Barack Obama
Joe Biden
COLD WAR MENTALITY
Easing of Cuba Sanctions Under Consideration
New SOS Kerry looking at more open relations
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by David Mark
Editor-in-Chief t
Image: AP.
After more than a half-century with no diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, Secretary of State John Kerry is looking at easing tensions. The Boston Globe reports high-level U.S. diplomats have concluded that Cuba should no longer be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
Cuba no longer actively supports terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or former members of Spain's Basque Fatherland and Liberty, also known as the ETA, according to State Department findings.
Kerry has met in recent days with officials to review the Cuba policy.
The pressure to de-list Cuba as a terrorism sponsor comes as a bipartisan congressional delegation traveled to Cuba this week to discuss how the two estranged nations might find ways to lift a U.S. embargo in place for five decades and cooperate on a host of economic, agricultural, and security matters.
Cuba policy has in recent years been a less partisan issue than during the Cold War era. Republican members of Congress representing Midwest farmers are eager to open up new markets. And some Democrats have been more hardline. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is of Cuban descent and has been reluctant to see an easing of relations as long as the Castro regime stays in place.
Via The Boston Globe, and Politix analysis.
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