U.S. To Begin Normalizing Relations With Cuba

[Webster]

USA Today: U.S. seeks to normalize relations with Cuba
Excerpt...

The United States and Cuba exchanged prisoners Wednesday as part of a deal to expand trade, increase travel, and normalize relations between the U.S. and its six-decade communist foe, government officials said Wednesday. "We will end an outdated approach that has failed to advance our interests," Obama said in making a formal announcement at the White House. "These 50 years have shown isolation has not worked."

The biggest shift in the American-Cuban relationship since formal ties were severed in 1961 — the year the president was born — includes new rules for banking and financial dealings as well as a general easing of the U.S. embargo against Cuba and the opening of a U.S. embassy in Havana, said Obama and other officials.

Obama said the decades-long embargo has had little effect on Cuba's regime, and that encouraging more engagement will help promote reform in the long run. He linked the move to the decision in the 1990s to normalize relations with Vietnam, with which the U.S. had fought a war.

As Obama spoke, Cuban President Raul Castro -- brother of communist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro -- made a similar announcement in Havana. Echoing Obama, Castro said he welcomed new ties to the United States, though differences between the two countries remain.

Obama and Raul Castro spoke by phone Tuesday about the agreement, officials said, the first direct contact between American and Cuban leaders since Fidel Castro led the communist revolution in 1959. (Fidel Castro, old and ailing, did not participate in the talks.)

Among others who helped broker the deal, officials said: Pope Francis, who sent a letter on the subject to Obama and Raul Castro. Officials said that Obama and the pope discussed Cuba during the president's visit to the Vatican in March.

The agreement includes Cuba's release of Alan Gross, an American citizen arrested in 2009 on espionage charges for trying to provide Internet service to Cuban residents. The U.S., meanwhile, agreed to release three Cubans accused of spying and imprisoned in the United States, officials said. U.S. officials said they also obtained the release of an un-named "intelligence asset" who had been imprisoned in Cuba for two decades.

"This morning, Alan Gross has departed Cuba on a US government plane bound for the United States," an administration official said in a statement. "Mr. Gross was released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the request of the United States." Officials spoke on condition of anonymity, pending the formal announcement by Obama.

Three members of Congress -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont; Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. -- traveled to Cuba to secure Gross' release and accompany him on the trip home, according to a statement from Van Hollen's office. The party landed at an air base near Washington at around 11:30 a.m. ET.

News of the Cuba announcement drew criticism from anti-Castro Republicans, and some Democrats.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a Democrat and the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said "President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016 and a long-time critic of Cuba's government, said he rejoiced at Gross' release. But he condemned the rest of the deal as "the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost."

Also a member of the foreign relations committee, Rubio said he would try to do what he could to "block this dangerous and desperate attempt by the President to burnish his legacy at the Cuban people's expense." Rubio and other Republicans said the Obama administration should demand democratic reform in Cuba before making any concessions. "I don't think we should be negotiating with a repressive regime to make changes in our relationship" until Cuba changes, said Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida and another prospective Republican presidential candidate.

Some changes to Cuba policy -- including an absolute end to the embargo -- would require congressional approval, and Republicans will control both the Senate and House starting next month. Officials said Obama is exploring what he can do through executive action, especially when it comes to easing the rules of the embargo.

Thoughts?

 

[DrLeftover]

Raul Castro wants something.

And The Wanker is going to give it to him.

 

[Webster]

To quote something I heard on the news following the announcement:

Cuba just became a campaign issue in 2016.

 

[seasidemike]

Well, the USA now has open relationships with every other communist country why not now Cuba?

 

[Webster]

Well, the USA now has open relationships with every other communist country why not now Cuba?

That's what I've been thinking for years, Seaside...

 

[DrLeftover]

The news here is that Cuba has agreed to normalization.

It would appear that the US embargo is no longer good for business in Havana.

 

[seasidemike]

It makes sense, there is no longer any need for isolation, I mean 'Communism' isn't even a scary word any more...
China is the biggest communist country in the world and everyone is in bed with them...
na, the bad guys these days are ISIS and the Taliban etc the commies are nothing compared to them.

 

[Webster]

...well, that didn't take long:

Two Cuban-American senators bashed the Obama Administration’s decision to release three Cubans held by the United States on the same day Cuba released an American contractor it had held for five years. New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez slammed the Administration, calling it an “asymmetrical trade”—a description the Administration rebuts—that “sets a dangerous precedent” and will “invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people.”

