"The Cuban government agreed to release 53 prisioners whose cases we brought to their attention, these are individuals that we believe are political prisoners and we welcome very much the release," the senior administration official said.
"A number of those individuals have been already released and we expect to continue to see the releases going forward," the official said.
Cuba also freed US citizen Alan Gross after five years of detention, as well as a "US intelligence asset" who the official said had been detained in Cuba for nearly 20 years.
AFP
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/118191.aspx
17/12/14
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Obama anuncia el fin de una política con Cuba 'que ha fracasado' ...
ReplyDeleteEl presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, ha anunciado la "normalización" de las relaciones del Gobierno con Cuba. "Vamos a acabar un enfoque obsoleto que ha fracasado en el avance de nuestros intereses", ha señalado en una comparecencia desde la Casa Blanca.
El presidente ha recordado "la complicada historia" entre ambos países en las últimas cinco décadas. "Estamos separados por sólo algo más de 90, pero "año tras año, las barreras ideológicas y económicas hirieron" la relación entre los dos países.
En ese tiempo, añadió, "los exiliados cubanos han hecho una enorme aportación a este país", en todos los ámbitos. En este tiempo, recordó Obama, los estadounidenses han apoyado "la democracia y los derechos humanos" en la isla. ....................http://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2014/12/17/5491bb03ca4741ac2a8b4578.html
17/12/14
Obama announces major Cuban policy shift ...
ReplyDeleteUS President Barack Obama has announced a move to normalise relations between the United States and Cuba.
Mr Obama said it is time to "cut loose the shackles of the past".
In a speech at the White House, Mr Obama said the thaw in relations after a five-decade freeze is being made after he determined the "rigid" and outdated policy of the past failed to have an impact on Cuba.
"Today we are making these changes because it is the right thing to do. Today America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past, so as to reach for a better future, for the Cuban people, for the American people, for our entire hemisphere, and for the world," he said.
He said the new policy will make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba.
Mr Obama said he would also talk to members of the US Congress about lifting the US embargo on Cuba..........................http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/1217/667485-cuba-us/
17/12/14
Secretary Kerry: Announcement of Cuba Policy Changes (U.S. State Department) ...
ReplyDeleteJohn Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
December 17, 2014
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"I was a seventeen year old kid watching on a black and white television set when I first heard an American President talk of Cuba as an "imprisoned island.”
For five and a half decades since, our policy toward Cuba has remained virtually frozen, and done little to promote a prosperous, democratic and stable Cuba. Not only has this policy failed to advance America's goals, it has actually isolated the United States instead of isolating Cuba.
Since 2009, President Obama has taken steps forward to change our relationship and improve the lives of the Cuban people by easing restrictions on remittances and family travel. With this new opening, the President has committed the United States to begin to chart an even more ambitious course forward.
Beginning more than twenty years ago, I have seen firsthand as three presidents -- one Republican and two Democrats -- have undertaken a similar effort to change the United States' relationship with Vietnam. It wasn't easy. It isn't complete still today. But it had to start somewhere, and it has worked".............http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/12/235352.htm
17/12/14
FACT SHEET: Charting a New Course on Cuba (The White House, Office of the Press Secretary)...
ReplyDelete"Today, the United States is taking historic steps to chart a new course in our relations with Cuba and to further engage and empower the Cuban people. We are separated by 90 miles of water, but brought together through the relationships between the two million Cubans and Americans of Cuban descent that live in the United States, and the 11 million Cubans who share similar hopes for a more positive future for Cuba.
It is clear that decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba have failed to accomplish our enduring objective of promoting the emergence of a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba. At times, longstanding U.S. policy towards Cuba has isolated the United States from regional and international partners, constrained our ability to influence outcomes throughout the Western Hemisphere, and impaired the use of the full range of tools available to the United States to promote positive change in Cuba. Though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions, it has had little effect – today, as in 1961, Cuba is governed by the Castros and the Communist party.
We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state. With our actions today, we are calling on Cuba to unleash the potential of 11 million Cubans by ending unnecessary restrictions on their political, social, and economic activities. In that spirit, we should not allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help.
Today, we are renewing our leadership in the Americas. We are choosing to cut loose the anchor of the past, because it is entirely necessary to reach a better future – for our national interests, for the American people, and for the Cuban people"..............http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/17/fact-sheet-charting-new-course-cuba-0
17/12/14
The United States and Cuba are moving to announce a historic thaw in relations between the two countries more than 50 years after they were severed, US media report...
