Obama Calls for Updated US Policy on Cuba
VOA News
November 08, 2013
U.S. President Barack Obama says it is time for the United States to revise its policies regarding Cuba
Speaking inMiami
The president pointed out that Cuban leader Fidel Castro came into power in 1961, the same year Obama was born. TheUnited
States cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba
TheU.S. embargo against Cuba
The Obama administration has engaged in recent discussions with the Cubans on migration and mail, and has relaxed travel and remittance rules for Cuban Americans.
Speaking in
The president pointed out that Cuban leader Fidel Castro came into power in 1961, the same year Obama was born. The
The
The Obama administration has engaged in recent discussions with the Cubans on migration and mail, and has relaxed travel and remittance rules for Cuban Americans.
Obama Tells Dissidents He's Begun To See 'Changes' In Cuba
Published November 09, 2013
EFE
Obama met Friday with a group of prominent Cuban government
opponents, including Guillermo Fariñas and the leader of the Ladies in White,
Berta Soler, at the residence of Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban
American National Foundation.
The U.S. president referred to Cuba 's recent relaxing of economic and travel
restrictions, adding that the United States
needs to be "creative" and imaginative in its relations with the Caribbean island.
Obama
lamented the growing "partisanship" in Washington
with respect to Cuba
The United
States has started to see changes on the
island, Obama said in his first meeting with Cuban dissidents in his five years
as president.
At the start of the 40-minute gathering, attended by roughly
30 people, Fariñas said it was proof of the White House's support for Cuba's
dissident movement and added that he would personally ask Obama not to hold any meeting with the Cuban
government without the presence of the opposition.
Asked after the meeting if he feared returning to the
island, Fariñas said he was not concerned but he also did not rule out
"reprisals" by the Cuban authorities.
Soler, who was dressed in white at the gathering, told
reporters afterward that "Cuba 's
freedom depends exclusively on Cubans."
Obama visited Miami Friday
afternoon for a Democratic fundraiser and returned to Washington on Saturday.
Obama
says U.S. needs to update policies on Cuba
·
Reuters
9:07 p.m. CST, November
8, 2013
"We have to be creative and we have to be thoughtful and we have to continue to update our policies," he said at a fundraising event in the
"Keep in mind that when Castro came to power I was just born, so the notion that the same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective as they are today in the age of the Internet, Google and world travel doesn't make sense," he added, referring to Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution.
Incremental changes in U.S. Cuba policy have
allowed greater communication with people on the island and the transfer of
remittances, Obama said.
"But I think we all understand that ultimately, freedom inCuba United States
A younger generation ofU.S.
TheU.S. embargo against Cuba
Obama said before taking office that he wanted to recast long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, but his efforts have been a disappointment to the Cuban government, which hoped he would do more to dismantle the embargo.
U.S. diplomats have said
that while the United States
welcomes some of the recent changes in Cuba
Even so, the two countries have made small advances toward one another. Diplomats sat down in September to discuss re-establishing direct mail between theUnited States and Cuba
Obama restarted the talks, along with discussions of immigration issues, in 2009. However the negotiations broke off afterCuba
arrested U.S.
(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
"But I think we all understand that ultimately, freedom in
A younger generation of
The
Obama said before taking office that he wanted to recast long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, but his efforts have been a disappointment to the Cuban government, which hoped he would do more to dismantle the embargo.
Even so, the two countries have made small advances toward one another. Diplomats sat down in September to discuss re-establishing direct mail between the
Obama restarted the talks, along with discussions of immigration issues, in 2009. However the negotiations broke off after
(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
US may revise its 50-year old embargo
against Cuba
"The Voice of Russia
The US
may revise the currently effective sanctions that Washington
slapped on Cuba
This came in a statement by the US President Barack Obama during his visit to Florida
"And we have to continue to update our
policies," said Obama, speaking at a political fundraiser at the home of
Jorge Mas Santos, head of the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF).
Obama
said that the embargo against Cuba
imposed more than 50 years ago may not be as effective today, adding that a
revision of the US
Obama said that a younger generation of
Americans is likely more open to finding "new mechanisms" to settle
problems in bilateral relations.
