While the cameras and attention followed the activities of U.S. Second Lady Jill Biden in Havana and Camagüey, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman was moving between the Foreign Ministry and the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investments. His presence almost went unnoticed, with no great song and dance and with very little press coverage. Froman, one of the principal economic officials of the Obama administration, met separately with two Cuban ministers, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and Minister of Foreign Trade and Investments Rodrigo Malmierca: his public agenda indicated “bilateral meetings.” “Ambassador Froman headed an economic research mission to Cuba as part of the ongoing dialogue between the two countries. He met with high-ranking Cuban officials, shareholders of the private sector, conservationists and farmers,” Matthew McAlvanah, his office’s spokesperson, explained to OnCuba. Michael Froman will go down in history for having negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the biggest free trade agreement ever imagined and which involves the 12 countries that move 40 percent of the exchange of merchandise and services in the world; one of the priorities of the economic policy of the current U.S. president and one of the topics of the 2016 election campaign, a policy that has...

The Boeing 737 aircraft used by the Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence flew from Miami to Havana long before joining the transport team available to beat Hillary Clinton and get Donald Trump elected on November 8, 2016. It's a subtle irony if one takes into account that Pence does not play the normalisation game with Cuba, not even in the Republican way. That, despite the obvious interest of farmers and entrepreneurs of his state, Indiana: the increasingly common motive among governors of any political party who join trade missions to displays of good will towards Cuba with increasing theatricality. Before its National Convention, the Democrats already put their willingness to lift the trade embargo and the (tourist) travel ban into writing. Two of the restrictions listed in the great compendium of sanctions that the blockade has maintained against since 1960. The Platform of the United States Democratic Party, the "Guidelines" - to translate it into Cuban - of political organisation of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, set down, in fifty pages, its position in domestic and foreign policy issues; who they believe who they will defend over the next four years. In its two paragraphs dedicated to Latin America...

Congresswoman for Florida, Kathy Castor (D), has an argument that might have changed the mind of the Urban Commission Committee for Miami Beach during its recent debate regarding the appropriateness of permitting, or not permitting, a diplomatic office for the Republic of Cuba in the urban zone under its administration. “I spoke to the Deputy Foreign Minister about a consulate in Tampa” she said to OnCuba last February during a visit to Havana which coincided with the signing of a bilateral agreement on civil aviation. “We had one and we would like to reopen it in front of the José Martí park”. Castor at least had the sense of crossing the threshold of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations and asking someone there what they thought of the possible opening of an office on her district’s property. And that is in spite of the seeming distance and lack of enthusiasm from the local mayor, the Democrat Bob Buckhorn, who said he would accept what “the federal powers decide”. “It doesn’t depend on the mayor”, Castor responded without a doubt when asked about it. “The majority of the community are very supportive of the idea, the City Council and our businesses...

President Obama and the First Lady will travel to Cuba on March 21st and 22nd, the White House announced today. This step will take Obama’s political relation with the island nation to its highest expression – something that would have been unthinkable 11 years ago. "Some things are beyond my control. For example, this whole controversy about Jay-Z going to Cuba - it's unbelievable. I've got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one," joked Obama in 2013 during his speech at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. This would be one of the first references to Cuba, associated to the controversy around the rapper’s visit to Cuba along with his wife, Beyoncé. The name of the small island was not on the political agenda of the President at the time. A few months later in Miami, he made statements about the embargo, which he described as a policy out of place: "Keep in mind that when Castro came to power I was just born, so the notion that the same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective as they are today in the age of the Internet, Google and world travel doesn't make...

Texan senator of Cuban origin Ted Cruz beat magnate Donald Trump with 27.7% of votes from the republican electorate present in the caucuses or nominative assemblies held in the state of Iowa, the first stage of nominating the presidential candidates for the main political parties of the United States. His victory put paid to the myth created by the polls regarding the popularity of Trump, who finished second, with 24.3% of the slips. Another Cuban-American senator, Marco Rubio, was hardly a point behind. He fulfilled expectations: third place with 23% and significantly ahead of the other, less fortunate, hopefuls, like the ex-governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, or neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz was the first politician in 2015 to present his candidacy at the White House. With this victory he began his journey to his party’s nomination, but he will have to conquer other states. Wining Iowa has a symbolic weight. It offers him visibility and recognition among the Republican electorate at the beginning of his electoral career, although it is not a determining factor during the rest of the process. Neither John McCain (Republican presidential candidate in 2008) nor Mitt Romney (in 2012) had any luck in...

