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Survey: Most Americans Approve of Stronger Cuba Ties

A total of 63 percent of Americans approve of recent moves by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties and two-thirds favor lifting the economic embargo altogether, a survey released Friday said.

Despite those assessments, only 32 percent of Americans think that the warming of ties between the Cold War-era foes will lead to more democracy in Cuba, the Americas' only communist state, according to the Pew Research Center report.

A large majority of Hispanic-Americans, 65 percent, expressed support for the new policy, a change from the past when hostility towards Cuba was the norm.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on December 17 that the two countries would begin normalizing relations after more than a half-century of enmity, including the embargo, over political differences.

Politically, 74 percent of Democrats support Obama's new Cuba policy, while 67 percent of independents favor it.

About 40 percent of Republicans approve of the new diplomatic relations while 48 percent disapprove.

The report is based on telephone interviews conducted this month using a national sample of 1,504 adults living in the U.S.

The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Source: Agence France Presse


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