U.S. NEWSBITS: Cuba Libre, Obama’s New Relations

NewsUSA & Other Regions
18 Dec, 2014
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U.S. NEWSBITS: Cuba Libre, Obama’s New Relations

 

After more than 50 years of strained relations between the U.S. and Cuba, there has been a breakthrough. Here’s the scoop

 

By Mary Foran

Presient Obama's address on improving relations with Cuba on 17 December 2014. (Offical White House photo by

President Obama delivers his statement on Cuba,  17 December 2014. (White House/Chuck Kennedy)

This week President Obama announced talks to normalize diplomatic and economic relations with communist Cuba. Cuban leader Raul Castro, brother of the long-time dictator Fidel Castro, told Cubans he welcomed the restoration of diplomatic ties with the U.S. in a simultaneous speech to island residents.

Fidel Castro at the Lincoln Memorial before the US-Cuban relations soured

Fidel Castro at the Lincoln Memorial in Washinton DC, 1959, before the US-Cuban relations soured

The reopening of a U.S. embassy in Havana, and the easing of trade and travel restrictions will end more than 50 years of estrangement between the U.S. and the island, 90 miles from Miami, Florida.

American relations with Cuba have been suspended since 1961 when Fidel Castro seized power and established a communist dictatorship aligned with the Soviet Union.

The deal came after 18 months of talks hosted by Canada, and an appeal by Pope Francis to ease tensions between the two countries.

American writer Ernest Hemmingway in his boat off the coast of Cuba. He was -- and, after his death, still is --probably the most resident famous American resident in cuba where he wrote For whom the Bells Toll

American writer Ernest Hemmingway in his boat Pilar off the coast of Cuba. He was — and, long after his death, still is — probably the most famous American resident of Cuba.

Congress, which votes on the matter every year, still must decide whether or not to end the trade and travel embargo with Cuba.

President Obama’s decision was met with a furious reaction from opponents of liberalizing relations with Cuba. The President was quoted as saying that he respected the critics views, but that “isolation has failed to achieve its goal of changing Cuba’s leadership.”

 

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Photo credits

>Featured image: Cuban propaganda billboard says “Messrs. Imperialist, we have absolutely no fear of you!” opposite the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana where the United States Interests Section operates. Uploaded by KPu3uC B Poccuu. CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:KPu3uC_B_Poccuu)
Note that in lieu of embassies, the United States and Cuba operate Interests Sections in the Embassy of Switzerland in Havana and Washington DC  respectively for lack of  formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

>Pres. Obama: Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy

>Fidel Castro: By the late Alberto Korda, used here on the grounds that “it is the only available photograph of a historically significant event.”Fair use.

>Hemmingway: Owned by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. PD.