Ramón Iván got tired of waiting. He is 21, and was one of the thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica. Not anymore. He didn’t want to wait for an understanding between diplomats and migration officials. He found a way to continue his journey to the United States, crossing Central America and crossing the Rio Grande via a bridge in Texas. “All kinds of things happened there,” he told OnCuba in reference to the hostel in Peñas Blancas, Costa Rica, where he lived for a month with 500 other people. “There were serious fights. They stopped delivering food, and consequently many times we were not given any. It happened more than once. Even information, which in the beginning used to come first-hand from deputy ministers and all types of government officials, became nothing more than flyers on a wall. Desperation was a key factor in his decision and even more so when by mid-December he realised that Costa Rica had not found a single workable solution. Ramón Iván met a Mexican man who presented him with the opportunity to cross the border. He got the offer and didn’t think twice. He says he doesn’t trust governments nor politics, because...

“You want to consolidate our leadership and credibility in the hemisphere? Recognize that the Cold War is over. Lift the embargo,” said President Barack Obama in reference to Cuba in his final address on the State of the Union. Obama also mentioned the island nation in his review of the accomplishments of the foreign policies of his Administration: “Fortunately, there’s a smarter approach a patient and disciplined strategy that uses every element of our national power.  It says America will always act, alone if necessary, to protect our people and our allies; but on issues of global concern, we will mobilize the world to work with us, and make sure other countries pull their own weight.” Once again, he pointed out that the policy toward Cuba had not only affected bilateral relations, but the image of the United States in the region. “Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America.  That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.” But it’s not hard to imagine that his plea for the lift of the embargo won’t be heard...

That former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez supports the process of normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba is not news - he had already voiced his opinion in an article published in the New York Times, and in an interview with OnCuba. Other heavy weights of the Cuban-American business sector and the political milieu in Washington have enthusiastically expressed their support to the reconciliation and the changes in the new economy of the island where they, or their parents, were born. Comparing past and present positions toward Cuba is futile at this point. When President Barack Obama shook the hand of Raul Castro, he opened a door to a new understanding of Cuba, both for Americans and Cuban émigrés, many of whom were still stuck in a Cold War mentality. Carlos Gutierrez is an example of how, in only a few months, a person can go from total scepticism to wholeheartedly supporting the normalization of relations, without renouncing his believes, as he wrote in his NYT piece in June. “After years of hostility and failed attempts at détente, I wondered: Did the Cuban government really want better ties with America, or was this simply another chess...

The Texan governor, Greg Abbott, and businesspeople from the agricultural industries and docking sector paid a three day visit to Cuba on an economic mission that concluded on December 2. Texas, the so-called 12th economy of the world, has also long been an exporter of food to Cuba, principally for reasons of geographical proximity. Texas is also the second most populous state in the USA, with a disproportionate congressional delegation in the House of Representatives, where the Republicans have the majority. “Gov. Greg Abbott, much like his predecessor, is hardly one to forgo an economic opportunity, even when the politics are tricky,” read an editorial published by the Star Telegram, a Texan newspaper. The aforementioned predecessor is the Republican presidential candidate and Cuban-American Senator of the same state, Ted Cruz, who is opposed to closer working relations with Cuba, the country where his father was born. In contrast to his counterparts in other states, the head of the Texan government has not openly participated in public demonstrations of the continuing normalisation of relations with Cuba. Politicians, like the New Yorker Andrew Cuomo or Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas, have stated their support of the reestablishment of relations a number of times....

Raul Castro and Hassan Rohani don’t have much in common, except maybe that they have recently managed to reconcile with the United States. According to a report by AP, their names are included on the list of speakers who are going to address the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 28th. The information has not been confirmed by the UN on its official website though. For the first time, the Cuban head of state will take part in the General Debate, the most important meeting held by this international organization in New York, where he will be sharing the floor with close allies of Cuba, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. President Castro would be in New York just in time to hear Pope Francis address the UN plenary on September 25th. The following day, the president will make a speech at the summit for the adoption of the 2015 post-development agenda, and will take part as well in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, according to information provided by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday. The first day of the event, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and President Barack...

