'New chapter': Obama reopening U.S. Embassy in Cuba, targets embargo
Declaring a “new chapter with our neighbors in the Americas,”
President Obama on Wednesday announced the reopening of the long-closed
U.S. Embassy in Cuba and urged Congress to support the warming of
relations with Havana by lifting the decades-old embargo.
Standing in a sunny Rose Garden, Obama said many Americans and Cubans were making a “choice between the future and the past” and urged Congress to do the same.
“Why should Washington stand in the way of our own people?” he asked. A decision to “double down on a policy of isolation” only shuts America out of Cuba’s future and makes life worse for the Cuban people, he said.
“When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don't think anyone expected that it would be more than half a century before it reopened,” he said. “After all, our nations are separated by only 90 miles and there are deep bonds of family and friendship between our people. But there have been very real, profound differences between our governments, and sometimes we allow ourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things.”
Cuban officials were expected to announce plans to reopen their embassy in Washington. Both countries have operated lower-level diplomatic missions in recent years, but without full diplomatic ties.
The development comes six months after Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed to end the Cold War-era standoff.
The two leaders met face to face at a regional summit in Panama this spring, and have steadily moved to ease travel and trade restrictions.
The announcement signals that negotiators have resolved several sticking points during an intense series of spring talks
Standing in a sunny Rose Garden, Obama said many Americans and Cubans were making a “choice between the future and the past” and urged Congress to do the same.
“Why should Washington stand in the way of our own people?” he asked. A decision to “double down on a policy of isolation” only shuts America out of Cuba’s future and makes life worse for the Cuban people, he said.
“When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don't think anyone expected that it would be more than half a century before it reopened,” he said. “After all, our nations are separated by only 90 miles and there are deep bonds of family and friendship between our people. But there have been very real, profound differences between our governments, and sometimes we allow ourselves to be trapped by a certain way of doing things.”
Cuban officials were expected to announce plans to reopen their embassy in Washington. Both countries have operated lower-level diplomatic missions in recent years, but without full diplomatic ties.
The development comes six months after Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro agreed to end the Cold War-era standoff.
The two leaders met face to face at a regional summit in Panama this spring, and have steadily moved to ease travel and trade restrictions.
The announcement signals that negotiators have resolved several sticking points during an intense series of spring talks
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