Cuba Libre?

Forty-five miles off the Florida Keys, where the eastern waters of the Gulf of Mexico meet the Straits of Florida, lies the nub of U.S.-Cuba relations, suddenly in flux following Fidel Castro’s hospitalization.

It is there that Cuba plans to drill for oil, after the discovery of highly promising oil and gas reserves in the North Cuba Basin in 2004.

Is doing business with the island the only way to stop post-Castro Cuba from developing commercial and political relationships that the U.S. considers unwelcome?

It has not cost American companies much for Washington to maintain its economic embargo against Cuba, but oil wealth would change the political equation. Even with the temporary transfer of Castro’s power to his brother, there have been immediate calls for the Bush administration to ease the embargo.

Forbes