ReplyDelete• US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro are due to make major statements at 5pm GMT (6pm Paris time).
• Senior US officials say the United States and Cuba will move to open embassies in each other's capitals.
• The historic thaw in US-Cuban relations is part of a deal that saw Cuba free American Alan Gross and Washington release three Cubans jailed in Florida for spying.
• Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Havana and imposed a trade embargo in 1960, following Fidel Castro’s move to nationalise US businesses in Cuba...............http://www.france24.com/en/20141217-live-blog-usa-cuba-poised-historic-thaw-ties-embargo-obama-castro/
17/12/14
Comparecencia especial de Raúl sobre Estados Unidos
ReplyDeleteEl General de Ejército Raúl Castro Ruz, Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros, comparecerá este miércoles a las 12 del día a para realizar una importante alocución sobre las relaciones de Cuba con Estados Unidos.........http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2014-12-17/comparecencia-especial-de-raul-sobre-eeuu
17/12/14
U.S. President Barack Obama announced a major shift in U.S. relations with Cuba, after the country’s communist leaders released Alan Gross, an American who had been imprisoned there for five years...
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the release of Gross, three Cubans were freed from a U.S. jail.
In explaining plans to begin normalizing relations with Cuba, Obama said, "Isolation has not worked. It's time for a new approach.
"I believe this contact will do more to empower the Cuban people," said the president, who had spoken with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday.
Castro, in simultaneous address to his nation Wednesday, said, "We have decided to re-establish diplomatic relations" with the U.S..................http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-cuba-releases-american-alan-gross/2562509.html
17/12/14
Cuba, storica svolta di Obama: riprendono le relazioni diplomatiche ...
ReplyDeleteIl presidente Usa pone fine a una crisi durata 53 anni. Ammette che l'embargo ha fallito, annuncia il ripristino dei rapporti con l'Avana, oltre a una serie di misure che smantellano l'impianto delle sanzioni. E conclude con "Todos somos americanos".
"Da oggi cambiano i rapporti tra il popolo americano e quello cubano. Si apre un capitolo nuovo nella storia delle Americhe". Barack Obama dà lo storico annuncio dalla Casa Bianca a mezzogiorno in punto (le 18 italiane). E' una svolta che chiude una crisi endemica durata ben 53 anni: l'America apre a Cuba, ristabilisce le relazioni diplomatiche, cancella un embargo rovinoso per entrambe le parti................http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2014/12/17/news/cuba_usa_svolta-103141462/?rss
17/12/14
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner sharply criticized President Barack Obama's policy change toward Cuba, calling it "another in a long line of mindless concessions" to a brutal dictatorship...
ReplyDelete"Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the Cuban people enjoy freedom - and not one second sooner," Boehner said in a statement.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2014/Dec-17/281419-republican-boehner-calls-obamas-cuba-deal-a-mindless-concession.ashx#sthash.0vX59r1A.dpuf
17/12/14
Raul Castro se dit prêt à évoquer tous les sujets avec Barack Obama...
ReplyDeleteLe président cubain Raul Castro s’est exprimé samedi, saluant la décision de son homologue américain Barack Obama de normaliser les relations entre les deux pays. Il se dit prêt au dialogue sur tous les sujets.
"Le peuple cubain salue cette décision juste du président des États-Unis. Elle entérine la levée d'un obstacle aux relations entre nos pays", a déclaré Raul Castro samedi 20 décembre, lors d’un discours à l’Assemblée nationale. Le président cubain s'est dit prêt à n'écarter aucun sujet dans le cadre du dialogue avec Washington et a vu dans le rapprochement avec les États-Unis la levée d'un "obstacle" vieux d'un demi-siècle.
"Nous réitérons notre disposition au dialogue respectueux et réciproque autour de (nos) divergences", a-t-il ajouté, affirmant "accepter de dialoguer (...) de n'importe quel thème, de tout ce dont on voudra parler au sujet de Cuba, mais aussi des États-Unis".
"Nous demanderons du respect pour nôtre système politique"
Raul Castro a toutefois prévenu ses compatriotes que la levée de l'embargo imposé en 1962 par les Américains serait une "lutte longue et difficile". Il a également réclamé que les États-Unis respectent le régime communiste en vigueur dans l'île. "De même que nous n'avons jamais réclamé que les États-Unis changent leur système politique, nous demanderons du respect pour le nôtre", a-t-il ajouté...................http://www.france24.com/fr/20141220-raul-castro-pret-evoquer-tous-sujets-barack-obama-cuba-etats-unis-normalisation/
20/12/14