Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday

[Sandokan]

Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday
Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday - WSJ

Planned discussion marks intensifying effort by U.S., Cuba to restore full diplomatic relations


President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuba’s Raúl Castro before the opening of a summit of leaders from the AMERICAS in Panama. The U.S. and Cuban leaders plan to hold the first substantive meeting in more than 50 years on Saturday. PHOTO:SANTIAGO ARMAS/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

By CAROL E. LEE
Updated April 10, 2015 10:41 p.m. ET

PANAMA CITY, Panama—The leaders of the U.S. and Cuba planned to hold their first meeting in more than 50 years on Saturday, a milestone signifying the two nations’ intensifying efforts to restore full diplomatic relations.

The expected sit-down between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro at agathering of leaders from the Americas marks the American leader’s BID to reshape U.S. relations with a longtime adversary—even as he faces resistance to his similar effort with Iran.

More than a historic milestone for two Cold War rivals, the encounter is symbolic of the broader shift in U.S. foreign policy that Mr. Obama is aggressively executing in his second term.

“This is not just about two leaders sitting down together. It’s about fundamentally changing how the United States engages Cuba,” said Ben Rhodes, one of Mr. Obama’s closest foreign-policy advisers, who helped lead secret talks between Washington and Havana.

Messrs. Obama and Castro shook hands Friday night during a dinner for leaders at the summit. White House officials said there wasn’t a substantive discussion.

President Barack Obama is nearing an expected decision to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of governments that sponsor terrorism, a step that would smooth over a major point of contention between the two countries.

Images of two leaders together in Panama are set to ripple across the globe little more than a week after the U.S. announced the outlines of a diplomatic agreement with Iran to curtail its nuclear program.

Mr. Obama’s goals for diplomatic outreach to Iran and Cuba, in the short term, diverge. On Iran, the aim is to keep its leaders from acquiring a nuclear weapon. With Cuba, Mr. Obama is seeking to unravel a policy of isolation he believes has failed.

. Obama rebuff U.S. ally Netanyahu, but is all smiles and handshakes when he meets with the dictator Raul Castro. Obama won’t negotiate with Congress the way he does with the Iranian and the Castroit regime. He is helping U.S. enemies and eroding the relationship with its traditional allies.

 

[Grand Mal]

[QUOTE]Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday
Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday - WSJ

Planned discussion marks intensifying effort by U.S., Cuba to restore full diplomatic relations

View attachment 67183011
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuba’s Raúl Castro before the opening of a summit of leaders from the AMERICAS in Panama. The U.S. and Cuban leaders plan to hold the first substantive meeting in more than 50 years on Saturday. PHOTO:SANTIAGO ARMAS/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

By CAROL E. LEE
Updated April 10, 2015 10:41 p.m. ET

PANAMA CITY, Panama—The leaders of the U.S. and Cuba planned to hold their first meeting in more than 50 years on Saturday, a milestone signifying the two nations’ intensifying efforts to restore full diplomatic relations.

The expected sit-down between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro at agathering of leaders from the Americas marks the American leader’s BID to reshape U.S. relations with a longtime adversary—even as he faces resistance to his similar effort with Iran.

More than a historic milestone for two Cold War rivals, the encounter is symbolic of the broader shift in U.S. foreign policy that Mr. Obama is aggressively executing in his second term.

“This is not just about two leaders sitting down together. It’s about fundamentally changing how the United States engages Cuba,” said Ben Rhodes, one of Mr. Obama’s closest foreign-policy advisers, who helped lead secret talks between Washington and Havana.

Messrs. Obama and Castro shook hands Friday night during a dinner for leaders at the summit. White House officials said there wasn’t a substantive discussion.

President Barack Obama is nearing an expected decision to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of governments that sponsor terrorism, a step that would smooth over a major point of contention between the two countries.

Images of two leaders together in Panama are set to ripple across the globe little more than a week after the U.S. announced the outlines of a diplomatic agreement with Iran to curtail its nuclear program.

