Thread: U.S. to Restore Full Relations With Cuba, Erasing a Last Trace of Cold War Hostility

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with
Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half[at]century as he vowed to
“cut loose the shackles of the past” and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.
The surprise announcement came at the end of 18 months of secret talks that produced a prisoner swap
negotiated with the help of Pope Francis and concluded by a telephone call between Mr. Obama and
President Raúl Castro. The historic deal broke an enduring stalemate between two countries divided by just
90 miles of water but oceans of mistrust and hostility dating from the days of Theodore Roosevelt’s charge up
San Juan Hill and the nuclear brinkmanship of the Cuban missile crisis.
“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we
will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised
statement from the White House. The deal, he added, will “begin a new chapter among the nations of the
Americas” and move beyond a “rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were
born.”In doing so, Mr. Obama ventured into diplomatic territory where the last 10 presidents refused to go,
and Republicans, along with a senior Democrat, quickly characterized the rapprochement with the Castro
family as appeasement of the hemisphere’s leading dictatorship. Republican lawmakers who will take control
of the Senate as well as the House next month made clear they would resist lifting the 54[at]year[at]old trade
embargo.
“This entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie, the lie and the illusion that
more commerce and access to money and goods will translate to political freedom for the Cuban people,” said
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and son of Cuban immigrants. “All this is going to do is give
the Castro regime, which controls every aspect of Cuban life, the opportunity to manipulate these changes to
perpetuate itself in power.”
For good or ill, the move represented a dramatic turning point in relations with an island that for
generations has captivated and vexed its giant northern neighbor. From the 18th century, when successive
presidents coveted it, Cuba loomed large in the American imagination long before Fidel Castro stormed from
the mountains and seized power in 1959.
Mr. Castro’s alliance with the Soviet Union made Cuba a geopolitical flash point in a global struggle of
ideology and power. President Dwight D. Eisenhower imposed the first trade embargo in 1960 and broke off
diplomatic relations in January 1961, just weeks before leaving office and seven months before Mr. Obama
was born. Under President John F. Kennedy, the failed Bay of Pigs operation aimed at toppling Mr. Castro in
April 1961 and the 13[at]day showdown over Soviet missiles installed in Cuba the following year cemented its
status as a ground zero in the Cold War.
But the relationship remained frozen in time long after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the
Soviet Union, a thorn in the side of multiple presidents who waited for Mr. Castro’s demise and experienced
false hope when he passed power to his brother, Raúl. Even as the United States built relations with
Communist nations like China and Vietnam, Cuba remained one of just a few nations, along with Iran and
North Korea, that had no formal ties with Washington.
Mr. Obama has long expressed hope of transforming relations with Cuba and relaxed some travel
restrictions in 2011. But further moves remained untenable as long as Cuba held Alan P. Gross, an American
government contractor arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison for trying to deliver
satellite telephone equipment capable of cloaking connections to the Internet.
After winning re[at]election, Mr. Obama resolved to make Cuba a priority for his second term and
authorized secret negotiations led by two aides, Benjamin J. Rhodes and Ricardo Zúñiga, who conducted
nine meetings with Cuban counterparts starting in June 2013, most of them in Canada, which has ties with
Havana.
Pope Francis encouraged the talks with letters to Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro and had the Vatican host a
meeting in October to finalize the terms of the deal. Mr. Obama spoke with Mr. Castro by telephone on
Tuesday to seal the agreement in a call that lasted more than 45 minutes, the first direct substantive contact
between the leaders of the two countries in more than 50 years.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Gross walked out of a Cuban prison and boarded an American military
plane that flew him to Washington, accompanied by his wife, Judy. While eating a corned beef sandwich on
rye bread with mustard during the flight, Mr. Gross received a call from Mr. Obama. “He’s back where he
belongs, in America with his family, home for Hanukkah,” Mr. Obama said later.
For its part, the United States sent back three imprisoned Cuban spies who were caught in 1998 and had
become a cause célèbre for the Havana government. They were swapped for Rolando Sarraf Trujillo, a Cuban
who had worked as an agent for American intelligence and had been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years,
according to a senior American official. Mr. Gross was not technically part of the swap, officials said, but was
released separately on “humanitarian grounds,” a distinction critics found unpersuasive.
The United States will ease restrictions on remittances, travel and banking, while Cuba will allow more
Internet access and release 53 Cubans identified as political prisoners by the United States. Although the
embargo will remain in place, the president called for an “honest and serious debate about lifting” it, which
would require an act of Congress.
Mr. Castro spoke simultaneously on Cuban television, taking to the airwaves with no introduction and
announcing that he had spoken by telephone with Mr. Obama on Tuesday.
“We have been able to make headway in the solution of some topics of mutual interest for both nations,”
he declared, emphasizing the release of the three Cubans. “President Obama’s decision deserves the respect
and acknowledgment of our people.”
Only afterward did Mr. Castro mention the reopening of diplomatic relations. “This in no way means
that the heart of the matter has been resolved,” he said. “The economic, commercial and financial blockade,
which causes enormous human and economic damages to our country, must cease.” But, he added, “the
progress made in our exchanges proves that it is possible to find solutions to many problems.”
Mr. Obama is gambling that restoring ties with Cuba may no longer be politically unthinkable with the
generational shift among Cuban[at]Americans, where many younger children of exiles are open to change.
Nearly six in 10 Americans support re[at]establishing relations with Cuba, according to a New York Times poll
conducted in October. Mr. Obama’s move had the support of the Catholic Church, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, Human Rights Watch and major agricultural interests.
At a news conference in Washington, Mr. Gross said he supported Mr. Obama’s move toward
normalizing relations with Cuba, adding that his own ordeal and the injustice with which Cuban people had
been treated were “a consequence of two governments’ mutually belligerent policies.”
“Five and a half decades of history show us that such belligerence inhibits better judgment,” he said.
“Two wrongs never make a right. This is a game[at]changer, which I fully support.
”But leading Republicans, including Speaker John A. Boehner and the incoming Senate majority leader,
Senator Mitch McConnell, did not. In addition to Mr. Rubio, two other Republican potential candidates for
president joined in the criticism. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas called it a “very, very bad deal,” while former
Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida said it “undermines the quest for a free and democratic Cuba.”
A leading Democrat agreed. “It is a fallacy that Cuba will reform just because the American president
believes that if he extends his hand in peace, that the Castro brothers suddenly will unclench their fists,” said
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the outgoing chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a
Cuban[at]American.
While the United States has no embassy in Havana, there is a bare[at]bones facility called an interests
section that can be upgraded, currently led by a diplomat, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who will become the chargé
d’affaires pending the nomination and confirmation of an ambassador.
Mr. Obama has instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to begin the process of removing Cuba from the
list of states that sponsor terrorism, and the president announced that he would attend a regional Summit of
the Americas next spring that Mr. Castro is also to attend. Mr. Obama will send an assistant secretary of state
to Havana next month to talk about migration, and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker may lead a
commercial mission.
Mr. Obama’s decision will ease travel restrictions for family visits, public performances, and
professional, educational and religious activities, among other things, but ordinary tourism will still be
banned under the law. Mr. Obama will also allow greater banking ties, making it possible to use credit and
debit cards in Cuba, and American travelers will be allowed to import up to $400 worth of goods from Cuba,
including up to $100 in tobacco and alcohol products.
“These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s time for a new
approach.”He added that he shared the commitment to freedom for Cuba. “The question is how we uphold that
commitment,” he said. “I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a
different result.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/wo...relations.html

