Obama Lowers Hopes on Cuba Ties
HAVANA TIMES, July 28 – US President Barack Obama ruled out that his government will make new opening gestures in its Cuba policy until the island’s authorities don’t show progress in civil and political freedoms, according to the president’s statements to journalists in the White House over the weekend, reported IPS.
Obama lifted the restrictions on travel and sending of remittances for the Cuban-American community this year, and resumed bilateral migration talks.
However, the president has yet to do anything to free ordinary US citizens to travel to neighboring Cuba or to end the half-century US economic blockade that punishes Cubans across-the-board.
Obama’s latest statements put a damper on hopes that rapprochement on a large scale could be near; something former President Fidel Castro had predicted when Barack took office.
I have not read the IPS story, but the Miami Herald report on which it is based is 100% wrong. The President only linked further steps such as academic and religious travel to progress on “a narrow set of issues” that had already been discussed bilaterally. He talked about “progress on issues of political liberalization, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, release of political prisoners, in order for there to be the full possibility of normalization”, which has been his consistent position. Full transcripts at http://thehavananote.com/2009/07/misinformation_about_the_presi.html
Please correct the Herald’s misinformation or disinformation.