US farmers and businesspeople are carving out a space for themselves in Cuba’s new economy, preparing for a future that, though still unclear, will apparently accommodate bilateral trade, private investments and planes, cruisers, ferries and yachts carrying tourists to and from the island. The only ones who still have no representatives in Cuba are the more than 1.2 million Cuban Americans residing in Miami and its surroundings. The United States’ agricultural industry has sent over its representatives for the normalization talks in Cuba. New York entrepreneurs visited the island with their governor, and, during a press conference in Havana, Minnesota Senator Al Franken declared that those who support the blockade in Washington are a small minority. Next to him, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall described a number of potential parliamentary formulas to do away with the legal framework of the embargo. Politicians, their elected representatives, have played the role of ambassadors for the corporate interests that are beginning to express themselves more and more. All the while, professional diplomats at either end interpret the Vienna Convention and go about “fixing everything up” to set up headquarters to work at in the two capitals. Democrats and Republicans come to Havana, do...

The fourth round of negotiations between Cuba and the European Union has yielded a number of concrete results. According to the details offered in a communiqué by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno returned home with more items on the agenda for a political and cooperation agreement with UE diplomats in Brussels. How has Christian Leffer, Managing Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, managed to quickly obtain what US negotiator Roberta Jacobson is still working to secure? Over recent months, the diplomats deployed by Havana have expressed Cuba’s willingness to move towards normalization full-steam…with their European counterparts. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez crossed the Atlantic three times during the first half of 2015 and was welcomed in Rome, Brussels and Paris, on one occasion accompanied by President Raul Castro and his second-in-command, Vice-President Miguel Diaz Canel. European foreign ministers have been landing at Cuba’s Jose Marti International Airport in constant succession. By contrast, we can imagine US Secretary of State John Kerry asking Roberta Jacobson when they ought to schedule their trip to Havana to reopen an embassy which, till recently, seemed a far off prospect in the field of diplomacy....

The U.S. and Cuba could be announcing the re-establishment of relations in early July, according to “U.S. sources familiar with the matter” quoted by Reuters. The reopening of embassies has been preceded by a step filled with symbolism: the installation and renovation of flagpoles at the Cuban and U.S. Interests Sections, respectively. Now the diplomats on both sides of the border await the final decision, that must be notified to Congress by the Department of State fifteen days in advance –right away, that is. The formal opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana depends on a trip of Secretary of State John Kerry to the island for the inauguration. The sources that spoke to Reuters said that the trip will have to wait for now, as Kerry is currently recovering from a broken leg –due to a biking accident in France–, as well as quite busy with the June 30 deadline for a final nuclear deal with Iran. The normalization process has kept the U.S. House of Representatives busy. Last week, lawmakers focused on blocking the funds that had been requested for the U.S. Embassy to be able to operate in Havana –funds which are not to be provided by...

The reestablishment of tourist relations between Cuba and the United States is going to take a while. Opening embassies depends on the governments, but a U.S. federal law forbids Barack Obama’s compatriots from crossing the southern part of the Florida Strait solely for vacation time. What’s new in the last few months is the opportunity to pack your backs and reserve a hotel in Havana or Varadero, using one of the general licenses authorized by the U.S. Treasury Department beginning in January of this year. Approximately 170,000 people from the United States visited Cuba in 2014, the last year of the restrictions that were lifted by President Obama. The effects of the executive orders issued by the White House can now be seen in streets of the largest island in the Caribbean. The avalanche of tourists is not just from the United States. Canadian, French and British travelers are coming back (or coming for the first time) to Cuba, which the headlines have placed in everyone’s sights. In the first three months of 2015, the number of foreigners who arrived in on the island and its adjacent cays shot up by 12 percent, according to figures published by the National...

In March 2014, Pope Francis met with U.S. President Barack Obama and spoke to him about Cuba, Alan Gross and the three Cuban prisoners the island nation was demanding back. Little is known about that conversation, but two White House officials later said those had been the main issues discussed that day. They thanked the Vatican afterwards for its role in the negotiations with Cuba. When it was announced that the Pope would be visiting the United States in September 2015, the Cuban government thought it was a good opportunity to invite him to visit Cuba as well. In September, Pope Francis will be travelling to Cuba, a country he already visited in 1998 as Jorge Bergoglio, as part of the entourage of Pope John Paull II. At the time, he was one of the Assistant Bishops in Buenos Aires. He poured the memories of that trip into a 140-plus page book titled Dialogues between John Paul II and Fidel Castro –that was rescued from oblivion by the Argentinean press following the announcements of December 17th, 2014. The book contains his first opinions on Cuba, its socialist system and conflict with the United States. He devoted a few lines to...

