Obama Moves to Normalize Relations with Cuba
President Barack Obama took the first steps to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations Wednesday.
In a televised White House statement, President Obama announced steps to re-establish a U.S. embassy in Havana, restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba broken in 1961.
"Isolation has not worked," Obama said. "It's time for a new approach."
He also announced measures to increase travel, financial remittances, and commercial sales and exports to Cuba.
What would normalizing relations between Cuba and the United States look like for Americans? Executive Vice President and Professor of Government of Regent University Dr. Paul Bonicello answers this and more.
The president stressed his continuing commitment to promoting democracy, human rights, and the free flow of information for the Cuban people.
Watch President Obama's full statement below:
He thanked the Vatican and Canada for facilitating secret talks over the past year with the Cuban government. And he reached out to the people of Cuba, who he said will drive future economic and political reforms.
"Todos somos Americanos (We are all Americans)," he said.
The policy shift marks the beginning of the end of five decades of U.S. economic blockade of Cuba. Obama said the policy has failed to accomplish the U.S. objective of "promoting the emergence of a democratic, prosperous and stable Cuba."
The move was sharply criticized by opponents of Cuba's Castro regime, including Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair.
Menendez said the actions "vindicate the brutal behavior of the Cuban government."
Obama's statement came shortly after former USAID worker Alan Gross was released by Cuban authorities, ending a five year imprisonment, along with a U.S. sply held in Cuba. The U.S. reciprocated with the release of three Cubans accused of spying.
