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Mika

(17,751 posts)
Wed Dec 17, 2014, 06:50 PM Dec 2014

OAS Sec Gen Celebrates “Historic Announcement” of Resumption of Diplomatic Relations - US/Cuba





OAS Secretary General Celebrates “Historic Announcement” of Resumption of Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Cuba

December 17, 2014
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today welcomed the “historic announcement” made by the Presidents of Cuba and the United States, Raúl Castro and Barack Obama, of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the re-opening of embassies in Washington and Havana, the lifting of certain commercial restrictions and the beginning of new paths for cooperation on issues of mutual interest, among other measures.

The OAS leader congratulated President Barack Obama “for having taken these historic steps, as necessary as they are courageous, to restore diplomatic relations broken off in 1961.” “This is a decision of great vision on both sides, because this conflict, which has significant negative implications for citizens of both countries, had stagnated politically for too long,” said the Secretary General.

The leader of the multilateral Organization said, “the measures announced today open a path to normalization from which there is no return," and asked the United States Congress to "take the necessary legislative measures to lift the embargo against Cuba, which remains in force." "President Obama has been clear about the need to change a policy that produced neither benefits nor results for 50 years, and only complicated the lives of millions of citizens. We hope that Congress understands this as well."

Secretary General Insulza recalled the decision of the OAS, adopted unanimously by all member states, to rescind the suspension of Cuba as an active member of the Organization, adopted at the General Assembly in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in 2009, and described the resolution as "an early step to bring the Caribbean nation closer to the community of countries that make up the OAS." Likewise, he expressed his hope that the expectations for the success of the forthcoming Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama are fully met.

The head of the OAS expressed his happiness at the release of Alan Gross, as well as Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero, saying that their imprisonment "was the product of a past that should not return."

Secretary General Insulza also praised "the role of the international community in facilitating talks between Washington and Havana" and urged both governments "to continue to rely on their neighbors and friends to continue reaching agreements leading to full normalization of contacts between two key countries of these, our Americas."

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.


http://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-557%2F14




3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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OAS Sec Gen Celebrates “Historic Announcement” of Resumption of Diplomatic Relations - US/Cuba (Original Post) Mika Dec 2014 OP
Researchers applaud U.S.-Cuba accord Judi Lynn Dec 2014 #1
The spirit is willing: Papal role in Cuba thaw started with John Paul II Judi Lynn Dec 2014 #2
Viva Insulza! Glad he remembered LatAm countries voted to get Cuba into OAS several years ago. n/t Judi Lynn Dec 2014 #3

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
1. Researchers applaud U.S.-Cuba accord
Wed Dec 17, 2014, 07:25 PM
Dec 2014

Researchers applaud U.S.-Cuba accord
By Richard Stone and Allie Wilkinson 17 December 2014 6:00 pm

A new era in U.S.-Cuba relations could be a boon for scientific cooperation between the two nations. The diplomatic breakthrough between the Cold War foes, announced separately today by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, is expected to immediately loosen restrictions on U.S. and Cuban scientists getting together for joint research. It may also pave the way for U.S. organizations to sponsor workshops and meetings in Cuba and to export state-of-the-art instruments to Cuba, activities now essentially prohibited under U.S. law.

“This is huge news for science,” says David E. Guggenheim, president of Ocean Doctor, a nonprofit that has sponsored marine research with Cuba. “These policy changes will go a long way to ensure a more robust science relationship,” said Alan Leshner, CEO of AAAS, in a statement. (AAAS publishes ScienceInsider and has been working in recent years to promote science diplomacy with Cuba.) The new Obama administration policy, Leshner says, should boost collaboration on such topics as the spread of emerging pathogens like the chikungunya virus and atmospheric research on hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. has imposed a web of sanctions, including a trade embargo, on Cuba for more than half a century. The U.S. Treasury Department prohibits most expenditures by U.S. citizens in Cuba, including tourism. In 2009, however, the agency relaxed its regulations to allow U.S. scientists to conduct research visits to Cuba under a general license. That rule is unchanged.

~ snip ~
Scientists are already celebrating. “It’s such an emotional day,” says Guggenheim, who has made 81 trips to Cuba. “I was actually just out marching in the street with Cuban students celebrating all of this.”

More:
http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/2014/12/researchers-applaud-u-s-cuba-accord

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
2. The spirit is willing: Papal role in Cuba thaw started with John Paul II
Wed Dec 17, 2014, 07:36 PM
Dec 2014

The spirit is willing: Papal role in Cuba thaw started with John Paul II
by Tony Karon -
Dec
17
4:25 PM



Pope John Paul II traveled to
Fidel Castro's Cuba in 1998.
Jose Goitia / AP

U.S. officials have reportedly acknowledged that Pope Francis played a significant role in nudging President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro toward the rapprochement signaled by Wednesday’s prisoner release and White House policy announcement.

But the Vatican’s role in promoting a U.S.-Cuba thaw is not a new innovation by a pontiff whose political inclinations are clearly more progressive than his predecessors — and closer to the more left-of-center consensus in his native continent of Latin America.

Obama’s announcement, after all, acknowledged that the U.S. had finally acknowledged the failure of an embargo long decried — and ignored — by the vast majority of the international community. At this year’s version of the annual U.N. General Assembly vote on the Cuba embargo, 188 of the 193 member states voted to strike it down; only the U.S. and Israel voted no.

“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Obama vowed Wednesday, promising “a new chapter among the nations of the Americas”.

More:
http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/12/17/pope-cuba-thaw.html

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
3. Viva Insulza! Glad he remembered LatAm countries voted to get Cuba into OAS several years ago. n/t
Thu Dec 18, 2014, 05:35 AM
Dec 2014
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