As Embassy announced, barley, grain and corn leaders visit Cuba
Trip part of ongoing effort to build plans to address marketing,
financial and educational barriers to increasing grain sales to Cuba
Published on: Jul 2, 2015
Leaders from the National Corn Growers, North Dakota Barley Council, and
U.S. Grains Council last week visited Cuba to continue assessment of the
marketing, financial and educational barriers to increasing grain sales
to the country.
The trip comes just shortly before the President on Wednesday announced
an agreement to restore the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
"Cuba could be a growing market for U.S. corn, but our own policies are
standing in the way," said USGC Chairman Ron Gray. "A major lesson from
this trip was that the embargo has created an environment where our
competitors such as Brazil dominate the market. If policy allowed us to
help develop the Cuban market, we might be able to retake our dominant
position."
$
An empty flagpole stands in front of the Cuban Interests Section, the de
facto diplomatic mission for Cuba in the United States, July 1, 2015, in
Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama announced that Cuba and the
United States would re-establish diplomatic ties, including an exchange
of ambassadors and embassies after more than 50 years. (Photo by Chip
Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Cuba has purchased corn from the United States since the early 2000s,
with market share varying widely from as high as 100% to just 15% last
marketing year. The country has purchased distiller's dried grains with
solubles, a byproduct of the ethanol manufacturing process, from the
United States since 2005, according to NCGA.
If Cuba purchased all of its imported corn from the United States, NCGA
says it would be the 12th largest overseas market for the product.
Meeting with Cuban officials
The grain industry groups visited with government officials in the Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Investments. Stops also included a Cuban port and
visits to rice and corn operations.
"The Cubans are excited to engage with the United States and want to
learn more from the U.S. agriculture industry about poultry and dairy
production in particular," said Rob Elliott, NCGA first vice president.
"Hopefully we can continue this dialogue and exchange of ideas that will
be beneficial for both countries."
According to previous USGC assessments, Cuba has no broiler production
and limited egg production. And, while imports from the United States
are limited by longstanding policy, a lack of dollars and credit
challenges, the Cuban government wants its agriculture sector to grow.
n addition, the Cuban people and foreign tourists could demand more meat
products in their diet as the country's economy improves.
"We have an opportunity to work with the Cuban people to build their
industries and, at the same time, build demand for our grain," Gray
said. "The Council has used this model all over the world, and it's
clear that type of engagement could now also work in Cuba given the
right conditions."
Although there are significant opportunities in this market for U.S.
coarse grains and co-products, current restrictions imposed by the U.S.
government severely hinder Cuba's trade prospects.
"This mission reaffirmed that it's time for a new U.S. policy toward
Cuba, and now is the time to act," Elliott said. "There are several
bills before Congress to ease the embargo. NCGA will continue to educate
Congress on the importance of the U.S.-Cuba relationship."
Embassy announcement
According to an announcement released by the White House Wednesday, Cuba
and the U.S. will re-establish diplomatic relations and permanent
diplomatic missions on July 20.
"In making this decision, the United States is encouraged by the
reciprocal intention to develop respectful and cooperative relations
between our two peoples and governments consistent with the Purposes and
Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations," the
President wrote.
Cuba was removed from the state sponsors of terrorism list in May. The
U.S. and Cuba first announced intentions to restore trade and diplomatic
ties on Dec. 17, 2014.
Source: As Embassy announced, barley, grain and corn leaders visit Cuba
- Farm Futures -
http://farmfutures.com/story-embassy-announced-barley-grain-corn-leaders-visit-cuba-0-129466
jueves, 2 de julio de 2015
Iowa lawmaker plans trade mission to Cuba
Iowa lawmaker plans trade mission to Cuba
Sen. Steve Sodders says businesses need to be ready if embargo ends
George C. Ford, The Gazette
JULY 1, 2015 | 6:56 PM
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Democratic state lawmaker is organizing a trade mission
to Cuba this summer in hopes of tapping into that market if the embargo
against the Communist island is ever lifted, as President Barack Obama
urged Wednesday.
State Sen. Steve Sodders, of State Center, hopes the trip he's arranging
for August will pave the way for Iowa to export eggs, grains and meat if
given the chance.
"We have someone coming from the Iowa Corn Growers Association and pork
producers from Traer and Marshall County," Sodders said Wednesday. "We
have Mobile Track Solutions in Elkader, which works a lot with
Caterpillar, but they are starting to design tractors.
"That's one of the items that Cuba desperately needs for agriculture.
Mobile Track wants to discuss making tractors to the specific size that
the Cubans need."
Sodders said Deere & Co. was invited earlier this year, but declined
because Cuba was still on the list of nations that the United States
said support terrorism. That designation was recently lifted by the U.S.
State Department.
Obama called Wednesday on Congress to lift the embargo, but that faces
stiff opposition including from some GOP presidential candidates.
Sodders said Hawkeye Hotels in Cedar Rapids will be exploring
construction of tourist hotels when travel restrictions are relaxed. He
said the Meskwaki Tribe may be interested in importing cigars, coffee
and rum.
Sodders said the trade mission also will include legislators and
representatives of banks, credit unions and telecommunications providers.
"We're hoping that some of the groups come out of there with memorandums
of agreement so that when the embargo is lifted, the Cuban government
will look at Iowa first," Sodders said.
"We may be the first state delegation to visit the American embassy in
Cuba."
Source: Iowa lawmaker plans trade mission to Cuba | TheGazette -
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/nation-and-world/iowa-lawmaker-plans-trade-mission-to-cuba-20150701
Sen. Steve Sodders says businesses need to be ready if embargo ends
George C. Ford, The Gazette
JULY 1, 2015 | 6:56 PM
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Democratic state lawmaker is organizing a trade mission
to Cuba this summer in hopes of tapping into that market if the embargo
against the Communist island is ever lifted, as President Barack Obama
urged Wednesday.
State Sen. Steve Sodders, of State Center, hopes the trip he's arranging
for August will pave the way for Iowa to export eggs, grains and meat if
given the chance.
"We have someone coming from the Iowa Corn Growers Association and pork
producers from Traer and Marshall County," Sodders said Wednesday. "We
have Mobile Track Solutions in Elkader, which works a lot with
Caterpillar, but they are starting to design tractors.
"That's one of the items that Cuba desperately needs for agriculture.
Mobile Track wants to discuss making tractors to the specific size that
the Cubans need."
Sodders said Deere & Co. was invited earlier this year, but declined
because Cuba was still on the list of nations that the United States
said support terrorism. That designation was recently lifted by the U.S.
State Department.
Obama called Wednesday on Congress to lift the embargo, but that faces
stiff opposition including from some GOP presidential candidates.
Sodders said Hawkeye Hotels in Cedar Rapids will be exploring
construction of tourist hotels when travel restrictions are relaxed. He
said the Meskwaki Tribe may be interested in importing cigars, coffee
and rum.
Sodders said the trade mission also will include legislators and
representatives of banks, credit unions and telecommunications providers.
"We're hoping that some of the groups come out of there with memorandums
of agreement so that when the embargo is lifted, the Cuban government
will look at Iowa first," Sodders said.
"We may be the first state delegation to visit the American embassy in
Cuba."
Source: Iowa lawmaker plans trade mission to Cuba | TheGazette -
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/nation-and-world/iowa-lawmaker-plans-trade-mission-to-cuba-20150701
US property claims in Cuba - The next hurdle for normalized relations
US property claims in Cuba: The next hurdle for normalized relations
In order to lift the embargo, Americans whose property was seized in the
Cuban revolution must somehow be compensated
July 1, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Marisa Taylor @marisahtaylor
When Carolyn Chester Lamb was growing up in Mount Dora, Florida in the
1960s, her parents often talked about Cuba, the island they had grown to
love after her father was deployed there in 1933 as Havana bureau chief
for The Associated Press.
Edmund Chester reported on the political turmoil of 1930s Cuba, later
becoming executive director of the AP's radio broadcasts aired
throughout Latin America. After a stint in New York City as director of
news for CBS television and radio in the 1940s, Chester returned to
Havana in 1952 to open a public relations agency, with then-President
Fulgencio Batista as prominent client.
Chester loved the island and its people so much, Lamb says, that he and
his wife bought an 80-acre farm on Isle of Pines off Cuba's southern
coast. They also acquired $250,000-worth of Cuban Telephone Co. stock.
Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution ransacked those investments. After
Castro ousted Batista on Jan. 1, 1959, his regime seized private
property across the country and nationalized the country's oil, sugar
and other industries, including all foreign-owned properties, which at
that point made up an estimated 75 percent of the nation's arable land.
Chester's family, Lamb says, was left without its nest egg. Her father
died when she was 15 years old after a series of strokes, which she
believes were brought on from the stress of losing his livelihood, worth
about $500,000.
"He was a man of honor and was cheated out of his place in history,"
said Lamb on June 18 in front of the House Subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere. (PDF) The legislators had gathered to discuss the future of
U.S. property claims in Cuba as relations between the two countries thaw
after more than half a century of animosity. And with Wednesday's
announcement that Cuba and the U.S. will reopen their embassies,
Americans such as Lamb wonder if they'll finally be compensated for
their losses.
Lamb, a single mother, says she makes less than $30,000 a year at her
job as an event coordinator in Omaha, Nebraska. "I live in a $60,000
home," she said. "I drive a 16-year-old car. So any money to me is money."
And she has made it her mission to spread the word about what has
happened to her family and other certified U.S. claimants who lost their
Cuban property.
Starting in 1964, an independent arm of the Justice Department called
the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC) registered a total of
5,913 certified American claims — some from families, others from
corporations — of lost property in Cuba, to the tune of $1.9 billion.
With an annual 6 percent interest rate set by the FCSC, they are worth
about $7 billion today.
In fact, in 1960 President Dwight Eisenhower imposed the U.S. economic
embargo of Cuba, now stretching into its sixth decade, expressly because
of Cuba's seizure of U.S.-owned factories and businesses there. The 1996
Helms-Burton Act codified the embargo into law, stipulating that certain
conditions be met before the restrictions are lifted, including the
settlement of Americans' property claims.
'Ambigious at best'
After Wednesday's embassy announcement, and with attention shifting to
the embargo itself, how U.S. compensation for lost property will be
addressed becomes a primary concern for stakeholder and experts alike.
"Most of the time, you aren't going to get everything back,"
said Patrick Borchers, a professor at the Creighton University School of
Law in reference to these types of property claims.
Borchers was a principal investigator on a 2007 study commissioned by
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (PDF) examining
how the outstanding U.S. claims might be resolved.
Earlier, he had traveled to Cuba and selected four certified claims at
random to determine what had become of them. What he and his team found
was ambiguous at best, he said. One claim was listed as a business
located on a certain corner, but when they got there, it was impossible
to tell which corner. Another described a "wharf-front property," he
says. But what he found was more akin to a junkyard. "There were just
heaps of rusted old machinery and you couldn't tell where anything
began," he said.
His team estimated that Cuba has the hard currency to pay a few pennies
on the dollar for all U.S. claims. "The amount that Cuba can
realistically afford to pay is so low that we had to propose some kind
of alternative to money that they frankly just don't have," Borchers said.
Borchers proposed that the claims be sorted into tiers, and that Cuba
could pay off the smaller, individual ones in lump sums, as it has done
for Canada, France, Spain and Switzerland. The larger ones, owned by
corporations such as Exxon Mobile Corp., and Coca-Cola Co., could
perhaps be settled through opening development zones in Cuba and
offering these companies the rights or tax forgiveness, while employing
Cubans so as to benefit both countries, he suggested. For example,
Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Borchers said, has inherited a $50 million
claim through its acquisition of International Telephone and Telegraph
Corp., and it might prefer, say, beachfront property and the development
rights "rather than rusted old telephone lines."
This kind of arrangement is exactly what Timothy Ashby, a London-based
attorney who served as deputy assistant Secretary of Commerce for the
Western Hemisphere in the late 1980s, attempted to do on his own. He
says that during his stint with the Commerce Department, Cuban officials
first broached the U.S. property issue with him.
"They wanted to settle the claims," he said.
In 2006, Ashby formed a corporation and raised funds to buy nine of the
U.S. claims in Cuba from their original owners as proof of concept, and
then attempted to broker private settlements directly with the Cuban
government. The idea, he said, was to swap those claims with government
assets and allow the claimants to develop them in joint ventures that
would employ ordinary Cubans.
But in 2009 he was blocked by the George W. Bush administration, which
said it was illegal for him to make the swaps without a license. He
tried again when President Barack Obama came into office, and was
similarly rejected.
"When the deal was shut down, I was furious," Ashby said, adding that he
knows he was within his legal rights. "For policy reasons, they just
wouldn't listen to us. It's a sad situation because we could have
settled the claims. We probably could have moved the normalization
process ahead by two years."
Some U.S. claimants like Lamb, however, are having none of it. When
Ashby's group approached her to buy her family's claim at what she said
was a steep discount, she got angry. She finds it suspicious that they
wanted to pay her a fraction of what her property was worth, yet turn
around and make presentations to investors that Cuba is a future
investment paradise.
"I've sunk my life into this, and I've realized people have been trying
to screw me over on this," Lamb said. "Had everybody just concentrated
on paying the claims, then we wouldn't be going through this."
Her Alexandria, Virginia-based attorney, Mauricio Tamargo, who is the
former head of the FCSC, agrees.
In his testimony to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere on June 18, he said the U.S. should not lift the
embargo until U.S. claimants are paid in full.
"Cuba keeps crying poverty, saying it has no money," Tamargo said. "That
is just not true … . It is just that Cuba's leadership have other plans
for their revenue."
A recipe for chaos
Nicolás J. Gutiérrez, a Miami-based consultant who helped the U.S.
government draft the Helms-Burton Act, feels that if the U.S. doesn't
resolve the claims, Americans could start suing fellow citizens who are,
say, stopping at ports or airports that were seized from them. "It's
going to be a recipe for legal chaos," said Gutiérrez.
He has spent the last 25 years helping Cuban-Americans — those who fled
the Castro regime but were not yet U.S. citizens when they left Cuba —
to compile the paperwork on their own property claims. These claimants
have not been permitted to register those losses through the FCSC.
"They're not fanciful or made up," says Borchers, who estimates the
Cuban-American property claims are worth four times those of the
American ones. "People have got deeds to houses they left behind."
Cuba, however, views them as exiles, and international law doesn't
recognize their right of recovery.
But Gutiérrez, who is also president of the National Association of
Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba, which represents the owners of sugar mills
expropriated without compensation, has created an informal registry of
more than 500 Cuban-American claimants to be ready if and when the
opportunity arises.
That includes his own family, which owned several properties in the
Cienfuegoes area: two sugar mills, 15 cattle ranches, a coffee mill and
plantation, and other commercial properties, all of which were appraised
at about $35 million in 1950, he says.
"Serious investment is not going to go into Cuba unless and until Cuba
rectifies the takings of Cuban-Americans and other Cubans in Cuba,"
Gutiérrez said. "Who's going to trust that their investment was treated
any better than ours was back then?"
However the property claims issue is resolved, Borchers, for his part,
says it could be a drawn-out process.
"I think we'll get there with Cuba, but we need to get there in a way
that really makes things better for ordinary Cubans," he said.
"Unfortunately, that's not like flipping a light switch. It's not like
rolling the clock back to Jan. 1st, 1959 and saying everybody gets a
do-over."
Source: How To Resolve American Property Claims In Cuba? | Al Jazeera
America -
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/1/how-to-resolve-american-property-claims-in-cuba.html
In order to lift the embargo, Americans whose property was seized in the
Cuban revolution must somehow be compensated
July 1, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Marisa Taylor @marisahtaylor
When Carolyn Chester Lamb was growing up in Mount Dora, Florida in the
1960s, her parents often talked about Cuba, the island they had grown to
love after her father was deployed there in 1933 as Havana bureau chief
for The Associated Press.
Edmund Chester reported on the political turmoil of 1930s Cuba, later
becoming executive director of the AP's radio broadcasts aired
throughout Latin America. After a stint in New York City as director of
news for CBS television and radio in the 1940s, Chester returned to
Havana in 1952 to open a public relations agency, with then-President
Fulgencio Batista as prominent client.
Chester loved the island and its people so much, Lamb says, that he and
his wife bought an 80-acre farm on Isle of Pines off Cuba's southern
coast. They also acquired $250,000-worth of Cuban Telephone Co. stock.
Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution ransacked those investments. After
Castro ousted Batista on Jan. 1, 1959, his regime seized private
property across the country and nationalized the country's oil, sugar
and other industries, including all foreign-owned properties, which at
that point made up an estimated 75 percent of the nation's arable land.
Chester's family, Lamb says, was left without its nest egg. Her father
died when she was 15 years old after a series of strokes, which she
believes were brought on from the stress of losing his livelihood, worth
about $500,000.
"He was a man of honor and was cheated out of his place in history,"
said Lamb on June 18 in front of the House Subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere. (PDF) The legislators had gathered to discuss the future of
U.S. property claims in Cuba as relations between the two countries thaw
after more than half a century of animosity. And with Wednesday's
announcement that Cuba and the U.S. will reopen their embassies,
Americans such as Lamb wonder if they'll finally be compensated for
their losses.
Lamb, a single mother, says she makes less than $30,000 a year at her
job as an event coordinator in Omaha, Nebraska. "I live in a $60,000
home," she said. "I drive a 16-year-old car. So any money to me is money."
And she has made it her mission to spread the word about what has
happened to her family and other certified U.S. claimants who lost their
Cuban property.
Starting in 1964, an independent arm of the Justice Department called
the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC) registered a total of
5,913 certified American claims — some from families, others from
corporations — of lost property in Cuba, to the tune of $1.9 billion.
With an annual 6 percent interest rate set by the FCSC, they are worth
about $7 billion today.
