1 Cuba in Transition and The Rule of Law: An Overview of the Cuban Legal System© By Benjamin E. Griffith Spring Meeting of the ABA State and Local Government Section April 8, 2016, San Juan, Puerto Rico 17D and The Normalization Process On December 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that “[w]e will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.” In joint statements, one by Cuban President Raul Castro speaking from Havana and the other by President Obama speaking from Washington, D.C., both leaders concurred. “Neither the American nor the Cuban people are well-served by a rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born,” President Obama emphasized as he was ordering “the most significant changes to our policy in more