The US
imposed discriminatory economic sanctions on Cuba
after the Fidel Castro government had seized the property of US nationals and
corporations in Cuba
In 1962, the sanctions were toughed to an
almost full embargo. The US
has made the sanctions removal conditional on Havana ’s
progress towards democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba , as well as ending Cuba
Addressing Mas Santos, Obama said: "I think that partly
because we're of the same generation, we recognize that the aims are always
going to be the same. And what we have to do is to continually find new
mechanisms and new tools to speak out on behalf of the issues that we care so
deeply about."
The CANF is the leading Cuban-American
activist group.
It was founded by Mas's father Jorge Mas
Canosa, and during the elder Mas's leadership was a bastion of conservative,
pro-Republican politics.
The Cuban-born Mas Canosa was a favorite of
Ronald Reagan, and visited the White House in the 1980s.However his son, Mas
Santos, a successful telecommunications businessman, supported Obama in his
presidential bids in 2008 and 2012.
Under Obama, Cuban-Americans can travel and
send money to the island more easily, and mail restrictions have been eased.
The two countries however have yet to resume
full diplomatic relations.Obama arrived in Miami on Friday after visiting the
port of New Orleans, Louisiana, and is scheduled to depart on Saturday.
According to the Miami Herald he is in Miami
Voice of Russia
The Miami
Herald
Posted on Fri, Nov. 08, 2013
‘Incredible night’ as Obama meets Cuban dissidents in Miami
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
President Barack
Obama told two of Cuba ’s
leading dissidents in South Florida Friday
that he admires their sacrifices, a rare White House recognition of the
peaceful opposition on the communist-ruled island.
“The most important thing here was the recognition by the
president of the United
States , the most powerful democracy in the
world,” dissident Guillermo Farinas said minutes after the meeting.
Farinas, spokesman for the Cuban Patriotic Union of Cuba,
and Ladies in White leader Berta Soler met with Obama during a fund-raiser at
the Pinecrest home of Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National
Foundation (CANF).
Farinas
said the two dissidents urged Obama during their private meeting to ensure that
any negotiations on the future of Cuba
They
also counseled the president to listen to dissidents, because they are the ones
who live on the island. Fariñas and Soler have both advocated tough U.S. sanctions on Havana
Mas Santos
told El Nuevo Herald that the president listened to the dissidents, “encouraged
them and spoke of his admiration for their sacrifices.”
Obama’s visit “lasted an hour but seemed like 10 seconds,”
said Mas Santos, who hosted one of three Obama fundraisers Friday and Saturday
for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee.
Speaking
by the pool of Mas Santos’ house, Obama said his policy of supporting civil
society in Cuba is beginning to show results, but that Washington must continue
to be “creative and thoughtful” in its policies.
Soler wore the traditional white clothes of her group, and
Farinas wore a suit and tie with a Band-Aid over the spot on his scalp where he
suffered a cut during a beating just last Sunday by a pro-government mob.
Meetings of U.S.
presidents with dissidents from any country have been historically rare,
although Vice President Joe Biden received Soler in the White House last month.
Both the Ladies in White and Fariñas have won the European
Parliament’s top human rights award, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
conscience. The women won it in 2005 and Fariñas, who has staged more than 20
hunger strikes to protest abuses, in 2010.
Mas Santos ,
son of CANF founder Jorge Mas Canosa, has been a strong Obama supporter since
his 2008 campaign for the presidency. Conservatives in CANF broke off in 2001, four years after
Mas Canosa’s death, and founded the Cuban Liberty Council.
The other Obama fundraisers were being hosted by Leslie
Miller Saiontz, a businesswoman and philanthropist who contributed $57,300 in
2012 to various candidates and committees, and Ralph G. Patino, a Coral Gables
personal-injury attorney who contributed $88,800 last year to various
committees and candidates.
Many donors at the Mas Santos fundraiser moved on later to
Tropical Nights, the separate annual fundraiser for the Foundation for Human
Rights in Cuba .
“Unquestionably, this has been an incredible night,” Fariñas
said. “This has been a triumph for the entire opposition, above all for
democracy in Cuba ,
for those who are on the island and those outside, those who died trying to get
out and those who live outside.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/08/v-print/3740537/incredible-night-as-obama-meets.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arturo-lopez-levy/president-obama-cuba_b_4248667.html
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