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U.S. to start talks with Cuba to normalize ties U.S. to start talks with Cuba to normalize ties
(35 minutes later)
The United States and Cuba will begin talks to normalize relations, including opening an embassy in Havana and putting to rest one most enduring Cold War standoffs, a U.S. official said Wednesday. President Obama moved Wednesday to normalize relations with Cuba, tearing down the last remaining pillar of the Cold War after after more than 60 years.
The landmark initiatives appeared to be set in motion by a surprise prisoner swap that freed American contractor Alan Gross after five years in custody in Cuba. In exchange, the United States would release three Cubans jailed for espionage, the Associated Press reported. Under measures announced by the administration, the United States plans to re-open its embassy in Havana and significantly ease restrictions on travel and commerce within the next several weeks and months.
President Obama was expected to make a statement on Cuba at noon. At the same time, Cuban President Raul Castro was scheduled to address his nation about relations with the United States, Cuban state television reported. The result of more than a year and a half of secret negotiations with the Cuban government of President Raul Castro, the changes followed Cuba’s agreement to release Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor imprisoned for five years, and to exchange an unnamed U.S. intelligence asset, held for two decades, for three Cuban nationals convicted of spying in this country in 2001.
Gross, a Maryland resident, left Cuba aboard a U.S. military aircraft Wednesday morning, accompanied by his wife and several members of Congress, and arrived at Joint Base Andrews. The Cubans have landed in Havana.
[Read our live blog: Restoring U.S.-Cuba ties][Read our live blog: Restoring U.S.-Cuba ties]
Possible moves to close the rifts would mark a significant moment in Western Hemisphere politics. Although Obama has the power to establish diplomatic relations, the move was the latest in a series of steps he has taken to use executive powers to circumvent legislative
The United State has maintain various sanctions against Cuba for more than five decades and enmity between Washington and Havana has played a role in affairs across the world — from snubs against the United States from Cuba’s allies in Latin America to the hero’s welcome given to then-President Fidel Castro during a visit to Tehran in 2001. While those laws remain standing, the administration made clear that the measures announced Wednesday are designed to undermine them as much as possible.
At the moment, the United States and Cuba do not have full diplomatic relations, but allow interest sections to handle outreach. “We are confident in our ability to take these steps,” said a senior administration officials who briefed reporters prior to a statement Obama will make at noon.
The U.S. official said Gross departed Cuba on a U.S. government plane earlier Wednesday. He was released on humanitarian grounds by the Cuban government at the request of the United States, the official said. Normalization fulfills a goal set by the President early in his administration, which officials only saw as possible during his last two years in office, following November’s midterm elections.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. “When we came into office we were committed to changing a policy that we felt had failed...for the last several decades,” the official said.
There was no immediate comment from the White House. “This is a better way, in our view, of advancing our interests and our values,” the official said. “Engagement is a better tool than isolation.”
Gross, 65, was detained in December 2009 while setting up illegal Internet access as a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. It was his fifth trip to Cuba to work with Jewish communities on setting up Internet access that bypassed local censorship. The final elements of the deal were cemented in a telephone conversation Tuesday between Obama and Castro--the first direct communication between a U.S. and Cuban leader since relations were severed in January 1961.
He was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage. Cuba considers USAID’s programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government. Officials said the call followed secret channel talks begun in June last year between White House and Cuban officials in a series of meetings held in Canada. The final planning meeting was held in November at the Vatican; where officials said Pope Francis had been instrumental in facilitating agreement.
“We’re like screaming and jumping up and down,” Gross’s sister, Bonnie Rubinstein, told the AP from her home in Texas. The issue of Cuban relations, and particularly Gross’s imprisonment, was discussed during Obama’s meeting with the Pope in March. Francis subsequently made a personal appeal to both Obama and Castro in letters sent early this summer.
Three lawmakers — Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) — left Washington this morning aboard a flight that is returning to the Washington area with Alan Gross on board, according to congressional aides familiar with the plans. The Vatican “has been deeply involved in this whole negotiation with the prisoners and played a key role,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who said he would be among a number of lawmakers meeting Gross on arrival at Andrews.
The three Cubans released in exchange for Gross are part of the so-called Cuban Five, a group sent by Fidel Castro to spy in South Florida, the AP reported. The men were convicted in 2001 in Miami on charges including conspiracy and failure to register as foreign agents in the United States. Two other members of the group were released previously after finishing their sentences. Administration officials said that they did not expect a strongly negative public reaction to the moves, citing changes in the political sentiments of a new generation of Cuban Americans. Virtually all Latin American governments, including close U.S. allies, have long denounced the embargo and called for normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
Earlier this month, Obama marked Gross’s fifth anniversary in detention with a statement suggesting that his release could open the way for better relations between the longtime foes. But Cuban-American lawmakers were quick to denounce the move. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Obama’s actions “will invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people.”
“The Cuban Government’s release of Alan on humanitarian grounds would remove an impediment to more constructive relations between the United States and Cuba,” Obama said. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the announcement “just the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost.”
At the time, Gross’ wife, Judy, said in a written statement that he had lost more than 100 pounds and faced a host of medical problems. Adam Goldman and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
The president has taken some steps to ease U.S. restrictions after Raul Castro took over as president in 2010, including lifting travel and financial blocks on Americans with family in Cuba.
But steps to restore ties with Cuba are certain to meet resistance by some groups, particularly the Cuban community in South Florida that remain staunchly opposed to the communist leadership in Havana.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said opening diplomatic channels with Cuba do “absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba,”
“But it potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Castro regime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come,” he told the AP.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) denounced the reported decision to free the three jailed Cubans as an “extremely dangerous precedent.”
“President Obama’s actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government,” he said in a statement.
Adam Goldman, Karen DeYoung and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.