Hope it all turns to poo. Quite like Cuba just the way it is.

The days of a $40 short times in Havana are numbered.

Progress.

Sorry, but I can't help thinking of Michel Houellbacq's novel "Platform" set in Cuba and Thailand.

"On a trip to Cuba, the couple begin to indulge in a form of 'sexual communism' - an excuse, I guess, for Houellebecq to invite all sorts of odd characters into their bedroom, including a complicit Cuban maid and a man who has sex with Valerie at the same time as Michel (please, don't ask). They become fascinated, too, by the wealthy Westerners enjoying themselves with the local prostitute, which gives Michel the idea for his own company specialising in sex tourism. Sex tourism, he believes, is democratic. It has the revolutionary potential to liberate even the most introverted and tongue-tied Westerner into a life of pleasure in the Orient (Houellebecq is nothing if not a gleeful provocateur). Together with the support of Valerie and one of her senior colleagues, Michel establishes his own sex-tour company, Eldorador Aphrodite. It's an immediate success, freeing him and Valerie to live in Thailand. But there their hopes are destroyed by the intervention of Islamic militants who launch a murderous terrorist attack on Eldorador Aphrodite."

- http://www.theguardian.com/books/200...helhouellebecq

Originally Posted by bsnub

sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

what as he tries his damnedest to rekindle the cold war with Russia?

What a farce.

As soon as it's open to the seppos it will get fucking ruined.

Disneyland/Seaworld/Universal Studios Havana here we come, coupled with a cancerous spread of ugly fucking condo buildings.

^ You think the Euro's and you British (kings of the AIO package deal) wouldn't have done it by know if you could have? The Cubans won't allow it.

My prediction: Governor Batboy in FL and Raphael Cruz are going to lose their shit over this.

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

Governor Batboy in FL and Raphael Cruz are going to lose their shit over this.

They already have. Rubio went over the edge today.

A great market for classic American cars will be ruined.

Originally Posted by chassamui

A great market for classic American cars will be ruined.

Au contraire, a huge new market will be opened as they all get exported to the US, to be replaced with Toyota Corollas.

Originally Posted by bsnub

^ You think the Euro's and you British (kings of the AIO package deal) wouldn't have done it by know if you could have? The Cubans won't allow it.

Don't be silly snubby, it's too far away to be that popular, and Europeans have never been banned from going there.

It's only the silly seppos who are still smarting over getting their arses kicked by Castro back in the day.

Well done to the Americans and Cubans for over coming their hostility and making amends and becoming friends again . It was long overdue

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Europeans have never been banned from going there.

Good god you are thick. The Cubans strictly control development in the country. The money to build tons of tacky resorts had always been there but the Cubans will not allow them to be built.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's only the silly seppos who are still smarting over getting their arses kicked by Castro back in the day.

You really are a moron. A assume you are talking about the bay of pigs. Hardly a real invasion 1500 Cuban criminals handed rifles and dropped off on the beach. Get a life you sorry as keyboard rambo.

Originally Posted by bsnub

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Europeans have never been banned from going there.

Good god you are thick. The Cubans strictly control development in the country. The money to build tons of tacky resorts had always been there but the Cubans will not allow them to be built.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's only the silly seppos who are still smarting over getting their arses kicked by Castro back in the day.

You really are a moron. A assume you are talking about the bay of pigs. Hardly a real invasion 1500 Cuban criminals handed rifles and dropped off on the beach. Get a life you sorry as keyboard rambo.

Either you are as thick as shit or just a liar. Which is it?

The U.S. government of President Dwight D. Eisenhower was concerned at the direction which Castro's government was taking, and in March 1960, Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA in order to plan Castro's overthrow. The CIA proceeded to organize the operation with the aid of various Cuban counter-revolutionary forces, training Brigade 2506 in Mexico. Following his election in 1960, president John F. Kennedy was informed of the invasion plan and gave his consent.

Over 1,400 paramilitaries, divided into five infantry battalions and one paratrooper battalion, assembled in Guatemala before setting out for Cuba by boat on 13 April. On 15 April, eight CIA-supplied B-26 bombers attacked Cuban air fields and returned to the U.S. On the night of 16 April, the main invasion landed at a beach named Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs. It initially overwhelmed a local revolutionary militia. The Cuban Army's counter-offensive was led by Captain José Ramón Fernández, before Castro decided to take personal control of the operation. On 20 April, the invaders finally surrendered, with the majority of troops being publicly interrogated and then sent back to the U.S.

Read it again slowly.....

ARSES..... KICKED.......

^Actually the big prize was, "Panama." Gave that back ages ago.

Along with Brazil, Cuba is the cultural centrepiece of Sth & Central America. I hope it happens, and would heartily welcome them back into the fold. They have much to learn from us, granted- but perhaps we have something to learn from them too?

Probably see Cuba fielding a MLB team in the near future. Reds is already taken.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

As soon as it's open to the seppos it will get fucking ruined.

They had already ruined it by the 1950s, under the American placed dictator, Fulgencio Batista and the partnership of the Cosa Nostra, American industrial agricultural complex, and numerous unsavoury corporate and banking schemes.

So...came the revolution - Castro and the bad guys.

He wasn't hand-picked by the Americans, which made him and his revolutionaries the enemy.

Those whom mishandle and misinterpret history will always be the losers.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Au contraire, a huge new market will be opened as they all get exported to the US, to be replaced with Toyota Corollas.

You have just made my point for me. Cheers Harry.

Originally Posted by chassamui

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Au contraire, a huge new market will be opened as they all get exported to the US, to be replaced with Toyota Corollas.

You have just made my point for me. Cheers Harry.

How so? Some of those motors would be sold around the world, I know one Shaikh who would personally buy a shipful and build a new air-conditioned garage for them.

Ahh come on. This is just a load of bullshit, a fop, a trick so obomb can say "the cold war is over officially today" hoping no one (at east the dumb fuck sheep) will say "but hang on, you are starting it up again with Russia, pushing it deeper and deeper just to start another arms race".

This is a NON STORY.

China will be all over Cuba just to piss off the merkins.

About time I must say.
But really, FFS.

Republicans, along with a senior Democrat, quickly characterized the rapprochement with the Castro
family as appeasement of the hemisphere’s leading dictatorship. Republican lawmakers who will take control
of the Senate as well as the House next month made clear they would resist

After how many years of hostility and sanctions and nothing's changed at all so just get used to it. It is what it is.