I guess John Kerry still believes in US exceptionalism and US superiority (a tad different from exceptionalilsm) and that everyone wants the US´s help.. In Washington on the 23rd of February, he spoke about what he called"Cuba´s possibility of a transformation", thanks to the US's new policy toward Cuba.
Then he said, surprise, surprise, that the lifting of the embargo means that the Cuban government won't be able to blame the United States for the embargo. "They will have to assume responsiblilty for their own mistakes."
He acknowledged that the embargo, which lasted sixty years, had accomplished nothing. He finished up saying that the new policy doesn't ask what "the Cubans can do for the United States, but what the United States can do for the Cubanos and for Americans." This seems an echo of John Kennedy saying "Ask not what you can do for your country...." Who knows? In any case, it sure sounds like arrogance to me, but maybe I'm prejudiced.
Which corporations are jumping up and down with glee right now?
Take a look at Kerry's photo in La Jornada. Here´s the link.
And I think it is arrogance which permits the US to say the embargo accomplished nothing. First of all, what did the various US governments want it to accomplish, realistically? Did they think that since the Cubans couldn't get cake or new cars, an embargo would drive them to overthrow Castro? And at what price? Rather, I think the embargo hurt Cuba in economic ways, but the country was not anxious to substitute US hegemony for Castro. Are they now?