Hillary Clinton calls for end to Cuba embargo

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton asked Friday in Miami that the U.S. Congress definitively end the embargo on Cuba.

“The Cuba embargo needs to go once and for all,” the former secretary of state said during a speech at Florida International University.

Clinton urged Congress to end the embargo and said that, if she wins the 2016 presidential election, she will use executive powers to allow a greater engagement with the island.

She said she understood why part of the Cuban exile community living in Miami is “skeptical” about ending the embargo and opposes the renewal of diplomatic relations.

Despite the distrust on the part of Cubans who were forced to leave their country, Clinton said “the upcoming presidential election will determine whether we chart a new path forward or turn back to the old ways of the past.”

“We must decide between engagement and embargo, between embracing fresh thinking and returning to Cold War deadlock,” she said.

Clinton said that “engagement is not a gift to the Castros. It is a threat to the Castros.”

This week, Reps. Tom Emmer (RMinn.) and Kathy Castor (DFla.) introduced a bill to end the economic embargo on Cuba that has gone on for almost 55 years, and to permit private U.S. companies to trade freely with the island.

The bipartisan initiative, dubbed the “Free Trade with Cuba Act” and supported by other legislators, seeks to repeal restrictions on trade for companies of both countries.