US, Cuba to resume airline service

Among Obama’s regulatory changes this year was one permitting such travel to Cuba without specific Treasury Department permission.

The two countries formally restore diplomatic relations.

It is unclear when the flights would start because negotiations between the Cuban government and the United States airlines could take months. “However it’s been something of a disappointment as well”, he adds, “mainly over the inability to lift the embargo”.

“Cuba must try to make economic reforms so that it can be seen to be returning to the world economy”, said Peter Schechter, a Latin America specialist with the Atlantic Council, a U.S. analysis group. For decades, Washington’s policy was to isolate the island.

They fear the normalizing of relations will end the special United States residency rights granted to Cubans since 1966.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama today called for the lifting of the US embargo against Cuba.

Progress, one person at a time?

In a rare broadcast of his speech on state television, the 84-year-old leader said, “Cuba will continue insisting that to achieve the normalization of relations it is imperative that the government of the United States remove all policies of the past”. Castro also reiterated Cuba’s commitment to socialism and bemoaned USA programs aimed at undermining the Cuban government, such as support for dissidents. “We have to make enough moves so that if there is an unfavorable change in the U.S”. Academic exchanges and “educational tours” are quickly expanding. Obama has also taken steps to encourage closer business ties with the island.

On December 14, 15 and 16 the third round of technical talks on civil aviation between delegations from Cuba and the United States, including the establishment of scheduled flights between both countries, was held in Washington. “There is no beef, nothing has happened.’ We were promised new businesses would spring up, that there was going to be human rights improvements”, said Coral Gables Mayor Jim Cason.

Since President Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, there have been endless headlines heralding the reduction of travel restrictions for US citizens. But sticking points remain in normalising the bilateral ties. Cubans who reach United States soil are allowed to stay and are granted residency, while those who are caught at sea are turned back.

The return of commercial flights appears certain to create a surge in travel that would place heavy strain on Cuba’s already overstrained tourist infrastructure. Obama told Yahoo News in an interview released on Monday about the anniversary that he hopes to visit Cuba in 2016, but only if he is able to meet with political dissidents and if he can possibly “nudge the Cuban government in a new direction”.