In fact, in 1960 President Dwight Eisenhower imposed the U.S. economic
embargo of Cuba, now stretching into its sixth decade, expressly because
of Cuba's seizure of U.S.-owned factories and businesses there. The 1996
Helms-Burton Act codified the embargo into law, stipulating that certain
conditions be met before the restrictions are lifted, including the
settlement of Americans' property claims.
'Ambigious at best'
After Wednesday's embassy announcement, and with attention shifting to
the embargo itself, how U.S. compensation for lost property will be
addressed becomes a primary concern for stakeholder and experts alike.
"Most of the time, you aren't going to get everything back,"
said Patrick Borchers, a professor at the Creighton University School of
Law in reference to these types of property claims.
Borchers was a principal investigator on a 2007 study commissioned by
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (PDF) examining
how the outstanding U.S. claims might be resolved.
Earlier, he had traveled to Cuba and selected four certified claims at
random to determine what had become of them. What he and his team found
was ambiguous at best, he said. One claim was listed as a business
located on a certain corner, but when they got there, it was impossible
to tell which corner. Another described a "wharf-front property," he
says. But what he found was more akin to a junkyard. "There were just
heaps of rusted old machinery and you couldn't tell where anything
began," he said.
His team estimated that Cuba has the hard currency to pay a few pennies
on the dollar for all U.S. claims. "The amount that Cuba can
realistically afford to pay is so low that we had to propose some kind
of alternative to money that they frankly just don't have," Borchers said.
Borchers proposed that the claims be sorted into tiers, and that Cuba
could pay off the smaller, individual ones in lump sums, as it has done
for Canada, France, Spain and Switzerland. The larger ones, owned by
corporations such as Exxon Mobile Corp., and Coca-Cola Co., could
perhaps be settled through opening development zones in Cuba and
offering these companies the rights or tax forgiveness, while employing
Cubans so as to benefit both countries, he suggested. For example,
Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Borchers said, has inherited a $50 million
claim through its acquisition of International Telephone and Telegraph
Corp., and it might prefer, say, beachfront property and the development
rights "rather than rusted old telephone lines."
This kind of arrangement is exactly what Timothy Ashby, a London-based
attorney who served as deputy assistant Secretary of Commerce for the
Western Hemisphere in the late 1980s, attempted to do on his own. He
says that during his stint with the Commerce Department, Cuban officials
first broached the U.S. property issue with him.
"They wanted to settle the claims," he said.
In 2006, Ashby formed a corporation and raised funds to buy nine of the
U.S. claims in Cuba from their original owners as proof of concept, and
then attempted to broker private settlements directly with the Cuban
government. The idea, he said, was to swap those claims with government
assets and allow the claimants to develop them in joint ventures that
would employ ordinary Cubans.
But in 2009 he was blocked by the George W. Bush administration, which
said it was illegal for him to make the swaps without a license. He
tried again when President Barack Obama came into office, and was
similarly rejected.
"When the deal was shut down, I was furious," Ashby said, adding that he
knows he was within his legal rights. "For policy reasons, they just
wouldn't listen to us. It's a sad situation because we could have
settled the claims. We probably could have moved the normalization
process ahead by two years."
Some U.S. claimants like Lamb, however, are having none of it. When
Ashby's group approached her to buy her family's claim at what she said
was a steep discount, she got angry. She finds it suspicious that they
wanted to pay her a fraction of what her property was worth, yet turn
around and make presentations to investors that Cuba is a future
investment paradise.
"I've sunk my life into this, and I've realized people have been trying
to screw me over on this," Lamb said. "Had everybody just concentrated
on paying the claims, then we wouldn't be going through this."
Her Alexandria, Virginia-based attorney, Mauricio Tamargo, who is the
former head of the FCSC, agrees.
In his testimony to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere on June 18, he said the U.S. should not lift the
embargo until U.S. claimants are paid in full.
"Cuba keeps crying poverty, saying it has no money," Tamargo said. "That
is just not true … . It is just that Cuba's leadership have other plans
for their revenue."
A recipe for chaos
Nicolás J. Gutiérrez, a Miami-based consultant who helped the U.S.
government draft the Helms-Burton Act, feels that if the U.S. doesn't
resolve the claims, Americans could start suing fellow citizens who are,
say, stopping at ports or airports that were seized from them. "It's
going to be a recipe for legal chaos," said Gutiérrez.
He has spent the last 25 years helping Cuban-Americans — those who fled
the Castro regime but were not yet U.S. citizens when they left Cuba —
to compile the paperwork on their own property claims. These claimants
have not been permitted to register those losses through the FCSC.
"They're not fanciful or made up," says Borchers, who estimates the
Cuban-American property claims are worth four times those of the
American ones. "People have got deeds to houses they left behind."
Cuba, however, views them as exiles, and international law doesn't
recognize their right of recovery.
But Gutiérrez, who is also president of the National Association of
Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba, which represents the owners of sugar mills
expropriated without compensation, has created an informal registry of
more than 500 Cuban-American claimants to be ready if and when the
opportunity arises.
That includes his own family, which owned several properties in the
Cienfuegoes area: two sugar mills, 15 cattle ranches, a coffee mill and
plantation, and other commercial properties, all of which were appraised
at about $35 million in 1950, he says.
"Serious investment is not going to go into Cuba unless and until Cuba
rectifies the takings of Cuban-Americans and other Cubans in Cuba,"
Gutiérrez said. "Who's going to trust that their investment was treated
any better than ours was back then?"
However the property claims issue is resolved, Borchers, for his part,
says it could be a drawn-out process.
"I think we'll get there with Cuba, but we need to get there in a way
that really makes things better for ordinary Cubans," he said.
"Unfortunately, that's not like flipping a light switch. It's not like
rolling the clock back to Jan. 1st, 1959 and saying everybody gets a
do-over."
Source: How To Resolve American Property Claims In Cuba? | Al Jazeera
America -
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/1/how-to-resolve-american-property-claims-in-cuba.html
Ferry operator Balearia gets US nod to serve Cuba
Ferry operator Balearia gets US nod to serve Cuba
By Doreen Hemlock
Sun Sentinel
- Port Everglades one step closer to offering ferry service to Cuba
- Ferry company Balearia gets U.S. Commerce approval for Cuba service
The Spanish company that operates ferries from Fort Lauderdale to the
Bahamas is one step closer to adding service to Cuba.
Spain's Balearia said it received approval from the U.S. Commerce
Department to operate ships between Florida and Cuba. It also expects
authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department "in the coming weeks" to
carry passengers between the two neighboring nations, a news release said.
Pending approval from Cuba, ferry service between the U.S. and Cuba
could start as soon as fall, attorneys familiar with U.S.-Cuba business
have said.
Balearia has been offering fast ferry service between Port Everglades
and Freeport on Grand Bahama Island since 2011 under the brand name
Bahamas Express.
For Cuba service, it plans to operate two routes to Havana: a high-speed
vessel from Key West and a ferry from Port Everglades, the news release
said. No further details were specified.
U.S. authorities in May licensed at least six companies to offer ferry
service to Cuba, the first such approvals in five decades. Ferry service
had been cut amid tensions between the two governments. It is being
restored in line with restoration of diplomatic ties between the two
neighbors.
The ferry companies plan to offer trips that cost less than charter
flights and allow more baggage free. Many Cuban-Americans haul down
hefty supplies for family homes and new private businesses.
Also licensed are Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Baja Ferries
of Miami, United Caribbean Lines of Greater Orlando, Airline Brokers Co.
of Miami, America Cruise Ferries of Puerto Rico and International Port
Corp. of Miami, among others.
The U.S. embargo on Cuba still bans Americans from leisure tourism in
Cuba. But Americans can visit the island for 12 categories of
"purposeful" travel including family visits, government business,
professional research, performances, plus educational, religious and
humanitarian activities.
Balearia is looking to serve Cuba as part of a broader international
expansion.
This year, the company expects to transport more than 130,000 passengers
between the U.S. and the Bahamas, up 25 percent from last year. It
estimates that revenues from international operations in the Caribbean
and Mediterranean regions will account for about 15 percent of its total
business.
In five years, Balearia aims to derive about 50 percent of its revenue
from international business, perhaps including Puerto Rico-Dominican
Republic service as well, the company said.
Balearia now has 23 ships and employs more than 1,000 people worldwide.
dhemlock@sunsentinel.com, 305-810-5009, @dhemlock on Twitter
Source: Spain's ferry operator Balearia gets US nod to serve Cuba - Sun
Sentinel -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/tourism/fl-cuba-ferry-balearia-20150701-story.html
By Doreen Hemlock
Sun Sentinel
- Port Everglades one step closer to offering ferry service to Cuba
- Ferry company Balearia gets U.S. Commerce approval for Cuba service
The Spanish company that operates ferries from Fort Lauderdale to the
Bahamas is one step closer to adding service to Cuba.
Spain's Balearia said it received approval from the U.S. Commerce
Department to operate ships between Florida and Cuba. It also expects
authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department "in the coming weeks" to
carry passengers between the two neighboring nations, a news release said.
Pending approval from Cuba, ferry service between the U.S. and Cuba
could start as soon as fall, attorneys familiar with U.S.-Cuba business
have said.
Balearia has been offering fast ferry service between Port Everglades
and Freeport on Grand Bahama Island since 2011 under the brand name
Bahamas Express.
For Cuba service, it plans to operate two routes to Havana: a high-speed
vessel from Key West and a ferry from Port Everglades, the news release
said. No further details were specified.
U.S. authorities in May licensed at least six companies to offer ferry
service to Cuba, the first such approvals in five decades. Ferry service
had been cut amid tensions between the two governments. It is being
restored in line with restoration of diplomatic ties between the two
neighbors.
The ferry companies plan to offer trips that cost less than charter
flights and allow more baggage free. Many Cuban-Americans haul down
hefty supplies for family homes and new private businesses.
Also licensed are Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, Baja Ferries
of Miami, United Caribbean Lines of Greater Orlando, Airline Brokers Co.
of Miami, America Cruise Ferries of Puerto Rico and International Port
Corp. of Miami, among others.
The U.S. embargo on Cuba still bans Americans from leisure tourism in
Cuba. But Americans can visit the island for 12 categories of
"purposeful" travel including family visits, government business,
professional research, performances, plus educational, religious and
humanitarian activities.
Balearia is looking to serve Cuba as part of a broader international
expansion.
This year, the company expects to transport more than 130,000 passengers
between the U.S. and the Bahamas, up 25 percent from last year. It
estimates that revenues from international operations in the Caribbean
and Mediterranean regions will account for about 15 percent of its total
business.
In five years, Balearia aims to derive about 50 percent of its revenue
from international business, perhaps including Puerto Rico-Dominican
Republic service as well, the company said.
Balearia now has 23 ships and employs more than 1,000 people worldwide.
dhemlock@sunsentinel.com, 305-810-5009, @dhemlock on Twitter
Source: Spain's ferry operator Balearia gets US nod to serve Cuba - Sun
Sentinel -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/tourism/fl-cuba-ferry-balearia-20150701-story.html
Despite diplomatic relations, Cuba travel remains thorny
Despite diplomatic relations, Cuba travel remains thorny
Bart Jansen, USA TODAY 4:18 p.m. EDT July 1, 2015
WASHINGTON – Even though the United States and Cuba are reopening their
embassies, regular scheduled airline flights between the countries will
take a bit longer.
The Obama administration eased restrictions a bit in January for
educational and religious trips by charter flight. But tourist trips
remain prohibited to the country 90 miles from Florida.
Several bills in Congress would eliminate 50-year travel restrictions
imposed after Cuba's communist revolution.
But a House vote last month reinforced opposition in the
Republican-controlled Congress to ease the trade embargo or allow
unfettered flights.
The House voted 247-176 on June 4 to keep a Cuba-related provision in a
transportation funding bill that would block the administration's rules
easing travel. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which
must still be reconciled with the Senate.
"It is an utter disgrace that the administration has removed human
rights and America's security from the president's foreign policy
agenda," said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who heads the subcommittee
that produced the legislation.
Since January, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control no longer requires special licenses to visit Cuba. Travelers
only have to certify they are visiting in one of 12 categories —
educational, religious and humanitarian projects, among others — while
tourism remains prohibited.
"There are Americans who want to travel to Cuba and American businesses
who want to invest in Cuba," Obama said Wednesday in announcing plans to
reopen embassies later this month. "I've called on Congress to take
steps to lift the embargo that prevents Americans from traveling or
doing business in Cuba."
The number of travelers at stake is significant. An estimated 500,000
already travel from the USA to Cuba each year, according to a
Congressional Research Service report based on Cuban statistics.
Included in that number are 350,000 to 400,000 Cuban Americans, whom
Cuba considers its own nationals, who visit the island each year, and
92,348 people who traveled in 2013 under U.S. licenses for reasons such
as education or religion, according to the report.
Two in three Americans (67%) support ending the trade embargo, according
to a poll released Wednesday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The national poll of 2,034 adults conducted May 25 to June 17 by GfK
Custom Research had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
But at least three bills have been introduced – and haven't made much
progress – in the House and the Senate to prohibit regulating travel to
Cuba.
One of the sponsors, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that
he's been working more than 20 years to enable Americans to visit Cuba
more easily.
"It is now up to the U.S. Congress to lift the embargo with Cuba and
legalize the exchange of our goods, culture and services," he said.
Source: Despite diplomatic relations, Cuba travel remains thorny -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/01/cuba-travel/29572441/
Bart Jansen, USA TODAY 4:18 p.m. EDT July 1, 2015
WASHINGTON – Even though the United States and Cuba are reopening their
embassies, regular scheduled airline flights between the countries will
take a bit longer.
The Obama administration eased restrictions a bit in January for
educational and religious trips by charter flight. But tourist trips
remain prohibited to the country 90 miles from Florida.
Several bills in Congress would eliminate 50-year travel restrictions
imposed after Cuba's communist revolution.
But a House vote last month reinforced opposition in the
Republican-controlled Congress to ease the trade embargo or allow
unfettered flights.
The House voted 247-176 on June 4 to keep a Cuba-related provision in a
transportation funding bill that would block the administration's rules
easing travel. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, which
must still be reconciled with the Senate.
"It is an utter disgrace that the administration has removed human
rights and America's security from the president's foreign policy
agenda," said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who heads the subcommittee
that produced the legislation.
Since January, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control no longer requires special licenses to visit Cuba. Travelers
only have to certify they are visiting in one of 12 categories —
educational, religious and humanitarian projects, among others — while
tourism remains prohibited.
"There are Americans who want to travel to Cuba and American businesses
who want to invest in Cuba," Obama said Wednesday in announcing plans to
reopen embassies later this month. "I've called on Congress to take
steps to lift the embargo that prevents Americans from traveling or
doing business in Cuba."
The number of travelers at stake is significant. An estimated 500,000
already travel from the USA to Cuba each year, according to a
Congressional Research Service report based on Cuban statistics.
Included in that number are 350,000 to 400,000 Cuban Americans, whom
Cuba considers its own nationals, who visit the island each year, and
92,348 people who traveled in 2013 under U.S. licenses for reasons such
as education or religion, according to the report.
Two in three Americans (67%) support ending the trade embargo, according
to a poll released Wednesday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
The national poll of 2,034 adults conducted May 25 to June 17 by GfK
Custom Research had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
But at least three bills have been introduced – and haven't made much
progress – in the House and the Senate to prohibit regulating travel to
Cuba.
One of the sponsors, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that
he's been working more than 20 years to enable Americans to visit Cuba
more easily.
"It is now up to the U.S. Congress to lift the embargo with Cuba and
legalize the exchange of our goods, culture and services," he said.
Source: Despite diplomatic relations, Cuba travel remains thorny -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/01/cuba-travel/29572441/
Asfaltado de calle sin terminar
Asfaltado de calle sin terminar
[02-07-2015 00:06:55]
Misael Aguilar Hernández
Red Cubana de Comunicadores Comunitarios
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Cuando hace más de un año se comenzó a
reparar la Avenida 35, en San Antonio de los Baños, se rompieron para
realizar esta labor las bocacalles desde la avenida 70 conocida como
Calle Ancha, hasta la calle 40,donde está ubicado el circulo infantil
Semillas del 2000.
Todas estas entrecalles que atraviesan a la avenida 35, han quedado en
un estado desastroso, donde abundan las roturas de las conexiones de
agua, enormes huecos y hasta escombros. En dichos lugares se hace
difícil-incluso- recoger la basura, para el carro que se dedica a este
menester en el municipio.
No se trata de pequeños huecos o baches, sino de que es hasta difícil
imaginar que allí haya habido calle alguna vez. Toda esta situación
empeoró después de la reparación de la calle 35, pues las entre calles
que la atraviesan fueron más destruidas de lo que estaban. Las brigadas
encargadas por el gobierno local para hacer este trabajo, se limitaron a
cubrirlas con una fina capa de chapapote a la que no agregaron gravilla,
por lo que no hubo que tomarse siquiera el trabajo de pasar el cilindro
por dicha zona.
Hoy a más de un año de estas fatídicas reparaciones las calles más
afectadas son 66, 37, 62, 64 y la 33 .No hay indicios de que se vayan a
iniciar reparaciones ni de que este grave problema urbano se vaya a
resolver en los venideros meses.
Las lluvias intensas del mes de junio han agravado esta penosa
situación, pues ahondan los huecos y en su correr improvisan causes y
desentierran piedras. Ejemplo nítido de este mal es la calle 62, la que
puede considerarse una de las que en más pésimo estado se encuentra en
el municipio, que hasta resulta incómodo transitar por ella.
Source: Asfaltado de calle sin terminar - Misceláneas de Cuba -
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/5594647f3a682e13b8ddf5b3#.VZT6Yfmqqko
[02-07-2015 00:06:55]
Misael Aguilar Hernández
Red Cubana de Comunicadores Comunitarios
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Cuando hace más de un año se comenzó a
reparar la Avenida 35, en San Antonio de los Baños, se rompieron para
realizar esta labor las bocacalles desde la avenida 70 conocida como
Calle Ancha, hasta la calle 40,donde está ubicado el circulo infantil
Semillas del 2000.
