CNN is reporting the the Unites States and Cuba have reached an agreement, and will announce on Wednesday that the two countries will open embassies in each other’s capitals. According to two senior administration officials:
“We will formally announce tomorrow that the United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-establish formal diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other’s capitals…We expect President Obama and Secretary Kerry to address this publicly tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.”
According to CNN, this is the final step in the thawing of relations between the two countries. The embargo, however, remains in place until congress repeals it. In Miami the move is one that has been much maligned and criticized, specially by the Cuban-exile community and Presidential candidate Marco Rubio.
Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the strongest voices of opposition to the normalization of relations with Cuba, stated the f0llowing:
“There was little doubt that the Obama administration would pursue its goal of opening an embassy in Cuba no matter the sad reality on the ground. Since Obama’s December 17th announcement, the State Department has failed to forcibly condemn the increase of repression on the island now that the Castro regime feels emboldened to continue its attacks against the Cuban people.
As the Ladies in White, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, Yris Perez Aguilera, and other pro-democracy leaders are routinely harassed, beaten, and imprisoned, the Obama administration has continued to turn its back on the Cuban people in order to pursue its goal of providing as many concessions as possible to the Castro regime. Not surprisingly, this administration has shown that politics trump policy in its decision-making process. Opening the American Embassy in Cuba will do nothing to help the Cuban people and is just another trivial attempt for President Obama to go legacy shopping.”