Mr. Obama’s goals for diplomatic outreach to Iran and Cuba, in the short term, diverge. On Iran, the aim is to keep its leaders from acquiring a nuclear weapon. With Cuba, Mr. Obama is seeking to unravel a policy of isolation he believes has failed.[/QUOTE]Obama rebuff U.S. ally Netanyahu, but is all smiles and handshakes when he meets with the dictator Raul Castro. Obama won’t negotiate with Congress the way he does with the Iranian and the Castroit regime. He is helping U.S. enemies and eroding the relationship with its traditional allies.

Gawd.
The cold war ended years ago. There's no more East Berlin, no more Czechoslovakia, no more Nikita Khruschev. There's an Angola embassy in the US. Daniel Ortega is back in Nicaragua and there's no Reaganite war against him. Cubans are very nice to the Americans who visit them.
You seriously need to come into the 21st century, dude.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

. Obama rebuff U.S. ally Netanyahu, but is all smiles and handshakes when he meets with the dictator Raul Castro. Obama won’t negotiate with Congress the way he does with the Iranian and the Castroit regime. He is helping U.S. enemies and eroding the relationship with its traditional allies.

Someone is a little mad that the last policies of the cold war is finally coming to die. I say, about ****ing time. Even the Cuban exile community is saying good riddance to these old outdated policies you uphold.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Someone is a little mad that the last policies of the cold war is finally coming to die. I say, about ****ing time. Even the Cuban exile community is saying good riddance to these old outdated policies you uphold.

only 48% say that....
https://cri.fiu.edu/research/cuba-poll/2014-fiu-cuba-poll.pdf

 

[TheDemSocialist]

only 48% say that....
https://cri.fiu.edu/research/cuba-poll/2014-fiu-cuba-poll.pdf

Economic embargo is only one party of our policy towards Cuba.
From the study: "A large majority favors diplomatic relations with Cuba"
"A large majority of respondents (69%) favor the lifting of travel restrictions impeding all Americans from traveling to Cuba"

And also: "(Reuters) - A poll of Cuban-Americans shows support for the White House's new Cuba policy has risen in the three months since it was announced, with 51 percent now in favor of closer engagement with Cuba, up from 44 percent in December." Poll finds rising exile support for Obama's Cuba policy | Reuters

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Economic embargo is only one party of our policy towards Cuba.
From the study: "A large majority favors diplomatic relations with Cuba"
"A large majority of respondents (69%) favor the lifting of travel restrictions impeding all Americans from traveling to Cuba"

And also: "(Reuters) - A poll of Cuban-Americans shows support for the White House's new Cuba policy has risen in the three months since it was announced, with 51 percent now in favor of closer engagement with Cuba, up from 44 percent in December." Poll finds rising exile support for Obama's Cuba policy | Reuters

I was just correcting your claim. I think an embargo on a ****ty caribean socialist dictatorship is pointless. Cuban cigars are ober rated.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

I was just correcting your claim. I think an embargo on a ****ty caribean socialist dictatorship is pointless. Cuban cigars are ober rated.

Using your logic, "So you support Cuba!".

 

[Sandokan]

Obama appeasement of Iran and the Castroit regime undermine U.S. strength and credibility in the world. No doubt this is part of the progressive agenda. Raul has said he won’t move on normalization until Obama takes Cuba off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Using your logic, "So you support Cuba!".

I do....


I've even traveled there via Canada on more than one occasion. Cuba isn't killing Americans, pursuing nuclear weapons, etc etc. they are just a socialist ****hole utopia with nice toursist hotels,

 

[Sandokan]

Re:The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturday

The Castroit regime is getting all sorts of concessions from the Obama administration, like increasing the flow of American tourists, offering an economic lifeline and the promise of diplomatic recognition. This would be a huge bonanza for the regime. But let not forget that the Castroit regime stole property from Cubans and U.S. citizens and has developed a society where even the most basic freedoms are denied to the population.

