Writing Sample

Prisoner Swap Eases Relations Between Cuba and the US

By Jaelyn Lyles

For the first time since 1989, the United States and the Cuban Government have entered a period of eased relations, starting with the Dec, 14 release of Cuban prisoner Alan Gross.

Charles Kaufman, a professor at Texas State, was in Cuba on a humanitarian mission to bring supplies and medications to communities in need during the time that the prisoner swap took place and was able to experience the culture there first hand.

“We were embraced by people in the street because they thought that we (Americans) were doing something important,” Kaufman said.

While it was Kaufman’s first trip to the country since the easing of relations, he and his wife had been 2 years prior in 2012 on a similar mission, he noticed that things still hadn’t changed much politically.

“All of the information that goes to the people comes from the government,” Kaufman said. “The media in Havana is very different than the media here... no ones really digging into anything.”

Although relations between the US and Cuba seem to be improving, Kaufman believes that it is only a window dressing for the bigger issue of the long standing embargo and that there is still a ways to go as far as free enterprise is concerned.

According to Kaufman, “Its gonna take years before the Starbucks and McDonalds of the world get there.”