“It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips,” said Menendez, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement. “I fear that today’s actions will put at risk the thousands of Americans that work overseas to support civil society, advocate for access to information, provide humanitarian services, and promote democratic reforms.”

Menendez added that Alan Gross, who was providing satellite communications equipment to the island’s Jewish population, should have been released “immediately and unconditionally” five years ago. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who along with Menendez and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz are the only senators with Cuban roots, criticized the trade for legitimatizing the Cuban narrative about Gross’ work in Cuba, as the three Cubans the U.S. released were prosecuted in court on espionage charges. Cuba also released an unnamed U.S. intelligence asset who has been imprisoned for 20 years.

The Administration announced Gross’ release as part of a major shift to normalize full diplomatic relations with President Raúl Castro’s government after they were largely cut off fifty-three years ago. A senior Administration official said the U.S. embassy would open “as soon as possible” in Havana and that the Administration would authorize expanded exports and imports from Cuba. U.S. credit and debit cards will also be permitted for use in Cuba for the first time, among other changes. Rubio ripped the moves, which the Administration touted were historic.

“The President’s decision to reward the Castro regime and begin the path toward the normalization of relations with Cuba is inexplicable,” said Rubio in a statement. “Cuba, like Syria, Iran, and Sudan, remains a state sponsor of terrorism…Appeasing the Castro brothers will only cause other tyrants from Caracas to Tehran to Pyongyang to see that they can take advantage of President Obama’s naiveté during his final two years in office. As a result, America will be less safe as a result of the President’s change in policy.”

Not all senators were so critical of the Administration. After Gross’ release, Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski called Wednesday “a new day and a monumental breakthrough.” Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told the Washington Post that the White House and the Vatican had been trying to ensure Gross’ release for more than a year and praised the Administration for attempting to patch U.S.-Cuba relations.

“I think most will acknowledge that our foreign policy for over half a century has not been successful,” said Durbin.“We had hoped by excluding Cuba and pressuring Cuba that the regime would change and it never happened. I think this opening the door to free travel and trade and exchange of realities is going to have a more positive impact in changing Cuba than 50 years of foreign policy.” (Time)

 

[Webster]

To quote something I heard on the news following the announcement:

Cuba just became a campaign issue in 2016.

Continuing that line of thought above...
New York Times: U.S.-Cuba Shift May Change Political Landscape

WASHINGTON — The startling announcement that the United States and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations could fill in one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics and reshape the fight to win the vital battleground state of Florida.

For more than a generation, Republicans have taken a hard line against the communist nation, endearing themselves to the politically potent bloc of Cuban-Americans who have been a crucial force in deciding elections in the state. But those animosities have given way with a generational shift, and younger voters who have family ties to Cuba but no direct memories of the island under Fidel Castro have been more willing to support Democrats.

Beyond that, the Hispanic population of Florida is increasingly made up of former residents of Puerto Rico, and they typically vote Democratic. President Obama won the state twice, and Republican presidential candidates have an extremely difficult time winning without Florida’s Electoral College votes.

Now the issues debated in the state are likely to change, even if those long simmering disputes about Cuba linger.

Wednesday’s news offered an early glimpse into the challenges facing Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida, who a day earlier announced that he would explore a 2016 presidential run. Mr. Bush praised the release of Mr. Gross. But earlier this month, in a speech to a group of Cuban exiles at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., he called for the embargo to be strengthened.

“Would lifting the embargo change the fact that the government receives almost all of the money that comes from these well-intended people that travel to the island?” he asked.

Mr. Bush said: “Cuba is a dictatorship, plain and simple. The United States should only have a new relationship with Cuba when there is progress on basic human rights of the Cuban people, including the release of political prisoners, fair and free elections, the respect of the rule of law, the cessation of destabilizing countries in the region and the embrace of a free-market economy.”

Among the new generation of Cuban-Americans there is far less passion for the embargo. There is even less among those of Puerto Rican heritage.

The changing Hispanic demographics in Florida have reshaped the state’s political map. After decades of politicians making ritual stops for strong Cuban coffee on Calle Ocho in Miami’s Little Havana, candidates are spending more time in the Puerto Rican enclaves in and around Orlando. Mr. Obama’s narrow Florida win in 2012 was powered in part by his sizable margins in the two most heavily Hispanic counties in the Orlando area.