 

[Sandokan]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

The Obama administration has decided to remove the regime from the list. But in order to remove the Castroit regime from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the administration has to demonstrate that the regime has not engaged in acts of terrorism in the last six months and it has given assurance will not continuous to do that in the future. Obama needs to submit a report to Congress in order to remove the regime from the list and the Congress will have 45 days to approved or rejected.

 

[Sandokan]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

It would be hard to demonstrate that the Castroit regime has not engaged in acts of terrorism in the last six months, since it still provide sanctuary to foreign terrorist organizations like Spain’s Basque separatist group, ETA, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and dozens of U.S. fugitives among them Joanne Chesimard, on the FBI’s list of top ten terrorists, that killed a New Jersey State Police trooper. The regimen has been recently involved in arms smuggling, first was the North Korean ship Chong Chon Gang, smuggling weapons to Cuba, and now the Chinese ship Da Dan Xia doing the same.

 

[Sandokan]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

Cuban spy Ana Belen Montes, senior analyst at the Defence Intelligent Agency, convicted of espionage in 2002 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, in her authored National Intelligence Estimate on Cuba of April, 22, 1998, wrote: “Cuba poses no significant threat to the U.S. or any of its hemispheric neighbors. No evidence exists that Cuba is trying to foment any instability in the Western Hemisphere.”

President Barack Obama, on April 11, 2015, in a meeting with Cuba dictator Raul Castro said: “Cuba is not a threat to the United States...They don't implicate our national security in a direct way.”

 

[Sandokan]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

Take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism List?
Take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism List?

by George Phillips

• Let us not give Castro the resources he needs to continue his regime's 56-year reign of terror on his own people, and his continued support for terrorists and terrorist states.

• To enrich and solidify that dictatorship at this time only prevents the Cuban people from being able to forge a better life through elections in a few years, now that they are finally "on the one-yard line," when the Castro brothers, now in their eighties, could simply be left to their natural, un-bankrolled, ends. In a dictatorship such as this, only the dictators benefit.

As Sonia Alvarez Campillo was leaving Catholic Mass on July 14, 2013 with fellow members of Ladies in White, her pro-democracy organization, she was assaulted by Raul Castro's agents.

These "security" agents broke Alvarez Campillo's wrist as well as her husband's ribs in their attack on her and other members of her group.

Sunday after Sunday in Cuba, the Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) -- members of a movement started in 2003 by wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents in Cuba -- have peacefully demonstrated for freedom and human rights in cities across Cuba. They have continually been harassed, beaten, and imprisoned in Raul Castro's Cuba.

In an attack just two months ago, Lady in White member Digna Rodriquez Ibañez was pelted with tar by agents of the regime.

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation -- an organization of Cuban dissidents that the Castro regime claims is illegal -- reported that in 2014 alone, 1,810 members of the Ladies in White were detained. The detentions of these extraordinary women are among the total of 8,899 detentions evidently designed to crush political dissent. That figure represents a 27% rise from the previous year.

Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero were leaders of the Christian Liberation Movement, a political party opposed to Castro's Communist Party.

In July of 2012, Cuban state security agents allegedly murdered Paya and Cepero by ramming into their car and running them off the road, where they crashed and died.

The Cuban government officially claims the crash was an accident. But, as documented in the U.S. State Department's Human Rights Report for 2013, when David Gonzalez Peres, another leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, was arrested, Cuban officials at the jail warned him about what happened to Paya.

Paya and Cepero were most likely murdered for trying to change a system in which all 612 candidates in a recent Cuban election were members of the Communist Party and ran unopposed, and in which all other candidates had been rejected by the regime.


Left: Panama Canal inspectors discovered an illegal arms shipmen being smuggled on a ship from Cuba to North Korea, hidden under thousands of tons of sugar, in July 2013. Right: Cuban dissident Digna Rodriquez Ibañez was pelted with tar by agents of the regime, in February 2015.

