(UPI) The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) did not authorize a single new service to do business with Cuba in 2009, but in 2010 has already expanded the list of authorized U.S. travel and remittance services allowed to do business with Cuba by 42, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. This is being attributed partly to the Obama administration’s new policy stance toward the island and partly to a bureaucratic backlog of requests from U.S. businesses.
(Reuters) Per our recent post on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its catastrophic implications, Reuters and other sources reported yesterday that U.S. officials in Havana have engaged in “working level discussions” with the Cuban government, keeping them informed of developments and the slick’s projected movement, and discussing the potential risks faced by Cuba if the strong Loop Current carries some of the oil to the northwest shores of the island.
Fidel Castro, for his part, has denounced the oil spill and resulting ecological disaster as evidence that “the world’s capitalist governments are in thrall to large corporations.”
(Photo: NASA satellite image)
