Friday, March 29, 2024

Obama Strengthens Relations With Latin America

The United States is working to rebuild past relations with Latin America in the recent weeks. This was shown largely in part by President Obama’s visits to Cuba and Argentina this week. However, since it is the President’s last term and the choice for the next presidential candidate is unpredictable, Latin America is greeting this […]

Obama’s Historic Trip To Cuba

History was made Sunday as President Obama became the first president since 1923 to land in the Caribbean country of Cuba. Our neighbors that are only 90 miles away have not been visited by an American president since Calvin Coolidge. President Obama now goes to the island nation to advance talks by both governments in […]

Cuba Open For Business To US Telecom Carriers

In a sign of further steps towards the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) removed the communist nation from its “Exclusion List,’ a global regulatory structure for telecommunications, making it possible for US telecom companies to establish a physical presence in the country and to increase business […]

New York Times Asks for Repeal of Law Making Immigration Easier for Cubans

The New York Times Editorial page has called on the U.S. government to end its preferential treatment of Cuban immigrants under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 which allows for an expedited process for accepting Cuban nationals that dates back to the height of the Cold War when undermining Cuban and Soviet governments was a […]

Agreement on U.S. – Cuba Commercial Flights

The United States and Cuba this week announced that they had reached an agreement to resume commercial flights between the two countries and to “establish scheduled air service” for official purposes because travel to Cuba strictly for tourism purposes is still prohibited under the law. The agreement will “facilitate an increase in authorized travel, enhance […]

Latino Lawmakers Urge Rubio to Drop Nomination Hold

Florida Senator Marco Rubio continues to hold up the nomination of President Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to Mexico and now, after months of delay, 19 fellow Latino lawmakers are calling on Rubio to allow a full vote by the U.S. Senate, in a vote Roberta Jacobson, current Assistant Secretary of State for the Western […]

Record Number of Cuban Refugees Entering U.S.

As a result of the continuing normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, the U.S. has seen dramatic uptick in the number of Cuban refugees reaching its borders due in part out of fear on the island nation that the long-standing “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allows Cuban refugees to stay in […]

Castro Presses Obama to Begin Easing Cuban Embargo

Following their meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Cuban President Raul Castro asked that President Obama use his executive power to dismantle the trade embargo that has stifled the flow of goods to and from the island nation for the past half-century.  Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez related his leader’s message […]

Comentarios from Maria: Celebrate new day for U.S-Cuba relations

In 1999, I was communications director of a federal agency then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service. I worked with the Department of Justice and State on the case of Elian Gonzalez, an adorable 5-year-old Cuban boy who was found floating in an inner tube off the coast of Florida late that year after […]

U.S. will not invite Cuban dissidents to Embassy flag-raising in Havana

The Obama administration reported they will not be inviting critics of the Cuban government to the historic flag-raising at the American Embassy in Havana on Friday. Secretary of State John Kerry will instead meet privately with activists after the event later in the day, illustrating the U.S. government’s policy shift from opposition to embrace. Still, […]