--- title: I Get the Excitement, But This Deal Is Unfair to the Cuban People description: I would love to see Cuba someday. But I don't want to walk the streets and know the people cannot leave. canonical: https://time.com/3639028/cuba-obama-unfair-deal/ author: Steven Bauer article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-17T23:20:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:57.588Z article:section: Ideas og:title: I Get the Excitement, But This Deal Is Unfair to the Cuban People og:description: I would love to see Cuba someday. But I don't want to walk the streets and know the people cannot leave. og:url: https://time.com/3639028/cuba-obama-unfair-deal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6a6183641656f95/69876fab3c16390000450bac/steven-bauer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1666 og:image:height: 937 og:image:alt: Exclusive Screening And Panel Discussion With Showtime's "Ray Donovan" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: I Get the Excitement, But This Deal Is Unfair to the Cuban People twitter:description: I would love to see Cuba someday. But I don't want to walk the streets and know the people cannot leave. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6a6183641656f95/69876fab3c16390000450bac/steven-bauer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # I Get the Excitement, But This Deal Is Unfair to the Cuban People > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4e96ba0f-3621-46b6-aba5-c3f0a34b5178&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: What Will 'Normalized' U.S.-Cuba Relations Change? [Watch (HLS stream): What Will 'Normalized' U.S.-Cuba Relations Change?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1Ou7kmTu.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2014-12-17. Relations with Cuba seem to be on a path to normalcy, and it's happening faster than many expected. What's changing, and why now?_ by [Steven Bauer](https://time.com/author/steven-bauer/) ## Steven Bauer Dec 17, 2014 11:20 PM UTC  Actor Steven Bauer on April 28, 2014 in North Hollywood, California. Actor Steven Bauer on April 28, 2014 in North Hollywood, California. Alberto E. Rodriguez—Getty Images by [Steven Bauer](https://time.com/author/steven-bauer/) ## Steven Bauer Dec 17, 2014 11:20 PM UTC My feelings are ambiguous today. It’s an exciting day, because anything that puts Cuba on our collective mind in the U.S. is a good day. I’m really, really happy—I can’t even imagine the joy that Alan Gross’s family feels. I grew up with children whose fathers were in prison for years upon years. Alan Gross and his family—for them, it’s a day to celebrate. What I’m conflicted about is that I don’t see a request on our government’s part for the restrictions to be lifted by the Cuban government. The Cuban government has been oppressing Cuban people. Italians and Canadians can go there and have all the fun they want. And they can leave and their new Cuban friends can’t go with them. The Cubans cannot leave. It’s an ugly secret. It’s an untalked-about secret. It hasn’t been the U.S. oppressing the Cuban people! The embargo was badly conceived. Everyone’s in agreement on that. It’s a policy that has not helped the Cuban people. They live like kings in the Cuban government. They always have. And the Cuban people live like cattle. People who go there say, “They’re so wonderful and joyful in spite of their poverty!” But they don’t need to be poor, they’re some of the brightest people on earth, as you can see by their achievements in medicine and the arts. The government wants to keep the status quo. It’d be wonderful for us to relieve the status quo. There has to be a give-and-take. Let them vote! How about that! Don’t just have a monarchy until the old men die, and the people they’re grooming to follow them follow them. It’s an archaic way of governing a people. This news is a move by our president to establish a legacy of opening relations. In and of itself, it’s no big deal, unless what you get in return is something really beautiful and something really humanistic. Unless what you get in return is an election. Alan Gross did nothing wrong, so that was a horror of justice that he was in prison for five years. But instead of beginning from a position of strength, what we do is say, “Will you please return him and we give you criminals—Cuban spies guilty of killing Americans?” We’re leading with weakness. It’s a policy of appeasement instead of being a beacon of strength. I see the celebration, I get the excitement, and I’m happy that Cuba’s in the news. It brings about dialogue. That’s a wonderful day in the relations between these countries. I would love to see Cuba someday. But I don’t want to walk the streets and know the people who I see, except the baseball players and ballet dancers, cannot leave. Among members of the Cuban-American community, I’ve heard both sides. A lot of young people are not really interested. The people that have a celebratory response to this are not really informed. I hate to be cynical or denigrate those people, but they really don’t know what’s going on in Cuba. The people who have been to Cuba know this is an unfair deal for the Cuban people. It’s great for Obama to have a distraction from all the bad news elsewhere in the world, and it’s wonderful for Alan Gross and his family. It’s not good for the people who live under an oppressive government 90 miles away from the United States. Until Cubans can travel around the world, it won’t be a fair trade. ## Transcript [00:00] The freeing of a prisoner sets off an avalanche of changes [00:03] in relations between the US and Cuba. At least that's how it [00:06] looks from the outside. More than 20 years after the Cold [00:09] War ended, the US looks closer to normalizing relations [00:12] with the Caribbean country than ever, but what exactly is [00:14] changing and how did it come about? Wednesday [00:17] morning, Cuban authorities released american Alan Gross [00:20] after 5 years of imprisonment in exchange for 3 of the [00:23] remaining Cuban 5, agents convicted of espionage in [00:26] Florida in the early 2000's, but that appears to have just [00:29] been the tip of the iceberg, as the White House released a [00:31] fact sheet detailing what appeared to be a complete about [00:34] face following more than 50 years of trying to isolate Cuba. [00:38] And though this policy has been rooted in the best of [00:40] intentions, no other nation joins us in imposing these [00:44] sanctions. And it has had little effect beyond providing the [00:48] Cuban government for a rationale for restrictions on its [00:50] people. The changes break down into a handful of [00:53] categories, but the biggest cover diplomatic relations, travel [00:56] and trade. When it comes to diplomacy, the President [00:59] ordered an immediate resumption of diplomatic relations [01:02] and the White House said it would look to re- establish an [01:04] embassy in Cuba in the coming months, as well as looking [01:06] to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terror list. The [01:10] White House also said it would look to expand travel to [01:12] Cuba which is currently restricted to 12 categories of travel. [01:15] Including family visits, official government work, and [01:18] journalism, among others. And significantly, the fact sheet [01:21] said the US would push to expand telecommunications on [01:24] the island, in an effort to improve Cuban's access to the [01:27] internet. As well as allowing US financial institutions to [01:29] open accounts in Cuba. This kind of seismic **** in [01:33] relations doesn't happen overnight, and although it all [01:35] came down on Wednesday, the changes had been a long [01:37] time coming. As John Oliver pointed out in September, as [01:40] early as ten years ago, then- Senator Obama expressed [01:43] interest in ending the Cuban embargo. So ,. It, it's time for [01:47] us to acknowledge, that that particular policy has failed. [01:50] And it seems that interest has endured, and could very well [01:53] be the last piece of the president's Cuba puzzle. As these [01:56] changes unfold, I look forward to engaging congress in an [01:58] honest and serious debate about lifting the embargo. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3639028/cuba-obama-unfair-deal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3639028/cuba-obama-unfair-deal/"},"headline":"I Get the Excitement, But This Deal Is Unfair to the Cuban People","datePublished":"2014-12-17T23:20:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:57.588Z","description":"I would love to see Cuba someday. 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