Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Congressmen report on meeting with Fidel Castro

On Tuesday, three members of the Congressional Black Caucus discussed their historic meeting with former Cuban president Fidel Castro.

Castro “was very engaging, very energetic, (and) discussed a wide range of issues," said Rep. Barbara Lee. Rep. Laura Richardson observed that Castro “looked directly into our eyes, quite aware of what was happening, and said to us 'how can we help President Obama?'"

Lee, Richardson, and Rep. Bobby Rush met with Castro in Havana on Monday as part of a visiting group of seven congressional Democrats. The conversation was said to be political in nature and touched on possibly normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba. "Fifty years of foolishness is over," said Rush in opposition to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

The meeting may end up being much ado about nothing or (hopefully) the first step in thawing decades of icy relations between the U.S. and Cuba. As the BBC News said:
President Obama is expected to announce soon that he is easing restrictions imposed in 2004 by George W Bush on travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans.

Last week, a bill was introduced to Congress which would allow unrestricted travel to Cuba for all Americans.

Meanwhile, in an article published on Sunday, Fidel Castro said his country was not afraid to talk to the US.

But no-one is yet expecting the lifting of America's 50-year-old trade embargo on Cuba, our correspondent adds.
Image- AFP
Online Sources- First Read, The Telegraph, FOX News, BBC News, Reuters

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

here's the thing with an end to travel restrictions: if the US does it, big deal, they end restrictions, on the Cuban side they don't actually have to let anyone in, they can refuse entrance to people as simple as people would be allowed to travel over from elsewhere.