President Castro of Cuba and President Obama met last Friday to discuss relations between their respective countries for the first time in fifty years. This unprecedented meeting could potentially lead to the United States removing the thirty-year-old embargo defining Cuba as a state that promotes terrorism against the U.S. The removal of the embargo is progress towards the U.S. and Cuba reestablishing diplomatic ties since the 1950s when relations crumbled quickly.
In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew U.S. supported Fulgencio Batista as the President of Cuba. By 1960, a strong, antagonistic attitude between the two nations had formed. The U.S. and Cuba began a hostile feud back and forth by hiking taxes and establishing deals with the USSR on Cuba’s side and the U.S. responding by implementing trade embargos and cutting off diplomatic ties. Shortly after, the United States botched a CIA sponsored brigade known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October of 1962 causing extreme aggression and fear between the two nations. Cuba became the second to be added to the State Department’s list of nationally sponsored terrorist states. Within the timespan of a few years, Cuba and the U.S. became strong aggressors against each other creating a frightening situation for the nearby countries.
In 2006, Fidel Castro fell ill and gave the presidential power to his brother Raul. Relations have slowly been improving since then. In 2009, Obama eased the travel ban, which allows Cuban-Americans to contact their families and gives Americans freedom to travel for religious and academic purposes. After a heated period in the same year, when Alan Gross was imprisoned for spying, the U.S and Cuba compromised and released him as well as the remaining prisoners held in the United States.
On Thursday April 9, Secretary Kerry and Bruno Rodriguez, the foreign minister of Cuba, met to negotiate for the reconciliation between the two states. The much-anticipated handshake between the heads of state on Friday at the VII summit of the Americas in Panama City will hopefully be the beginning of a diplomatic relationship between the United States and Cuba.
The U.S. plans on reestablishing an embassy in Havana, loosening financial restrictions on Cuba and allowing limited travel between the two neighboring countries. The precedent set by the negotiations should continue to improve the rocky relationship between Cuba and the U.S.