Posted on 03/13/2010 12:39:11 PM PST by george76
A familiar mistrust descends.
hopes that Mr Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro, would end a 50-year freeze in relations between their countries have proved wildly premature.
Mr Obama began with some gestures.
The latest round of talks took place in late February. They were overshadowed by familiar rows. The American officials demanded the release of Alan Gross, who was working under contract to USAID and was arrested in Havana in December. His family says he was helping Jewish groups in Cuba ...
Four days after the talks Orlando Zapata, an imprisoned dissident, died in custody in a Havana hospital after an 85-day hunger strike in protest at his treatment in jail. That prompted an outcry from international human-rights groups. Hundreds of police prevented all but a few dissidents from attending his funeral in his home town in eastern Cuba.
When Raúl Castro announced Mr Grosss arrest he said it proved that the Obama administration was out to topple the government and was no different from its predecessors. The honeymoon is over before it began.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Obama’s next foreign policy success will be his first.
Obama: "Hey, you cheated. And after we Kumbaya-ed together!"
I doubt the honeymoon’s over at all. Why would Obama care about Zapata or Gross when he couldn’t care less about Iranians slaughtered in the streets ? His administration is larded with Castro and Chavez admirers.
Obama better be nice to Raul, he may need a place to hide!
HAVANA Signaling its willingness to discuss improved relations with the Obama administration, Cuba on Tuesday granted three visiting members of the Congressional Black Caucus the first meeting with Fidel Castro by American officials since he fell ill in 2006.
[snip]
"Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., current head of the 42-member caucus, said at a news conference in Washington after the group's return that lawmakers met for nearly two hours with Fidel Castro and found him 'very healthy, very energetic, very clear thinking.'
Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., who also met Fidel with Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said Castro 'looked directly into our eyes' and asked how Cuba could help Obama in his efforts to change the course of U.S. foreign policy. Richardson said she had the impression that 82-year-old Fidel wants to see changes in U.S.-Cuba relations in his lifetime.
Raul Castro, added Lee, 'said everything was on the table.' ..."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/08/fidel-castro-meets-us-lawmakers-33830710/print/
Cuba should learn from China. Lend us money so we can buy more stuff we can’t afford and we’ll be your buddy..
If he can’t get along w/Castro who can he get along with? In fairness, it was human rights groups that got in the way of their lovefest.
Pray for America
What is going on with the release of ALAN GROSS being held in a Cuban jail.
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