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New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is hoping the Cuban government and Cuban-Americans can soon have an open and constructive dialogue about the future of relations between the two countries, and has offered to help set up talks between the two groups.

After a recent visit to Cuba, Richardson said the climate for discussion has never been better, but acknowledges that talks would have to progress slowly but surely if years of animosity are to be buried.

“If there’s going to be a solution to the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, Cuban Americans must play a role,” Richardson said.

Cuban Americans have been vocal about U.S.-Cuba policies and relations for years, and have actively fought to elect politicians who were in favor of keeping the almost fifty-year long trade embargo in place.

But many Cuban Americans are now beginning to reconsider this stance. Recent polls have shown that Cuban American support for maintaining the embargo has diminished through the years.

Richardson’s interest in more contact between the two groups is designed to “build more confidence in each other before we tackle the bold, divisive issues” such as the embargo, he has said.

As political leaders, policymakers, and the Cuban American community begin to focus on what the end of the trade embargo will mean, they will sooner or later need to focus their attention on fixing anti-competitive distortions in trade that have evolved over many decades in Cuba’s state-controlled markets. Only then can relations between the two countries resume “normally” and there be hope for fair compensation to the original Cuba cigar tobacco families.