They’re waiting for Cuban approval.
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Some arrested demonstrators said they were kicked, hit, pushed to the ground and stripped naked before being released hours later. Kavulich says Raúl will surrender as little as possible but will ultimately have to change the country to survive.
In a stern and lengthy speech in Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez dismissed Obama’s lofty rhetoric about speaking directly to the Cuban people about their future during his trip, which starts Sunday. But he says Obama really needs to support dissidents.
So far, the USA overtures have prompted only a limited response from the Cuban government, both economically and politically. “The question also is, what is Cuba going to allow?” Obama administration officials didn’t immediately confirm or deny the arrival of the dissidents on USA soil. “Because there’s an embargo from the Cuban government against the Cuban people, and I think that’s the one that does the most damage”.
In the US, some Republicans-notably Sen. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro pledged to normalise relations in 2014.
“Here’s a good deal: Cuba has free elections”.
The jubilation that surged through Cuba in the early days of detente has been tempered by the absence of tangible improvement in most people’s lives.
In a lengthy commentary on March 9, the official Communist Party newspaper, Granma, set out Cuba’s red lines for the visit and more generally in its relations with the US.
Ultimately, Obama’s efforts to rekindle relationships with this island neighbor meet with an undercurrent of resistance going back to the mid-20th Century Cuban revolution.
The Cuban leadership, under Raúl Castro’s direction, appears to be looking for a way it can attract US and foreign investment and still keep its brand of socialism-probably borrowing Vietnamese-style private capitalism and strict political control.
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Aurelio Gonzá lez, member of an opposition group associated with the Ladies in White, was adamant that Washington’s new stance toward Cuba has done nothing to improve rights. “In the military, for nearly all crimes, you can be convicted and still get no jail time”, said Eric Carpenter, a law professor at Florida International University who served as an Army prosecutor and defense attorney but has no role in the Bergdahl case. He’ll also hold a separate meeting Tuesday with human rights activists and others who are critical of the Castro government. “As the barriers to doing business continue to decline, we will be well positioned to grow trade, tourism and other commercial relations that will benefit the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Capital Region and the people of Cuba”.
