A Gallup poll found that 59 percent of Barack Obama compatriots favor normalizing relations with the small island country located ninety miles south of their coast. A similar percentage agrees to allow travel and that the government of its country “ends its over 50 year long embargo to Cuba." Responses were collected from the second week of February, after the first dialogue between the governments of Havana and Washington. "It's the first time Gallup asked Americans their opinion about Cuba, since Obama announced in December that he works to restore diplomatic ties with the communist country," Gallup explained when it published the survey results. That consulting firm said the move by the White House is perhaps the main reason for "increased positive feelings toward Cuba," noting that the action of US President likely impacted on that "their liking Cuba". Apart from the restrictions, 46 percent of Americans have a favorable view about the island nation with his State Department renegotiates on February 27th. The criterion improved considerably compared to the nineties. "It is notable because it is the most favorable rating that we measured for Cuba in the history of our investigations here in Gallup" Frank Newport chief editor of...

Members of Congress seem to stand in line to come to Cuba. Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, arrives in Havana almost simultaneously with the departure of three senators from her country back to Washington DC. The legislator comes with eight other members of her party. "This delegation will work to advance the relationship between the US and Cuba and build on the work done by many in Congress for years, especially with regard to agriculture and trade," said a brief statement from the office of Pelosi published in its website. The arrival of the Democratic leader and her entourage coincides with the announcement of the date for the second round of negotiations between the two governments. "I can confirm that the talks will take place on February 27 at the State Department," said Jen Psaki, spokesman for that institution. The topic of the new session of dialogue would be the restoration of diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies in the respective capitals. But members of Congress come to Cuba at a faster pace than the State Department. The legislative delegation to USA, third in just two months, will meet Cuban government officials, Cardinal Jaime...

Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat senator from Minnesota, led the bipartisan commission of six lawmakers who filed the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act. Its purpose is to allow Americans to do business with the most populous insular Caribbean economy. "The legislation could open the way to new opportunities for US businesses and farmers to boost US exports," reads a statement posted on the official website of Klobuchar. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat Senator for Minnesota The proposal eliminates key points of previous laws that forbid trade and investment of US citizens in Cuba. It would lift restrictions on the prohibitive transactions between US companies and Cuba, as well as limitations to direct shipments between the ports of both countries. The group that introduced The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act to the upper house of Congress is composed of three Senate Democrats and two Republicans, including Jeff Flake, a conservative in favor of the rapprochement to the government of Raul Castro. The law does not mention other points of concern for the government of Raul Castro, as the persecution against financial operations of his country, which Havana considers part of the embargo. Cuba hopes President Barack Obama deepen his executive initiatives to...

December 2006 Raúl Castro gives his first speech as interim president. He includes a sentence expressing his “willingness to resolve at the negotiating table the prolonged conflict between the United States and Cuba.” December 4, 2009 Alan Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is arrested by Cuban authorities and accused of distributing telecommunications equipment as part of what a Havana court described as a “subversive operation.” He is sentenced to 15 years in prison. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama says that Gross’s release is the condition for any dialogue with Cuba. Cuba responds by asking for the release of five of its intelligence agents, who are held in U.S. prisons on espionage charges. April 2012 Barack Obama faces a little-publicized diplomatic crisis. The U.S. president travels to the Colombian city of Cartagena de Indias to attend the 6th Summit of the Americas. There he finds the growing tendency to the left of most Latin American governments, which ask en bloc for the presence of Cuban President Raúl Castro at the next summit meeting, set for 2015. Months later, Obama fires Dan Restrepo, until then his advisor for Latin America, and he offers the...

"We've only just beginning formal talks to normalize relations, which take much longer than the first step, which is the restoration of diplomatic relations." That's the diagnosis offered by the Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson to members of Congress, first before a Senate subcommittee and then the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives. "We started a very useful discussion and try to meet again this month," she said of her upcoming meeting with Cuban diplomats that will take place in Washington. But the head of the US delegation that traveled to Havana to begin the process of reconciliation between her government and Cuba did not reveal other developments, focusing her words on topics of interest to her audience: democracy, human rights and regime change. "We are already seeing evidence that our current approach gives us a greater ability to engage with other nations in the hemisphere and the world to promote respect for fundamental freedoms in Cuba," said Jacobson at both hearings in Congress. The Secretary announced that "we will continue using funds approved by Congress in support of the exercise of civil and political freedom in Cuba, providing free information flowed and providing humanitarian assistance." In...