“Each day that passes, the proportion of the Hispanic electorate that comes from embargo-era Cubans shrinks, and they are now vastly outnumbered by an explosion of new Puerto Rican voters,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Florida who worked on both Obama campaigns there. “Moreover, the grandchildren and now great-grandchildren of those embargo era Cubans have a more open view towards the Cuban question.”

Even so, Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Republican from Florida and a potential 2016 candidate, slammed the rapprochement Wednesday.

“Today’s announcement initiating a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Cuba is just the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement. “When America is unwilling to advocate for individual liberty and freedom of political expression 90 miles from our shores, it represents a terrible setback for the hopes of all oppressed people around the globe.”

Mr. Rubio said “America will be less safe as a result of the president’s change in policy,” and promised to use his perch as the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee to block Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts with Cuba.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and one of three senators with Cuban ancestry, also criticized the president, who as part of a larger agreement with Cuba is releasing three Cuban spies who were arrested in Miami in 2001. Mr. Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the exchange sets a “an extremely dangerous precedent.”

“Let’s be clear,” he said, “this was not a ‘humanitarian’ act by the Castro regime. It was a swap of convicted spies for an innocent American. “This asymmetrical trade will invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people.”

Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who will take over as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, was more reserved.

“The new U.S. policy announced by the administration is no doubt sweeping, and as of now there is no real understanding as to what changes the Cuban government is prepared to make,” he said in a statement. “We will be closely examining the implications of these major policy changes in the next Congress.”

Ana M. Carbonell, a Cuban-American Republican strategist in South Florida, said Mr. Obama’s move would place pressure on Hillary Rodham Clinton. “She’s going to have to make a serious evaluation about this and decide which side of history she wants to be on,” Ms. Carbonell said. Should Mrs. Clinton run for president, she said, her chances of winning Florida will suffer “unless she distances herself from this decision”

Ms. Carbonell rejected the idea that the generational shift among Cuban-Americans and the rise in Florida’s Puerto Rican population had made the embargo issue less potent in statewide races. She pointed to this year’s race for governor, in which the unpopular incumbent, Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who backs the embargo, defeated Charlie Crist, a Democrat.

“Crist would have been the first Florida governor in history to openly favor normalizing relations and look at the results,” she said. (Mr. Crist won decisively among Hispanics who were not from Cuba, but only narrowly among Cuban-Americans).

Mrs. Clinton has been advocating for a normalization of relations with Cuba for some time. She wrote about it in her book “Hard Choices” and spoke passionately about it during an interview with Fusion last summer.

“I would like to see that end,” Mrs. Clinton said of the embargo. “I think it has been a failure.”

Mrs. Clinton argued that the embargo has propped up the Castro government because Cuban officials can blame the United States for all the country’s problems. Moreover, she said, the embargo did not have any impact on freedom of speech, freedom of expression or on freeing political prisoners.

The former secretary of state said she would like to see the United States influence Cuba through commerce, trade and travel. She has also said that she hoped the Alan Gross situation would be resolved and that she could someday travel to the country.

 

[+paradox]

i thought this already happen?

 

[wirelessguru1]

It is about time!

 

[Webster]

Fox News: Congressional Critics Ready To Block Obama Push To Normalize Cuba Relations

The historic plan announced by President Obama on Wednesday to normalize relations with Cuba was met with heavy bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill, raising questions of whether Congress will even consider easing a more than 50-year trade embargo against the communist state -- let alone end it.

Obama said the United States will cease what he called an “outdated approach” with Cuba, and take steps to normalize diplomatic relations -- including opening an embassy in Havana -- after American Alan Gross was released from the country following five years in prison as part of an agreement that also included the release of three Cubans jailed in the U.S.

Obama also called on Congress to have an "honest and serious debate" about lifting the trade embargo, which has been in place since 1962. But Republicans, and even some Democrats, pushed back strongly, with some GOP heavy hitters calling Obama's plan “another concession to tyranny.”

“These changes will lead to legitimacy for a government that shamelessly continuously abuses human rights but it will not lead to assistance for those whose rights are being abused,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Wednesday. "It's absurd and it's part of a long record of coddling dictators and tyrants," Rubio told Fox News, claiming the administration is "constantly giving away unilateral concessions ... in exchange for nothing." Rubio called Obama the "worst negotiator" the U.S. has had as president "since at least Jimmy Carter." He also said Congress would not support lifting the embargo.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also criticized the administration’s plan to change the current U.S. relationship with Cuba. McConnell said he defers to Rubio on the matter. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who, like Rubio, is a Cuban-American lawmaker, said this is a moment of "profound relief" for Gross and his family. But he voiced concerns that this constituted a "swap of convicted spies for an innocent American." "President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government," he said in a statement. "Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent. It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips."

