US-CUBA Partial Normalization - Obama Finally Makes a Correct Move!

[Peter Lemkin]

Prisoner exchanges - opening of embassies - partial lifting of embargo - more we will know about shortly.....
The last of the Cuba Five have been freed in exchange for an unnamed CIA agent and Alan Gross. My guess is the ultra-Right will be calling for Obama's head on a platter for this [right move - ALL TOO LONG in coming!]. Obama and Castro are going to speak about this soon. Uruguay and the Vatican (and others) were involved in the negotiations.

[Albert Doyle]

The sad truth about the slowness of the American government to lift the embargo on Cuba is that it was delayed because of the trauma of CIA killing Kennedy over it.

[Albert Doyle]

They said Pope Francis was involved in negotiating this truce. That heralds back to what Douglass detailed in The Unspeakable when Pope John XXIII intervened in Kennedy's negotiations with Khrushchev.


Well, thank God Obama got something right. I was worried he was going to announce the invasion of Cuba for the Bush crazies for a moment there lol.

[Tracy Riddle]

This is a good thing. I just hope it doesn't lead eventually to a corporate/bankster/organized crime takeover of the island, as in the Batista days.

[R.K. Locke]

This is a good thing. I just hope it doesn't lead eventually to a corporate/bankster/organized crime takeover of the island, as in the Batista days.

The inevitability of the latter scenario occurring totally negates any positive aspects of this development for me. Once a CIA-staffed US embassy sets up shop in Havana it's only a matter of time before a coup occurs and Cuba is pillaged by transnational capital. I just don't see this leading to anything good for the Cuban people in the long run.

[Magda Hassan]

Well, the Cuban people are delirious with joy about the remaining 5 prisoners being released. They should never have been charged in the first place. Lifting the embargo, even partially, will make life significantly better for most. But, yes, as they say, 'Why has there never been a coup in America? Because there is no US embassy there' Mind you they have always operated there any way. Maybe it will just make it easier to keep tabs on them now? Setting things to a normal diplomatic relationship is a good thing but being friends of the US is deadly. Hope they remember their history. I have very mixed feelings and some dread.

[Tracy Riddle]

I don't know anything about the younger members of the Cuban leadership, and how committed they are to preserving the benefits of the Revolution, or whether they can be bribed or intimidated into turning against it. Hopefully they will keep the relationship with the US very controlled, and maintain close ties to countries not aligned with the US.

[Magda Hassan]

Well, the Cubans have seen the wonders of capitalism in free fall with the recent banking clusterfuck. They see what's happened in Libya, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, Iran. The complicity and silence on Palestine. They know the wastelands in the US and the racism there. They know there is no health care in the US unless you can afford it. They know what they would lose. Travel will be better. Business and trade will be better. Sending money there will be easier. The US is always trying to bribe Cubans any way they can. That will not stop but the gains of the revolution are treasured by most Cubans as implied here for the USAID hip hop thread:

Rotilla had independent roots, but documents show Bozic and the EXIT festival had been backing it since 2006, a period during which it grew enormously.

In an interview Sunday in Havana, Rotilla founder Michel Matos said that while he was proud of his role in Rotilla, he was shocked to learn that the Serb was working for USAID and said he would never knowingly take American money from people with ulterior motives.

"If I get money from the American government to take cultural action, it's not that I just have a problem with the Cuban government," he said. "I have a problem with Cubans."

[Magda Hassan]

Baseball fans will be rejoicing.

[Peter Lemkin]

Yes, I agree there is the threat of the US Corporate State trying to re-create Cuba of the Casinos and Mafia before the Revolution, etc.....but this is still the right move.....if only a beginning step. The Cubans have long suffered from the Embargo and other actions of the USA - which were only punitive and to set an 'example' on to any nation who wouldn't genuflect to every wish and order of the USA and follow its precepts of 'good government style' ::bowtie:: (good for the Oligarchs).
I'm glad that Fidel lived to see this day - if only a partial vindication. As expected the Right in the USA is lambasting Obama for doing a little that should have been done over 50 years ago. This stupid, failed and evil policy had much to do with the loss of our best President - JFK and a coup d'etat during which the Hidden Government consolidated its power.
The Planet, nor Cuba, will not be safe, however, until the Empire collapses.....which has begun, but will be a long and ugly process...and I'm not sure the World will survive the fallout of that collapse....
Here in Europe, where all are allowed to [and many have] visited Cuba and traded with Cuba - almost everyone but the few USA agents are asking 'what in hell took so long!?'. Maybe even the idiot and controlled US media will notice that the 'rationale' for the draconian efforts against Cuba never were consistent or logical. We have relations with many countries we don't like, or agree with the political system of. We don't blockade them..in fact, one of them, China, is our largest trading partner. The Republican Congress, however, will maintain most of the blockade and if Bush [ugh!] becomes President, this will all be reversed.
Now, I'm waiting for a similar and sane change of US policy over the Palestinian issue!