US Ends Cold War With Cuba

Posted by on Dec 18, 2014 in Blog | 0 comments

A post last week congratulated Fidel Castro as a laureate of China’s Confucius Prize and called for the end of trade sanctions against Cuba.

To great surprise, the Obama Administration has just decided to establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba and dismantle the sanctions apparatus against the country.  The lifting of the trade embargo will be a boon for the economy and Raul Castro’s reform agenda.

The Cuban people have suffered enough!

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President Barack Obama made a dramatic bid Wednesday to end a half-decade Cold War with Cuba.

The rapprochement was announced almost simultaneously in Washington and Havana by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.

Declaring a “new chapter” in US relations with Cuba, Obama agreed with Castro to restore full diplomatic relations severed since 1961 and to work to lift a US trade embargo imposed in 1960.

The agreement was capped with a Cold War-like prisoner swap.

A senior US administration official said 53 Cubans regarded by Washington as political prisoners will be released as part of the agreement reached with Havana.

– AFP