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A sign on a Havana street welcomes Barack Obama to Cuba for his historic meeting with Raúl Castro, March 2016.

ing and cheering Cubans lined the route of the motorcade that took Obama to his first official meeting with Raúl Castro. Among Cuba’s ruling elite, the response to the American president’s visit was considerably more muted. From the regime’s perspective, greater engagement with the United States was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Raúl Castro’s efforts to reform Cuba’s economy would be bol- stered—indeed, had already been bolstered—by the loosening of American restrictions on travel to and commerce with the

Turbulent Times

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