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Miami's Cubans Steady In Embargo Support

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The Associated Press

Published: March 22, 2009

MIAMI - Cuban-American voters in Miami remain dominated by an older generation with more extreme views on U.S.-Cuba foreign policy, including support for the U.S. embargo against their communist homeland, according to an exit poll taken during the 2008 election.

The University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies published the results last week.

The 48-year-old embargo against Cuba should be kept the same or even tightened, said 57 percent of the Cuban-American voters interviewed in Miami-Dade County during early voting and on Election Day last November.

Younger Cuban-Americans and recent Cuban immigrants may have more moderate or even liberal attitudes toward the sanctions, but they are less likely to vote, said University of Miami political science professor Casey Klofstad, one of the poll's two authors.

The poll did show some thawing in the community, though. A similar 2004 exit poll of Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade showed that 64 percent supported tightening the embargo and 53 would have tightened U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba.

"We can't tell if that's a result of Fidel Castro transferring power to his brother Raul or that the economy was the most important issue in 2008," Bishin said.

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