Left: Panama Canal inspectors discovered an illegal arms shipmen being smuggled on a ship from Cuba to North Korea, hidden under thousands of tons of sugar, in July 2013. Right: Cuban dissident Digna Rodriquez Ibañez was pelted with tar by agents of the regime, in February 2015
Click link above for full article

The Castroit regime human rights violations keeps increasing. The regime keeps the repressive machinery firmly in place. Nevertheless Obama is willing to just look the way, as long as he can get the deal.

 

[AmericanSpartan]

Gawd.
The cold war ended years ago. There's no more East Berlin, no more Czechoslovakia, no more Nikita Khruschev. There's an Angola embassy in the US. Daniel Ortega is back in Nicaragua and there's no Reaganite war against him. Cubans are very nice to the Americans who visit them.
You seriously need to come into the 21st century, dude.

Tell that to Cuba who suppress speech and oppresses their own people.

 

[AmericanSpartan]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

The Castroit regime is getting all sorts of concessions from the Obama administration, like increasing the flow of American tourists, offering an economic lifeline and the promise of diplomatic recognition. This would be a huge bonanza for the regime. But let not forget that the Castroit regime stole property from Cubans and U.S. citizens and has developed a society where even the most basic freedoms are denied to the population.

Leftist wish to emulate such events..

 

[AmericanSpartan]

I was just correcting your claim. I think an embargo on a ****ty caribean socialist dictatorship is pointless. Cuban cigars are ober rated.

If we lift it we wipe out the Cuba Leadership with a few stealth missiles..

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

If we lift it we wipe out the Cuba Leadership with a few stealth missiles..

Why? to what end? What threat are they posing? How again are you anything remotely libertarian?

 

[AmericanSpartan]

Why? to what end? What threat are they posing? How again are you anything remotely libertarian?

Well lets be honest the current leadership will never change nor end and it would be great to wipe the slate clean.

I am very Libertarian on many issues.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Well lets be honest the current leadership will never change nor end and it would be great to wipe the slate clean.

I am very Libertarian on many issues.

Not only does this make little sense but the sense i can make out of it does not apply to my question

 

[AmericanSpartan]

Not only does this make little sense but the sense i can make out of it does not apply to my question

Lets be honest, is the Castro Regime anything but corrupt and evil?

I mean we wipe out the leadership, nothing much worse can replace it.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

Lets be honest, is the Castro Regime anything but corrupt and evil?

Let's be honest. Who the **** cares?

I mean we wipe out the leadership, nothing much worse can replace it.

Even been in a combat zone?

 

[AmericanSpartan]

Let's be honest. Who the **** cares?



Even been in a combat zone?

We should, because with such an influx of cash they will just grow even stronger and more tyrannical. We can crush them once and for all...

Does the border count?

Does being shot at count?

 

[Sandokan]

History Lessons for the Architects of the New US-Cuba Policy
History Lessons for the Architects of*the New US-Cuba Policy

José Azel May 11, 2015

Following President Barack Obama’s announcement of a rapprochement with the Cuban regime, US government officials have offered that fostering the small-enterprise sector in Cuba is a centerpiece of the new policy.

Architects of the new US-Cuba policy rationalize that unconditionally ending economic sanctions will strengthen Cuba’s self-employed sector and, thus, foster a civil society more independent of the government. Eventually, they explain, this more autonomous civil society will function as agents of change, pressuring the regime for democratic governance.

This is an ethnocentric proposition anchored on economic determinism that overweighs economic variables and fails to understand the Cuban regime. For example, in a totalitarian system, those in self-employed activities remain bound to the government for the very existence of their businesses. Self-employment in a totalitarian setting does not confer independence from the government. On the contrary, it makes the newly minted entrepreneurs more beholden to the government in myriad bureaucratic ways, as few are willing to risk their livelihood antagonizing their all powerful patrons.

History instructs us as to the outcome we can expect. During the student protest in Tiananmen Square, China’s business community did not come out in support of the students. More recently we also witnessed a similar situation in Hong Kong. Sadly, these business communities were not willing to jeopardize their positions and support the students promoting democratic change.

