Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban president Raul Castro during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in December 2013. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban president Raul Castro during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in December 2013. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The Guardian’s Jonathan Watts continues to interview Cubans reacting to the huge changes in US relations.
Reflecting continuing anxiety about saying the wrong thing in a nation with an often repressive record, some Cubans would only speak anonymously.
One man, who has family connections with senior politicians, said he was optimistic that today’s developments would herald a major change in relations.
“For Cubans, this news is a big step forward. We are very optimistic about the consequences of this negotiation , especially for the economy of Cuba and the end of the blockade, which is so damaging to us,” he said.
While Obama spoke, Raul gave a relatively brief address, which started with the announcement that the Miami three agents had been released – Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramón Labañino. “As Fidel said in July 2001 – they will return,” Castro said.
Castro said that he had spoken to Secretary Kerry about normalizing relations between the two country, adding that President Obama’s decision deserved “respect and gratitude.” He also thanked the Vatican, Pope Francis and Canada for their support in the process.
Raul Castro’s speech. Photograph: Enrique de la Osa/REUTERS
But he stressed there was still much work to be done: the US economic blockade remains in place, he said, causing “enormous damage to our people. It must end.”
Acknowledging that the blockade is established in law, Castro said that president Obama could modify its application, and he called on the US government to adopt measures which will benefit both countries.
“Recognizing that we have many fundamental differences on the subjects of national soveignty, democracy, human rights and foreign policy, we reaffirm our willingness discuss all of these subjects.”
Castro called on the US government to remove the obstacles between the countries, dividing families – specifically he called for the re-establishment of direct flights, postal deliveries and telecommunications.
“The progress we have already made shows that it is possible to find solutions to our problems,” he said
Castro also said that Cuba had freed Gross for “humanitarian reasons”.
Obama stresses that today’s changes are only a few steps: “I’m under no illusion about the continued barriers to freedom that remain for various Cubans.”
“The US government believes that no Cubans should be subjected to arrest or beatings simply [for their beliefs]. Cuban workers should be free to form unions”
“It does not serve America’s interest or the Cuban people to try to push the Cuban government to collapse. … [we know that it’s more likely to achieve] lasting transformation if their people are not subjected to chaos.”
“We can never erase the history,” Obama goes on, but the US and Cuba can move forward.
“Cubans have a saying, ‘No es facil’: it’s not easy, but today the United States wants to be a partner in making the lives of ordinary Cubans a little bit easier, more free, more prosperous.
“In particular I want to thank his holiness Pope Francis, for [trying to make the world] as it should be, rather than as it is.”
He also thanks his State Department team and diplomatic players who were involved.
“Todos somos Americanos … Today America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past. For the Cuban people, for the American people, for the hemisphere and for the world.”
Obama is now running through the policy changes he has instructed, including the immediate review of Cuba’s designation as a sponsor of terror, eased travel restrictions and greater access to technology.
About the embargo he is clear that he cannot change much. “The embargo that has been imposed for decades is codified in legislation.”
Obama. Photograph: Pool/REUTERS
“I look forward to engaging Congress in an honest and serious debate about lifting the embargo.”
“Yesterday I spoke with Raul Castro to finalize Alan Gross’ release and the exchange of prisoners. We welcome Cuba’s decision to release a number of prisoners whose cases were directly raised with the Cuban government by my team.”
“We welcome the decision to increase access to the internet.”
“I’m not expecting transformation of Cuban society overnight [but] we can’t keep doing the same thing for five decades and expect a different result.”
“Proudly the United States has supported human rights,” Obama continues, and then begins to talk about sanctions and why the US placed an embargo on Cuba.
“Though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions, no other nation has joined us in these sanctions, and it has had little effect besides giving the Cuban government rationale.”
Obama points out that US restored relations with China decades ago. “We’ve had relations with China, a far larger county also [governed] by a communist government.”
“Cuban Americans are reunited with their families and are the best possible ambassadors for our values.”
He says that “the wrongful imprisonment in Cuba of a US citizen and USAID contractor, Alan Gross” prevented the US from committing to rapprochement.
“His holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Raul Castro” to secure Gross’ release, Obama says. He repeats the rationale of “humanitarian grounds” and also mentions the second, non-American intelligence agent whom Cuba freed this morning.
“Imprisoned for nearly two decades, this man, whose sacrifice has been known for only a few, provided the information that allowed the US to arrest the Cuban agents. This man is now safely on our shores.”
Speaking from the White House, President Obama begins his remarks: “We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests
Obama. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
“These changes will … begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas.”
“There’s a complicated history between the US and Cuba … I was born in 1961, just two years afetr Fidel Castro took power, and just months after the Bay of Pigs … We’re separated by just over 90 miles.”
“All of this bound America and Cuba in a unique relationship, as both family and foe.”
The three newly freed members of the Cuban Five have been in prison for more than 15 years, technically convicted of “conspiracy to act as non-registered foreign agents”.
Two of those men’s wives, Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, have been advocating for their husbands’ release for years, and spoke with Duncan Campbell for the Guardian about the case in 2006.
“They give us different arguments every time as to why they will not give us a visa,” says Perez, 38. “They have alleged that we may be a threat to the security of the US or they say that we might be meeting terrorist organisations on US territory. Or they say that I am a potential immigrant, so I can’t enter the country. It changes every time. In Olga’s case, she was deported from the US when her husband was arrested and so they say she will never be eligible for a visa. What it means is that our husbands are serving an additional sentence in that they are not allowed to see us. And for Gerardo and me, it is like a life sentence. It is a form of psychological torture.”
While it would be impossible to be unaware of the case in Cuba, where massive roadside billboards of the men are part of the landscape, the case has received remarkably little coverage in the US, although there are support groups there, the most active of which are in San Francisco. “We have come up against a wall of silence in America,” says Salanueva. “It is very difficult getting the information out, so people really don’t know anything about it.”
“We do not have great hopes in a change of power,” says Perez. “There have been many changes of administration in the United States over the years but the attitude towards Cuba has always remained the same.”
Obama and Raul Castro had a historic phone call yesterday, the Guardian’s Dan Roberts (@robertsdan) relays from Washington, writing about what he’s heard from a senior administration official.
The talk was the first call between American and Cuban presidents since the Cuban revolution ended in 1959.
Obama and Castro also shook hands at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela last year, an brief meeting that has taken on larger symbolic resonance in retrospect.
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Jonathan Watts wrote an analysis at the time, detailing how Cuba has slowly opened in recent years and the US turned toward its neighbor:
This was the closest that leaders from the two countries had come in more than 10 years. For many it matched the mood of the moment. What better way to respect the legacy of Mandela than to open a new chapter of rapprochement at the ceremony for him?
The Cuban government certainly seemed to think so. In a statement, it said the handshake may show the “beginning of the end of US aggressions”.
Castro has recently introduced several significant reforms that indicate that his government is moving towards a gradual opening up, like China.
Overseas travel restrictions were eased last year to allow many Cubans to leave without an exit visa. Computer and cell phone use is now legalised, and this year the government announced the opening of 118 “internet rooms”. Despite the high expense for most Cubans, connection speeds that are low and home internet access still being forbidden, the moves represent an opening of information and cultural channels that were previously tightly closed.
Even baseball, the country’s favourite sport, is showing signs of change. For the first time this year state TV channels started showing US Major League games. These days in Havana you are more likely to see a New York Yankees baseball cap than the green military kepi made famous by Fidel Castro.
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