Former Obama Advisor Ben Rhodes Accuses U.S. Embargo of Hindering Cuban Economic Reform
Ben Rhodes, former national security advisor to President Barack Obama, stated in a podcast with comedian Hasan Minhaj that the U.S. embargo is the primary impediment preventing the Cuban regime from adopting an economic model similar to Vietnam's. Rhodes, an architect of the 2014 diplomatic thaw with Cuba, asserted that the U.S. is responsible for 'most' of the suffering experienced by the Cuban people. He claimed that the Cuban Communist Party 'would open its economy tomorrow if it could' and that Cuban officials expressed a desire to emulate Vietnam's economic reforms during negotiations. Rhodes also linked the island's blackouts and associated deaths in hospitals to the embargo, arguing that U.S. taxpayers are funding a policy that harms Cuban citizens due to political motivations in Florida. 
