All posts by JaimeM

Blockade

The second round of face-to-face talks between diplomats from Cuba and the United States

f0006815Submitted by editor on Thu, 03/05/2015 – 00:00

 

 

 

CUBA, March 5, 2015. The second round of face-to-face talks between diplomats from Cuba and the United States concluded on February 27, with progress made toward implementing measures announced by Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro on December 17.

The meeting took place at the Department of State in the U.S. capital with the aim of opening the way toward restoring relations and the opening of embassies, taking place in a “respectful and professional climate,” according to Josefina Vidal, Ministry of Foreign Relations (Minrex) Director General for the United States and head of the Cuban delegation.
“We had a good meeting and made some progress.”
Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the U.S. host, said that for her part, they had seen, “the type of constructive exchange that advances us toward a more productive diplomatic relationship.”
“In an open, honest, and sometimes challenging yet always respectful conversation, we addressed the requirements of each side and the differences we identified in our first discussion in Havana a month ago, and we made meaningful progress towards resolving them,” she added.

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The Cuban Five

Fidel meets with the Five heroes

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On February 28, the Cuban leader received the Five anti-terrorists and conversed about the many years of injustice they suffered

Author: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
march 2, 2015 11:03:08

I received them on Saturday, February 28, 73 days after they stepped foot on Cuban soil. Three of them had served 15 long years of their youth breathing in the damp, foul smelling, repugnant air of yankee prison cells, after being convicted by venal judges. The other two, who also attempted to stop the empire’s criminal plans against their homeland, were also sentenced to various years of brutal imprisonment.
The very same investigating bodies, completely devoid of the most basic sense of justice, participated in their inhumane incarceration.

Cuban intelligence services had absolutely no need to track the movements of a single U.S. military team, as they could observe from space everything that moved on our planet through the Lourdes Radio Electronic Exploration Centre, located to the south of the Cuban capital. This center was able to detect any moving object thousands of miles from our country.

more pictures at end of article

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Blockade

The blockade has not ended Interview with Josefina Vidal, Ministry of Foreign Relations Director General for the United States

Author: Cristina Escobar | informacion@granma.cu

february 12, 2015 18:02:55

Cristina Escobar.- Cuba and the United States are entering a new stage of diplomatic relations. How can these relations be constructed after so many years of confrontation, and what do the recent talks between the two countries mean? These were the questions posed to Josefina Vidal, Ministry of Foreign Relations (Minrex) Director General for the United States, in an exclusive interview with Cuban television.

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Photo: Juvenal Balán

 

 

 

 

Josefina Vidal stated, “The President of the United States has options, I would say unlimited, to gut the blockade of its fundamental content.”

Josefina, there are people on the street here in Cuba, and also in the international media saying, or asking, if the United States blockade of Cuba has ended. Is this true?
Josefina Vidal.- No, no, the blockade has not ended; what has happened is that the President of the United States, making use of his executive prerogatives, which he has, announced a series of measures modifying the implementation of some aspects of the blockade. It was within this context that a series of regulations were issued – mandated by him and formulated by the Departments of Treasury and Commerce – to expand travel to Cuba, expand as well allowances for remittances, and permit some commercial transactions, still of a limited nature, in spheres such as telecommunications, for example.

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CELAC

Declaration of Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries on the necessity to end the United States economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba

 

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The Heads of State and Government from Latin America and the Caribbean, gathered in Costa Rica, in ocassion of the III CELAC Summit, made an appeal to end the United States blockade against Cuba.

SPECIAL DECLARATION OF THE COMMUNITY OF LATINAMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STATES ON THE NEED TO PUT AN END TO THE ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL BLOCKADE IMPOSED BY THE UNITED STATES AGAINST CUBA

The Heads of State and Government of the Latin America and the Caribbean States gathered in Costa Rica, on the occasion of the III Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), on 28 and 29 January 2015:

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