"The US president has a chance, I'd say unlimited, to empty the blockade of its substance." Josefina Vidal said so in an interview broadcast on Cuban television in prime time. The Director General of the United States Division of the Cuban Foreign Ministry responded for more than forty minutes questions about the blockade and future relations with the northern country. The diplomat took the opportunity to reiterate a thesis: Barack Obama can do more. "There are only a limited number of issues that the President cannot change because they are prohibited by law" Vidal said, recalling that a post-coding of the blockade paragraph does not deprive the tenant of the White House of his executive prerogatives. She said that Obama "may authorize, through licensing or the Treasury Department or the Department of Commerce, all other transactions, including trade, services, transportation." Vidal gave examples of other initiatives that could be taken from the White House as allowing the use by Cuba of the US dollar in international financial transactions or authorizing the purchase of products with more than ten percent of US components. "It could allow an American company tomorrow to trade with Cuba, trades in both directions, exporting and importing"...

The US government responded to the demands of Raúl Castro with a resounding 'no'. The territory occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base will remain with its current owner, at least while the administration led by Barack Obama governs. US Press Secretary Josh Earnest said there will not be negotiations for the return of the military enclave in Cuba. "The Naval Base is not something that we believe should be closed” he said during a press conference at the White House. About the conditions set by the Cuban president during a regional summit in Costa Rica, he said that "his comments reflect that there is a clear difference between restoring diplomatic relations and make the long process of normalizing relations." With those words, he stated that the disagreement in that case would not prevent a future reopening of embassies. He also confirmed that the issue was not included in the discussions of the Obama administration with the government in Havana. Josefina Vidal, chief negotiator of Cuba to the United States, said she had shared concern about human rights violations in prison built in Guantanamo Bay with US diplomats. Vidal was responding to complaints in this area presented by the US delegation...

60% of Americans polled by the Pew Research Center believe that the recent initiatives of their president to Cuba will not cause any political change on the island located 90 miles from their shores. That view is shared by the Cuban government officials, aware that the administration of Barack Obama maintains the flags of promoting democracy and human rights, adding a policy of benefits and preference for new private actors emerged in the Cuban economy. What they do not suspect in the White House is that their counterparts in Revolution Square in Havana applaud any policy that strengthens the non-state sector, which in 2014 taxed $ 86 million in direct taxes to the budget of the Cuban state. The growth of private workers and cooperatives is a priority of the economic reform undertaken in the country since 2011. The stated interest of the Obama administration to empower private entrepreneurs in Cuba coincides with the announcement by Havana of a campaign against tax evasion, so that each taxpayer to pay every penny he owes. Cuban President Raul Castro announced in December 2014 that "various measures to strengthen fiscal control have been taken." This news has not reached the ears of those...

In presence of the majority of Latin American leaders, the president of Cuba presented the demands of his country for a full restoration of ties with Washington. “Can diplomatic relations be re-established before financial services cut off as a result of the financial blockade are restored to the Cuban Interests Section and its Consular Offices in Washington? How can the re-establishment of diplomatic relations be explained without rescinding Cuba from the List of States Sponsors of International Terrorism? "Asked Raúl Castro in San José, Costa Rica, during the Third Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). He also said his government diplomats will ask their US counterparts compliance with the standards of the International Convention for Diplomatic and Consular Relations, before the establishment of an US embassy in Havana. Castro added that normalization ¨ will not be possible while the blockade remains in effect; the territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base is not returned¨ The Cuban president presented these requirements before the 21 heads of state and government attending this summit. In April, these leaders will travel to Panama to participate in the Summit of Las Americas. Raul Castro was invited for the first...

A few days before the State Department sends diplomats to negotiate in Havana, a delegation of members of the United States Congress flew to the Caribbean island to check the pulse of normalization. Led by Senator Patrick Leahy, a veteran in the dialogues with Cuba, the group made up by three senators and two congressmen intends to "seek clarity" about how Raúl Castro's government sees the restoration of relations with Washington. Patrick Leahy "We want to explore opportunities for greater cooperation and encourage Cuban officials to address issues of real concern to Americans and their representatives in Congress," a statement posted on the official website of Sen. Leahy, who will stay in Havana with colleagues until the evening of January 19th. The first group of Congressmen to cross the Straits of Florida in 2015 plan to meet with Cuban government officials and to have a tentative meeting with the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega. They will also exchange views with the staff of the Office of Interests of the United States and the ambassadors of Mexico, Spain, Norway and Colombia. Cuban President Raul Castro uses to receive Leahy during his trips to the island. Although there are no Republicans...