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a joint statement that the move damages American values. "Unfortunately, we fear the most damaging chapter to America’s national security is still being written. We dread the day President Obama takes to the podium to announce a nuclear deal with the Iranian ayatollahs which does little, if anything, to deter their nuclear ambitions, placing our nation and our closest allies in even deeper peril,” the said in a joint written statement.

Other U.S. lawmakers hailed the agreement, and some even joined Gross on the plane ride to the U.S. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., were on that flight.

U.S. officials said Pope Francis was personally engaged in the process as well and sent separate letters to Obama and Castro this summer urging them to restart relations. Senior administration officials said Obama spoke with Cuban leader Raul Castro for more than 45 minutes on Tuesday, the first substantive presidential-level discussion between the U.S. and Cuba since 1961.

Obama also plans to take several executive actions, including expanding travel and economic ties to the island. According to a White House document, the U.S. government would raise remittance levels and authorize certain travel to Cuba, as well as start a review of Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Obama also has formally directed the State Department to launch talks with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations, which were cut in 1961. The embassy in Havana would be opened "in the coming months," according to the White House.

Officials said the Cuban government was releasing 53 political prisoners. The announcement comes after Gross was freed, as part of an agreement that included the release of three Cubans jailed in the U.S. Gross landed in the U.S. shortly before noon on Wednesday.

A senior Obama administration official told Fox News that Gross left Cuba on a U.S. government plane Wednesday morning, and was "released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the request of the United States." The three Cubans released are part of the so-called Cuban Five -- a group of men who were part of the "Wasp Network" sent by Cuba's then-President Fidel Castro to spy in South Florida. The men, who are hailed as heroes in Cuba, were convicted in 2001 in Miami on charges including conspiracy and failure to register as foreign agents in the U.S. Two of the Cuban Five were previously released after finishing their sentences.

Cuba was also releasing a non-American intelligence "asset" along with Gross, according to a U.S. official. Administration officials claimed that Gross was not technically traded for the three Cubans, and that his release was humanitarian. Obama administration officials had considered Gross' imprisonment an impediment to improving relations with Cuba, and the surprise deal was quickly making way for rapid changes in U.S. policy.

The president has taken some steps to ease U.S. restrictions on Cuba after Raul Castro took over as president in 2010 from his ailing brother. He has sought to ease travel and financial restrictions on Americans with family in Cuba, but had resisted calls to drop the embargo. Obama raised eyebrows when he shook hands with Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's memorial service last year. Gross was detained in December 2009 while working to set up Internet access as a subcontractor for the U.S. government's U.S. Agency for International Development, which does work promoting democracy in the communist country. It was his fifth trip to Cuba to work with Jewish communities on setting up Internet access that bypassed local censorship.

 

[+paradox]

It makes sense, there is no longer any need for isolation, I mean 'Communism' isn't even a scary word any more...
China is the biggest communist country in the world and everyone is in bed with them...
na, the bad guys these days are ISIS and the Taliban etc  the commies are nothing compared to them.

and who created and funded isis and the taliban?

http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-10/can-you-name-five-remaining-communist-countries-world

actually, we are not friends with north korea, so @seasidemike, your first post is inaccurate...

the usa is not really friends with the country laos either...

but i guess the real question is does at least one american agent have their "foot" in every country on earth? if yes, does any other country, agency, a group of people or group of groups?

 

[seasidemike]

It makes sense, there is no longer any need for isolation, I mean 'Communism' isn't even a scary word any more...
China is the biggest communist country in the world and everyone is in bed with them...
na, the bad guys these days are ISIS and the Taliban etc  the commies are nothing compared to them.

and who created and funded isis and the taliban?

http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-10/can-you-name-five-remaining-communist-countries-world

actually, we are not friends with north korea, so @seasidemike, your first post is inaccurate...

the usa is not really friends with the country laos either...

but i guess the real question is does at least one american agent have their "foot" in every country on earth? if yes, does any other country, agency, a group of people or group of groups?

well yes your wonderful government funded the Taliban, but only when it suited them so they could fight off the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan , it was more of a way to fight Russia that is was really in support of the Taliban.
and no you are not friends with N Korea, but so what?
but, you had a war with Vietnam which is still communist and you can now take vacations there,
you almost had WW3 with Russia and if it were not for the current issue with the Ukraine, you would be buddies with Russia.
and the largest communist country in the world with the worst human rights violations is China, and everyone is in bed with them these days.
so why drag it out with little ol Cuba???

