Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold

Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold

www.guardian.co.uk

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America.

The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president's regional debut and signal a new era of "Yankee" cooperation.

The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families.

"The effect on ordinary Cubans will be fairly significant. It will improve things and be very welcome," said a western diplomat in Havana. The changes would reverse hardline Bush policies but not fundamentally alter relations between the superpower and the island, he added. "It just takes us back to the 1990s."

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I know this was talked about in the news a few months ago. It seems like this issue is finally coming to fruition.

For the life of me I'll never understand why the embargo has lasted this long.

The tired old "their commies" debate is a joke as we do massive business with China and have relations with N. Korea and Russia.

In an age where the US is desperate for new consumers this has always been a good solution, in my opinion.

You can talk about the Mafia and the JFK assassination 'till you're blue in the face. The past is the past and it's time to drop this ridicules embargo.

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ok, if they co-op with Cuba, what happens to the "feet-Dry" policy, does that mean if travel and trade to and from Cuba becomes "OK" do the Cubans have to get citizenship in the U.S. just like any other migrant and not just handed to them with a pocket full of cash if they row ashore?

reply to post by 38181


Hey there.

Yeah there will be issues to work out on citizenship and free trade and all of the things that we have no idea about but I think that it's time for a try at this.

Every other country that has it's citizens come here get all of the breaks so why should a Cuban be held to a different standard. The US, if they go with this, will give them the keys to the kingdom just like every other.

obama is delusional seriously.

didnt happen under kennedy, johnson,nixon,ford,carter,reagan,bush,clinton or bush 2


no matter who is running this country there are people who dont like the usa

if it happens good for him. but i am not banking on it.



[edit on 9-3-2009 by neo67]

Yes, yes, YES!

In agreement with the OP I would say "Why hasn't this happened yet!". We hated communism, I get it. But we've gotten over that rather quickly with China, Russia, Vietnam, etc. Heck, China is beginning to "own" the U.S. So you can't give me that....

What good does it do? The Cuban people suffer on behalf of this lack of commerce...they are our natural trading partner (geographically) and this is why they end up aligning themselves and trading with places like Venezuela. This just perpetuates the "hate".

As a Floridian I can imagine one of the reasons we still operate this way is because of BIG SUGAR...also congressmen like Mel Martinez whose place in the Senate is mostly due to his staunch anti-Cuba stance to win the Hispanic vote.

china holds 22% percent as of nov 2008
japan holds 19%


thats according to wikipedia-so i dont know how credible that number is.

[edit on 9-3-2009 by neo67]

I actually like this idea from Obama.

I don't understand President Obama. I'm trying to give him a chance. I even told myself to give him a year before I come to a concrete decision about him. I'm just having a hard time understanding how he can snub the PM of Britian, an ally and he is trying to extend a truce to Cuba.

I'm still giving him that year, but man he is making it hard.