141 Cubans ended in the port of Cabañas the most dangerous journey of their lives. They started scattered in groups of ten or twenty people, moving on their own in the waters of the Straits of Florida, until the Coast Guard of the United States rescued and sent them to Cuba. The Seventh Division of this military body, which guards the maritime boundary south of North America, detected an unusual rise in the number of Cubans intercepted on their boats in the last two weeks of 2014. 481 Cuban migrants were found at sea or came ashore in the United States last December, a number that exceeds the 222 persons discovered in the last thirty-one days in 2013. Statistical comparison does not alarm the Coast Guard, but the time period in which it occurred. Only 132 went into sea in the seventeenth day prior to the announcement of the restoration of relations between Havana and Washington. The trend continued with the New Year. The US Coast Guard has rescued 96 people before January 5. A spokesman for the institution blamed for this increase to rumors about the repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act. Lieutenant Commander Gabe Somma told AP that...

Enrique Peña Nieto will travel to Washington D.C. to discuss several matters with Barack Obama. On his agenda are the slaughter of Ayotzinapa, the immigration problem and Cuba. The name of the Caribbean island sneaked in his priorities after December 17. The president of Mexico was very interested in changing the relations of its neighbors. He phoned his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro one day after he announced his diplomatic agreement with US Barack Obama. The reason? Mexico has been for fifty years amid enmity between Havana and the northern nation. Key issues such as determining the maritime borders between the three countries in the Gulf of Mexico were stalled by lack of dialogue. The Mexican president did not intend to include the item Cuba during his visit to the White House as a diplomat confessed to the newspaper El Universal in mid-December. Now that same official, Sergio Alcocer, undersecretary of Affairs for North America, recently admitted that "the issue of Cuba will come within the scope of the Mexican case, since Mexico is considered as a relevant and useful actor to further deepen the dialogue between the two countries and facilitating conditions for this to happen ". It would not...

"It is significant that the US President has recognized the inefficiency of protracted attempts to "isolate” Cuba. One can only hope that Washington will soon realize the lack of prospects that exerting similar sanctioning pressure to other countries has. " Thus the Department of Press and Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation said, the same day that Raul Castro and Barack Obama announced the restoration of relations between Washington and Havana. Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, was quick to draw parallels. "His administration realized that the blockade didn’t work at all. I hope that, to understand the futility of such blockades to other countries need less time. " The White House loosens restrictions on Cuba, but at the same time the US political forces have consensus in its efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia. The reversal of Cuba-US relations doesn’t worry Moscow. Lavrov said that "the last visit of President Vladimir Putin to Havana and the recent meeting of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation have shown it, and for us it is evident that our strategic partnership with Cuba is solid". And it is not just rhetoric. As the world digested the news...

Private workers and non-agricultural cooperatives contribute relatively liittle to the State Budget, but in 2014, they exceeded expectations of the Ministry of Finances and Prices. By paying 2.084 billion pesos the so-called non-state managing forms paid the government coffers 29 percent more in taxes than the previous year. They are an expression of the growing participation of these new economic actors in the national economy, said Lina Pedraza, Minister of Finances and Prices in her report on revenues to the National Assembly of the Peoples Power At the time of paying taxes, and different from the entrepreneurial sector, the private sector that operates in Cuban convertible pesos or foreign currency must change them at the Casas de Cambio (CADECA) at a 24 to 1 rate. Therefore, it is possible to calculate their contribution in US dollars, a different scenario from other contributors to the Budget, who fall under the distortions of the dual currency. Revenues of the private sector grew despite their numbers not exceeding the half a million. By December, there were 476 thousand self-employed Cubans, 33 thousand more than the previous year. Cuban Economy Minister Marino Murrillo described as favorable the incorporation of more people to this sector,...

Roberta Jacobson warned State Department correspondents that American citizens still could not buy Cuban products, when a reporter asked if they could now legally buy and take to America some cigars or anything else from the largest island in the Caribbean. The deputy Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere repeated twice "no" and proceeded to give a long explanation about how long it would take for everything announced by President Barack Obama at noon that Wednesday, December 17, to take effect. Jacobson never imagined that a few hours later, right in the White House, one of the people invited to a reception by the day of Hanukkah (Hebrew Christmas) extend to the President of the United States one of the convicted Cuban cigars, which Obama took smiling , and said "Nice!" and brought it to his nose to smell its aroma. An 8-second video showing the moment was shared by the Facebook page of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, the first space to interview the president after announcing the change of direction regarding Cuba. The Treasury Department still prohibits the importation into the United States of Cuban cigars. "The import of these Cuban goods is prohibited if they...

