A new national poll shows that a majority of Republicans (51 percent) support ending the five-decade-old U.S. embargo on Cuba. President John F. Kennedy established the embargo in 1962 to reduce "the threat posed by Cuba's alignment with the community powers." The embargo continues to this day.
"This national poll makes it clear that the trend lines we've seen in recent years continue to rise toward bipartisan support for our new course on Cuba," says CubaNOW Executive Director Ric Herrero, in a statement. "It reinforces that the seismic shifts we have witnessed in the Cuban-American community are also increasingly evident amongst Republican and Independent voters across the country."
Overall, 64 percent of all voters polled favor ending the embargo. Only about a quarter of Democratic voters and about one-third of Independent voters favor maintaining the U.S. embargo with Cuba. However, not all Republicans are enthusiastic about ending the embargo with Cuba.
"We know that there are folks on both sides of the aisle that want to see change in Cuba and this poll reflects that desire," says LIBRE Initiative Policy Director Jorge Lima.
It is far past due for Cuba to be a flourishing democracy and economy. However, simply lifting the embargo will not result in the shift towards democracy that is needed on the island. So long as the Castro dictatorship refuses to recognize basic human rights, like the freedom of speech, real change will not come to Cuba.
The poll was conducted on 26 and 27 February by SKDKnickerbocker and the Benenson Strategy Group, surveyed a sample of 1032 registered voters. The interviews were conducted online with an overall margin of error of ±3.05 percent.