James Williams will be president of Engage Cuba, an advocacy group that will be launched in May to get as many votes as possible in Congress in favour of normalizing relations with Cuba. The organization has been described by The Wall Street Journal as “a group of heavy-hitting political operatives” who are “setting up a new campaign to press Congress to repeal the long-standing trade and travel embargo with Cuba.” “There are many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who didn’t necessarily support the policy before, but didn’t act on it because there was no incentive, and it seemed unlikely to move forward,” Williams told OnCuba via e-mail. “The status quo, hard-line position was the only viable answer politically a few years ago, but that’s no longer true,” he added. “Engage Cuba is timely because there is a new environment in Washington, both from a regulatory perspective but also from a political one, that makes change possible.” In his opinion, the fact that Republicans hold the majority of the seats in Congress will not be an obstacle. His organization includes several GOP politicians, such as former Deputy Secretary of Labor Steven Law, and former Special Assistant to...

The NASQAD bell doubled over Cuba. The inverted metal cup marking the beginning and end of the sessions in the largest US securities automated market tolled on April 1, 2015 to the blows of a heterogeneous group: politicians, businessmen and observers of reality of an island that is still a prohibited area for business made in USA. The slow political thaw between Havana and Washington raises questions with answers that may be worth a few hundred million dollars. What opportunities and risks should American companies consider to explore business potential of one of the largest markets in the Caribbean? That is the question Knowledge @ Wharton wanted to answer. The digital newspaper of the Wharton Business School hosted a Cuba Opportunity Summit, gathering at the Nasdaq MarketSite of New York's Time Square to a range of knowledgeable and interested people in the reality of the island. On behalf of the Department of Commerce came Stefan M. Selig, Undersecretary for International Trade, who delivered a speech describing outreach initiatives fostered by his office. He pointed to opportunities that open to the Caribbean country without ignoring reality. "The Cuban economy has deep structural challenges," said Selig, giving a diagnosis of the problems...

The US State Department appointed Assistant Secretary Tom Malinowski as its representative in the negotiations on human rights with Cuban diplomats to take place in Washington from today. He directs the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. His experience in the field goes back to his role as director of the Observatory for Human Rights. In the past, Malinowski served as senior director of the National Security Council during the last three years of the Clinton administration as a speechwriter. The Cuban delegation which went to Washington last Sunday is led by Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, Deputy Director General of Multilateral Affairs and International Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba. Official statements from the island have insisted that this meeting is the result of a Cuban proposal in July 2014, when still the rapprochement between the two governments was secret. "The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the methodology for future talks on human rights," Jeff Rathke, director of the Press Office of the State Department, told reporters. The Cuban side has said that the "results of Cuba in the promotion and protection of human rights, not only for our people" will be exhibited, and...

Daniel Sepulveda came to Havana to discuss a key issue in the normalization of relations. The title of his position (Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy) describes a part of his work. It is a prioritized by the Obama administration in its rapprochement with the government of Raul Castro, alongside the fight against trafficking in persons and air transport between the two neighboring nations. The third technical meeting between officials of Cuba and the US explored ways to "implement the modifications to the embargo on telecommunications and restrictions that are still in force" reported on its website the Ministry of Communications. "The meetings were held in a positive atmosphere, focused on developing telecommunications and Internet connections between the two countries," said Jeff Rathke, director of the Press Office of the State Department in the daily briefing they have. "Sepulveda said that his intention is to facilitate access of Cubans to the networks, which make our people and our government with it, it is our decision," says Cuban researcher Harold Cardenas of the blog La Joven Cuba, who attended an informal meeting with the delegation headed by Sepulveda. The US delegation included officials from the Departments of...

The State Department wants to give its Interests Section in Havana the title of embassy ASAP. Preferably it wants it done before the Summit of the Americas in Panama. A senior official of the State Department expressed it in a conference call where he answered questions from the press, prior to the third meeting in Havana between a Cuban delegation and the one headed by Roberta Jacobson. The Assistant Secretary of State crossed the Straits of Florida for a stay whose duration is not determined. Member of the Northern representation, whose name was not published in the transcript of the exchange he had with journalists from various media "cannot be sure exactly when they will end," he said. "We don’t expect these (talks) to be very long, not a large number of days. So I think we will be back probably in midweek. " He clarified that the trip to Havana was not planned, but since last February it was agreed "that we would have more conversations in person if we felt it was productive to." The round of talks is exactly three months after the phone call between Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro, instant when both made public...

