Obama Nominates First Ambassador to Cuba in Over 50 Years

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday nominated the first United States ambassador to Cuba in more than a half-century, defying opponents of his policy of rapprochement with the government of President Raúl Castro in an effort to further cement a new relationship between the countries before he leaves office.

Mr. Obama selected Jeffrey DeLaurentis, a career Foreign Service officer who has served since 2014 as chief of mission for the United States in Havana, to fill the post. He will have to be confirmed by the Senate, where Mr. Obama’s efforts to repair relations with Havana have been met with Republican resistance.

In a sharply worded statement issued shortly after Mr. Obama announced Mr. DeLaurentis’s selection, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said the nomination should not advance.

“Just like releasing all terrorists from Guantánamo and sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Iranian regime, rewarding the Castro government with a U.S. ambassador is another last-ditch legacy project for the president that needs to be stopped,” said Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. “This nomination should go nowhere until the Castro regime makes significant and irreversible progress in the areas of human rights and political freedom for the Cuban people, and until longstanding concerns about the Cuban regime’s theft of property and crimes against American citizens are addressed.”

The United States re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba and reopened the American Embassy there over a year ago, 55 years after a bitter rupture between the nations that persisted until Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro announced a historic détente in 2014. In the months leading up to the announcement, as secret talks between White House and Cuban officials entered their final stages, Mr. Obama dispatched Mr. DeLaurentis to Cuba to lead the United States’ interests section.

“Jeff’s leadership has been vital throughout the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and the appointment of an ambassador is a common sense step forward toward a more normal and productive relationship between our two countries,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

In making the formal nomination on Tuesday, days before Congress departs for the November elections and weeks before an unpredictable end-of-year session, Mr. Obama was signaling he is willing to use his influence to try to overcome the remaining opposition to his Cuba policy and secure one last major piece of it before he leaves office.

Anticipating resistance from lawmakers, White House officials argued that installing an ambassador in Cuba was not a concession to the government there, but a move that would strengthen the hand of the United States in advocating human rights improvements and American national security interests. It is also in keeping with Mr. Obama’s strategy to engage with foreign adversaries to prod broader changes in their governments and societies.

“Having an ambassador will make it easier to advocate for our interests, and will deepen our understanding even when we know that we will continue to have differences with the Cuban government,” the president said. “He is exactly the type of person we want to represent the United States in Cuba, and we only hurt ourselves by not being represented by an ambassador.”

Mr. Obama received credentials last year from José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, the first Cuban ambassador to the United States since 1961. The Obama administration has since moved to relax restrictions on commerce, trade and travel to Cuba, and direct commercial flights from the United States to the island nation commenced over the summer.

Still, efforts to lift the trade embargo have not advanced on Capitol Hill, where Congress would have to vote to repeal the ban.

“The decision to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba has been widely supported, and the number of Americans traveling to Cuba is increasing dramatically,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democat of Vermont, said in a statement. "We need an ambassador who knows Cuba, who is respected by the Cuban government, and who will stand up for U.S. interests and values. Jeff is that person.”