The delegation of Democrats who visited Havana from Tuesday, led by Minority Leader of the House of Representatives of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, gave a press conference on Thursday afternoon, hours before returning to their country.
When starting the meeting with the press, the head of the delegation said that this was a trip to see the reaction of Cuba after the round of talks and recent Washington measures regarding the embargo. In this regard, she said he was “positively impressed by the prospects” of relations and especially the “entrepreneur” Cuban private sector.
On the situation of diplomatic relations, Pelosi said that there are advances in opening embassies, specifically in the banking situation that prevents the Cuban Embassy in Washington to operate normally. In another of the claims of Cuba, its removal from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, “we have taken some steps,” she said.
Other lawmakers like Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, acknowledged that in the process towards normalization of relations, both parties are acting in a mature and respectful manner. It is a time according to Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut “to move forward, not backward.”
About the embargo
With regard to lifting the embargo, Pelosi said the initiative has bipartisan support in Congress, but acknowledged that it is a complicated matter. When asked about how long it can take to end this policy, Democratic Minority Leader gave the floor to the representative from Massachusetts, Jim McGovern.
The Congressman confirmed that it is “a problem to include the item on the agenda of debates in Congress,” without that debate, laws that uphold the embargo will remain intact. Pelosi added that in this scenario, she decided and his colleagues to solve other problems because “the more we open doors to many other issues, further progress will be in that case”.
Collin Peterson, Minn Rep lamented that “nonsense” policy that is maintained, given the enormous benefits that can shed the exchange in branches such as agriculture. In this regard, said that his country collaboration in this field would have a huge impact on Cuba, as would import products of excellent quality at much lower prices.
In addition, Peterson emphasized the considerable underdevelopment of the island in agricultural production and stressed that with US aid, Cubans can produce on their land most of the food they eat.
Telecommunications
One item on the agenda of the visit of the delegation was an exchange with students of Medical Sciences, which transcended, according to lawmaker Anna Eshoo of California, the huge interest of young people to access the internet regularly. “When you talk about telemedicine, the answer was ‘there isn’t any’. But it could exist with broadband, “she said.
In this sense, Eshoo stressed that her country can be very useful, not only to empower youngsters, but so they can “share their values” with the rest of the world. “We want to meet the aspirations of young people, with regard to communications, the Internet, to expand the bandwidth. Those are essential tools in the 21st century and are at least transformative ” she said.
Helping the private sector
To close the press conference, the representative from New York, Nydia Velázquez, promised that she and her colleagues and the American executive, will continue to provide all necessary support to the private sector in Cuba. This is an area in which we have much to share with you, she said.
“Small businesses are the fuel of the US economy,” she said. Hence the interest of the government and the US Congress to boost what Havana called “self-employment”. Velázquez acknowledged that she expects her country’s financial institutions will provide assistance to small businesses.
Human rights
The congresspersons said they were positively impressed by the reactions of the Cuban government and civil society to the process of restoring bilateral relations. However, some, like Elliot Engel (R-NY) and Jim McGovern did not hide their “concern about the situation of human rights in Cuba”.
Engel confessed that he “expects more changes for Cuba” in that sense and McGovern considered helping enhance these rights, it is necessary to “accelerate the process to reopen embassies”.
Several legislators stressed the need to turn the page of confrontation that the two nations have kept for more than half a century. In this regard, they stressed the interest of President Obama to build relationships without the bitterness of the past.
The real history -said Steve Israel of New York is breaking with the past history. That’s the history we want to build.
