http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/17/us.cuba/index.html
(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said.
"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Raúl Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela.
The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as well as to send them remittances. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will remain in place.
This week's move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
In Mexico City for meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama offered a carrot and a stick to Havana.
"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted," he said.
"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes."
Obama's gesture precedes a trip this week to Trinidad and Tobago for a key meeting of hemispheric powers -- the Summit of the Americas. "
Its about time we talked and had relations with Cuba again.Once again Obama does what the majority of americans want to see done and is not captive to a small minority like the anti-castro Cubans in florida who both parties for obvious reasons have been reluctant to alienate due to florida being a key swing state in presidential politics.Kudos to him on this !:thumbsup:
And Kudos to Raul Castro for answering saying all issues will be on the table :hatsoff:. I'm sure we will see quick progress and a relationship which is better and yields advantages for both countries.This should have happened years ago and really it was american politics as I mentioned above that prevented it.
(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said.
"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Raúl Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela.
The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as well as to send them remittances. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will remain in place.
This week's move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.
In Mexico City for meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama offered a carrot and a stick to Havana.
"What we're looking for is some signal that there are going to be changes in how Cuba operates that assures that political prisoners are released, that people can speak their minds freely, that they can travel, that they can write and attend church and do the things that people throughout the hemisphere can do and take for granted," he said.
"And if there is some sense of movement on those fronts in Cuba, then I think we can see a further thawing of relations and further changes."
Obama's gesture precedes a trip this week to Trinidad and Tobago for a key meeting of hemispheric powers -- the Summit of the Americas. "
Its about time we talked and had relations with Cuba again.Once again Obama does what the majority of americans want to see done and is not captive to a small minority like the anti-castro Cubans in florida who both parties for obvious reasons have been reluctant to alienate due to florida being a key swing state in presidential politics.Kudos to him on this !:thumbsup:
And Kudos to Raul Castro for answering saying all issues will be on the table :hatsoff:. I'm sure we will see quick progress and a relationship which is better and yields advantages for both countries.This should have happened years ago and really it was american politics as I mentioned above that prevented it.
contemplating the 123 steps that I would have to conquer in order to get back to my 500 sq ' federally provided housing bloc. 