In 2014, Laurent Fabius was the first chief diplomat of a First World country to come to Cuba after total openness to foreign investment. Securing land for his people, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs opened in Havana a subsidiary of Ubifrancea, governmental office dedicated to explore trade and investment opportunities . "The representatives of French companies have told me about the expectations that the law on foreign investment that has just been adopted represents", Fabius said then, in a speech at the residence of the French ambassador in Havana. He predicted that "other businessmen will join these pioneers in the coming years. They can be supported on the mobilization of our diplomatic and commercial network. "A year later, Paris politicians premiere another milestone. French President François Hollande will be the first head of state of that country to set foot in Havana. The trip scheduled for May 2015 will probably meet all the rituals: meetings with businessmen and ministers, a reception in style at the Palace of the Revolution and the meeting between Hollande and Raul Castro. Liberty, equality and Business The visit of the leader of Élysée Palace is preceded by that of his Secretary of State for...

Barack Obama is in no hurry to normalize relations with the government of Raul Castro and believes that his initiatives towards the island will boost greater economic changes. Asked by Reuters about when he will re-open the embassy in Havana, the President of the United States said, "My hope is to be able to open an embassy, and that some of the initial field work has been completed”. The pace of the process is the same as indicated by the diplomats of both countries. "Note that our expectation was never to achieve complete normalization immediately. There is still much work to do, "said Obama, reiterating the view expressed both by Roberta Jacobson as Josefina Vidal. But the transformations focused their interest in talking about Cuba. "The very fact that since our announcement the Cuban government has begun discussing ways in which they will reorganize its economy to accommodate a possible foreign investment." According to Obama, "that is already forcing some changes that promises to open up more opportunities for entrepreneurs, more transparency in terms of what is happening in the economy, and has always been the premise of this policy." He recalled that "after 50 years of a policy that...

Diplomats in Washington already see tangible benefits in the new relationship with Cuba. The State Department spokesman said the agreement with the government of Raul Castro offers advantages in national security, business opportunities and foreign policy. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki: "There are economic benefits for both the United States and the people of Cuba," she said to a question on the subject, during the usual daily briefing organized by the governmental agency. The official also spoke on the continental scope of the initiatives taken by President Barack Obama in December 2014 "Beyond our relationship with Cuba and the benefits to our national security interests and the Cuban people, we also think that this will be beneficial to our relations with the region, "said the State Department spokeswoman, referring to the positive reaction of Latin American countries on the normalization of relations between Havana and Washington. The press conference proceeded in parallel with the second round of negotiations between diplomatic delegations of Cuba and the United States, where representatives of the island put on the table the status of their country as a terrorist nation from Washington. About the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, Jen Psaki reminded...

Andrew Cuomo will be added soon to the avalanche of Democrats welcomed in Cuba during 2015. The governor of New York will come to Havana on April 20, to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by the new optical his country's relations with the economy the Caribbean's largest island. "The change in policy of President Obama is the first step in opening new markets and business opportunities to New York," said a statement posted on the official website of Cuomo, who also reported statements by José Cabañas, head of the Interests Section of Cuba in the United States. The governor will travel heading a trade mission, the first at state level to come in Havana after the start of the normalization process. The New York politician is not the only one to have on the island on his sights. Secretary of Commerce of the United States Penny Pritzker announced in December 2014 an official visit to Havana in the near future "to lead efforts to expand our commercial diplomacy." José Cabañas, diplomat representing Cuba to Washington, said that "as the gateway to America, the state of New York has always been a great symbol for the Cuban people. It...

The buyer looks at the price and gets frightened. An electric shock shakes his body. 240 pesos for a towel is too much, even in the country where a car costs a quarter million dollars. The customer is confused, or he is unobservant and will discover it soon. The initial concern disappears seconds later. He finds the same price in convertible pesos (CUC), the Cuban currency that is pegged to the US dollar. The towel actually costs 10.00 CUC. The largest number is in Cuban pesos, future survivor of the elimination of the dual currency now accepted in malls where before 2014 you could only pay with its 24 times more valuable twin. Monetary reform occasionally gives a scare to Cubans that go shopping without hearing, enter one of the shopping centers that already accept both currencies, each labeled product has two prices, sometimes at a distance confuse the buyer. The TRD stores offer payment facilities in CUP / Photo: Miguel Febles Hernández Now you can pay in CUP! announces a placard under the cash register in stores. A story that killed the illusion of millions of Cubans that the end of the dual currency would lead to lower prices,...