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CUBA POLITICS SECTION - Havana Journal > US Embargo
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Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
Maybe it is premature to declare the end of a US policy that is almost fifty years old but the Havana Journal is closely watching developments that appear to lay a path towards lifting the travel and/or trade Embargo against Cuba. We are listing events, although may not appear to be immediately related to changes in US Cuba policy, we think collectively the events below are related to the big picture of changing US Cuba policy.
We will update this article as events develop.
May 23, 2008: Presidential candidate Obama says he…
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Juan Tamayo | Miami Herald
Eight congressional Republicans on Friday alleged the Obama administration is trying to ``appease’‘ the Cuban government after the arrest in Havana of a Washington subcontractor, and called for the cancellation of bilateral migration talks now set for Feb. 19.
``We are greatly concerned about the manner in which the administration is handling the arrest of Alan Gross’‘ and its impact on the U.S. government’s pro-democracy programs in Cuba, they wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Gross, a Maryland subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has been jailed in…
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New York Times breaks the story that the person arrested in Cuba for allegedly spying and/or distributing computers and electronics is Alan P GrossBy GINGER THOMPSON and MARC LACEY | New York Times
The United States contractor detained in Cuba last month and accused of being a spy is a 60-year-old social worker from the Washington suburbs who had gone to Cuba to provide communications equipment to Jewish nonprofit organizations, according to American officials.
In postings on the Internet, the contractor, Alan P. Gross — whose identify had not previously been made public — said he had more than 20…
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Senator John Kerry in the Saint Petersburg Times
For nearly 20 years after the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War took a less bloody but equally hostile form. The United States and Vietnam had no diplomatic relations. Vietnamese assets were frozen. Trade was embargoed. But in 1995 the United States normalized relations with Vietnam. The Cold War had ended, and we even signed a trade deal with a country where 58,000 Americans had given their lives.
The result? A Vietnam that is less isolated, more market-oriented, and, yes, freer — though it has…
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This AP article says the US Cuba migration talks scheduled for December were postponed to February but neither side is claiming responsibility for the delay. President Obama has made several steps to ease tensions and to lift travel restrictions on SOME Americans but not much has been heard from the Cuba side. Is anyone surprised? The Castro brothers do not want to change anything in Cuba and certainly do not want the Embargo lifted.
So… SSDD (Decade in this case unfortunately)
Paul Haven | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Highly anticipated immigration talks between Cuba and the United States…
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AFP
The United States and Cuba will hold a second round of talks on migration issues in Havana at a yet undetermined date, a State Department spokesman said Monday.
“We are currently exploring dates that would work for both delegations to discuss the migration accords in Havana,” said Charles Luoma-Overstreet.
“This would be the second high-level meeting on migration issues during the Obama administration,” he added, referring to President Barack Obama’s stated intention of improving relations with Cuba’s communist regime.
An administration official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the second round of talks would take place next month.
The…
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BY RICHARD G. LUGAR and HOWARD L. BERMAN | lugar.senate.gov
U.S. law lets American citizens travel to any country on earth, friend or foe—with one exception: Cuba. It’s time for us to scrap this anachronistic ban, imposed during one of the chilliest periods of the Cold War.
Legislation to abolish restrictions on travel to Cuba has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. And on Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing examining the rationale for the travel ban.
This ban has prevented contact between Cubans and ordinary Americans, who serve as ambassadors for the…
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By DAVID GOLDSTEIN and LESLEY CLARK | McClatchy Washington Bureau
Republican Congressman Sam Graves, a farmer from a rural northwest Missouri congressional district, was once a consistent supporter of easing trade and travel restrictions on Cuba.
But a campaign watchdog group said he began accepting campaign contributions from an anti-Castro, pro-trade embargo political action group and eventually reversed field on Cuba.
Public Campaign, a nonpartisan, nonprofit reform group that backs public financing of campaigns, said in a report released today that Graves cast seven votes between 2003 and 2005 to…
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By LESLEY CLARK | McClatchy Newspapers
Opponents of opening Cuba to American tourists are touting a letter signed by 53 Democrats in the House of Representatives, saying it shows that they have the votes to derail an effort to lift the ban on travel to the island.
The letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urges the House leadership to maintain the current U.S. policy on Cuba, seeking to blunt the momentum that proponents of lifting the travel ban have claimed under a Democratic president and Democratic-led Congress.
“Any legislation that would seek to ease or lift sanctions ... would…
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Whither U.S.-Cuba Policy?
A Dialogue Between Policy Makers and Scholars
Opening Speakers: Senator John Kerry and Congressman Bill Delahunt
DATE: Friday, November 6, 2009
TIME: Guests to be seated by 1.15pm; Talk begins at 1.30pm
PLACE: Boston University Trustees Ballroom (9th Floor), 1 Silber Way (formerly 1 Sherborn Street), Boston, MA 02215
The conference will begin with opening speeches from Senator Kerry and Congressman Delahunt, which will be followed by a set of panel discussions on the future of U.S - Cuba relations featuring Jorge Dominguez, Mark Entwistle,…
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