After a considerable hiatus, I’m pleased to re-welcome you to the Cuba blog. We have lots of catching up to do, so let’s hop right to it. If you’re wondering what’s happened between Washington and Havana in the meantime, catch up with Anya Landau French on the Havana Note: Obama Fumbles on Cuba. You guessed […]
The “vicious circle” is, as Dalia Acosta and others have written, a pattern that has been repeated over and over during the history of Cuba in the last decades: the seemingly inevitable cycle of relaxing and tightening among the governments of Cuba, the United States and the European Union. The reasons for the vicious circle are […]
The U.S. Treasury Department has made a rule change that it says will help people in Iran, Sudan, and Cuba communicate with the outside world. An amendment made this week will make it possible for American companies to acquire general licenses for exportation of personal Internet-based communications services, such as instant messaging and chat, to these […]
This week, NAFSA’s Senior Advisor for Public Policy, Vic Johnson, commented on Barack Obama’s words before a Town Hall in Istanbul, Turkey last year. There, President Obama had made a statement on the great benefit of exchanges between young people across country boundaries, saying: “Simple exchanges can break down walls between us, for when people […]
The newest issue of the Economist falls into the more and more common “honeymoon” rhetoric trap in its discussion of current developments in US-Cuba relations: an article dated today is entitled, “Honeymoon cancelled: A familiar mistrust descends.“ The analysis is lacking two distinctions: one, the distinction between public perception and government intent/activity; and two (again), between […]
High-level U.S.-Cuba talks on migration did occur on Friday, and the five-hour talks were open and frank. State Department officials called for the release of detained U.S. contractor Alan Gross. The Cuban side listened, though without indicating how they would proceed. Cuban officials brought up their own demand for the release of the Cuban Five. […]
The AP ran a story today titled, “US-Cuba immigration talks under cloud of mistrust.” The course of the article makes the current US-Cuba relationship and future prospects look pretty dismal. But we had always expected progress to be slow, and mutual recriminations do not disappear overnight. I, for one, am not discouraged. Still, one cannot […]
The U.S. State Department announced today that its highest-ranking envoy yet (under the Obama administration) will travel to Cuba to participate in fresh talks on migration issues. The spokesman’s office reported: U.S. and Cuban representatives will meet in Havana to discuss implementation of the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords. The discussions will focus on how best to […]
Havana is not alone in its judgment that the Obama administration has not done enough in its first year to achieve rapprochement. Analysts have been voicing their dissatisfaction in connection with the end of year one: the Center for International Policy’s critique sums up the main complaints that have been circulating. Over-arching thesis: “Obama is […]
Canada keeps a much lower profile in the hemisphere than the outspoken United States; perhaps it is the simple comparison to Washington which allows it to maintain largely friendly relations with every government in the West. Still, it is interesting that Cuba’s two large northern neighbors would have such very different relationships with Havana. One […]