Todas estas entrecalles que atraviesan a la avenida 35, han quedado en
un estado desastroso, donde abundan las roturas de las conexiones de
agua, enormes huecos y hasta escombros. En dichos lugares se hace
difícil-incluso- recoger la basura, para el carro que se dedica a este
menester en el municipio.
No se trata de pequeños huecos o baches, sino de que es hasta difícil
imaginar que allí haya habido calle alguna vez. Toda esta situación
empeoró después de la reparación de la calle 35, pues las entre calles
que la atraviesan fueron más destruidas de lo que estaban. Las brigadas
encargadas por el gobierno local para hacer este trabajo, se limitaron a
cubrirlas con una fina capa de chapapote a la que no agregaron gravilla,
por lo que no hubo que tomarse siquiera el trabajo de pasar el cilindro
por dicha zona.
Hoy a más de un año de estas fatídicas reparaciones las calles más
afectadas son 66, 37, 62, 64 y la 33 .No hay indicios de que se vayan a
iniciar reparaciones ni de que este grave problema urbano se vaya a
resolver en los venideros meses.
Las lluvias intensas del mes de junio han agravado esta penosa
situación, pues ahondan los huecos y en su correr improvisan causes y
desentierran piedras. Ejemplo nítido de este mal es la calle 62, la que
puede considerarse una de las que en más pésimo estado se encuentra en
el municipio, que hasta resulta incómodo transitar por ella.
Source: Asfaltado de calle sin terminar - Misceláneas de Cuba -
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/5594647f3a682e13b8ddf5b3#.VZT6Yfmqqko
Ajustes en el precio del picadillo de pavo
Ajustes en el precio del picadillo de pavo
[02-07-2015 00:03:25]
Misael Aguilar Hernández
Red Cubana de Comunicadores Comunitarios
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- No han sido pocas las críticas recibidas
por el régimen a partir de criterios por parte de la población con
relación al picadillo de pavo, que se vende en las tiendas recaudadoras
de divisa. Se trata para ser más específico del producto que se elabora
en Cuba, que tuvo una degeneración paulatina en su calidad, hasta llegar
a convertirse en una masa cárnica adulterada con gran cantidad de soja.
Al parecer las innumerables críticas que los consumidores han hecho,
influyeron para que el MFP (Ministerio de Finanzas y Precios) se
dispusiera a establecer dos criterios para fijar el valor de los
diferentes surtidos de este producto.
No es menos cierto, que cuando comenzó a aparecer en el mercado, tenía
buena calidad, pero pasado un tiempo ha desaparecido, hasta llegar a
tener un sabor agrio muy similar al del picadillo de soja que venden por
la libreta de racionalización de alimentos.
Así, el MFP debido a su existencia en el mercado interno en divisas, ha
establecido de acuerdo a la Resolución No.151/2015, que el picadillo de
pavo en paquete de 400 gramos con componente de grasa superior al diez
por ciento costará un peso convertible.
Esta disposición fijada por el MFP,y publicada en la Gaceta Oficial
No.25 Ordinaria de este 15 de junio, anuncia además que el picadillo de
pavo en paquete de 400 gramos y con un componente en grasa inferior y
hasta el diez por ciento, va a tener un precio de 1.70 CUC.
Como es natural, se establece que esta disposición será de aplicación
obligatoria para las cadenas de tiendas recaudadoras de divisas, y para
otras entidades que por supuesto tengan la autorización para
comercializar en moneda convertible.
Source: Ajustes en el precio del picadillo de pavo - Misceláneas de Cuba
-
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/559463ad3a682e13b8ddf5b2#.VZT6ZPmqqko
[02-07-2015 00:03:25]
Misael Aguilar Hernández
Red Cubana de Comunicadores Comunitarios
(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- No han sido pocas las críticas recibidas
por el régimen a partir de criterios por parte de la población con
relación al picadillo de pavo, que se vende en las tiendas recaudadoras
de divisa. Se trata para ser más específico del producto que se elabora
en Cuba, que tuvo una degeneración paulatina en su calidad, hasta llegar
a convertirse en una masa cárnica adulterada con gran cantidad de soja.
Al parecer las innumerables críticas que los consumidores han hecho,
influyeron para que el MFP (Ministerio de Finanzas y Precios) se
dispusiera a establecer dos criterios para fijar el valor de los
diferentes surtidos de este producto.
No es menos cierto, que cuando comenzó a aparecer en el mercado, tenía
buena calidad, pero pasado un tiempo ha desaparecido, hasta llegar a
tener un sabor agrio muy similar al del picadillo de soja que venden por
la libreta de racionalización de alimentos.
Así, el MFP debido a su existencia en el mercado interno en divisas, ha
establecido de acuerdo a la Resolución No.151/2015, que el picadillo de
pavo en paquete de 400 gramos con componente de grasa superior al diez
por ciento costará un peso convertible.
Esta disposición fijada por el MFP,y publicada en la Gaceta Oficial
No.25 Ordinaria de este 15 de junio, anuncia además que el picadillo de
pavo en paquete de 400 gramos y con un componente en grasa inferior y
hasta el diez por ciento, va a tener un precio de 1.70 CUC.
Como es natural, se establece que esta disposición será de aplicación
obligatoria para las cadenas de tiendas recaudadoras de divisas, y para
otras entidades que por supuesto tengan la autorización para
comercializar en moneda convertible.
Source: Ajustes en el precio del picadillo de pavo - Misceláneas de Cuba
-
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/559463ad3a682e13b8ddf5b2#.VZT6ZPmqqko
In ‘historic step,’ Obama announces full diplomatic relations with Cuba
In 'historic step,' Obama announces full diplomatic relations with Cuba
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com
Casting aside more than a half century of hostilities, President Barack
Obama announced Wednesday that the United States and Cuba would restore
full diplomatic relations and open respective embassies on July 20.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, he called the rapprochement "a
historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the
Cuban government and people, and begin a new chapter with our neighbors
in the Americas."
The president said Secretary of State John Kerry would soon travel to
Havana to "proudly raise the U.S. flag over our embassy." No date has
been set yet for the ceremony marking the opening of the embassy.
Kerry, who was in Vienna for talks about Iran's nuclear program, said he
was looking forward to the Havana trip — the first visit to Cuba by a
U.S. secretary of state since 1945. "This transition, this moment in
history, is taking place because President Obama made a personal,
fundamental decision to change a policy that didn't work and that had
been in place not working for far too long," he said.
The Cuban government said that it planned to hold a ceremony marking its
embassy opening in Washington on July 20. Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno
Rodríguez will lead a Cuban delegation, which will include members of
Cuban civil society. New landscaping and a pole for the Cuban flag that
will wave from the new embassy have already been installed.
On Wednesday, as required, a 15-day notification of the plan to change
the status of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to an American
Embassy was sent to Congress. But a senior State Department official
said the resumption of diplomatic ties wouldn't start until July 20.
As part of the process, a diplomat from the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana met with acting Cuban Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina Wednesday
morning to deliver a letter from Obama about the opening of the
embassies and resumption of diplomatic ties. Castro conveyed a similar
letter to Obama confirming the reestablishment of diplomatic relations
with the United States.
The United States and Cuba held four rounds of talks — two in Havana and
two in Washington — to reach agreement on the terms for opening
embassies and renewing diplomatic ties after Obama and Cuban leader Raúl
Castro jointly announced on Dec. 17 that the two countries planned to
work toward normalization.
"This was not an easy task given the long history of mistrust between
the two countries," said the State Deparment official.
But since the December announcement, Obama said there has been "enormous
enthusiasm" for the new approach toward Cuba.
Among the final sticking points in the talks had been the United States'
desire for its diplomats to travel freely throughout the island to talk
with a wide variety of Cubans. The Cuban government agreed to allow such
travel but said that U.S. diplomats must notify the Ministry of Foreign
Relations 24 hours in advance of such travel. They currently must ask
permission.
"We are satisfied with the conditions agreed to," said the State
Department official, who added that diplomatic travel, staffing and
access to the mission will be "considerably better than we have now."
Some Republican members of Congress say they will attempt to block
funding for the new embassy as well as block the appointment of an
ambassador. Obama hasn't announced his choice for the ambassador post,
but Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the current chief of the Interests Section, is
expected to become chargé d'affaires.
The senior State Department official called him "one of the most
outstanding diplomats I can imagine" and noted that "we already have a
very robust Interests Section now that I believe is the largest
diplomatic mission in Havana."
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Republican presidential
hopeful, reinterated Wednesday his intention to "oppose the confirmation
of an ambassador to Cuba" until issues such as U.S. fugitives in Cuba,
U.S. property claims and "securiing greater political freedom for the
Cuban people" are addresssed.
The United States broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961
after the relationship between the two countries had steadily
deteriorated since the 1959 Cuban revolution. The day before, Cuban
Foreign Minister Raúl Roa, speaking before the U.N. Security Council,
said the United States was planning to invade Cuba and was engaging in
espionage from its embassy in Havana.
The invasion didn't actually come until April of that year when the
CIA-sponsored Brigade 2506 failed in its attempt to invade Cuba and
topple the Castro government. In 1960, the United States began phasing
in the trade embargo against Cuba.
Noting that the U.S. shuttered its embassy at the height of the Cold
War, Obama said, "I don't think anyone expected it would be more than a
half a century before it reopened."
Opening the embassies and renewing diplomatic ties are just the
beginning steps in a long process of normalization that includes issues
both big and small that separate two countries that are only 90 miles apart.
Among the major issues still to be dealt with are the embargo,
compensation for properties taken from U.S. citizens after the
revolution, the U.S. base at Guantánamo, migration policy and the return
of U.S. criminals who have been given safe harbor in Cuba.
"While there are still many issues to be resolved in the full
normalization of relations between the two countries and its peoples,
today's announcement gives us another reason to be optimistic," the Cuba
Study Group, which supports engagement with Cuba, said in a statement.
"It is further evidence that engagement rather than isolation is the
best way to advance U.S. interests and the interests of the Cuban people."
The Cuban government wasted no time in expressing what it thinks needs
to be done.
"There could be no normal relations between Cuba and the United States
as long as the economic, commercial and financial blockade [the Cuban
term for the embargo] continues to be fully implemented, causing damage
and scarcities to the Cuban people," the government said.
In order to fully normalize relations, Cuba said it also would be
"indispensable for the United States government to return to Cuba the
territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base; cease the
radio and television broadcasts, which violate international regulations
and are harmful to our sovereignty; stop the implementation of programs
aimed at promoting internal subversion and destabilization and
compensate the Cuban people for all the human and economic damages
caused by the United States policies."
In Havana, retired Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said there are so
many issues between the two countries that "you need a very tall
building, a 50-story building'' to house them all. "But we have to
construct that building on very shaky ground — so the foundations have
to be very strong."
Alzugaray, who wrote his first paper advocating normalization of
relations with the United States in 1999, said that he didn't think a
U.S. flag flying above an American Embassy in Havana was anything that
he would see in his lifetime.
Now his hope is for "a civilized relationship where both countries
respect each other."
Dany Hernandez, 39, a former baseball player who now runs two
bed-and-breakfast properties in Havana, said he started learning Russian
when he was in elementary school and was taught the United States was
the enemy. "That's crazy. From my point of view, it's not true," he
said. "I think people are very content with the opening. I'm an optimist."
In his remarks Wednesday, Obama also recalled growing up in the Cold War
era. He was born in 1961, the year U.S.-Cuba relations were terminted.
But at the time even President Dwight Eisenhower expressed hope "in the
not-too-distant future" for normal relations.
"Well, it took a while, but I believe that time has come. And a better
future lies ahead," said Obama.
On her Twitter account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now a
Democratic presidential hopeful, wrote: "New US Embassy in Havana helps
us engage Cuban people & build on efforts to support positive change.
Good step for US & Cuban people."'
But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is seeking the Republican
presidential nomination, said he opposes opening a Havana embassy.
"The real test of the Obama administration's rapprochement with the
Castro regime in Cuba is not whether President Obama's legacy is
burnished with dubious diplomatic achievements and photo-ops, but
whether improved relations between Havana and Washington advance the
cause of human rights and freedom for the Cuban people," he said. "The
ongoing detention of dissidents and continued human rights abuses
suggest the administration's policy is failing this test."
Although many in the United States hailed the embassy announcement as
long overdue and recent polls have shown the majority of Americans
support better relations with Cuba, critics say the United States has
made too many concessions in its effort to begin a new chapter in its
relationship with Cuba.
South Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo was among those. "This
deplorable move adds to the long list of unilateral concessions the
Cuban government has received from the Obama Administration as a reward
for cruelly holding an American hostage for five years."
He was referring to USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, who was convicted of
smuggling military-grade telecommunications equipment into Cuba. The new
U.S.-Cuba relationship was an outgrowth of secret negotiations between
the United States and Cuba that began in mid-2013 to free Gross and
three Cuban spies who were serving time in U.S. jails.
On Dec. 17, Cuba freed Gross and the United States swapped the three
spies for a CIA agent who had been imprisoned in Cuba. The United States
also announced a limited commercial opening toward Cuba that would allow
U.S. companies to trade with private Cuban entrepreneurs and U.S.
telecom and Internet companies to try to strike deals with the Cuban
government to improve Internet connectivity and telecommunications on
the island.
South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen called opening an
American Embassy "just another trivial attempt for President Obama to go
legacy shopping" and said it did "nothing to help the Cuban people."
Andy Gomez, a retired University of Miami academic who studies Cuba ,
said he had mixed feelings about the opening of the embassies. "It's
bittersweet because while I anticipated some change on Cuba during this
administration, I really didn't think it would move this fast without
pushing Cuba more on political prisoners and human rights."
For Rey Anthony, a 19-year-old third generation Cuban-American,
Wednesday was a time of reflection about his grandparents' sacrifices.
"I think about what my life would be like if my grandparents would have
stayed in Cuba. What if they would not have found a way to leave? ... I
think about the 2.5 million Cubans who live outside the island.
"I think about Cuba, and I think about millions of lost dreams," said
Anthony who is the youngest member of the Miami-Dade Republican
Executive Committee.
But in renewing his call for Congress to take steps to lift the embargo,
Obama said it was time to make "a choice between the future and the past.
"Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward. I believe it's
time for Congress to do the same," the president said.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT THE OPENING OF EMBASSIES
"Opening embassies in Washington and Havana is an important step toward
the day when Americans can make their own decisions on where they
travel, and our businesses can compete with the rest of the world."
--James Williams, president of Engage Cuba
"The announcement comes just a few days after the latest roundup of 226
dissidents who were detained last weekend. In order to be able to
normalize diplomatic relations, the administration, in fact, plays an
important role in the smokescreen covering up the increase of repression
in Cuba."
--Center for a Free Cuba
"The United States and Cuba continue to have sharp differences over
democracy, human rights, and related issues, but we also have identified
areas for cooperation that include law enforcement, safe transportation,
emergency response, environmental protection, telecommunications, and
migration."
--Secretary of State John Kerry
The opening of an American Embassy in Havana is "just another trivial
attempt for President Obama to go legacy shopping."
--South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
"I suspect this sign of a 'new normal' between the two countries will
increase growing interest in the U.S. and abroad in preparing for
current and future business possibilities on the island."
--Miami attorney Augusto Maxwell
"Once again the regime is being rewarded while they jail dissidents,
silence political opponents, and harbor American fugitives and cop
killers. Our demands for freedoms and liberty on the island will
continue to be ignored and we are incentivizing a police state to uphold
a policy of brutality."
--Sen. Bob Menéndez, D-N.J.
--"New US Embassy in Havana helps us engage Cuban people & build on
efforts to support positive change. Good step for US & Cuban people."
--Twitter account of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now a
Democratic presidential hopeful
"It's bittersweet because while I anticipated some change on Cuba during
this administration, I really didn't think it would move this fast
without pushing Cuba more on political prisoners and human rights."
--Andy Gomez, a retired University of Miami academic and Cuba scholar
Source: In 'historic step,' Obama announces full diplomatic relations
with Cuba | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article25966591.html
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com
Casting aside more than a half century of hostilities, President Barack
Obama announced Wednesday that the United States and Cuba would restore
full diplomatic relations and open respective embassies on July 20.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, he called the rapprochement "a
historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations with the
Cuban government and people, and begin a new chapter with our neighbors
in the Americas."
The president said Secretary of State John Kerry would soon travel to
Havana to "proudly raise the U.S. flag over our embassy." No date has
been set yet for the ceremony marking the opening of the embassy.
Kerry, who was in Vienna for talks about Iran's nuclear program, said he
was looking forward to the Havana trip — the first visit to Cuba by a
U.S. secretary of state since 1945. "This transition, this moment in
history, is taking place because President Obama made a personal,
fundamental decision to change a policy that didn't work and that had
been in place not working for far too long," he said.
The Cuban government said that it planned to hold a ceremony marking its
embassy opening in Washington on July 20. Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno
Rodríguez will lead a Cuban delegation, which will include members of
Cuban civil society. New landscaping and a pole for the Cuban flag that
will wave from the new embassy have already been installed.
On Wednesday, as required, a 15-day notification of the plan to change
the status of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to an American
Embassy was sent to Congress. But a senior State Department official
said the resumption of diplomatic ties wouldn't start until July 20.
As part of the process, a diplomat from the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana met with acting Cuban Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina Wednesday
morning to deliver a letter from Obama about the opening of the
embassies and resumption of diplomatic ties. Castro conveyed a similar
letter to Obama confirming the reestablishment of diplomatic relations
with the United States.
The United States and Cuba held four rounds of talks — two in Havana and
two in Washington — to reach agreement on the terms for opening
embassies and renewing diplomatic ties after Obama and Cuban leader Raúl
Castro jointly announced on Dec. 17 that the two countries planned to
work toward normalization.
"This was not an easy task given the long history of mistrust between
the two countries," said the State Deparment official.