When Barack Obama shook hands with Raul Castro, they both knew that their diplomats were negotiating a prisoner exchange and a radical shift in bilateral relations. The symbolic handshake was small potatoes compared with what their governments were discussing. The decisions announced from Havana and Washington on December 17, 2014 came as a surprise to the press and public opinion in both countries: a total surprise. But the encounter at the stadium in Soweto in South Africa to the call between the White House and the Palace of the Revolution had to walk a long way ... literally. Cuban diplomats took flights to Canada and the Vatican to meet secretly with US officials. Under these conditions of total secrecy, negotiations lasted for 18 months. The issue didn’t stay at mid-level. Even John Kerry reached on four occasions Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, while the dialogues elapsed. The Secretary of State told the chief diplomat of the Caribbean nation that Gross was the key to a new relationship between Washington and Havana. The fate of this man would determine all. This and other details were revealed by US officials to news agency Associated Press (AP), who confirmed that...

The administration of Barack Obama negotiates the release of former US contractor Alan Gross, arrested in Cuba in 2009, but without specifying whether there is direct contact with the authorities in Havana. The US President himself acknowledged that "we have been talking about how we can bring Alan Gross home for quite some time. We have been working through a variety of channels. " Obama was responding to journalist Jorge Ramos, who asked if the former employee of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would be exchanged for the three Cuban agents imprisoned in the United States. "We remain concerned about him. First, we believe that he should have not been arrested, " Obama stated only in an interview with Fusion, without answering another question of whether the" conversations "were with the government of Cuba. After remainding of the facilities provided by his Administration for remittances and travel, closed the subject indicated that he had "no announcement" to make. The White House issued a statement on the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of Gross, specifying that "the release of Alan by the Cuban government on humanitarian grounds, remove an obstacle toward more constructive relations between the United States and...

The future and eventual elimination of the dual currency is a topic of interest to more than 200 Spanish businessmen who have put their capital in Cuba. "Spain would like a faster economic reforms initiated in Cuba, giving greater margin to private enterprise and foreign investment. Spain also wants progress towards monetary union and progress towards a decentralized decision-making, "said José Manuel García-Margallo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain at a press conference at the end of an official two-day visit to the Caribbean nation. Margallo opened his stay in Havana listening to the concerns of the Association of Spanish Entrepreneurs in Cuba (AEEC by its Spanish acronym), whose members held a breakfast meeting with him behind closed doors. Xulio Fontecha, president of that organization, described to Margallo "the need for monetary union and to support the emerging private sector in Cuba," the Spanish news agency EFE reported. The elimination of the duality of Cuban pesos is an ongoing process through a timeline, but no known dates. The current Cuban monetary scenario complicates and hinders exports accounting for national productions, in an economy where businesses operate with a rate different from that used by consumers and self-employed in...

The Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, arrived in Havana on Sunday afternoon November 23, from Colombia. According to diplomatic sources quoted by the Spanish newspaper El País García-Margallo brings a message from the current administration of the United States to the government of Raul Castro. In this regard, the Spanish chief diplomat said in Havana that the details "are transferred to governments, not explained in the media." García-Margallo would carry "very specific messages" probably related to the presence of Cuba at the Summit of the Americas in April 2015. The government of Panama confirmed the invitation to Castro at the meeting of leaders of the Western Hemisphere. El País speculates that it could be a request for a gesture associated with the release of Alan Gross, a US contractor imprisoned in Cuba for "acts against the independence or territorial integrity of the state". In the past, the United States used foreign diplomats to pass secret messages to Havana. The book Channel Back To Cuba recounts half a century of discrete exchange through different personalities. The predecessor of García-Margallo, Miguel Angel Moratinos, also carried a message from Obama to create a "secret communication" with Havana. Spain has a history in...

The Cuban peso was "born" legally on November 7, 1914, with the publication in the Official Gazette a law signed on October 29 of that year by President Mario García Menocal. The National Monetary System was created then in a twelve years old republic The premiere of the coins with the Coat-of-arms of the Royal Palm was in 1915. Minted in Philadelphia, USA, the first pieces designed by the American engraver Charles Edward Baber ended up in the hands of Menocal. This collection is exposed in the Numismatic Museum of Havana and is named after its first owner. The pesos (and cents) then there are very similar to those used today, although they were not used as means of payment. "That coin, the minute it started circulated, became a means of hoarding" explained to OnCuba Oscar Zanetti, Doctor of Historical Sciences specializing in economic issues. "To the practical effects, except the coins (pennies), what circulated in Cuba was the dollar." Issued on precious metals, the Cuban peso was kept in banks or in homes, while the greenback remained in and out of pockets. The emergence of national monetary standard was a national aspiration of the early twentieth century, although the...

