Obama Cuba move praised
World leaders welcome end to 50 years of hostility
WORLD leaders welcomed groundbreaking news yesterday that the United States and Cuba are moving to restore diplomatic relations and bury one of the last vestiges of the Cold War after more than 50 years.
Celebrations broke out on the streets of Havana as people living on a pittance a day in the communist-run island savoured the prospect of an end to the crippling US trade embargo and perhaps a brighter future.
From China to Chile, plaudits rang out. South American leaders holding a meeting in Argentina interrupted their session and broke into euphoric applause.
The gush of praise for the shock announcement in Washington and Havana – it emerged that secret talks had been under way for 18 months – featured a plethora of terms like “turning point” and “historic day”.
Making the announcement, President Barack Obama said decades of trying to isolate Cuba and oust the regime had failed, and it was time to turn the page.
The US embassy in Havana has been shuttered since 1961, two years after communist rebels led by Fidel Castro ousted President Fulgencio Batista.
“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalise relations between our two countries,” Obama said.
He said he would urge Congress to lift the trade embargo, imposed in 1960, while using his presidential authority to advance diplomatic and travel links.
“We are all Americans,” Obama declared, breaking into Spanish.
The White House portrayed the US move as a bid to reassert the country’s leadership in the western hemisphere.
Later, Obama even raised the possibility – something utterly unthinkable until now – of his visiting the island not far from the coast of Florida. Cuba was ground zero of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that brought a nervous world to the verge of nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union.
Obama and President Raul Castro praised the help given by Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, and the Catholic Church in brokering better relations between the long-time enemies.
In response, the Vatican said the pope congratulated both govern- ments for overcoming “the difficulties which have marked their recent history”.
The breakthrough came after Havana released jailed US contractor Alan Gross and a Cuban who spied for Washington and had been held for 20 years.
The US in turn freed three Cuban spies, and Obama said he had instructed the US State Department to re-examine its designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
European Union foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said in Brussels: “Today another Wall has started to fall.”
In Havana, a delighted Ernesto Perez, 52, said: “I have goosebumps all over.”
But Cuban-Americans in Miami, Florida, a traditional hotbed of opposition to the Castro regime, expressed grave dismay, although there were expectations that others would welcome the move.
The hard line was echoed by Republican politicians, with former Florida governor Jeb Bush leading the charge against Obama.
He reiterated Republican charges that Obama was acting like a king or an emperor.
Attacking the decision that Bush said would benefit “the heinous Castro brothers”, the brother of former president George W Bush said Obama had exceeded the limits of his power.
Jeb Bush has thrown his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination with an eye to winning the White House in 2016.
Against the backdrop of criticism, things look tough for Obama, who says he wants to work with Congress on ending what he called the world’s oldest trade embargo.
But he could be helped by a new dynamic among the American people on this issue.
Florida, a key electoral battleground, was once seen as packed with Cuban exiles fiercely opposed to any gestures towards the government in their homeland.
But a poll by Florida International University has found that more than 60% of the Cuban-American population of Miami favour establishing diplomatic relations with the communist regime. – AFP