Today, the two governments announced that they had reached an agreement to resume direct commercial flights between the two countries, and last week they said they had agreed to reestablish direct postal service via a pilot plan for transporting mail and packages.
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American has been flying to Cuba the longest of any US carrier, starting charter service to the island in 1991. The memorandum of understanding ratifies both countries’ commitment to protect civil aviation from acts of unlawful interference and reiterates the commitment to act according to the worldwide conventions related to aviation security, said a Cuban embassy statement.
Under the terms of the aviation deal, up to 30 regularly scheduled flights per day will be permitted: 20 to Havana and 10 to other cities, the Associated Press reports.
Booking a trek to Cuba is going to get a ton less demanding.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, on Tuesday said there had been hundreds of “arbitrary arrests” in Cuba in recent weeks.
The deal reached Wednesday night after three days of talks in Washington opens the way for USA airlines to negotiate with Cuba’s government for routes that could bring thousands more visitors a day to the island.
November 19: USA bank Stonegate announces it has begun offering its American clients debit cards they can use in Cuba. “The Obama administration’s removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list as a state sponsor of terrorism, manipulation of the facts regarding human trafficking to aid the Castros and neglecting Cuba’s valiant pro-democracy movement are just a few of the highlights of Obama’s shameful policy”.
Re-establishing diplomatic relations is one of several “key pillars in the president’s new approach to Cuba”, the White House noted this summer.
While US officials still oppose Cuba’s lack of political rights, Obama concluded these goals could be better served through engagement.
In an interview with Yahoo!
“This is the year for laying down the foundation blocks”, said Pedro Freyre, Chair of International Practice at the Miami-based Akerman law firm, which has been working with large US corporations interested in doing business with Cuba.
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Cuba operates two currencies, one that mostly circulates in the domestic economy and another pegged to the dollar that is worth much more. Even staunch critics of doing so have told him they see it as inevitable, he said.