Young Ho Oh, President and CEO of KOTRA, Korea Trade Promotion Corporation advises companies from that Asian country to invest increasingly in Cuba, despite the slowing economy in the island and its yet recent opening to foreign investment. In a dialogue with OnCuba Young Ho Oh said that the Caribbean country "has a very important position in world politics" and "is making many positive changes in the economy". He valued optimistically the updating the Cuban economic model and mentioned the recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as an example of the goodwill Havana awakens in the powers geographically close to his country. "There are Korean companies which are keen to invest in Cuba in the future," said Yong Ho Oh, and stated that the entire negotiation process is embryonic. "We are receiving government support in Cuba, but we are different countries and there are some differences of opinion, but what we are doing is bailing these differences, step by step, in order to have a cooperative relationship". Renewable energy is one of the most attractive sectors for possible Korean investment in Cuba. According to the director of Kotra, the Island "has a great future...

As the process of economic reform in Cuba, the elimination of the dual currency proceeds slowly but surely. Although the convertible peso (CUC) will stop circulating sooner than later, already the unification process is felt in the streets: from the new possibility to buy using Cuban pesos (CUP) in some of the so-called dollar stores, to the publication of accounting rules to form prices after Day Zero. Some shopping centers in the province of Camagüey collect more "national currency” than convertible pesos through their sales. Part of the action plan for an economy without duality was studied in lectures by economists and accountants (and even announced by street vendors). A year after the announcement of the “schedule for the implementation of measures that will lead to monetary and exchange rate unification," part of the schedule is already a fact, but the rest remains a state secret. In January 2014, the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) said only generalities like "the country moves steadily" in unification, without details, while ten months later, the president of that institution, Ernesto Medina, reported implementation of a concerted effort with the Central Government to remove duality. As economists have explained, the problem is not the...

The State Department renewed its praise for the contribution of Havana in the international coordination against Ebola, without clarifying whether it is willing or not to cooperate openly with the government of the island. The US State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, declined to comment on whether or not there would be any kind of cooperation. She recalled that the chief diplomat of the United States, John Kerry, acknowledged how "Cuba has dispatched hundreds of health professionals to the region as part of the UN mission (...) and said it is a significant contribution to the response international in general. We have recognized and appreciated this contribution, like that of other countries. " "But the fact that such a small country is providing many resources-more than many other countries, frankly it is a significant contribution," Harf said in a press conference at the State Department, but did not confirm if the United States will perform actions jointly with Cuba. "I am not saying no. I am just saying that I have nothing more to you about those comments, "said the State Department spokesman to a journalist who asked whether Washington would accept Cuba´s invitation to cooperate in the fight against Ebola....

Through executive orders, the President of the United States may authorize the bilateral trade between his country and Cuba or allow travel of citizens of both countries. The American lawyer Robert Muse, specializing in the dispute between Havana and Washington asserted that nothing prevents the current administration to normalize relations "in all areas". "The president can remove restrictions on exports from the United States and at the same time, can allow the import of Cuban products," said Muse from the Interests Section of the island in the North American capital, during a video conference between the embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba. He indicated that no United States law restricts presidential authority. "The Helms Burton encodes the blockade. In 1999, Bill Clinton created the people to people travels. (Senator) Helms complained, but nothing happened. " Through an executive order, Cuba could be removed from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, as well as avoiding the need for licenses to import American products, said the lawyer, who has testified before congressional committees on legal issues related to Cuba. Trade between Cuba and the United States is only possible through special permits issued by the Department of the...

The Central Bank of Cuba coordinates with the Central Government preparations for Zero Day, when the convertible peso (CUC) will disappear along the duality of exchange in the economy of the island. Ernesto Medina, Minister President of the institution that issues the Cuban currency, said the retail prices and the state of the bank accounts will remain unchanged, as announced in July by the Vice President and now Minister of Economy Marino Murillo. The removal process will require "greater amount of circulating cash, and even, we are assessing the possibility of issuing higher denomination banknotes” Medina said in an interview with the Cuban news agency. So far, the 100 Cuban pesos bill (CUP) is the highest in the so-called national currency. Medina said that monetary unification "demand a logistical effort" on the part of financial institutions. The disappearance of the duality will force the conversion of circulating CUC into Cuban pesos. The Central Bank of Cuba is studying other aspects, such as indicators that measure the money supply, "which provide symptom of how far it is correct or not the existing traffic in the population and in the corporate system." Until December 2013, the Cuban government covered its budget deficit...