More thoughts from associate producer Cristina "Precious" "Pumpkin" Gonzalez...

There seemed to be one giant Communist elephant in the room during this summit .. the fact that Cuba was not participating. While the topic of US-Cuban relations was not even on the agenda, Latin American leaders made it a point to go there anyway. And their position was clear: America needs to lift the embargo.

I've got bad news for Latin America .. you aren't going to get what you want. Look, I will be the first to tell you that our relationship with Cuba needs to change. I'll spare you the arduous details right now, but there are 500 steps that come before an all out lifting of the embargo. What you need to remember is that Cuba is a communist nation. That sounds like a plebian statement, but it really does change the playing field. You are dealing with a country that owns the means of production. Thus, any change in economic policy only further legitimizes and helps the Cuban government, not the Cuban people. As of right now, almost every Cuban works for the government. They earn a whopping $19.70 a month. Even if you open up trade, what makes you believe that these living standards are going to change under a Communist regime? The answer is that they are not. That is why we have a long long way to go before lifting the embargo is even possible.

Take for instance the few steps Obama has taken just within the last week. He lifted all travel limits for Cuban-Americans to Cuba. He also ended restrictions on how much money Cuban- Americans can send family members in Cuba. On the surface, sounds great. Right? Did you also know that when money is wired to relatives in Cuba, the Cuban government gets a 20% cut of that money? This is a huge boost to the Cuban economy. Get this .. in 2007 the amount of cash sent to Cuba was equal to 42% of the island's tourism income and 4.7 times more than its sugar exports.

Luckily, Raul Castro says that he is willing to discuss "everything" with Barack Obama including human rights, political prisoners and freedom of the press. That doesn't mean that he will end oppression of the Cuban people who are treated as second-class citizens compared to foreigners. That doesn't mean he will release librarians and journalists and political dissidents whom are currently held as political prisoners. That doesn't mean that he is going to allow Cubans to own their own businesses. Foreigners are a different story - but, again, their investments benefit the government of Cuba .. not the people.

While Raul promises to "discuss," he has done quite a good job of consolidating his own power, purging his government of younger people who would be more sympathetic to the idea of a democratic transition. He has replaced them with generals from the armed forces who have been ordered to implement new laws to "perfect business." On the surface, it seems promising because this includes the adoption of capitalist management, but there is one gaping hole: privatization. The Cuban people will not benefit from seemingly capitalistic changes.

Overwhelmed? Yeah, there's a lot to chew on here. You can probably tell that as a first generation Cuban-American, this hits close to home. (Don't tell Neal that I used a hyphenated Americanism!) But what we have learned from Obama's summit in Trinidad is that he really has no clue what is going on. He may be Latin America's star pupil because of his willingness to "listen and learn," but are these dictators and leftists really the people Obama needs to be learning from?

The answer is a resounding no.