Just think.. Havana cigars

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I was thinking maybe this ain't so bad in the beginning. And then I spoke to our Cuban friend just back from Cuba to see some of his family still stuck in that hell hole thinking he was going to be excited beyond measure. And he always brings back a few Cuban Cigars I like also. But his first words were when asked what do you think of this. Fantastic America will now be propping up another dictator he says. He was very much against such a action.

Plus the trade we did for the hostage was trading murderers of Americans.

 

[seasidemike]

I was thinking maybe this ain't so bad in the beginning. And then I spoke to our Cuban friend just back from Cuba to see some of his family still stuck in that hell hole thinking he was going to be excited beyond measure. And he always brings back a few Cuban Cigars I like also. But his first words were when asked what do you think of this. Fantastic America will now be propping up another dictator he says. He was very much against such a action.

Plus the trade we did for the hostage was trading murderers of Americans.

the building of any new relationship starts with a first move.

it is a good first move

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I was thinking maybe this ain't so bad in the beginning. And then I spoke to our Cuban friend just back from Cuba to see some of his family still stuck in that hell hole thinking he was going to be excited beyond measure. And he always brings back a few Cuban Cigars I like also. But his first words were when asked what do you think of this. Fantastic America will now be propping up another dictator he says. He was very much against such a action.

Plus the trade we did for the hostage was trading murderers of Americans.

the building of any new relationship starts with a first move.

it is a good first move

Not the way he did it. The Cuban government gave up nothing to have a relationship with us. But I am sure our dear and there's will get along splendidly.

 

[Webster]

I was thinking maybe this ain't so bad in the beginning. And then I spoke to our Cuban friend just back from Cuba to see some of his family still stuck in that hell hole thinking he was going to be excited beyond measure. And he always brings back a few Cuban Cigars I like also. But his first words were when asked what do you think of this. Fantastic America will now be propping up another dictator he says. He was very much against such a action.

Plus the trade we did for the hostage was trading murderers of Americans.

the building of any new relationship starts with a first move.

it is a good first move

Not the way he did it. The Cuban government gave up nothing to have a relationship with us. But I am sure our dear and there's will get along splendidly.

Liberty's right; what we should do now is say to Cuba, "now that diplomatic relations are back, start extraditing all the fugitives from American justice who've reached your shores'. They can start with this cretinous piece of garbage:

What will President Obama’s vow to normalize relations with Cuba mean for an American fugitive from justice living in the communist country?

Assata Shakur, formerly JoAnne Chesimard and the step-aunt of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, was convicted of killing a New Jersey State trooper on May 2, 1973. Now 67, Shakur escaped from a New Jersey prison in made-for-the-movies fashion in 1979 and found her way to Cuba, where she was eventually granted asylum under Fidel Castro in 1984.

News that the two countries have agreed to restore relations after 50 years have many U.S. officials hoping Shakur will be extradited back to the U.S. to carry out the remainder of her life sentence. After all, Cuba on Wednesday released American contractor Alan Gross, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years. Officials there have also agreed to free an intelligence agent who spied for the U.S. and was held on the island for almost two decades. And the U.S., in turn, freed three Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage and being held in the U.S.

If Cuba really wants to warm relations, the thinking goes, they should extradite Shakur, a member of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army, who last year was named a Most Wanted Terrorist by the FBI — the first woman ever to make the list. (MSNBC)

That would be a good start.

 

[+paradox]

I was thinking maybe this ain't so bad in the beginning. And then I spoke to our Cuban friend just back from Cuba to see some of his family still stuck in that hell hole thinking he was going to be excited beyond measure. And he always brings back a few Cuban Cigars I like also. But his first words were when asked what do you think of this. Fantastic America will now be propping up another dictator he says. He was very much against such a action.

Plus the trade we did for the hostage was trading murderers of Americans.

oh liberty, possession of and smoking a cuban cigar is a crime and illegal...

i thought you were a law biding american citizen?

 

[seasidemike]

I was in Cuba in the mid to late 80s on a vacation.
It was a very interesting experience.