It's not "cynical" at all to call this pandering. Even when the old boy goes to the big gulag in the sky, I don't see Cuba returning to it's former "semi-colonial" status under the U.S. (yeah, I know how that phrase sounds, but it's the best I can do right now). I think Cuba's decision to stop using U.S. dollars has a lot to do with post-Castro thinking... the Europeans and the Mexicans are the foreign players in Cuba who count. The Miamai guys, I'm afraid, are SOL.
It will take the grim reaper to do what presidents from Eisenhower thru Bush could not do.