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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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By WILL WEISSERT | Associated Press
Ricardo Alarcon told The Associated Press in an interview late Wednesday night that no date has been set for immigration talks with the U.S., but he said that Raul Castro’s government hopes to expand the agenda to include environmental issues and efforts against terrorism, drug smuggling and natural disasters.
Yet Alarcon also called the U.S. “an ignorant lion,” criticizing the Supreme Court’s refusal this week to hear an appeal by the so-called “Cuban Five,” men convicted of being unregistered foreign agents by a Miami court in 2001. Their lawyers claim that anti-Castro sentiment kept…
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By Dan Robinson | Voice of America
U.S. lawmakers have heard testimony about continuing weaknesses in US government funded television broadcasting to Cuba. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) updated members of Congress on steps taken by the Broadcasting Board of Governors and its Office of Cuba Broadcasting on recommendations to deal with management, morale and other problems.
Since its inception in 1990, TV Marti has been the subject of controversy over cost, contracting, internal management and journalistic issues, and the inability of the Miami-based station to reach enough of the population in Cuba to justify the $500 million spent on…
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By Drake Bennett | Boston Globe
IT WOULD SEEMINGLY require a sadism-tinged sense of leisure for someone to consider Guantanamo Bay a vacation destination. Or it might be just a lack of imagination. Instead of kneeling, shackled, orange-jumpsuited men, picture a pristine bay and protected coastline where endangered hawksbill sea turtles nest, mingling with Cuban iguanas. The slopes above the bay, too steep for sugarcane, are covered in forests that shelter 10-foot-long Cuban boas, tree frogs, bee hummingbirds (the world’s smallest bird) and hutias - arboreal mammals the size of a housecat. In recent years there have been sightings of…
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By GINGER THOMPSON | New York Times
In a new gesture toward Cuba, the Obama administration signaled willingness on Friday to reopen a channel with Havana that was closed under President George W. Bush by scheduling high-level meetings on migration between the two countries.
The move comes as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to fend off pressure from her Latin American counterparts to take an even bolder step by endorsing a proposal that would reintegrate Cuba into the Organization of American States.
The question of how far the new administration is willing to go toward engagement with…
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AFP
Washington eagerly awaits Cuba’s return to the inter-American diplomatic system, a top U.S. official told a gathering at the Organization of American States on Wednesday.
“We look forward to the day when every country in the hemisphere, including Cuba, can take its seat at this very special table, in a manner that is consistent with the principles of the Inter-American democratic charter,” said Undersecretary of State James Steinberg.
“The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba and we have changed our policy in ways that we believe will advance liberty and create opportunity for the Cuban people,” Steinberg…
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Reuters
The US Congress will most likely lift a five-decades-old embargo on Cuba before the end of 2010, a senior Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday.
House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel told reporters he believed the current Congress, which goes through next year, would lift the trade ban.
Rangel, a long time critic of the embargo and head of the House’s powerful tax and trade policy committee, made the comment in response to a question.
He was at an event with other lawmakers to push for action on legislation to ease US restrictions on trade and travel…
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Julia Sweig | Council on Foreign Relations
from the Washington Post
President Obama has promised to shut down the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, seeking to erase a blot on America’s global image. He has also reached out to Cuba, easing some travel and financial restrictions in an effort to recast Washington’s approach to the island. These two initiatives have proceeded on separate tracks so far, but now is the time to bring them together. Hiding in plain sight, the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay is the ideal place for Obama to launch a far-reaching transformation of Washington’s relationship…
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By GINGER THOMPSON | New York Times
Seizing the momentum from recent meetings with Latin American leaders, the Obama administration is quietly pushing forward with efforts to reopen channels of communication with Cuba, according to White House and State Department officials.
The officials said informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues, including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters.
And the administration is also looking for ways to open channels for more cultural and academic…
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AP
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Cuba should take the next step in relations with the new American government.
Clinton calls President Barack Obama’s easing of travel restrictions to Cuba a “very significant” step. Now, she says the Castro government should “reciprocate.”
She said the U.S. is willing to discuss additional steps, but would first like to see Cuba release political prisoners and lift restrictions on the media.
Clinton made the comments Thursday while stopping in Haiti on the way to the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of democratic nations where Cuba is not invited.
Cuba’s…
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