But since the December announcement, Obama said there has been "enormous
enthusiasm" for the new approach toward Cuba.
Among the final sticking points in the talks had been the United States'
desire for its diplomats to travel freely throughout the island to talk
with a wide variety of Cubans. The Cuban government agreed to allow such
travel but said that U.S. diplomats must notify the Ministry of Foreign
Relations 24 hours in advance of such travel. They currently must ask
permission.
"We are satisfied with the conditions agreed to," said the State
Department official, who added that diplomatic travel, staffing and
access to the mission will be "considerably better than we have now."
Some Republican members of Congress say they will attempt to block
funding for the new embassy as well as block the appointment of an
ambassador. Obama hasn't announced his choice for the ambassador post,
but Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the current chief of the Interests Section, is
expected to become chargé d'affaires.
The senior State Department official called him "one of the most
outstanding diplomats I can imagine" and noted that "we already have a
very robust Interests Section now that I believe is the largest
diplomatic mission in Havana."
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Republican presidential
hopeful, reinterated Wednesday his intention to "oppose the confirmation
of an ambassador to Cuba" until issues such as U.S. fugitives in Cuba,
U.S. property claims and "securiing greater political freedom for the
Cuban people" are addresssed.
The United States broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961
after the relationship between the two countries had steadily
deteriorated since the 1959 Cuban revolution. The day before, Cuban
Foreign Minister Raúl Roa, speaking before the U.N. Security Council,
said the United States was planning to invade Cuba and was engaging in
espionage from its embassy in Havana.
The invasion didn't actually come until April of that year when the
CIA-sponsored Brigade 2506 failed in its attempt to invade Cuba and
topple the Castro government. In 1960, the United States began phasing
in the trade embargo against Cuba.
Noting that the U.S. shuttered its embassy at the height of the Cold
War, Obama said, "I don't think anyone expected it would be more than a
half a century before it reopened."
Opening the embassies and renewing diplomatic ties are just the
beginning steps in a long process of normalization that includes issues
both big and small that separate two countries that are only 90 miles apart.
Among the major issues still to be dealt with are the embargo,
compensation for properties taken from U.S. citizens after the
revolution, the U.S. base at Guantánamo, migration policy and the return
of U.S. criminals who have been given safe harbor in Cuba.
"While there are still many issues to be resolved in the full
normalization of relations between the two countries and its peoples,
today's announcement gives us another reason to be optimistic," the Cuba
Study Group, which supports engagement with Cuba, said in a statement.
"It is further evidence that engagement rather than isolation is the
best way to advance U.S. interests and the interests of the Cuban people."
The Cuban government wasted no time in expressing what it thinks needs
to be done.
"There could be no normal relations between Cuba and the United States
as long as the economic, commercial and financial blockade [the Cuban
term for the embargo] continues to be fully implemented, causing damage
and scarcities to the Cuban people," the government said.
In order to fully normalize relations, Cuba said it also would be
"indispensable for the United States government to return to Cuba the
territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base; cease the
radio and television broadcasts, which violate international regulations
and are harmful to our sovereignty; stop the implementation of programs
aimed at promoting internal subversion and destabilization and
compensate the Cuban people for all the human and economic damages
caused by the United States policies."
In Havana, retired Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said there are so
many issues between the two countries that "you need a very tall
building, a 50-story building'' to house them all. "But we have to
construct that building on very shaky ground — so the foundations have
to be very strong."
Alzugaray, who wrote his first paper advocating normalization of
relations with the United States in 1999, said that he didn't think a
U.S. flag flying above an American Embassy in Havana was anything that
he would see in his lifetime.
Now his hope is for "a civilized relationship where both countries
respect each other."
Dany Hernandez, 39, a former baseball player who now runs two
bed-and-breakfast properties in Havana, said he started learning Russian
when he was in elementary school and was taught the United States was
the enemy. "That's crazy. From my point of view, it's not true," he
said. "I think people are very content with the opening. I'm an optimist."
In his remarks Wednesday, Obama also recalled growing up in the Cold War
era. He was born in 1961, the year U.S.-Cuba relations were terminted.
But at the time even President Dwight Eisenhower expressed hope "in the
not-too-distant future" for normal relations.
"Well, it took a while, but I believe that time has come. And a better
future lies ahead," said Obama.
On her Twitter account, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now a
Democratic presidential hopeful, wrote: "New US Embassy in Havana helps
us engage Cuban people & build on efforts to support positive change.
Good step for US & Cuban people."'
But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is seeking the Republican
presidential nomination, said he opposes opening a Havana embassy.
"The real test of the Obama administration's rapprochement with the
Castro regime in Cuba is not whether President Obama's legacy is
burnished with dubious diplomatic achievements and photo-ops, but
whether improved relations between Havana and Washington advance the
cause of human rights and freedom for the Cuban people," he said. "The
ongoing detention of dissidents and continued human rights abuses
suggest the administration's policy is failing this test."
Although many in the United States hailed the embassy announcement as
long overdue and recent polls have shown the majority of Americans
support better relations with Cuba, critics say the United States has
made too many concessions in its effort to begin a new chapter in its
relationship with Cuba.
South Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo was among those. "This
deplorable move adds to the long list of unilateral concessions the
Cuban government has received from the Obama Administration as a reward
for cruelly holding an American hostage for five years."
He was referring to USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, who was convicted of
smuggling military-grade telecommunications equipment into Cuba. The new
U.S.-Cuba relationship was an outgrowth of secret negotiations between
the United States and Cuba that began in mid-2013 to free Gross and
three Cuban spies who were serving time in U.S. jails.
On Dec. 17, Cuba freed Gross and the United States swapped the three
spies for a CIA agent who had been imprisoned in Cuba. The United States
also announced a limited commercial opening toward Cuba that would allow
U.S. companies to trade with private Cuban entrepreneurs and U.S.
telecom and Internet companies to try to strike deals with the Cuban
government to improve Internet connectivity and telecommunications on
the island.
South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen called opening an
American Embassy "just another trivial attempt for President Obama to go
legacy shopping" and said it did "nothing to help the Cuban people."
Andy Gomez, a retired University of Miami academic who studies Cuba ,
said he had mixed feelings about the opening of the embassies. "It's
bittersweet because while I anticipated some change on Cuba during this
administration, I really didn't think it would move this fast without
pushing Cuba more on political prisoners and human rights."
For Rey Anthony, a 19-year-old third generation Cuban-American,
Wednesday was a time of reflection about his grandparents' sacrifices.
"I think about what my life would be like if my grandparents would have
stayed in Cuba. What if they would not have found a way to leave? ... I
think about the 2.5 million Cubans who live outside the island.
"I think about Cuba, and I think about millions of lost dreams," said
Anthony who is the youngest member of the Miami-Dade Republican
Executive Committee.
But in renewing his call for Congress to take steps to lift the embargo,
Obama said it was time to make "a choice between the future and the past.
"Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward. I believe it's
time for Congress to do the same," the president said.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT THE OPENING OF EMBASSIES
"Opening embassies in Washington and Havana is an important step toward
the day when Americans can make their own decisions on where they
travel, and our businesses can compete with the rest of the world."
--James Williams, president of Engage Cuba
"The announcement comes just a few days after the latest roundup of 226
dissidents who were detained last weekend. In order to be able to
normalize diplomatic relations, the administration, in fact, plays an
important role in the smokescreen covering up the increase of repression
in Cuba."
--Center for a Free Cuba
"The United States and Cuba continue to have sharp differences over
democracy, human rights, and related issues, but we also have identified
areas for cooperation that include law enforcement, safe transportation,
emergency response, environmental protection, telecommunications, and
migration."
--Secretary of State John Kerry
The opening of an American Embassy in Havana is "just another trivial
attempt for President Obama to go legacy shopping."
--South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
"I suspect this sign of a 'new normal' between the two countries will
increase growing interest in the U.S. and abroad in preparing for
current and future business possibilities on the island."
--Miami attorney Augusto Maxwell
"Once again the regime is being rewarded while they jail dissidents,
silence political opponents, and harbor American fugitives and cop
killers. Our demands for freedoms and liberty on the island will
continue to be ignored and we are incentivizing a police state to uphold
a policy of brutality."
--Sen. Bob Menéndez, D-N.J.
--"New US Embassy in Havana helps us engage Cuban people & build on
efforts to support positive change. Good step for US & Cuban people."
--Twitter account of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now a
Democratic presidential hopeful
"It's bittersweet because while I anticipated some change on Cuba during
this administration, I really didn't think it would move this fast
without pushing Cuba more on political prisoners and human rights."
--Andy Gomez, a retired University of Miami academic and Cuba scholar
Source: In 'historic step,' Obama announces full diplomatic relations
with Cuba | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article25966591.html
Plane service from Key West to Cuba might add third weekly flight
Plane service from Key West to Cuba might add third weekly flight
BY ANTHONY CAVE
KeysInfoNet
Air service between the Southernmost City and Cuba is off to a strong
start after restarting in March, and more flights might be added.
Havana Air Chief Executive Officer David Nesslein said this week that
the eventual goal is to provide daily service between Key West
International Airport and Jose Martí International Airport in Havana.
The Miami-based company is a government-licensed charter operator behind
the flights.
"In most cases, we've been full," Nesslein said.
After adding a Monday morning flight to Havana about three weeks ago,
Havana Air now leaves Mondays and Fridays at 10 a.m. from Key West to
Havana. The 90-mile flight, which lasts about 45 minutes, costs $525
round trip. Return flights are Mondays and Fridays.
Havana Air uses commercial carrier Air Key West and its nine-passenger
BN-2T Turbine Islander. Miami travel company Mambi International Group
sells tickets out of its North Roosevelt Boulevard office, which opened
in December
Air Key West President Robert Valle said the addition of the Monday
flight was partially due to customers not wanting to stay a whole week
in Cuba. Havana Air may add a Wednesday flight if demand continues.
"It just kind of depends on the [passenger] loads," Nesslein said. "We
like Key West; I think it's a great market for us."
Havana Air is also working on letting customers buy tickets online, like
they would for any other commercial flight. Nesslein said that may
happen later this year.
The steady influx of planes to the communist country from Key West comes
after last December's announcement by President Obama and Cuban
President Raúl Castro of eased travel restrictions on U.S. residents
going to Cuba following half a century of not allowing Americans to
travel there.
Those who want to travel to Cuba no longer need a specific license as
long as they meet criteria under one of 12 federal categories, including
family visits, humanitarian projects and religious activities.
Traveling there for tourism remains banned but the government really has
no way to enforce that since travelers could maintain they went to Cuba
under one of the 12 reasons allowed.
Designating Key West International Airport as an international point of
entry from the U.S. began in 2009 with a request to U.S. Customs and
Border Protection.
A three-phase, $2.25 million project reclassification process ensued,
with federal officials signing off on the upgrades in October 2011.
Last year, another operator tried Key West to Cuba flights, but the
venture lasted only about six weeks.
Source: Plane service from Key West to Cuba might add third weekly
flight | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article25970794.html
BY ANTHONY CAVE
KeysInfoNet
Air service between the Southernmost City and Cuba is off to a strong
start after restarting in March, and more flights might be added.
Havana Air Chief Executive Officer David Nesslein said this week that
the eventual goal is to provide daily service between Key West
International Airport and Jose Martí International Airport in Havana.
The Miami-based company is a government-licensed charter operator behind
the flights.
"In most cases, we've been full," Nesslein said.
After adding a Monday morning flight to Havana about three weeks ago,
Havana Air now leaves Mondays and Fridays at 10 a.m. from Key West to
Havana. The 90-mile flight, which lasts about 45 minutes, costs $525
round trip. Return flights are Mondays and Fridays.
Havana Air uses commercial carrier Air Key West and its nine-passenger
BN-2T Turbine Islander. Miami travel company Mambi International Group
sells tickets out of its North Roosevelt Boulevard office, which opened
in December
Air Key West President Robert Valle said the addition of the Monday
flight was partially due to customers not wanting to stay a whole week
in Cuba. Havana Air may add a Wednesday flight if demand continues.
"It just kind of depends on the [passenger] loads," Nesslein said. "We
like Key West; I think it's a great market for us."
Havana Air is also working on letting customers buy tickets online, like
they would for any other commercial flight. Nesslein said that may
happen later this year.
The steady influx of planes to the communist country from Key West comes
after last December's announcement by President Obama and Cuban
President Raúl Castro of eased travel restrictions on U.S. residents
going to Cuba following half a century of not allowing Americans to
travel there.
Those who want to travel to Cuba no longer need a specific license as
long as they meet criteria under one of 12 federal categories, including
family visits, humanitarian projects and religious activities.
Traveling there for tourism remains banned but the government really has
no way to enforce that since travelers could maintain they went to Cuba
under one of the 12 reasons allowed.
Designating Key West International Airport as an international point of
entry from the U.S. began in 2009 with a request to U.S. Customs and
Border Protection.
A three-phase, $2.25 million project reclassification process ensued,
with federal officials signing off on the upgrades in October 2011.
Last year, another operator tried Key West to Cuba flights, but the
venture lasted only about six weeks.
Source: Plane service from Key West to Cuba might add third weekly
flight | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article25970794.html
Cuba embassy plan riles Republican hopefuls
The Latest: Cuba embassy plan riles Republican hopefuls
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON
The United States and Cuba will open embassies in their capital cities
after more than 50 years of hostilities between the two countries. The
latest developments (all times local):
---
4:20 p.m.
Republican presidential contenders are speaking out against the plan for
the U.S. and Cuba to open embassies in each other's capitals.
Marco Rubio says he'll continue to oppose the confirmation of any
ambassador to Cuba until its leaders address human rights abuses and
meet other conditions. The Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants
accuses the Obama administration of making "unilateral concessions" to
an "odious regime."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the plan is "legitimizing the brutal
Castro regime."
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz calls it a "slap in the face of a close ally" that
the U.S. would place an embassy in Havana before putting one in
Jerusalem. The U.S. Embassy for Israel is in Tel Aviv because of
sensitivities in the Middle East about moving it to Jerusalem. Cruz is
the son of a Cuban immigrant father.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Obama is "foolishly" rewarding Cuban
leaders.
But Rand Paul has been silent on the embassy plan. The Kentucky senator
has supported the normalization of relations with Cuba.
---
2 p.m.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the announcement that the
U.S. and Cuba will reopen embassies, calling the restoration of
diplomatic ties "an important step on the path toward the normalization
of relations."
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the secretary-general "hopes that
this historic step will benefit the peoples of both countries."
---
12:32 p.m.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a Cuban-American and 2016 presidential
contender, excoriated President Barack Obama over the new diplomatic
ties with Cuba, calling it "unconditional surrender" to the Castros.
Cruz says the Cuban regime is "one of the most violently anti-American
regimes on the planet." And the Texas senator is threatening to block
any Obama nominee for ambassador. Cruz also says he will work to stop
funds for embassy construction unless Obama can show that he has made
progress in alleviating the "misery of our friends, the people of Cuba."
---
11:54 a.m.
One of the harshest critics of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba
is a fellow Democrat — Sen. Bob Menendez.
The New Jersey senator, in a statement Wednesday, ripped the
administration for its plans to open the embassy in Havana. Menendez
said the Cuban government is the only one in the Western Hemisphere,
"which the Obama administration has chosen to establish relations with,
that is not elected by its citizens."
Menendez said the message from the administration "is democracy and
human rights take a back seat to a legacy initiative."
---
Cuban President Raul Castro says he's "pleased" to confirm his country
will resume diplomatic ties with the United States.
Castro writes in a letter to President Barack Obama that Cuba is doing
so because it is "encouraged by the reciprocal intention to develop
respectful relations and cooperation between our people and governments."
However a separate statement from the government says reopening
embassies is just the first step in "a long and complex process toward
normalization of bilateral ties."
It demands an end to the U.S. embargo, the return of the U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo, a halt to U.S. radio and TV broadcasts aimed at the other
island and other grievances.
Castro's letter and the government statement were read out by a
presenter on state television Wednesday morning.
---
11:22 a.m.
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is cautiously welcoming word from
the Obama administration of plans to open an embassy in Cuba as the
White House seeks to normalize ties to the Cold War foe.
"I still distrust Castro, but we have to get that regime to open up,
stop human rights abuses, and give the Cuban people their basic
freedoms. I think reopening the embassies is a necessary step in the
long process toward achieving that goal," Nelson said in a statement.
---
11:35 a.m.
Secretary of State John Kerry says he'll travel later this summer to
Havana to raise the stars-and-stripes over the new U.S. Embassy to Cuba.
Kerry didn't give a precise date for opening the embassy.
But he called Wednesday's announcement of normalized diplomatic
relations between the U.S. and Cuba "long overdue."
He credited Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro with making a
necessary change.
Speaking in Vienna, where he was attending nuclear talks with Iran,
Kerry said the former Cold War foes still have sharp differences over
democracy, human rights and other matters.
An embassy, he said, will allow the U.S. to engage the Cuban government
and people, and help Americans traveling to the island.
Kerry, recovering from a broken leg, spoke from a city square with
crutches at his side.
---
11:21 a.m.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says the Obama administration is
handing Fidel and Raul Castro "a lifetime dream of legitimacy without
getting a thing" for the Cuban people who have been oppressed by a
brutal communist dictatorship.
In a statement, the Republican leader maintained that relations with the
Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the
Cuban people enjoy freedom — "and not one second sooner."
The statement underscores the heavy lift for the administration in
persuading Congress to end the embargo or even approve any taxpayer
dollars on a U.S. embassy in Havana.
---
11:10 a.m.
Cuban television is broadcasting President Obama's statement on resuming
diplomatic ties.
The transmission is happening live on state television with a
translation into Spanish.
It is highly unusual for Cuban TV to carry a U.S. presidential speech,
although Havana broadcasters also did so in December when the two
countries announced a historic detente.
---
11:10 a.m.
