A message of reconciliation has gone out from Washington, albeit a confusing one. On the eve of this weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, the White House announced that it will no longer be a crime for Americans to make gifts of fishing tackle, dog medicine or soap-making equipment to a citizen of Cuba, provided he is not a member of the Communist party. Visits to Cuba are unlimited and so are remittances – provided you have a relative there who is a second cousin or closer, or live with a person who has such a relative. You are free to lay fibre-optic cable in Cuba, and engage in most kinds of telecommunications work, but other forms of business contact remain off-limits.

President Barack Obama claims the new regulations do not mean a revocation of the US trade-and-travel embargo against Cuba, which has been in place since John F. Kennedy imposed it in 1962. But in fact, the new policy is forcing Americans to confront the possibility that they have been going about the liberation of Cuba in the wrong way.