JORGE CASTAÑEDA AND ANDRÉS MARTINEZ, Fellows at the New America Foundation: For once Barack Obama can't be accused of pushing for ambitious change. The minor adjustments he has made to American policy towards Cuba simply take us back to the days of the Clinton administration, a time when the trade embargo and the travel ban had already proven to be counterproductive anachronisms. They still are.

Cuba policy is seen throughout Latin America as reflective of American attitudes towards the hemisphere. Keeping the embargo in place isolates the United Sates, and it signals an arrogant desire to continue treating Cuba as merely a bilateral problem, if not a domestic one.

The Obama administration should instead seek to address the challenge posed by Cuba's totalitarian regime on a multilateral basis, working alongside major Latin democracies such as Mexico, Chile and Brazil. This is easier said than done because the leaders of these nations have been reluctant to approach Cuba in a manner consistent with their values. None of these countries bound by regional treaties committing themselves to democracy and human rights have much appetite for taking the Castro brothers to task for running a tropical Gulag -- especially not so long as the embargo is in place.

Washington needs to lift the embargo, but Latin Americans need to come together to insist that Cuba schedule real elections and truly respect human rights before it returns to the hemispheric community.