President Barack Obama says the reopening of embassies in Havana and
Washington is another demonstration that the U.S. doesn't have to be
imprisoned by the past.
Obama is announcing the formal restoration of diplomatic relations
between Cuba and the United States. He's calling it an "historic step."
Obama says Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Havana over the
summer to raise the American flag over the embassy.
Obama says the reopening of a full embassy in Havana means American
diplomats will be able to engage directly with Cuban government
officials, civil society leaders and ordinary Cubans. He's referring to
the freedom of movement for U.S. diplomats that had been a sticking
point in negotiations to reopen the embassies.
Obama is also calling on Congress to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba. He
says lawmakers should listen to the Cuban people and the American people
who oppose maintaining economic sanctions against the island nation.
---
10:13 a.m.
The Cuban government says Havana and Washington will restore full
diplomatic relations and reopen embassies July 20.
The Foreign Ministry in Havana made the announcement Wednesday morning
after receiving a letter from President Barack Obama to Cuban President
Raul Castro.
The onetime Cold War foes have not had full diplomatic ties for more
than five decades.
---
9:30 a.m.
The United States' top diplomat in Havana has delivered a letter from
the White House to Cuba about restoring embassies in the countries'
respective capitals.
U.S. Interests Section chief Jeffrey DeLaurentis arrived at the Cuban
Foreign Ministry in Havana on Wednesday morning to hand-deliver the message.
Photographers and video journalists were allowed to document the
encounter, but neither he nor Cuban officials spoke publicly.
Source: The Latest: Cuba embassy plan riles Republican hopefuls | Miami
Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article25960045.html
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON
The United States and Cuba will open embassies in their capital cities
after more than 50 years of hostilities between the two countries. The
latest developments (all times local):
---
4:20 p.m.
Republican presidential contenders are speaking out against the plan for
the U.S. and Cuba to open embassies in each other's capitals.
Marco Rubio says he'll continue to oppose the confirmation of any
ambassador to Cuba until its leaders address human rights abuses and
meet other conditions. The Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants
accuses the Obama administration of making "unilateral concessions" to
an "odious regime."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the plan is "legitimizing the brutal
Castro regime."
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz calls it a "slap in the face of a close ally" that
the U.S. would place an embassy in Havana before putting one in
Jerusalem. The U.S. Embassy for Israel is in Tel Aviv because of
sensitivities in the Middle East about moving it to Jerusalem. Cruz is
the son of a Cuban immigrant father.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says Obama is "foolishly" rewarding Cuban
leaders.
But Rand Paul has been silent on the embassy plan. The Kentucky senator
has supported the normalization of relations with Cuba.
---
2 p.m.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the announcement that the
U.S. and Cuba will reopen embassies, calling the restoration of
diplomatic ties "an important step on the path toward the normalization
of relations."
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the secretary-general "hopes that
this historic step will benefit the peoples of both countries."
---
12:32 p.m.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a Cuban-American and 2016 presidential
contender, excoriated President Barack Obama over the new diplomatic
ties with Cuba, calling it "unconditional surrender" to the Castros.
Cruz says the Cuban regime is "one of the most violently anti-American
regimes on the planet." And the Texas senator is threatening to block
any Obama nominee for ambassador. Cruz also says he will work to stop
funds for embassy construction unless Obama can show that he has made
progress in alleviating the "misery of our friends, the people of Cuba."
---
11:54 a.m.
One of the harshest critics of President Barack Obama's outreach to Cuba
is a fellow Democrat — Sen. Bob Menendez.
The New Jersey senator, in a statement Wednesday, ripped the
administration for its plans to open the embassy in Havana. Menendez
said the Cuban government is the only one in the Western Hemisphere,
"which the Obama administration has chosen to establish relations with,
that is not elected by its citizens."
Menendez said the message from the administration "is democracy and
human rights take a back seat to a legacy initiative."
---
Cuban President Raul Castro says he's "pleased" to confirm his country
will resume diplomatic ties with the United States.
Castro writes in a letter to President Barack Obama that Cuba is doing
so because it is "encouraged by the reciprocal intention to develop
respectful relations and cooperation between our people and governments."
However a separate statement from the government says reopening
embassies is just the first step in "a long and complex process toward
normalization of bilateral ties."
It demands an end to the U.S. embargo, the return of the U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo, a halt to U.S. radio and TV broadcasts aimed at the other
island and other grievances.
Castro's letter and the government statement were read out by a
presenter on state television Wednesday morning.
---
11:22 a.m.
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is cautiously welcoming word from
the Obama administration of plans to open an embassy in Cuba as the
White House seeks to normalize ties to the Cold War foe.
"I still distrust Castro, but we have to get that regime to open up,
stop human rights abuses, and give the Cuban people their basic
freedoms. I think reopening the embassies is a necessary step in the
long process toward achieving that goal," Nelson said in a statement.
---
11:35 a.m.
Secretary of State John Kerry says he'll travel later this summer to
Havana to raise the stars-and-stripes over the new U.S. Embassy to Cuba.
Kerry didn't give a precise date for opening the embassy.
But he called Wednesday's announcement of normalized diplomatic
relations between the U.S. and Cuba "long overdue."
He credited Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro with making a
necessary change.
Speaking in Vienna, where he was attending nuclear talks with Iran,
Kerry said the former Cold War foes still have sharp differences over
democracy, human rights and other matters.
An embassy, he said, will allow the U.S. to engage the Cuban government
and people, and help Americans traveling to the island.
Kerry, recovering from a broken leg, spoke from a city square with
crutches at his side.
---
11:21 a.m.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says the Obama administration is
handing Fidel and Raul Castro "a lifetime dream of legitimacy without
getting a thing" for the Cuban people who have been oppressed by a
brutal communist dictatorship.
In a statement, the Republican leader maintained that relations with the
Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the
Cuban people enjoy freedom — "and not one second sooner."
The statement underscores the heavy lift for the administration in
persuading Congress to end the embargo or even approve any taxpayer
dollars on a U.S. embassy in Havana.
---
11:10 a.m.
Cuban television is broadcasting President Obama's statement on resuming
diplomatic ties.
The transmission is happening live on state television with a
translation into Spanish.
It is highly unusual for Cuban TV to carry a U.S. presidential speech,
although Havana broadcasters also did so in December when the two
countries announced a historic detente.
---
11:10 a.m.
President Barack Obama says the reopening of embassies in Havana and
Washington is another demonstration that the U.S. doesn't have to be
imprisoned by the past.
Obama is announcing the formal restoration of diplomatic relations
between Cuba and the United States. He's calling it an "historic step."
Obama says Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Havana over the
summer to raise the American flag over the embassy.
Obama says the reopening of a full embassy in Havana means American
diplomats will be able to engage directly with Cuban government
officials, civil society leaders and ordinary Cubans. He's referring to
the freedom of movement for U.S. diplomats that had been a sticking
point in negotiations to reopen the embassies.
Obama is also calling on Congress to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba. He
says lawmakers should listen to the Cuban people and the American people
who oppose maintaining economic sanctions against the island nation.
---
10:13 a.m.
The Cuban government says Havana and Washington will restore full
diplomatic relations and reopen embassies July 20.
The Foreign Ministry in Havana made the announcement Wednesday morning
after receiving a letter from President Barack Obama to Cuban President
Raul Castro.
The onetime Cold War foes have not had full diplomatic ties for more
than five decades.
---
9:30 a.m.
The United States' top diplomat in Havana has delivered a letter from
the White House to Cuba about restoring embassies in the countries'
respective capitals.
U.S. Interests Section chief Jeffrey DeLaurentis arrived at the Cuban
Foreign Ministry in Havana on Wednesday morning to hand-deliver the message.
Photographers and video journalists were allowed to document the
encounter, but neither he nor Cuban officials spoke publicly.
Source: The Latest: Cuba embassy plan riles Republican hopefuls | Miami
Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article25960045.html
Top American diplomat in Cuba in line to head new embassy
Top American diplomat in Cuba in line to head new embassy
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press
HAVANA
From his office high above Havana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis has a sweeping
view of the cerulean Florida Straits and the blood-red letters declaring
Cuba's defiance of the United States.
"Homeland or Death!" reads the sign erected in front of the U.S.
Interests Section built 15 years ago, when DeLaurentis was a more junior
officer working to defuse a standoff over the fate of child rafter Elian
Gonzalez.
Now, on this third assignment in communist Cuba, DeLaurentis is the top
U.S. diplomat on the island, working to bring an end to more than a
half-century of hostilities between the two countries. Known for his
low-key style and public discretion, the 61-year-old diplomat also is on
a short list for U.S. ambassador to Cuba, if there is to be one.
On Wednesday, DeLaurentis hand-delivered a letter from the White House
to the Cuban Foreign Ministry about restoring embassies in the
countries' respective capitals. Their respective diplomatic missions
called interests sections will be converted into embassies as soon as
July 20, although the U.S. State Department says it does not yet have a
date for a formal ceremony.
Cuba said the ceremony to convert the respective interests sections into
embassies will be held July 20.
Several Republicans in Congress have vowed to block the appointment of
an ambassador to Havana and hold up funding for the embassy.
"There aren't many diplomats who could represent the United States in
Havana during this sensitive, but promising chapter," former Cuban
diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said. "Jeff is one of them."
DeLaurentis was a consular officer in Cuba in 1991-93, when the island
was plunged into economic crisis with the Soviet Union's collapse. As
head of the U.S. Interests Section's economic and political section in
1999-2002, DeLaurentis was a key negotiator in the fight over Elian
Gonzalez's custody.
Vicki Huddleston, who headed the mission then, said DeLaurentis' quiet
diplomacy helped dial down tensions when Cuban officials threatened a
mass migration of rafters if the young castaway wasn't returned to his
homeland. President Bill Clinton's administration ultimately backed the
parental rights of Elian's father in Cuba and returned the boy to the
island.
DeLaurentis also was "instrumental" in discussions with Cuban officials
over the decision by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration to
use the Guantanamo naval base in eastern Cuba to house prisoners held on
terrorism charges following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"He always sort of quietly pushed the envelope with Cuban officials, but
they always gave him a lot of credit," Huddleston said. "He was always
spot-on in interpreting Cuban motives and actions."
Huddleston recalled that she and DeLaurentis attended Mass at a local
Roman Catholic church and he worked to get computers to the parish at a
time that such technology in the hands of a non-governmental entity was
viewed suspiciously.
Huddleston was succeeded as head of mission by James Cason, who enraged
Fidel Castro by meeting with government opponents at a dissident's home
in 2003. Seventy-five dissidents were arrested several weeks later.
Negotiations to free USAID contractor Alan Gross were under way for
months before DeLaurentis returned to Havana as head of mission last
August. Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro of Cuba announced a deal
on Dec. 17 to free Gross and three Cuban prisoners in the United States
and to work toward renewing diplomatic relations.
The tall, lanky DeLaurentis is a distinctive figure around Havana,
dressed in a long-sleeve shirt and tie for meetings with other foreign
diplomats, business people and Cubans he has known for years.
As in his earlier stints, DeLaurentis "gets out of the building and
talks with people," said Philip Peters, a Cuba analyst who travels to
the island regularly. "He knows the country very, very well."
True to form, DeLaurentis declined to speak on the record because of the
U.S.-Cuba negotiations. He has spoken very little with major media since
Dec. 17. He told CBS's "60 Minutes" that a new U.S. exception to the
trade embargo would allow exchange of Internet technology that could be
a "game changer down the line" by connecting Cuba to the world and
"lighting up the island."
DeLaurentis is a graduate of the Georgetown University's School of
Foreign Service and Columbia University's Graduate School of
International and Public Affairs. He was a senior official at the
Council on Foreign Relations in New York before joining the U.S. State
Department and has worked at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in
Geneva, the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and in Washington,
including as deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs.
Most recently, DeLaurentis was a deputy to U.S. Ambassador Samantha
Power at the United Nations, where a former colleague said he was known
as "the person who turned on the lights in the morning and was the last
to leave at night."
DeLaurentis' online presence is minimal, mostly written texts of
addresses to the U.N. Security Council. In one rare speech carried by
YouTube, the graying diplomat with dark-rimmed glasses told students at
a 2013 International Model U.N. Conference that international diplomacy
"can be frustrating, even maddening."
He didn't elaborate on the challenges of being a diplomat in Cuba, which
has not had formal diplomatic relations with the U.S. since 1961.
"He's trying to rebuild a relationship that has been in shambles for 55
years," Dutch Ambassador Norbert Braakhuis said.
The United States needs "someone who is very cautious - but also very
knowledgeable and with well above average insights," Braakhuis said.
DeLaurentis, he added, is "clearly the right person at the right time
and place."
---
Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to
this report.
Source: Top American diplomat in Cuba in line to head new embassy |
Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article26032210.html
BY ANITA SNOW
Associated Press
HAVANA
From his office high above Havana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis has a sweeping
view of the cerulean Florida Straits and the blood-red letters declaring
Cuba's defiance of the United States.
"Homeland or Death!" reads the sign erected in front of the U.S.
Interests Section built 15 years ago, when DeLaurentis was a more junior
officer working to defuse a standoff over the fate of child rafter Elian
Gonzalez.
Now, on this third assignment in communist Cuba, DeLaurentis is the top
U.S. diplomat on the island, working to bring an end to more than a
half-century of hostilities between the two countries. Known for his
low-key style and public discretion, the 61-year-old diplomat also is on
a short list for U.S. ambassador to Cuba, if there is to be one.
On Wednesday, DeLaurentis hand-delivered a letter from the White House
to the Cuban Foreign Ministry about restoring embassies in the
countries' respective capitals. Their respective diplomatic missions
called interests sections will be converted into embassies as soon as
July 20, although the U.S. State Department says it does not yet have a
date for a formal ceremony.
Cuba said the ceremony to convert the respective interests sections into
embassies will be held July 20.
Several Republicans in Congress have vowed to block the appointment of
an ambassador to Havana and hold up funding for the embassy.
"There aren't many diplomats who could represent the United States in
Havana during this sensitive, but promising chapter," former Cuban
diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said. "Jeff is one of them."
DeLaurentis was a consular officer in Cuba in 1991-93, when the island
was plunged into economic crisis with the Soviet Union's collapse. As
head of the U.S. Interests Section's economic and political section in
1999-2002, DeLaurentis was a key negotiator in the fight over Elian
Gonzalez's custody.
Vicki Huddleston, who headed the mission then, said DeLaurentis' quiet
diplomacy helped dial down tensions when Cuban officials threatened a
mass migration of rafters if the young castaway wasn't returned to his
homeland. President Bill Clinton's administration ultimately backed the
parental rights of Elian's father in Cuba and returned the boy to the
island.
DeLaurentis also was "instrumental" in discussions with Cuban officials
over the decision by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration to
use the Guantanamo naval base in eastern Cuba to house prisoners held on
terrorism charges following the Sept. 11 attacks.
"He always sort of quietly pushed the envelope with Cuban officials, but
they always gave him a lot of credit," Huddleston said. "He was always
spot-on in interpreting Cuban motives and actions."
Huddleston recalled that she and DeLaurentis attended Mass at a local
Roman Catholic church and he worked to get computers to the parish at a
time that such technology in the hands of a non-governmental entity was
viewed suspiciously.
Huddleston was succeeded as head of mission by James Cason, who enraged
Fidel Castro by meeting with government opponents at a dissident's home
in 2003. Seventy-five dissidents were arrested several weeks later.
Negotiations to free USAID contractor Alan Gross were under way for
months before DeLaurentis returned to Havana as head of mission last
August. Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro of Cuba announced a deal
on Dec. 17 to free Gross and three Cuban prisoners in the United States
and to work toward renewing diplomatic relations.
The tall, lanky DeLaurentis is a distinctive figure around Havana,
dressed in a long-sleeve shirt and tie for meetings with other foreign
diplomats, business people and Cubans he has known for years.
As in his earlier stints, DeLaurentis "gets out of the building and
talks with people," said Philip Peters, a Cuba analyst who travels to
the island regularly. "He knows the country very, very well."
True to form, DeLaurentis declined to speak on the record because of the
U.S.-Cuba negotiations. He has spoken very little with major media since
Dec. 17. He told CBS's "60 Minutes" that a new U.S. exception to the
trade embargo would allow exchange of Internet technology that could be
a "game changer down the line" by connecting Cuba to the world and
"lighting up the island."
DeLaurentis is a graduate of the Georgetown University's School of
Foreign Service and Columbia University's Graduate School of
International and Public Affairs. He was a senior official at the
Council on Foreign Relations in New York before joining the U.S. State
Department and has worked at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in
Geneva, the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and in Washington,
including as deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
affairs.
Most recently, DeLaurentis was a deputy to U.S. Ambassador Samantha
Power at the United Nations, where a former colleague said he was known
as "the person who turned on the lights in the morning and was the last
to leave at night."
DeLaurentis' online presence is minimal, mostly written texts of
addresses to the U.N. Security Council. In one rare speech carried by
YouTube, the graying diplomat with dark-rimmed glasses told students at
a 2013 International Model U.N. Conference that international diplomacy
"can be frustrating, even maddening."
He didn't elaborate on the challenges of being a diplomat in Cuba, which
has not had formal diplomatic relations with the U.S. since 1961.
"He's trying to rebuild a relationship that has been in shambles for 55
years," Dutch Ambassador Norbert Braakhuis said.
The United States needs "someone who is very cautious - but also very
knowledgeable and with well above average insights," Braakhuis said.
DeLaurentis, he added, is "clearly the right person at the right time
and place."
---
Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to
this report.
Source: Top American diplomat in Cuba in line to head new embassy |
Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article26032210.html
Some Cubans see US thaw as a boon, others pessimistic
Some Cubans see US thaw as a boon, others pessimistic
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
HAVANA
As Havana and Washington move to restore full ties, Cubans are watching
closely. Some hope rapprochement will help them make a small business
prosper or keep in touch with relatives in Florida, while others doubt
it will do anything to improve their lives.
