Divided reaction in Miami to breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations

MIAMI -- President Barack Obama's surprise move to re-establish ties with Cuba was applauded by the men and women in a barbershop on Calle Ocho, the heart of Miami's Cuban exile community.

Waitresses stopped serving coffee at the El Pub restaurant as Mr. Obama spoke on TV. One wiped a tear from her eye as she clasped her hands, overcome with emotion at changes no one believed would come.

Only several dozen people attended Wednesday's hastily organized protests in Little Havana following the surprise announcement, a reflection of just how much the Cuban-American community has changed since the Cold War days when the U.S. began trying to isolate Cuba's communist government.

Among them was John Hernandez, holding a "Fire Obama" sign.

"We shouldn't do business with dictators. They're assassins. They have killed Americans before," said Hernandez, whose mother, father and sister fled Cuba in the 1960s before he was born in the U.S. "I feel disgraced."

"It's a good thing that they freed Alan Gross. He is a patriot," Cuban-American Gonzalo Lopez told CBS Miami at Cafe Versailles, a political hotspot.

Some worried the liberty they seek for Cuba will never become a reality now that the Obama Administration has brokered renewed diplomatic relations with the communist island.

"Obama is a traitor. A traitor a todos los Cubanos," said Josie Rodriguez, who broke down in tears, thinking of the home she left behind almost 47 years ago. "My heart is Cuban. My friends, they come to Miami to visit and they ask, 'Josie why don't you forget Cuba?' I cannot forget Cuba. I love Cuba from the bottom of my heart."

"It will just make the dictatorship more powerful while the United States is gaining absolutely nothing. It's just a very naive thing," said Jose Sanchez Gronlier.

"I think that it's positive in a way. We need to be patient and see what is coming," said Jose Irarragorri, who moved to the U.S. ten years ago, leaving his parents behind in Cuba. He said it was time for change. "If we don't try and we keep going for another 50 years, it will be the same. I think it's time for a new era," said Irarragorri.

Some called the re-establishing of diplomatic ties with Cuba a betrayal.

"How about we ask the people who are persecuted in Cuba, the Ladies in White, the political prisoners. Ask them what they think about sanctions in Cuba. Every single one of them will tell you that they are in support of sanctions in Cuba," said Cuban-American Bobby Sanchez.

Others though, see the opening up of Cuba as a benefit to the Cuban people and that the focus shouldn't be on past wrongs.

"They are too stuck on what they went through, what they suffered, that they feel the need to feel vindication for their struggle out of defeat of the regime and that trumps the more important, lofty aspiration of the Cuban people for the years to come," said Cuban-American Jorge Davila.

"I came to this country too to have a better life. I would have not come to this country if I had a better life in Cuba. Guess what, now the Cuban people might have a better life and may not have to leave the country," said Cuban-American Sebastian Paris.

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado welcomed protesters to come to Versailles. He said the U.S. is negotiating with a terrorist nation and got little in return for the change in policy.

"There's no request for free speech. There's no request for freedom of political prisoners. There's no request for a democratic election and that is what the embargo was supposed to do," said Regalado.

Local leaders and activists said they expected more protests in the coming days. Still, the muted initial reaction to Mr. Obama's vows to encourage bilateral flows of people, information and business while working with Congress to end the 50-year-old trade embargo was strikingly at odds with outdated ideas about what most Cuban-Americans want.