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US, Cuba agree to restore regular commercial flights

It was a significant move, signalling the beginning of thawing relations between the United States and Cuba.

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The deal was announced on Thursday, December 17, exactly one year since President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro announced a historic detente.

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Obama said he had made the decision because he concluded that 50 years of trying to encourage democratic and economic change in Cuba through isolation had failed.

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Following the détente announced past year, Cuba and the US have worked from January 2015 on several peace-building mechanisms intended smooth things over after decades of resentment. While it will likely take months before the first commercial flight to Havana, the resumption of regular aviation to Cuba after a half-century will nearly certainly be the biggest business development since the two countries began normalizing relations previous year. “However it’s been something of a disappointment as well”, he adds, “mainly over the inability to lift the embargo”.

More than 120 former prisoners under the Castro regimes wrote to Obama warning that his new Cuba policy is “a regrettable mistake” that will only “prolong the life of the dictatorship”.

“We continue to have differences with the Cuban government”, Obama said, “but we raise those issues directly, and we will always stand for human rights and the universal values that we support around the globe”. “There is no beef, nothing has happened.’ We were promised new businesses would spring up, that there was going to be human rights improvements”, said Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason.

Obama continues to call for an end to the embargo, which he considers a Cold War relic, but no one expects the Republican-controlled Congress to oblige him – particularly not in an election year. Academic exchanges and “educational tours” are quickly expanding. General tourist travel to Cuba is still illegal under US law.

The Cuban Embassy in Washington said the two countries had reached preliminary agreement on a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of regular flights. The Cuban embassy based in Washington has released a statement regarding the proposal in which it reaffirms the two states’ dedication to maintaining the highest standards of civil aviation safety by introducing safeguards to protect “from acts of unlawful interference”.

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“We would be pleased to work with any operator wishing to provide these flights to our community”, airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said Thursday. “We were not allowed to go back at all”, said a passenger. So the Cuban authorities will enable the new flights from the United States in a slowly way, in order to ensure that the government can manage the increased travel.

He also said that Havana won’t be the only Cuban city it serves.

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“Spending time with Americans is considered subversive activity, so anyone who does it in an unofficial setting is suspect”, she says.

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