The Associated Press spoke with islanders in Havana on Wednesday about
the two countries' announcement that they will reopen embassies later
this summer, more than 50 years after the diplomatic relationship was
severed.
---
Eleven years ago, Elba Gil cried for a week when her daughter left to
live in the United States. As her last child remaining on the island now
prepares to make the same move soon with her own family, Gil feels more
nostalgic than anything.
That's because improved political ties are making it easier for families
divided by the Florida Straits to stay in touch. If phone service gets
cheaper and the Internet becomes more easily available in Cuba — two
things that islanders anticipate will come with the thaw — things could
get even better.
"If there are good relations between the two countries I can visit them
and she can come here. If there are good communications, it wouldn't be
like before when people left and you never heard from them. The sadness
is less," Gil said.
She spoke as she waited outside the U.S. Interests Section with her
daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, who have been approved for
a U.S. family reunification visa to join the other daughter, now a nurse.
Gil plans to visit whenever she can.
"I have my home here and my husband, and I don't want to throw that away."
---
Joan Gonzalez is a 40-year-old husband and father who hasn't held a job
in five years and makes do with "whatever comes along" — odd jobs like
painting a house or fixing a patio. He used to work in a soap factory.
He's convinced better ties between Cuba and the United States will do
nothing to improve his life, or those of Cubans in general.
"Relations should exist, yes, but benefit me? They don't benefit me at
all, because for 56 years it has been demonstrated that there is no
respect for the people" by the government, he said.
Gonzalez is a member of a dissident organization called the Republican
Popular Party, and he was waiting to enter the U.S. Interests Section to
use the free Internet it offers. Opposition groups have no legal
recognition in Cuba, and he believes things won't get better until the
country's communist leadership is gone.
"What Obama said about empowering the people, that's not going to happen
as long as Fidel and Raul are around."
---
Amarylis Guas hasn't seen her son since his dad took him to the United
States 15 years ago. Today he's a man of 27. She hopes looser relations
will help them build their relationship further.
A 48-year-old former professor of language and literature, she went
through a deep personal crisis when her son left and now works at a
small privately owned cafeteria where she arrives every morning at 5 a.m.
She also hopes to see a day when there's no more U.S. embargo choking
off commerce to the island and feels that will help Cuba get better
economically.
"Having relations between the two countries, I'm sure it will be a very
beautiful thing," Guas said. "We are so close. For 50 years we have
lived with this anguish."
But she also worries that with change, consumerism and crime could creep in.
"It wouldn't be smart to open the country up too quickly, because we
have lived for years with a process of little by little. It wouldn't be
good for the country or for us as citizens."
---
Royde Rojas, 48, was educated as a topographer and used to be the boss
of local offices of Geocuba, a state-run surveying company, in his
native province of Holguin, on the eastern side of the island.
But four years ago he quit his low-paying job, figuring he could make
more as a taxi driver. He's among hundreds of thousands of people now
working in Cuba's incipient private sector under the economic reforms of
recent years.
Rojas said he's upbeat that better relations with the United States will
attract investment and tourism — meaning more clients to drive around in
his shabby, gray, Soviet-made Moskvitch sedan.
"It's going to be an improvement for the country," Rojas said. "More
American tourists are going to come, which is a boon for us."
Rojas has managed to purchase a house in Havana, something that was
illegal for decades until a real estate reform in 2011, and he believes
Cuba is on the right track.
"There have been changes. I was able get my taxi license and I bought my
home," he said
He sees neighborly relations with Cuba's longtime foe, Washington, as
the next step.
"There doesn't have to be bad blood."
Source: Some Cubans see US thaw as a boon, others pessimistic | Miami
Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article26006878.html
BY ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
HAVANA
As Havana and Washington move to restore full ties, Cubans are watching
closely. Some hope rapprochement will help them make a small business
prosper or keep in touch with relatives in Florida, while others doubt
it will do anything to improve their lives.
The Associated Press spoke with islanders in Havana on Wednesday about
the two countries' announcement that they will reopen embassies later
this summer, more than 50 years after the diplomatic relationship was
severed.
---
Eleven years ago, Elba Gil cried for a week when her daughter left to
live in the United States. As her last child remaining on the island now
prepares to make the same move soon with her own family, Gil feels more
nostalgic than anything.
That's because improved political ties are making it easier for families
divided by the Florida Straits to stay in touch. If phone service gets
cheaper and the Internet becomes more easily available in Cuba — two
things that islanders anticipate will come with the thaw — things could
get even better.
"If there are good relations between the two countries I can visit them
and she can come here. If there are good communications, it wouldn't be
like before when people left and you never heard from them. The sadness
is less," Gil said.
She spoke as she waited outside the U.S. Interests Section with her
daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren, who have been approved for
a U.S. family reunification visa to join the other daughter, now a nurse.
Gil plans to visit whenever she can.
"I have my home here and my husband, and I don't want to throw that away."
---
Joan Gonzalez is a 40-year-old husband and father who hasn't held a job
in five years and makes do with "whatever comes along" — odd jobs like
painting a house or fixing a patio. He used to work in a soap factory.
He's convinced better ties between Cuba and the United States will do
nothing to improve his life, or those of Cubans in general.
"Relations should exist, yes, but benefit me? They don't benefit me at
all, because for 56 years it has been demonstrated that there is no
respect for the people" by the government, he said.
Gonzalez is a member of a dissident organization called the Republican
Popular Party, and he was waiting to enter the U.S. Interests Section to
use the free Internet it offers. Opposition groups have no legal
recognition in Cuba, and he believes things won't get better until the
country's communist leadership is gone.
"What Obama said about empowering the people, that's not going to happen
as long as Fidel and Raul are around."
---
Amarylis Guas hasn't seen her son since his dad took him to the United
States 15 years ago. Today he's a man of 27. She hopes looser relations
will help them build their relationship further.
A 48-year-old former professor of language and literature, she went
through a deep personal crisis when her son left and now works at a
small privately owned cafeteria where she arrives every morning at 5 a.m.
She also hopes to see a day when there's no more U.S. embargo choking
off commerce to the island and feels that will help Cuba get better
economically.
"Having relations between the two countries, I'm sure it will be a very
beautiful thing," Guas said. "We are so close. For 50 years we have
lived with this anguish."
But she also worries that with change, consumerism and crime could creep in.
"It wouldn't be smart to open the country up too quickly, because we
have lived for years with a process of little by little. It wouldn't be
good for the country or for us as citizens."
---
Royde Rojas, 48, was educated as a topographer and used to be the boss
of local offices of Geocuba, a state-run surveying company, in his
native province of Holguin, on the eastern side of the island.
But four years ago he quit his low-paying job, figuring he could make
more as a taxi driver. He's among hundreds of thousands of people now
working in Cuba's incipient private sector under the economic reforms of
recent years.
Rojas said he's upbeat that better relations with the United States will
attract investment and tourism — meaning more clients to drive around in
his shabby, gray, Soviet-made Moskvitch sedan.
"It's going to be an improvement for the country," Rojas said. "More
American tourists are going to come, which is a boon for us."
Rojas has managed to purchase a house in Havana, something that was
illegal for decades until a real estate reform in 2011, and he believes
Cuba is on the right track.
"There have been changes. I was able get my taxi license and I bought my
home," he said
He sees neighborly relations with Cuba's longtime foe, Washington, as
the next step.
"There doesn't have to be bad blood."
Source: Some Cubans see US thaw as a boon, others pessimistic | Miami
Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article26006878.html
Many but not all in GOP object as US, Cuba plan embassies
Many but not all in GOP object as US, Cuba plan embassies
BY ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Loud but hardly universal catcalls from Republicans underscored the
obstacles and opportunities ahead as U.S. and Cuban leaders announced an
opening of embassies in Havana and Washington and a resumption of
diplomatic relations severed the year President Barack Obama was born.
Obama also called on Congress to lift the economic and travel embargoes
that the U.S. has used for decades in an attempt to force Cuba's leaders
toward democracy. Obama has partly eased those restrictions on his own,
but continued opposition from many Republicans and some Democrats makes
it unlikely that lawmakers will fully revoke those bans quickly.
Labeling the moment "a choice between the future and the past," Obama on
Wednesday revealed the latest steps in a half-year of rapid-fire
improvements in relations between two nations that lie 90 miles apart
but have spent nearly six decades separated by light years
diplomatically and economically.
"There are those who want to turn back the clock and double down on a
policy of isolation," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. "But
it's long past time for us to realize that this approach doesn't work."
In an exchange of notes with Cuban President Raul Castro, the two
governments said that on July 20 they will open embassies in each
other's capitals that have been shuttered since 1961. That is when
President Dwight Eisenhower broke relations with the communist regime of
Raul's brother, Fidel Castro, setting the tone for decades of Cold War
hostility that included failed U.S.-backed efforts to overthrow the
island nation's leaders.
Many Republicans said Obama had made the wrong move.
"Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone
normalized, until Cubans enjoy freedom," said House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio.
Other congressional critics included Cuban-American lawmakers like Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. He described
the thaw as "incentivizing a police state to uphold a policy of
brutality" to its own citizens.
But at a time when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agriculture groups and
other business organizations have backed moves toward liberalizing trade
with Cuba, some Republicans were more positive.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., cited "numerous opportunities mutually
beneficial to the people of both countries," while Sen. Jeff Flake,
R-Ariz., said it was time to abandon "five decades of failure."
Gradually growing GOP support strengthens Obama's hand to continue
removing barriers with Cuba on his own, "even if Congress doesn't do the
heavy lifting," said Julia Sweig, a Cuba specialist and senior research
fellow at the University of Texas in Austin.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued no new statement
on Obama's announcement. In recent months, he has expressed support for
critics of the president's effort to improve relations with Cuba.
Strongly negative comments came from contenders for the GOP 2016
presidential nomination. Their contest is dominated by conservative
voters and promises a strong turnout from anti-Castro Cuban-Americans
living in the pivotal state of Florida.
The strong opposition from those who could lead the GOP in next year's
presidential and congressional elections makes it harder for many
Republicans to embrace Obama's actions.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw Obama's announcement as "further
legitimizing the brutal Castro regime." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,
accused the president of making "unilateral concessions to this odious
regime."
And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Obama of "continuing his policy of
unconditional surrender" to what he called "one of the most violently
anti-American regimes on the planet."
Rubio and Cruz, both Cuban-Americans, said they would block any effort
by Obama to win Senate confirmation of a U.S. ambassador to Cuba, which
normally occurs when nations commence full diplomatic relations.
While many congressional Republicans were likely to oppose large
expenditures to improve relations with Cuba, the administration may be
able to use smaller amounts to buttress its diplomatic presence there.
Obama has requested $6 million to upgrade the current, lower-level U.S.
outpost there "to embassy status to handle more extensive operations."
Congressional aides said that even without specific approval from
lawmakers, the State Department could well access that money because
agencies can unilaterally shift relatively small amounts among their
budget accounts.
Though it's not yet law, the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee
approved foreign aid legislation last month barring work on a U.S.
Embassy in Cuba unless Obama certifies that Havana is meeting the terms
of a 1996 statute aimed at fostering democracy in Cuba. That includes
extraditing people wanted in the U.S. for crimes.
The Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee plans to write
its version of the aid measure next week.
Since the two countries' surprise revelation last December that they
would move toward normal relations, they have taken gradual steps in
that direction.
In January, the U.S. lifted some travel curbs on Americans and began
permitting U.S. companies to export telephones and computers to Cuba. In
May, the administration removed Cuba from the list of countries
sponsoring terrorism.
Yet divisions remain.
The U.S. remains focused on Cuba's reputed human rights violations. Cuba
wants an end to the U.S. economic embargo, the return of the U.S.
military base at Guantanamo Bay and a halt to U.S. broadcasts aimed at
the island.
Source: Many but not all in GOP object as US, Cuba plan embassies |
Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article26034640.html
BY ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Loud but hardly universal catcalls from Republicans underscored the
obstacles and opportunities ahead as U.S. and Cuban leaders announced an
opening of embassies in Havana and Washington and a resumption of
diplomatic relations severed the year President Barack Obama was born.
Obama also called on Congress to lift the economic and travel embargoes
that the U.S. has used for decades in an attempt to force Cuba's leaders
toward democracy. Obama has partly eased those restrictions on his own,
but continued opposition from many Republicans and some Democrats makes
it unlikely that lawmakers will fully revoke those bans quickly.
Labeling the moment "a choice between the future and the past," Obama on
Wednesday revealed the latest steps in a half-year of rapid-fire
improvements in relations between two nations that lie 90 miles apart
but have spent nearly six decades separated by light years
diplomatically and economically.
"There are those who want to turn back the clock and double down on a
policy of isolation," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. "But
it's long past time for us to realize that this approach doesn't work."
In an exchange of notes with Cuban President Raul Castro, the two
governments said that on July 20 they will open embassies in each
other's capitals that have been shuttered since 1961. That is when
President Dwight Eisenhower broke relations with the communist regime of
Raul's brother, Fidel Castro, setting the tone for decades of Cold War
hostility that included failed U.S.-backed efforts to overthrow the
island nation's leaders.
Many Republicans said Obama had made the wrong move.
"Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone
normalized, until Cubans enjoy freedom," said House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio.
Other congressional critics included Cuban-American lawmakers like Rep.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. He described
the thaw as "incentivizing a police state to uphold a policy of
brutality" to its own citizens.
But at a time when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agriculture groups and
other business organizations have backed moves toward liberalizing trade
with Cuba, some Republicans were more positive.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., cited "numerous opportunities mutually
beneficial to the people of both countries," while Sen. Jeff Flake,
R-Ariz., said it was time to abandon "five decades of failure."
Gradually growing GOP support strengthens Obama's hand to continue
removing barriers with Cuba on his own, "even if Congress doesn't do the
heavy lifting," said Julia Sweig, a Cuba specialist and senior research
fellow at the University of Texas in Austin.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued no new statement
on Obama's announcement. In recent months, he has expressed support for
critics of the president's effort to improve relations with Cuba.
Strongly negative comments came from contenders for the GOP 2016
presidential nomination. Their contest is dominated by conservative
voters and promises a strong turnout from anti-Castro Cuban-Americans
living in the pivotal state of Florida.
The strong opposition from those who could lead the GOP in next year's
presidential and congressional elections makes it harder for many
Republicans to embrace Obama's actions.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw Obama's announcement as "further
legitimizing the brutal Castro regime." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,
accused the president of making "unilateral concessions to this odious
regime."
And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Obama of "continuing his policy of
unconditional surrender" to what he called "one of the most violently
anti-American regimes on the planet."
Rubio and Cruz, both Cuban-Americans, said they would block any effort
by Obama to win Senate confirmation of a U.S. ambassador to Cuba, which
normally occurs when nations commence full diplomatic relations.
While many congressional Republicans were likely to oppose large
expenditures to improve relations with Cuba, the administration may be
able to use smaller amounts to buttress its diplomatic presence there.
Obama has requested $6 million to upgrade the current, lower-level U.S.
outpost there "to embassy status to handle more extensive operations."
Congressional aides said that even without specific approval from
lawmakers, the State Department could well access that money because
agencies can unilaterally shift relatively small amounts among their
budget accounts.
Though it's not yet law, the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee
approved foreign aid legislation last month barring work on a U.S.
Embassy in Cuba unless Obama certifies that Havana is meeting the terms
of a 1996 statute aimed at fostering democracy in Cuba. That includes
extraditing people wanted in the U.S. for crimes.
The Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee plans to write
its version of the aid measure next week.
Since the two countries' surprise revelation last December that they
would move toward normal relations, they have taken gradual steps in
that direction.
In January, the U.S. lifted some travel curbs on Americans and began
permitting U.S. companies to export telephones and computers to Cuba. In
May, the administration removed Cuba from the list of countries
sponsoring terrorism.
Yet divisions remain.
The U.S. remains focused on Cuba's reputed human rights violations. Cuba
wants an end to the U.S. economic embargo, the return of the U.S.
military base at Guantanamo Bay and a halt to U.S. broadcasts aimed at
the island.
Source: Many but not all in GOP object as US, Cuba plan embassies |
Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article26034640.html
Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una 'oferta multidestinos' con República Dominicana
Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una 'oferta multidestinos' con
República Dominicana
DDC | Santo Domingo | 1 Jul 2015 - 2:17 pm.
El objetivo son los turistas chinos.
La estatal Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una "oferta
multidestinos" con República Dominicana, con vistas a un incremento de
las visitas de turistas chinos a la región, informa la publicación
dominicana Acento.
Esas perspectivas son alimentadas especialmente por el inicio de vuelos
directos entre Pekín y La Habana por parte de la aerolínea Air China,
previsto para finales de septiembre, dijo Ramón Pérez Camejo, director
comercial de Cubana de Aviación.
Air China tendrá a partir de ese mes cuatro vuelos semanales a la
capital cubana. "Estamos preparando programas de tarifas para que el
chino pueda llegar a La Habana y continuar el siguiente día o unos días
después a la República Dominicana y conocer dos destinos del área del
Caribe", afirmó Pérez Camejo.
Añadió que Cubana de Aviación realiza gestiones con la aerolínea bandera
de China, que es el mayor mercado emisor de turistas del mundo.
"Con Air China hace tiempo estamos en conversaciones para poder ofrecer
una tarifa desde China hasta la República Dominicana, pasando por La
Habana; esos paquetes siempre traen implícito visitas a varios polos
turísticos", dijo el funcionario cubano a Acento.
La Organización Caribeña del Turismo indicó en un informe publicado en
junio que Cuba ocupa la segunda posición como destino turístico en el
Caribe, solo por detrás, precisamente, de República Dominicana.
Las distancias entre los dos países se habrían acortado, según el
informe. Si en 2014 Cuba tuvo 3.001.958 de visitantes y República
Dominicana 5.141.377, en el primer trimestre de 2015 viajaron a
territorio cubano 1.135.610 turistas, y 1.499.402 a suelo dominicano.
