Roberta S. Jacobson: “Most human rights abuses were official acts committed at the direction of the government.”

The President's new approach makes clear that the United States can no longer be blamed as an obstacle to progress on such things as access to information or connecting Cubans to the world.

But comprehensive changes in our economic relationship will require congressional action to lift the embargo, and the President has urged Congress to begin that effort.

You have seen a 21 percent increase in tax revenue because of fiscal reform and closing of the budget gap.

The policy is based on a clear-eyed strategy that empowers the Cuban people to determine their own future by creating new economic opportunities and increasing their contact with the outside world.