Tuesday, June 30, 2015

US, Cuba Patch Up Diplomatic Ties After 55 Yrs.; US Ended Relations After Cuba OKd Communism

The United States and Cuba will announce an agreement tomorrow (July 1, 2015) to open embassies in each other's capitals, formally re-establishing diplomatic relations for the first time since 1962, the USA Today website reports.

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry will make the announcement tomorrow morning, said three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to reveal this agreement.

Obama has made a rapprochement with Cuba a key part of his second-term agenda, arguing that 55 years of freezing out the Communist country has been counterproductive to establishing human rights on the Caribbean island nation.

With some initial help in encouraging US-Cuban relations from Pope Francis, the U.S. and Cuba have been negotiating the move for more than a year, going public with their diplomatic efforts last December. Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro met personally in Panama in April in a show of support for the new agreement.


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