Pérez Camejo dijo que al plan para atraer turistas chinos puede
contribuir la entrada en operación —a mediados de agosto— de la primera
línea aérea dominicana en 20 años, PAWA Dominicana.
"Como destino, más que competencia, vamos a ser y seremos un complemento
incluso como línea aérea también, porque próximamente va a iniciar sus
operaciones la línea aérea dominicana, entonces tenemos que vernos como
un complemento uno de otro, para fortalecer el turismo en el área", afirmó.
Al tema también se refirió el representante adjunto de la Oficina de
Desarrollo Comercial de China en República Dominicana, Xu Yuansheng, al
considerar que la iniciativa permitiría incrementar la cantidad de
turistas chinos que visitan la región.
"Hay que buscar opciones. No es posible viajar de tan lejos para un solo
destino; por ejemplo, primero Cuba-Santo Domingo-Puerto Plata, luego
Aruba, Panamá, etcétera, entonces necesitamos una plataforma para
facilitar todo eso", dijo el diplomático.
Source: Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una 'oferta multidestinos'
con República Dominicana | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435756624_15458.html
República Dominicana
DDC | Santo Domingo | 1 Jul 2015 - 2:17 pm.
El objetivo son los turistas chinos.
La estatal Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una "oferta
multidestinos" con República Dominicana, con vistas a un incremento de
las visitas de turistas chinos a la región, informa la publicación
dominicana Acento.
Esas perspectivas son alimentadas especialmente por el inicio de vuelos
directos entre Pekín y La Habana por parte de la aerolínea Air China,
previsto para finales de septiembre, dijo Ramón Pérez Camejo, director
comercial de Cubana de Aviación.
Air China tendrá a partir de ese mes cuatro vuelos semanales a la
capital cubana. "Estamos preparando programas de tarifas para que el
chino pueda llegar a La Habana y continuar el siguiente día o unos días
después a la República Dominicana y conocer dos destinos del área del
Caribe", afirmó Pérez Camejo.
Añadió que Cubana de Aviación realiza gestiones con la aerolínea bandera
de China, que es el mayor mercado emisor de turistas del mundo.
"Con Air China hace tiempo estamos en conversaciones para poder ofrecer
una tarifa desde China hasta la República Dominicana, pasando por La
Habana; esos paquetes siempre traen implícito visitas a varios polos
turísticos", dijo el funcionario cubano a Acento.
La Organización Caribeña del Turismo indicó en un informe publicado en
junio que Cuba ocupa la segunda posición como destino turístico en el
Caribe, solo por detrás, precisamente, de República Dominicana.
Las distancias entre los dos países se habrían acortado, según el
informe. Si en 2014 Cuba tuvo 3.001.958 de visitantes y República
Dominicana 5.141.377, en el primer trimestre de 2015 viajaron a
territorio cubano 1.135.610 turistas, y 1.499.402 a suelo dominicano.
Pérez Camejo dijo que al plan para atraer turistas chinos puede
contribuir la entrada en operación —a mediados de agosto— de la primera
línea aérea dominicana en 20 años, PAWA Dominicana.
"Como destino, más que competencia, vamos a ser y seremos un complemento
incluso como línea aérea también, porque próximamente va a iniciar sus
operaciones la línea aérea dominicana, entonces tenemos que vernos como
un complemento uno de otro, para fortalecer el turismo en el área", afirmó.
Al tema también se refirió el representante adjunto de la Oficina de
Desarrollo Comercial de China en República Dominicana, Xu Yuansheng, al
considerar que la iniciativa permitiría incrementar la cantidad de
turistas chinos que visitan la región.
"Hay que buscar opciones. No es posible viajar de tan lejos para un solo
destino; por ejemplo, primero Cuba-Santo Domingo-Puerto Plata, luego
Aruba, Panamá, etcétera, entonces necesitamos una plataforma para
facilitar todo eso", dijo el diplomático.
Source: Cubana de Aviación quiere desarrollar una 'oferta multidestinos'
con República Dominicana | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435756624_15458.html
La UE celebra la reapertura de embajadas y pide levantar el embargo 'desfasado'
La UE celebra la reapertura de embajadas y pide levantar el embargo
'desfasado'
AGENCIAS | Bruselas | 1 Jul 2015 - 7:54 pm.
Bruselas se pone a disposición de La Habana para ayudar en la
'modernización' de la Isla.
La Unión Europea ha celebrado el anuncio del restablecimiento de las
relaciones diplomáticas entre Estados Unidos y Cuba y la reapertura de
embajadas porque "constituye un hito verdaderamente histórico en el
camino hacia la plena normalización de las relaciones" entre ambos y ha
defendido el levantamiento del embargo, informa Europa Press.
"La UE anima a ambas partes a continuar trabajando en algunas cuestiones
pendientes, en particular el levantamiento del embargo, que es un
instrumento desfasado e inconsistente con la evolución del contexto", ha
asegurado el Servicio de Acción Exterior Europeo que dirige Federica
Mogherini en un comunicado.
La UE ha incidido en que el paso dado por Estados Unidos y Cuba
"representa una señal alentadora para la comunidad internacional" porque
muestra que "las relaciones entre los dos países han entrado en una
nueva fase a través de negociaciones".
"La UE está dispuesta a acompañar más a Cuba en su proceso de
modernización", tal y como confirmó la Alta Representante de Política
Exterior y de Seguridad Común de la UE en su reciente visita a Cuba y la
última ronda del diálogo político bilateral en Bruselas, ha añadido en
la nota.
Source: La UE celebra la reapertura de embajadas y pide levantar el
embargo 'desfasado' | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435776882_15462.html
'desfasado'
AGENCIAS | Bruselas | 1 Jul 2015 - 7:54 pm.
Bruselas se pone a disposición de La Habana para ayudar en la
'modernización' de la Isla.
La Unión Europea ha celebrado el anuncio del restablecimiento de las
relaciones diplomáticas entre Estados Unidos y Cuba y la reapertura de
embajadas porque "constituye un hito verdaderamente histórico en el
camino hacia la plena normalización de las relaciones" entre ambos y ha
defendido el levantamiento del embargo, informa Europa Press.
"La UE anima a ambas partes a continuar trabajando en algunas cuestiones
pendientes, en particular el levantamiento del embargo, que es un
instrumento desfasado e inconsistente con la evolución del contexto", ha
asegurado el Servicio de Acción Exterior Europeo que dirige Federica
Mogherini en un comunicado.
La UE ha incidido en que el paso dado por Estados Unidos y Cuba
"representa una señal alentadora para la comunidad internacional" porque
muestra que "las relaciones entre los dos países han entrado en una
nueva fase a través de negociaciones".
"La UE está dispuesta a acompañar más a Cuba en su proceso de
modernización", tal y como confirmó la Alta Representante de Política
Exterior y de Seguridad Común de la UE en su reciente visita a Cuba y la
última ronda del diálogo político bilateral en Bruselas, ha añadido en
la nota.
Source: La UE celebra la reapertura de embajadas y pide levantar el
embargo 'desfasado' | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435776882_15462.html
Políticos, analistas y exiliados opinan sobre la apertura de las embajadas
Políticos, analistas y exiliados opinan sobre la apertura de las embajadas
DDC | Madrid | 1 Jul 2015 - 12:33 pm.
No augura nada bueno 'para los derechos humanos y el legado de Obama',
dice Frank Calzón, director ejecutivo del Centro para una Cuba Libre.
Tomás Rodríguez, director de Agenda Cuba:
Rodríguez expresó su satisfacción por el anuncio oficial de la apertura
de embajadas y citó al papa Juan Pablo II cuando dijo que "lo que hace
falta es que el Gobierno cubano se abra al mundo". "La apertura de
embajadas en La Habana y Washington es ya una realidad", aseveró.
Sylvia Iriondo, presidenta de la Organización pro Derechos Humanos en
Cuba (MAR por Cuba):
"El régimen castrista no ha cambiado. Apuesta a que los cambios
provengan de la administración del presidente Obama. ¿De qué sirve la
apertura de embajadas mientras que en Cuba se sigan violando los
derechos del pueblo cubano y aumenta la represión?".
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, presidente del Movimiento Democracia:
Sánchez cree que los pasos dados por Obama "van en la dirección
correcta", pero "solo" planteados desde la obligación de "darle voz al
pueblo cubano y la libertad de los presos políticos" y terminar con la
persecución de los disidentes.
"Que se hagan amigos dos enemigos" es una acción pragmática y plausible,
pero "insuficiente" a la luz de los hechos: "El dictador cubano continúa
golpeando a los opositores, deteniéndoles y dividiendo a la familia
cubana", apostilló Sánchez.
Por otro lado, sostuvo que la apertura de la sede diplomática
estadounidense en La Habana "sería muy útil", siempre y cuando, aclaró,
no se restrinja el libre movimiento de los diplomáticos dentro de la Isla.
Antonio Díaz Sánchez, secretario general del Movimiento Cristiano de
Liberación (MCL):
Díaz Sánchez aseguró que abrir una misión diplomática estadounidense en
La Habana significa "dar un espaldarazo a un Gobierno tiránico que ha
negado las libertades y derechos humanos".
Además, precisó Díaz, la apertura de las sedes diplomáticas a partir del
20 de julio es el pistoletazo de salida para la entrada de inversión y
capital extranjero, "en un ambiente de no derechos y donde prima la
falta de libertad y el totalitarismo".
Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos:
El Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH) consideró este
miércoles que el anuncio de la apertura de embajadas en Washington y La
Habana "es otro paso circunscrito al proceso encaminado a la
normalización de las relaciones entre los dos gobiernos, algo que ha
sido interpretado por la comunidad internacional de positivo".
No obstante, agrega, "este proceso no ha producido hasta el momento
ningún cambio sustancial en la cotidianidad de los cubanos, si bien se
suma a la esperanza que necesitan quienes durante generaciones han visto
sus derechos cercenados, su calidad de vida disminuida y estas propias
esperanzas más de una vez frustradas".
Por tal motivo, el Observatorio reitera que "todo proceso de diálogo o
negociación con el Gobierno de Cuba debe poner sobre la mesa el respeto
a los derechos y las libertades de los cubanos".
El OCDH considera que "se debe avanzar hacia un escenario de reformas
legales, políticas y económicas que conduzcan hacia un diálogo entre
todos los cubanos, que respete, garantice y confirme la diversidad y
pluralidad política del país".
Marco Rubio, senador republicano:
Marco Rubio mostró su "oposición" al restablecimiento de relaciones
diplomáticas con Cuba anunciado por el presidente de Estados Unidos,
Barack Obama, y dijo que durante la negociación ha aumentado la
represión en la Isla.
Rubio criticó que "durante toda la negociación, mientras el régimen
Castro ha aumentado su represión al pueblo cubano, la Administración
Obama ha continuado mirando al otro lado y ofreciendo concesión tras
concesión".
"Es hora de finalizar nuestras concesiones unilaterales a este odioso
régimen", agregó Rubio, quien cuestionó que no se hayan conseguido
cesiones por parte del régimen cubano en materia de derechos humanos y
las peticiones sobre las propiedades confiscadas durante la revolución
cubana a estadounidenses.
Jeb Bush, exgobernador de Florida y aspirante a la candidatura
republicana a la Casa Blanca:
Jeb Bush seguró este miércoles que la reapertura de embajadas en La
Habana y Washington solo legitima "aún más el régimen brutal de Castro".
"Me opongo a la decisión de abrazar aún más el régimen de Castro con la
apertura de una Embajada en La Habana", afirmó Bush en un comunicado en
el que utiliza la fiesta del 4 de julio, Día de la Independencia de
Estados Unidos, para atacar la apertura de las legaciones.
"Mientras los estadounidenses se preparan para celebrar el aniversario
de nuestra libertad de la tiranía y el compromiso con los principios
democráticos, no es poca ironía que el presidente Obama se prepare para
abrir una Embajada en La Habana", dice.
En su nota, considera "dudosos logros diplomáticos" los pasos dados por
Obama en la normalización de relaciones con Cuba y destaca que las
relaciones entre ambos países deberían estar condicionadas por el avance
de la "causa de los derechos humanos y la libertad de los cubanos".
"La detención continua de los disidentes y las continuas violaciones de
los derechos humanos sugieren que la política de la Administración
falla", dice el exgobernador de Florida.
"Espero que el Congreso estadounidense realice un escrutinio de las
concesiones hechas a La Habana antes de considerar (la aprobación) de un
embajador", concluye Bush.
John Boehner, presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de EEUU:
El político republicano considera que el anuncio da "legitimidad" a lo
que denominó "brutal dictadura comunista" de los hermanos Raúl y Fidel
Castro.
"La Administración Obama está ofreciendo a los Castro el sueño de la
legitimidad sin obtener una sola cosa para el pueblo cubano que está
siendo oprimido por esta brutal dictadura comunista", indica Boehner en
una nota de prensa.
"Las relaciones con el régimen de los Castro no deberían ser revisadas,
y mucho menos normalizadas, hasta que los cubanos disfruten de la
libertad, y ni un segundo antes", recalca el dirigente republicano.
Directorio Democrático Cubano:
"La apertura de una sede diplomática castrista en los Estados Unidos
sin que la dictadura castrista haya efectuado la más mínima apertura
política y continúe con una represión brutal en contra de la oposición
cubana, solo contribuye a la consolidación y legitimación del régimen
opresor".
"Aunque sucesos como este sean difíciles para los amantes de la
libertad, es este el momento de intensificar la lucha. El Directorio
Democrático Cubano insta a todas las fuerzas de la resistencia dentro y
fuera de Cuba a redoblar sus esfuerzos. La esperanza radica en la
decisión de lucha del pueblo cubano".
Ric Herrero, director de #CubaNow:
"El anuncio de hoy es un paso trascendental en la transición de la
política de aislamiento y confrontación a otra centrada en ayudar a los
cubanos y avanzar en los intereses de Estados Unidos".
"No hay otro camino mejor para influenciar en el futuro de Cuba que
jugar un rol activo y constructivo en su presente. Avanzando, sea en
derechos humanos, migración, comercio, colaboración policial, tendremos
la presencia para mostrar, promover nuestro valores y ayudar a los
cubanos a construir un mejor futuro para ellos".
"Con una embajada estadounidense en Cuba desmentiremos a los
intransigentes del Gobierno de Castro que preferían las excusas para
despistar sus errores, y los líderes latinoamericanos para mantenerse al
margen de los derechos de los cubanos".
La oposición en el Congreso a la normalización "debería reconocer que la
libertad de movimiento y protección de nuestro cuerpo diplomático está
más garantizado teniendo un embajador y una embajada en la Isla, no
teledirigida por Washington". Herrero urge al presidente Obama "a
nominar rápidamente un embajador para Cuba, que el Senado debería
confirmar a toda prisa".
Frank Calzón, director ejecutivo del Centro para una Cuba Libre:
"La muy esperada apertura de la embajada norteamericana en La Habana
como parte de la normalización de relaciones entre los dos países
incluye importantes concesiones al general Raúl Castro que difícilmente
podrán ser aceptadas por administraciones norteamericanas en el futuro".
Entre otras concesiones está "el pago al Gobierno cubano por los
servicios dentro de la misión norteamericana de cientos de empleados
cubanos que reportan a los servicios de inteligencia castristas".
Además, "el Departamento de Estado no ha respondido a las preguntas del
Congreso sobre si el régimen se ha comprometido a respetar la valija
diplomática" estadounidense.
"Más de un senador se ha quejado de la falta de transparencia en las
negociaciones con La Habana, la falta de consulta con el Capitolio y la
presencia de un fuerte operativo policiaco que dificulta a los cubanos
el acceso a la nueva embajada", ubicada en el mismo edificio donde ha
estado hasta ahora de la Sección de Intereses.
"Lamentablemente, el anuncio ocurre a pocos días del arresto de 226
disidentes pacíficos, cosa que no parece interesarle a la Casa Blanca".
"La normalización ocurre bajo circunstancias sin precedentes si se
revisa la diplomacia americana en la región en años recientes y no
augura nada bueno ni para los derechos humanos en la Isla ni para el
legado de Obama hacia Cuba".
"En realidad, la nueva política no es más que un reciclaje de la vieja
política de hace más de medio siglo, cuando los derechos humanos no eran
importante para Washington y los intereses económicos yanquis campeaban
por sus respetos. Los archivos están llenos de fotos de sonrientes
presidentes norteamericanos con dictadores latinoamericanos de uniforme.
No creo que al presidente Obama le guste que incluyan su foto con Raúl
Castro en la colección de fotos de sus predecesores con Trujillo,
Somoza, Batista y otros hombres fuertes".
James Williams, presidente de Engage Cuba:
"Aplaudimos este importante paso para acercar a Estados Unidos y Cuba, y
urgimos al Congreso a apresurar el día en que viajeros y compañías
estadounidenses tengan la libertad de comprometerse con uno de sus
vecinos más cercanos".
"Abrir embajadas en Washington y La Habana es un importante paso hacia
el día en que los estadounidenses puedan tomar sus propias decisiones
sobre a dónde quieren viajar y nuestras empresas puedan competir con las
del resto del mundo" en el mercado cubano.
"Estamos haciendo historia dejando claro que el compromiso
estadounidense no es una concesión, es una muestra de fortaleza y el
mejor camino para promover nuestros valores y crear oportunidades para
los pueblos estadounidense y cubano".
"Hoy es un gran día para los pueblos de Cuba y Estados Unidos, que
buscan un futuro más brillante para los dos países. Después de 54 años
de política fracasada de Guerra Fría, mejores días están por venir,
finalmente".
Carlos Curbelo, congresista republicano por Florida:
El presidente Obama podrá "marcar otro elemento en su personal
construcción de su legado, pero no va a promover nuestros intereses
nacionales y temerariamente confiere legitimidad a una dictadura militar".
