“The Cold War has been over for a long time”, Obama said, before his historic handshake with Cuban President Raul Castro in Panama past year. He said if Obama was preoccupied with empowering Cubans, “something must be going wrong in USA democracy”.
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GEOFF THALE: It’s people in the religious community in Cuba. Mr Obama argues that such interchange will do more to hasten the liberalisation of Cuba’s repressive socialist regime than continuing to isolate it.
For Claudia Toledo, an global buyer for a major food company, the nascent rapprochement means her job could improve; access to machine parts from the US, for example.
Ahead of the Stones’ gig, President Obama will travel to Cuba on March 21-22, with a delegation of up to 20 members from Congress and a handful of CEOs in tow, including executives from Marriott (MAR) and Xerox (XRX).
BARACK OBAMA: If in fact I with confidence can say that we’re seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans, I’d love to use a visit as a way of highlighting that progress.
“I appreciate your support over the years, and I hope this note – which will reach you by way of the first direct mail flight between the United States and Cuba in over 50 years – serves as a reminder of a bright new chapter in the relationship between our two nations”.
“This strength of Marti, of a dignified and steadfast Cuba that stands tall, I will take with me to the people of Venezuela in recognition of their heroism”, Maduro said.
Administration officials who briefed the press on the details of the trip said they view it as an opportunity to make the normalization of diplomatic relations with the communist nation “irreversible” in the face of criticism from Republicans, who have pressed to keep an economic embargo against Cuba on the books. The yanks would invade Havana, as they had done many years before, and their greenbacks would breathe life into both private and State enterprises.
“In our restaurant we’ve had the U.S. flag up inside for five years, but this is also the first time we’ve shown it outside”, he added.
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McGovern joined Secretary of State John Kerry in Havana last August for the reopening of the U.S. Embassy. Though Obama has been rolling back restrictions on Cuba through regulatory moves, he has been unable to persuade Congress to lift the US trade embargo, a chief Cuban demand. The Cuban government, which has thus far maintained a virtual monopoly on accommodations and touring arrangements, may not be so thrilled with that development. The changes have allowed hundreds of thousands of people to work in the private sector and have relaxed limits on cellphones, Internet and Cubans’ comfort with discussing their country’s problems in public, for example. But he will be watching Obama’s visit anyway.
