Laverty, has written the following essay on...

During my last visit to Honduras with a delegation that included Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, we met a man named Jose David Murillo. Jose's son, 19-year old Isis Obed, was shot and killed on July 5, as he and thousands of others clamored for the return of President Manual Zelaya who'd...

On October 28th, the United Nations General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution condemning the United States embargo against Cuba.

If past is prologue, it will pass resoundingly. The General Assembly has adopted similar measures in each of the last seventeen years; in 2008, by a margin...

President Barack Obama made history this week by freeing Cuban-Americans from restrictions on their rights to visit their families on Cuba and to provide them with financial support. While the changes he ordered affect a meaningful but tiny part of the U.S. embargo, it now seems clear that Obama has...