"Este movimiento deplorable se suma a la larga lista de concesiones
unilaterales que el Gobierno cubano ha recibido de la Administración
Obama como recompensa por haber cruelmente mantenido un rehén
estadounidense (Alan Gross) durante cinco años".
"Nuestro país merece una política exterior que ponga a Estados Unidos
primero y que recompense a nuestros aliados, no a dictadores
responsables de la muerte de los ciudadanos estadounidenses y por el
robo de la propiedad de Estados Unidos". (Martí Noticias)
Eric Langer, director del Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la
Universidad de Georgetown:
"Por fin se termina la guerra fría en el Hemisferio (…) Creo que esta
decisión supone un primer gran paso en la nueva relación de Estados
Unidos con Cuba en particular, pero también de Washington con el resto
de las naciones de América latina". (El Universal, México)
Ben Cardin, senador demócrata por Maryland:
La apertura de embajadas es parte del "enfoque de sentido común (del
Gobierno) para con Cuba". Sin embargo, La Habana debe reconocer que está
fuera de tono con la comunidad internacional en materia de derechos humanos.
"Los arrestos y las detenciones de disidentes deben cesar, y hace falta
una genuina pluralidad política". (AP)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, congresista republicana por Florida:
"La apertura de la embajada en Cuba no le brinda ningún beneficio al
pueblo cubano y es solo otro intento trivial del presidente Obama para
conseguir un legado".
"Desde el anuncio de Obama el 17 de diciembre, el Departamento de Estado
ha fracasado al no condenar el incremento de la represión ya que el
régimen de Castro se siente motivado a continuar sus ataques en contra
del pueblo".
"Luchadores por la libertad tales como las Damas de Blanco, Jorge Luis
Pérez García (Antúnez), Yris Pérez Aguilera y otros líderes
pro-democráticos son habitualmente acosados, golpeados y encarcelados
mientras la Administración Obama continua dándole la espalda al pueblo
cubano en búsqueda de alcanzar la meta de proveer cuantas concesiones
sean posibles al régimen castrista".
"Esta Administración ha demostrado que al tomar decisiones, la
politiquería es más importante que la política exterior de nuestro país".
Source: Políticos, analistas y exiliados opinan sobre la apertura de las
embajadas | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435750429_15457.html
DDC | Madrid | 1 Jul 2015 - 12:33 pm.
No augura nada bueno 'para los derechos humanos y el legado de Obama',
dice Frank Calzón, director ejecutivo del Centro para una Cuba Libre.
Tomás Rodríguez, director de Agenda Cuba:
Rodríguez expresó su satisfacción por el anuncio oficial de la apertura
de embajadas y citó al papa Juan Pablo II cuando dijo que "lo que hace
falta es que el Gobierno cubano se abra al mundo". "La apertura de
embajadas en La Habana y Washington es ya una realidad", aseveró.
Sylvia Iriondo, presidenta de la Organización pro Derechos Humanos en
Cuba (MAR por Cuba):
"El régimen castrista no ha cambiado. Apuesta a que los cambios
provengan de la administración del presidente Obama. ¿De qué sirve la
apertura de embajadas mientras que en Cuba se sigan violando los
derechos del pueblo cubano y aumenta la represión?".
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, presidente del Movimiento Democracia:
Sánchez cree que los pasos dados por Obama "van en la dirección
correcta", pero "solo" planteados desde la obligación de "darle voz al
pueblo cubano y la libertad de los presos políticos" y terminar con la
persecución de los disidentes.
"Que se hagan amigos dos enemigos" es una acción pragmática y plausible,
pero "insuficiente" a la luz de los hechos: "El dictador cubano continúa
golpeando a los opositores, deteniéndoles y dividiendo a la familia
cubana", apostilló Sánchez.
Por otro lado, sostuvo que la apertura de la sede diplomática
estadounidense en La Habana "sería muy útil", siempre y cuando, aclaró,
no se restrinja el libre movimiento de los diplomáticos dentro de la Isla.
Antonio Díaz Sánchez, secretario general del Movimiento Cristiano de
Liberación (MCL):
Díaz Sánchez aseguró que abrir una misión diplomática estadounidense en
La Habana significa "dar un espaldarazo a un Gobierno tiránico que ha
negado las libertades y derechos humanos".
Además, precisó Díaz, la apertura de las sedes diplomáticas a partir del
20 de julio es el pistoletazo de salida para la entrada de inversión y
capital extranjero, "en un ambiente de no derechos y donde prima la
falta de libertad y el totalitarismo".
Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos:
El Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos (OCDH) consideró este
miércoles que el anuncio de la apertura de embajadas en Washington y La
Habana "es otro paso circunscrito al proceso encaminado a la
normalización de las relaciones entre los dos gobiernos, algo que ha
sido interpretado por la comunidad internacional de positivo".
No obstante, agrega, "este proceso no ha producido hasta el momento
ningún cambio sustancial en la cotidianidad de los cubanos, si bien se
suma a la esperanza que necesitan quienes durante generaciones han visto
sus derechos cercenados, su calidad de vida disminuida y estas propias
esperanzas más de una vez frustradas".
Por tal motivo, el Observatorio reitera que "todo proceso de diálogo o
negociación con el Gobierno de Cuba debe poner sobre la mesa el respeto
a los derechos y las libertades de los cubanos".
El OCDH considera que "se debe avanzar hacia un escenario de reformas
legales, políticas y económicas que conduzcan hacia un diálogo entre
todos los cubanos, que respete, garantice y confirme la diversidad y
pluralidad política del país".
Marco Rubio, senador republicano:
Marco Rubio mostró su "oposición" al restablecimiento de relaciones
diplomáticas con Cuba anunciado por el presidente de Estados Unidos,
Barack Obama, y dijo que durante la negociación ha aumentado la
represión en la Isla.
Rubio criticó que "durante toda la negociación, mientras el régimen
Castro ha aumentado su represión al pueblo cubano, la Administración
Obama ha continuado mirando al otro lado y ofreciendo concesión tras
concesión".
"Es hora de finalizar nuestras concesiones unilaterales a este odioso
régimen", agregó Rubio, quien cuestionó que no se hayan conseguido
cesiones por parte del régimen cubano en materia de derechos humanos y
las peticiones sobre las propiedades confiscadas durante la revolución
cubana a estadounidenses.
Jeb Bush, exgobernador de Florida y aspirante a la candidatura
republicana a la Casa Blanca:
Jeb Bush seguró este miércoles que la reapertura de embajadas en La
Habana y Washington solo legitima "aún más el régimen brutal de Castro".
"Me opongo a la decisión de abrazar aún más el régimen de Castro con la
apertura de una Embajada en La Habana", afirmó Bush en un comunicado en
el que utiliza la fiesta del 4 de julio, Día de la Independencia de
Estados Unidos, para atacar la apertura de las legaciones.
"Mientras los estadounidenses se preparan para celebrar el aniversario
de nuestra libertad de la tiranía y el compromiso con los principios
democráticos, no es poca ironía que el presidente Obama se prepare para
abrir una Embajada en La Habana", dice.
En su nota, considera "dudosos logros diplomáticos" los pasos dados por
Obama en la normalización de relaciones con Cuba y destaca que las
relaciones entre ambos países deberían estar condicionadas por el avance
de la "causa de los derechos humanos y la libertad de los cubanos".
"La detención continua de los disidentes y las continuas violaciones de
los derechos humanos sugieren que la política de la Administración
falla", dice el exgobernador de Florida.
"Espero que el Congreso estadounidense realice un escrutinio de las
concesiones hechas a La Habana antes de considerar (la aprobación) de un
embajador", concluye Bush.
John Boehner, presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de EEUU:
El político republicano considera que el anuncio da "legitimidad" a lo
que denominó "brutal dictadura comunista" de los hermanos Raúl y Fidel
Castro.
"La Administración Obama está ofreciendo a los Castro el sueño de la
legitimidad sin obtener una sola cosa para el pueblo cubano que está
siendo oprimido por esta brutal dictadura comunista", indica Boehner en
una nota de prensa.
"Las relaciones con el régimen de los Castro no deberían ser revisadas,
y mucho menos normalizadas, hasta que los cubanos disfruten de la
libertad, y ni un segundo antes", recalca el dirigente republicano.
Directorio Democrático Cubano:
"La apertura de una sede diplomática castrista en los Estados Unidos
sin que la dictadura castrista haya efectuado la más mínima apertura
política y continúe con una represión brutal en contra de la oposición
cubana, solo contribuye a la consolidación y legitimación del régimen
opresor".
"Aunque sucesos como este sean difíciles para los amantes de la
libertad, es este el momento de intensificar la lucha. El Directorio
Democrático Cubano insta a todas las fuerzas de la resistencia dentro y
fuera de Cuba a redoblar sus esfuerzos. La esperanza radica en la
decisión de lucha del pueblo cubano".
Ric Herrero, director de #CubaNow:
"El anuncio de hoy es un paso trascendental en la transición de la
política de aislamiento y confrontación a otra centrada en ayudar a los
cubanos y avanzar en los intereses de Estados Unidos".
"No hay otro camino mejor para influenciar en el futuro de Cuba que
jugar un rol activo y constructivo en su presente. Avanzando, sea en
derechos humanos, migración, comercio, colaboración policial, tendremos
la presencia para mostrar, promover nuestro valores y ayudar a los
cubanos a construir un mejor futuro para ellos".
"Con una embajada estadounidense en Cuba desmentiremos a los
intransigentes del Gobierno de Castro que preferían las excusas para
despistar sus errores, y los líderes latinoamericanos para mantenerse al
margen de los derechos de los cubanos".
La oposición en el Congreso a la normalización "debería reconocer que la
libertad de movimiento y protección de nuestro cuerpo diplomático está
más garantizado teniendo un embajador y una embajada en la Isla, no
teledirigida por Washington". Herrero urge al presidente Obama "a
nominar rápidamente un embajador para Cuba, que el Senado debería
confirmar a toda prisa".
Frank Calzón, director ejecutivo del Centro para una Cuba Libre:
"La muy esperada apertura de la embajada norteamericana en La Habana
como parte de la normalización de relaciones entre los dos países
incluye importantes concesiones al general Raúl Castro que difícilmente
podrán ser aceptadas por administraciones norteamericanas en el futuro".
Entre otras concesiones está "el pago al Gobierno cubano por los
servicios dentro de la misión norteamericana de cientos de empleados
cubanos que reportan a los servicios de inteligencia castristas".
Además, "el Departamento de Estado no ha respondido a las preguntas del
Congreso sobre si el régimen se ha comprometido a respetar la valija
diplomática" estadounidense.
"Más de un senador se ha quejado de la falta de transparencia en las
negociaciones con La Habana, la falta de consulta con el Capitolio y la
presencia de un fuerte operativo policiaco que dificulta a los cubanos
el acceso a la nueva embajada", ubicada en el mismo edificio donde ha
estado hasta ahora de la Sección de Intereses.
"Lamentablemente, el anuncio ocurre a pocos días del arresto de 226
disidentes pacíficos, cosa que no parece interesarle a la Casa Blanca".
"La normalización ocurre bajo circunstancias sin precedentes si se
revisa la diplomacia americana en la región en años recientes y no
augura nada bueno ni para los derechos humanos en la Isla ni para el
legado de Obama hacia Cuba".
"En realidad, la nueva política no es más que un reciclaje de la vieja
política de hace más de medio siglo, cuando los derechos humanos no eran
importante para Washington y los intereses económicos yanquis campeaban
por sus respetos. Los archivos están llenos de fotos de sonrientes
presidentes norteamericanos con dictadores latinoamericanos de uniforme.
No creo que al presidente Obama le guste que incluyan su foto con Raúl
Castro en la colección de fotos de sus predecesores con Trujillo,
Somoza, Batista y otros hombres fuertes".
James Williams, presidente de Engage Cuba:
"Aplaudimos este importante paso para acercar a Estados Unidos y Cuba, y
urgimos al Congreso a apresurar el día en que viajeros y compañías
estadounidenses tengan la libertad de comprometerse con uno de sus
vecinos más cercanos".
"Abrir embajadas en Washington y La Habana es un importante paso hacia
el día en que los estadounidenses puedan tomar sus propias decisiones
sobre a dónde quieren viajar y nuestras empresas puedan competir con las
del resto del mundo" en el mercado cubano.
"Estamos haciendo historia dejando claro que el compromiso
estadounidense no es una concesión, es una muestra de fortaleza y el
mejor camino para promover nuestros valores y crear oportunidades para
los pueblos estadounidense y cubano".
"Hoy es un gran día para los pueblos de Cuba y Estados Unidos, que
buscan un futuro más brillante para los dos países. Después de 54 años
de política fracasada de Guerra Fría, mejores días están por venir,
finalmente".
Carlos Curbelo, congresista republicano por Florida:
El presidente Obama podrá "marcar otro elemento en su personal
construcción de su legado, pero no va a promover nuestros intereses
nacionales y temerariamente confiere legitimidad a una dictadura militar".
"Este movimiento deplorable se suma a la larga lista de concesiones
unilaterales que el Gobierno cubano ha recibido de la Administración
Obama como recompensa por haber cruelmente mantenido un rehén
estadounidense (Alan Gross) durante cinco años".
"Nuestro país merece una política exterior que ponga a Estados Unidos
primero y que recompense a nuestros aliados, no a dictadores
responsables de la muerte de los ciudadanos estadounidenses y por el
robo de la propiedad de Estados Unidos". (Martí Noticias)
Eric Langer, director del Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la
Universidad de Georgetown:
"Por fin se termina la guerra fría en el Hemisferio (…) Creo que esta
decisión supone un primer gran paso en la nueva relación de Estados
Unidos con Cuba en particular, pero también de Washington con el resto
de las naciones de América latina". (El Universal, México)
Ben Cardin, senador demócrata por Maryland:
La apertura de embajadas es parte del "enfoque de sentido común (del
Gobierno) para con Cuba". Sin embargo, La Habana debe reconocer que está
fuera de tono con la comunidad internacional en materia de derechos humanos.
"Los arrestos y las detenciones de disidentes deben cesar, y hace falta
una genuina pluralidad política". (AP)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, congresista republicana por Florida:
"La apertura de la embajada en Cuba no le brinda ningún beneficio al
pueblo cubano y es solo otro intento trivial del presidente Obama para
conseguir un legado".
"Desde el anuncio de Obama el 17 de diciembre, el Departamento de Estado
ha fracasado al no condenar el incremento de la represión ya que el
régimen de Castro se siente motivado a continuar sus ataques en contra
del pueblo".
"Luchadores por la libertad tales como las Damas de Blanco, Jorge Luis
Pérez García (Antúnez), Yris Pérez Aguilera y otros líderes
pro-democráticos son habitualmente acosados, golpeados y encarcelados
mientras la Administración Obama continua dándole la espalda al pueblo
cubano en búsqueda de alcanzar la meta de proveer cuantas concesiones
sean posibles al régimen castrista".
"Esta Administración ha demostrado que al tomar decisiones, la
politiquería es más importante que la política exterior de nuestro país".
Source: Políticos, analistas y exiliados opinan sobre la apertura de las
embajadas | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435750429_15457.html
La reapertura de embajadas será 'a partir del 20 de julio'
La reapertura de embajadas será 'a partir del 20 de julio'
DDC | La Habana | 1 Jul 2015 - 2:49 pm.
Castro y Obama intercambiaron cartas a través de funcionarios de las
secciones de intereses de La Habana y Washington.
Los gobiernos de Cuba y Estados Unidos intercambiaron este miércoles
cartas en las que reafirmaron su intención de restablecer relaciones
diplomáticas y fijaron el 20 de julio como fecha a partir de la cual se
abrirán las embajadas en La Habana y Washington.
Según informó la cancillería cubana en su sitio en internet, el ministro
interino de Relaciones Exteriores, Marcelino Medina González, recibió en
horas de la mañana al jefe de la Sección de Intereses de los Estados
Unidos en La Habana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, quien le entregó una carta del
presidente Barack Obama dirigida a Raúl Castro.
En la misiva, Obama "confirma la decisión de restablecer las relaciones
diplomáticas entre los dos países y abrir misiones diplomáticas
permanentes en las respectivas capitales, a partir del 20 de julio de
2015", señaló la Cancillería.
En otra nota, indicó que el diplomático cubano de más alto rango en
Washington, José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, fue recibido también este
miércoles, en el Departamento de Estado, por el secretario de Estado
interino Anthony Blinken.
Cabañas entregó a Blinken una carta de Raúl Castro a Obama con similar
contenido.
Source: La reapertura de embajadas será 'a partir del 20 de julio' |
Diario de Cuba - http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435758572_15459.html
DDC | La Habana | 1 Jul 2015 - 2:49 pm.
Castro y Obama intercambiaron cartas a través de funcionarios de las
secciones de intereses de La Habana y Washington.
Los gobiernos de Cuba y Estados Unidos intercambiaron este miércoles
cartas en las que reafirmaron su intención de restablecer relaciones
diplomáticas y fijaron el 20 de julio como fecha a partir de la cual se
abrirán las embajadas en La Habana y Washington.
Según informó la cancillería cubana en su sitio en internet, el ministro
interino de Relaciones Exteriores, Marcelino Medina González, recibió en
horas de la mañana al jefe de la Sección de Intereses de los Estados
Unidos en La Habana, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, quien le entregó una carta del
presidente Barack Obama dirigida a Raúl Castro.
En la misiva, Obama "confirma la decisión de restablecer las relaciones
diplomáticas entre los dos países y abrir misiones diplomáticas
permanentes en las respectivas capitales, a partir del 20 de julio de
2015", señaló la Cancillería.
En otra nota, indicó que el diplomático cubano de más alto rango en
Washington, José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, fue recibido también este
miércoles, en el Departamento de Estado, por el secretario de Estado
interino Anthony Blinken.
Cabañas entregó a Blinken una carta de Raúl Castro a Obama con similar
contenido.
Source: La reapertura de embajadas será 'a partir del 20 de julio' |
Diario de Cuba - http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1435758572_15459.html
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