What makes administration officials think that a Cuban business community bound to an all powerful state for their very existence would act differently?

Supporters of the new policy believe that a critical mass of self-employment will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the regime to resist the social pressures for change. That is, thousands of micro-firms operating in Cuba would be an unstoppable force for change. From this perspective of economic determinism, governments under such pressures must change or collapse. Again, this fails to account for the nature of the Cuban regime. We can look for instruction in Cuban history.

Beginning in the early days of the Cuban Revolution and climaxing with Fidel Castro’s “Revolutionary Offensive,” the regime embarked on an effort to eliminate all private property. First came the expropriations of foreign enterprises, followed by the expropriation of large Cuban-owned businesses, and finally all economic activity was taken over in 1968.

According to Cuban-government statistics, 55,636 micro enterprises, mostly of one or two persons, were confiscated. Among them, 11,878 food retailers, 3,130 meat retailers, 3,198 bars, 8,101 food establishments, 6,653 dry cleaners, 3,345 carpentry workshops, 4,544 automobile mechanic shops, 1,598 artisan shops, and 1,188 shoeshine stands.

Even with this sizable private sector in operation, the regime was able to exert total control. Moreover, this private sector had fresh memories of an imperfect, but significantly free pre-Castro Cuba. It was a civil society still imbued with the political principles of the 1940s Cuban Constitution enshrining liberty. And yet, this civil society was unable to prevent the communization of the island, or bring about change in the regime.

Not coincidentally, and perhaps correlational, this period was the most brutally repressive of the Castro era, with thousands of executions and tens of thousands of long-term political prisoners.

A strong argument could be made that self-employment without political freedom requires intensified repression in order to maintain control. Thus, increased repression in Cuba could be one of the unintended consequences of the new policy.

The self-employment Cuba permits consists of permits to provide services in 201 subsistence activities, such as repairing umbrellas and peeling fruits. Its participants are mostly individuals born after 1959 with no living memories of political freedoms. So, on what grounds do supporters of the new policy formulate change championed by the newly self-employed?
For full areticle clicxk link above.

Fidel Castro, in a speech in November 1961, defended censorship saying “The revolution is the first to lament that individual guarantees cannot be granted.” President Osvaldo Dorticos in 1964 remarked: “Our principal idea has been freedom for those who support the Revolution, nothing for those who are opposed.” In March 1968 the Castroit tyrannical regime destroyed the last vestiges of private enterprise.

 

[Tuatara]

Re: The Castroit Obama, Raúl Castro Plan Historic Meeting at Panama Summit on Saturda

The Castroit regime is getting all sorts of concessions from the Obama administration, like increasing the flow of American tourists, offering an economic lifeline and the promise of diplomatic recognition. This would be a huge bonanza for the regime. But let not forget that the Castroit regime stole property from Cubans and U.S. citizens and has developed a society where even the most basic freedoms are denied to the population.

Ahhh, the master of propaganda is back at it again. Cuba is a sovereign nation. Cuba offered concessions for the land that were nationalized. Only the US companies denied these payments. They also instructed other foreign business owners to do the same. Remember US enforced their policies first.

The U.S. will place embargos on sugar, oil and guns, and issue propaganda. In addition, the plan calls for Cuban exiles to attack Cuba and attempt to overthrow Castro. March 17, 1960.

U.S. oil companies in Cuba refuse to refine Soviet oil. Within the next month Texaco, Esso, and Shell oil refineries will be nationalized. June 7, 1960

In response to these seizures, the U.S. Congress eliminates Cuba's remaining sugar quota. July 3, 1960

Cuba nationalizes all U.S. companies and properties. July 5, 1960

American Experience | Fidel Castro | Timeline | PBS

For lands taken over compensation was offered in the form of Cuban currency bonds to mature in 20 years at 4.5% interest. Bonds were based on land values as assessed for tax purposes. During Batista's reign American proprietors had lands assessed at very low rates.

Land reform in Cuba - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia