It's cigars all around (Cuban, of course).
Related: Gross End to Cuba Policy
Now I understand the agenda-pushing appetizer!
"Incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, was cool to the administration’s plans to normalize ties with Cuba. He said he defers to Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Republican from Florida, on the issue because he said Rubio is an expert on US-Cuban matters. Rubio has said that Obama’s approach will help the Castro government while doing nothing to further human rights and democracy."
As if the U.S. had a right to criticize anyone after the Senate torture report.
The hubris of the hypocrisy is stunning!
"Obama to restore relations with Cuba; Decision to end half a century of estrangement follows 18 months of secret talks, freeing of captives on both sides" by Bryan Bender and Matt Viser, Globe Staff December 17, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday announced he is restoring diplomatic relations with the communist government of Cuba after more than half a century, part of a sweeping set of economic and diplomatic reforms that came after the release of an American contractor who had been held in a Cuban prison for five years and an unnamed individual who had spied for the United States.
The deal, which also includes the release of three convicted Cuban spies imprisoned in the United States, came after 18 months of back-channel discussions between the two governments that were hosted by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis.
Israel got angry when they did that with Iran.
It was sealed with a 45-minute phone call on Tuesday between President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, the first time the nation’s two leaders held official discussions since the Cuban revolution in 1959. In an extraordinary moment, Obama and Castro each addressed their countries at the same time on Wednesday.
“We will end an outdated approach that has failed to advance our interests,” Obama, who was born in 1961, said in remarks from the White House. “Neither the American nor the Cuban people are well served by a rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”
He said it will open a “new chapter,” in which Americans can more easily begin traveling to Cuba, and information and ideas can more readily begin to be traded between the countries.
“These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked,” Obama said. “It’s time for a new approach.”
I criticize him a lot, but I'm for this. I'm just wondering what took so long.
In one of the most visible signs of the new collaboration, Cuba released Alan Gross, an aid worker imprisoned in Cuba in 2009 for providing Internet access to Cuba’s Jewish community and accused by the regime of being a spy.
The Cuba community disowned him the spy.
The White House said that Gross’ release was not tied to the release of three Cuban prisoners but was done on humanitarian grounds.
C'mon! Can't you guys tell the truth once?
Separately, the US said that an unnamed Cuban who had spied for the US, and who had been imprisoned in Cuba for 20 years, was traded for the three Cubans held in the United States following their 2001 conviction.
Unnamed means CIA agent.
Obama said he had instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba, and start reevaluating Cuba’s listing as a state sponsor of terrorism, which it was first designated in 1982. Kerry coincidentally arrived at Andrews Air Force Base on a flight from Rome at about the same time as Gross arrived from Havana. In a meeting that was unplanned, Kerry and Gross sat on leather couches in the airport lounge as they jointly watched Obama’s remarks on live television.
“Today’s step also reflects our firm belief that the risk and the cost of trying to turn the tide is far lower than the risk and cost of remaining stuck in an ideological cement of our own making,” Kerry said in a statement. “I look forward to being the first Secretary of State in 60 years to visit Cuba.”
Don't knock Zionism, John.
The reforms will include opening an US embassy in Havana in the coming months -- as well as a Cuban Embassy in Washington -- significantly relaxing travel restrictions to the island nation for business, educational and humanitarian purposes; permitting US telecommunications to operate in Cuba; and quadrupling the amount of so-called remittances that Cuban Americans can send to family members. Currently, the two countries maintain “interest sections” that serve as unofficial diplomatic stations.
They already were thanks to AID.
But the measures will stop short of lifting the full economic embargo that was put in place in 1961 or the ban on American tourism, two steps that would have to be overturned by Congress.
It's a start, I suppose.
Although the broader changes to US policy were also widely hailed by longtime advocates for normalizing relations, they were met with fierce bipartisan criticism from some quarters that the moves would empower the communist regime in Cuba.
“The White House has conceded everything and gained little,” said Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican whose parents immigrated from Cuba. “This president has proven today that his foreign policy is more than naive. It is willfully ignorant of how the world works.”
I'm wondering how much money the U.S. has lost all these years.
The moves from the Obama administration were also condemned by Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey who is the outgoing chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. He was particularly critical of the decision to release three Cubans held by the United States while Cuba released Gross.
“President Obama’s actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government,” he said. “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.”
OMG! He's ignoring the Senate torture report! And Gitmo is in Cuba! What irony!
But support for move came from many quarters. Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, accompanied Gross on his return from Cuba. The US Chamber of Commerce, often an Obama critic, applauded the move as going “a long way in allowing opportunities for free enterprise to flourish” on the island that has had a centrally controlled economy. Many US businesses want to trade with Cuba.
And I would be happy to see their products in stores.
Gross was arrested in 2009 while he was in Cuba delivering satellite telephones that could be used to circumvent state-controlled channels. Cuban authorities, accusing him of being a spy, convicted him in 2011 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. His health has been failing, as he lost weight and some of the vision in his right eye.
Several members of Congress, including Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat, traveled on an American government plane with Gross and his wife, Judy. Representative Jim McGovern, the Worcester Democrat who has traveled frequently to Cuba and met with Gross in prison had urged that he be released, met him at the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base, located just outside Washington in a Maryland suburb.
“Today is a historic, long-overdue day,” said McGovern. “At long last, the Cold War policies of the past five decades are almost over.”
Excluding Ukraine, of course.
Several hours after Gross arrived, he spoke to reporters at an emotional press conference that happened to occur on the first day of Hanukkah. Gross, who is Jewish, opened his remarks by saying “chag sameach,” Hebrew for happy holiday.
Related: Freed American endured years of declining health
It's a given, readers. Sorry I can no longer stand it.
He thanked his family, Obama, his legal team, and members of Congress who tirelessly advocated for his release.
“It was crucial to my survival to know I was not forgotten,” he said. He expressed support for the larger policy changes Obama announced in the wake of his release, and the hope it will improve the plight of the oppressed Cuban people.
“In no way are they responsible for the ordeal to which my family and I have been subjected,” he said. “It pains me to see them so unjustly as one consequence of two government’s mutually belligerent policies. Two wrongs never make a right. I truly hope we can now get beyond these belligerent policies.”
Says a belligerent.
Who was he working for again?
The United States on Wednesday also secured the release of an unnamed Cuban man who had aided the United States by providing information “instrumental in the identification and disruption of several Cuban intelligence operatives in the United States and ultimately led to a series of successful federal espionage prosecutions,” according to Brian P. Hale, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He's the one who blew the whistle on the Cuban Five who exposed the CIA-Cuban terror network in Miami.
Cuba, in fact, has been subjected to more terrorism the last 50 years than any nation on earth.
The man spent nearly 20 years in a Cuban prison after providing information that led to the identification and conviction of several Cuban spies, according to a statement from the Director of National Intelligence.
In return for his release, the United States sent back to Cuba three spies who had been in a US prison since 2001.
“In light of his sacrifice on behalf of the United States, securing his release from prison after 20 years – in a swap for three of the Cuban spies he helped put behind bars – is fitting closure to this Cold World chapter of U.S.-Cuban relations,” Hale said.
The renewed talks between the United States and Cuba began some 18 months ago, with secret talks in Canada, and with Pope Francis playing a crucial role from the Vatican. The pope sent private letters to both President Obama and Raul Castro this past summer.
The Catholic Pope and Communist Cuba allies?
Related: Obama and Vatican worked in secret to reach deal with Cuba
Must be the PR that was in it for him.
US ambassador to the Holy See, Ken Hackett, said in a statement from Rome that “a senior Vatican official also played an important part in this historic moment by meeting with U.S. and Cuban delegations in October to help bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion.”
Obama thanked the pope several times in his remarks, hailing “his moral example, showing the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.”
Let's not get too carried away with the pumping.
At the same time as Obama was addressing Americans about the new agreement, Castro spoke to the Cuban people.
Print told me the news riveted the average Cuban with excitement and hope, and that Cuba has agreed to release 53 more prisoners, allow access to the internet for average Cubans, and allow Red Cross access to prisons.
It also tells me an Atlantic Council (makes you think) poll shows 54% of Americans favoring restored relations with Cuba, actions designed to sweep away a half-century of distrust from the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 to the influx of refugees and a series of destabilizing actions on both sides that undermined the other (uh-huh).
Wasn't Hagel a member?
And now he's gone.
--more--"
"US-Cuba change prompts celebration in Havana" by Andrea Rodriguez and Anne-Marie Garcia, Associated Press December 18, 2014
HAVANA — Havana residents gathered around television sets in homes, schools, and businesses to hear the historic national broadcast, which coincided with a statement by President Obama in Washington. Uniformed schoolchildren burst into applause at the news.
Yoani Sanchez, a renowned Cuban blogger critical of the government, said Castro could now claim a triumph and that he had made a ‘‘bargaining chip’’ of Alan Gross, the US aid worker who was released from prison Wednesday while the US freed three Cubans held as spies.
‘‘In this way, the Castro regime has managed to get its way,’’ she wrote in a blog post. ‘‘It has managed to exchange a peaceful man, embarked on the humanitarian adventure of providing Internet connectivity to a group of Cubans, for intelligence agents that caused significant damage and sorrow with their actions.’’
OMG! What a spin job!
Before Wednesday, Obama had already loosened some travel, trade, and financial restrictions, boosting remittances to an estimated $2 billion annually. Castro has ushered in some significant free-market reforms, opening the door to private businesses.
While the new measures don’t include a lifting of the trade embargo, Cubans hope they will see more tourists and more hard cash....
If the Cubans are happy than I'm happy, even if they are greedy.
--more--"
It's a ‘‘Cuban celebration’’ and welcomed turning point (you might want to temper that just a bit):
"US global aid chief to resign; oversaw secret Cuba programs" by Jack Gillum and Desmond Butler, Associated Press December 18, 2014
WASHINGTON — The head of the nation’s global development agency said Wednesday that he will step down from his post in February, following an announcement by the US government that it would start talks toward restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Rajiv Shah, the administrator for the US Agency for International Development, gave no public reason for leaving the agency he has led since 2009. In a statement Wednesday morning, he said he had ‘‘mixed emotions’’ but did not elaborate.
Looking like he was given the boot.
Shah’s announcement also came hours before US officials confirmed USAID contractor Alan Gross was freed from a Cuban prison. He was arrested in December 2009 and received a 15-year sentence for allegedly trying to smuggle illegal technology into the country.
There it is! For those not in the know (and you could only be that way if you are living in a cave in Afghanistan, and even then you might), AID = CIA.
USAID, under Shah, drew intense criticism from some US lawmakers and the government in Havana for its Cuba programs. An Associated Press investigation this year revealed the agency — with the help of Washington-based contractor Creative Associates International — had run several undercover efforts to encourage antigovernment activists in Cuba.
It's called fomenting a coup.
--more--"
Related:
USAID Exposed in Cuba - What it Tells Us About US Subversion Worldwide
U.S.-Cuba thaw could erode Russian influence with Havana allies
Yeah, turns out there is -- once again -- no altruism involved when it comes to AmeriKa.
So what else is going on in Cuba?
"Colombian rebels announce unilateral cease-fire" Associated Press December 18, 2014
HAVANA — Colombia’s largest rebel group announced an indefinite, unilateral cease-fire Wednesday, saying guerrillas will refrain from staging attacks so long as they aren’t targeted by the US-backed military.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia made the announcement in Cuba at the end of another round of peace talks aimed at ending Latin America’s oldest insurgency.
In a statement signed by the FARC’s ruling secretariat, the rebels expressed hope that the cease-fire beginning at midnight Dec. 20th would ‘‘transform into an armistice,’’ and said it would seek the support of several Latin American nations and the international Red Cross to verify its enforcement.
Although the FARC have declared temporary cease-fires before, around Christmas and elections, this would be the first time they’ve offered to indefinitely lay down their weapons nationwide since the 1980s. The good-will gesture would appear to add at least symbolic momentum to talks that were strengthened when the rebels last month unilaterally freed an army general two weeks after his capture.
But it remains to be seen whether the government will accept the rebels’ conditions. In two years of talks, President Juan Manuel Santos’ centrist government has steadfastly rejected a two-way truce.
The two sides have already reached agreements on agrarian reform, political participation for the FARC, and how to jointly combat illicit drugs in what was long the world’s largest cocaine producer.
You can scroll some lines if you want.
--more--"
Also see: Haiti PM resigns amid political discontent
Jesus Christ!
Where did that come from and where did it go?
UPDATES:
What Does Haiti Have to Show for $13 Billion in Aid?
A nice hotel for Bill Clinton to stay at during his stopovers, that's about it.
Somber gatherings mark 5th anniversary of Haiti earthquake
Hope links Haiti, Boston 5 years after quake
More hope:
"Founded 50 years ago by Nicolas Rodriguez, and a group of leftist Roman Catholic priests and activists inspired by Cuba’s revolution, the National Liberation Army has about 2,000 fighters, compared to some 8,000 for the FARC. The group has a long history of kidnapping foreigners for ransom, of extorting businesses, and of sabotaging Colombia’s main oil pipeline."
Also see:
Cuba reportedly frees 26 dissidents
Cuba completes release of 53 political prisoners
Related: Obama Betrayed Cuban Dissidents
