A man walks past Cuban and USA flags at the 33rd Havana International Fair (FIHAV) in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 2, 2015.
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The politics are more complicated because two Cuban-American senators vying for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, are vocal opponents of Obama’s policy and party leaders are unlikely to come out against them during the campaign.
Kerry, who went to Cuba last August to raise the USA flag over the reopened American embassy, acknowledged to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States still has concerns about the human rights situation there. His administration just announced that next month Obama would become the first US president to visit Havana since 1928.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
According to Granma, the lifting of the embargo – something only Congress is empowered to do – will be high on Cuba’s agenda for the talks with Obama, along with Cuba’s demand for the return of Guantanamo Bay.
Exchanges are based on respect, equality and non-interference in internal affairs, Vidal said.
The U.S. controls Guantanamo Bay under a 1903 treaty permitting its lease for a naval station. Despite President Obama’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba in late 2014, the embargo remains in place and only an act from Congress can lift it.
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“If we hadn’t done this agreement and I didn’t have a relationship with (Iran’s) foreign minister, then they probably would have been hostages and they might still be there”, Kerry said of the sailors.
