Yahoo... SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but "if these problems aren't resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn't make any sense."
Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other's countries. The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.
Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don't depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.
The Obama administration says removing barriers to U.S. travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States' unaltered goal of reforming Cuba's single-party political system and centrally planned economy.
Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system. Without establishing specific conditions, Castro's government has increasingly linked the negotiations with the U.S. to a set of longstanding demands that include an end to U.S. support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. View gallery Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, stands with … Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, stands with Costa Rica's President Luis Guillermo Solis, …
On Wednesday, Castro emphasized an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the U.S. depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.
The U.S. established the military base in 1903, and the current Cuban government has been demanding the land's return since the 1959 revolution that brought it to power. Cuba also wants the U.S. to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for losses caused by the embargo.
"The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don't give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base," Castro said.
He demanded that the U.S. end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver "just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they're suffered."
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Castro's remarks. View gallery Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, holds the keys … Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, holds the keys to the city alongside Costa Rica's Presid …
Castro's call for an end to the U.S. embargo drew support at the summit from the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also praised the effort by the leaders of Cuba and the U.S. to improve relations. "The two heads of state deserve our recognition for the decision they made — beneficial for Cubans and Americans, but, most of all, for the entire continent," she said.
John Caulfield, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana until last year, said that the tone of Cuba's recent remarks didn't mean it would be harder than expected to reach a deal on short-term goals like reopening full embassies in Havana and Washington.
In fact, he said, the comments by Castro and high-ranking diplomats may indicate the pressure Cuba's government is feeling to strike a deal as Cubans' hopes for better living conditions rise in the wake of Obama's outreach.
"There is this huge expectation of change and this expectation has been set off by the president's announcement," Caulfield said. The Cuban government feels "the constant need to tell their people nothing's going to change ... the more the Cubans feel obligated to defend the status quo and to say that's nothing going to change, the more pressure it indicates to me is on them to make these changes, partly on the economic side but I would also say on the political side."
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Associated Press writer Javier Cordoba reported this story in San Jose and Michael Weissenstein reported from Havana. AP writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.
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Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein 2,617 Comments
Poster Comment:
[Paul] Obama likely became Cuba friendly to further isolate Russia. Castro has only to maintain and improve Russia relations to strengthen his bargaining hand with Obama.
[Tom] 1 63 Many people don't realize that Guantanamo Bay isn't just a prison for terrorists. In fact, the prison section was only built in 2002. Here's the history; During the Spanish–American War, the U.S. fleet attacking Santiago secured Guantánamo's harbor for protection during the hurricane season of 1898. The Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay, with naval support, and American and Cuban forces working together routed the defending Spanish troops. In the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Spain surrendered control of all of Cuba to the United States. In 1903, Cuba signed a treaty that leased Guantanamo Bay to the United States for use as a Naval Station in perpetuity, with the understanding that this would reduce the military footprint of the U.S. on the island. Following this treaty, the rest of the island was granted independence and the country of Cuba was created. Prior to that date there was not and had not ever been a country called Cuba. It was a colony of Spain. So essentially, the U.S. was instrumental in creating what became the independent nation known as Cuba rather than making Cuba agree to lease Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. by force as has been suggested by some posters here! One rent check was cashed after the Cuban Revolution, but the Government of Cuba has declined to cash all subsequent checks. The current annual rent is a bit over $14,000 and it has been paid every year. Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is currently the headquarters and staging base for all U.S. Navy and Coast Guard operations in the Carribean.
sibila cunaea ...what little Tom is not disclosing is that the "Spanish -American War" was provoked by the United States with the specific aim of seizing Cuba and the Philippines from the Spanish in what we now call an imperialistic war. Guantanamo is Cuban territory occupied illegally by the U.S. 2-23