At Americas Summit, Obama Reaches Out

U.S.-Cuban Relations Begin To Thaw, But Both Sides Stress Action; Obama Greets Chavez, Ortega

(CBS/AP)  Trading their warmest words in a half-century, the United States and Cuba built momentum toward renewed ties on Friday, with President Barack Obama declaring he "seeks a new beginning" - including direct talks - with the island's communist regime.

As leaders of the Americas gathered for a summit in this Caribbean nation, the head of the Organization of American States even said he'll ask his group to invite Cuba back after 47 years.

In remarks kicking off the weekend gathering of nations - of which Cuba was the only country in the region not represented - Mr. Obama repeated the kind of remarks toward the Castro regime that marked his campaign for the presidency.

"The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba," he said at the Summit of the Americas opening ceremony. "I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled to overcome decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day."

Analysts cautioned that the week's developments were encouraging but do not necessarily mean normalized relations are around the corner.

"This is a thaw, but it's a thaw that's going to take some time," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "I wouldn't look for any dramatic breakthroughs. There's a lot of distrust."

Still, President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, in her remarks to the summit's inaugural session, won applause when she called on the United States to lift the "anachronism that the embargo means today," a reference to the nearly half-century-old U.S. ban on trade with Cuba.

"Let's not miss the chance," she said, to build a new relationship with Cuba.
The diplomatic exchange came amid several unusual developments at the Summit.
In a rambling nearly hour-long speech, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega told the Summit he is "ashamed" to attend the meeting because of "the absence of Cuba," reports CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer.

Ortega sarcastically said that Cuba's "crime has been that of fighting for the independence and sovereignty" of people in the region and complained that Cuba has been "punished, penalized and excluded," Maer reports.
Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States in 1962. While some Latin American countries argue that Cuba should be invited back into the OAS, the U.S. has insisted that Havana would first have to enact human rights and democratic reforms.

The Sandinista leader avoided any direct comment on President Obama's recent liberalization of policies toward Cuba. Ortega, who recently met with Raul Castro in Havana, protested the summit's failure "to condemn the blockade and isolation of Cuba" by the U.S., Maer reports.

Separately, prior to the Summit opening ceremony, Mr. Obama shook hands and briefly spoke with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - a sharp critic of the U.S. who has nevertheless softened his tone at times recently - and with Ortega, according to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

The flurry of back-and-forth gestures between the U.S. and Cuba began earlier this week when Mr. Obama dropped restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, challenging his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, to reciprocate. Mr. Obama noted those moves and renewed his promise for his administration to engage with the Cuban government "on a wide range of issues," including human rights, free speech, democratic reform, drugs, immigration and the economy.

"Let me be clear: I am not interested in talking for the sake of talking," the president said. "But I do believe that we can move U.S.-Cuban relations in a new direction."

In a diplomatic exchange of the kind that normally takes months or years, Castro had responded within hours to Mr. Obama's policy changes this week. He extended Cuba's most open offer for talks since the Eisenhower administration, saying he's ready to discuss "human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners - everything." Cuban officials have historically bristled at discussing human rights or political prisoners, of whom they hold about 200.

The United States replied Friday, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offering: "We welcome his comments, the overture they represent, and we are taking a very serious look at how we intend to respond."

Administration officials are making it very clear: Castro's words were welcome, but they're still looking for action, like releasing political prisoners, reports CBS News White House correspondent Bill Plante.

And OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said he would ask the 34 member nations to invite Cuba back into the fold. Analysts doubted Insulza - known for his political caution - would have done so without a nod from Washington, which contributes a huge portion of the OAS budget.

"We're going step by step," Insulza said. He called on the group to annul the 1962 resolution that suspended Cuba because its "Marxist-Leninist" system was incompatible with OAS principles. If two-thirds of foreign ministers agree at a meeting in Honduras next month, the communist government will be reinstated.

Mr. Obama, in his remarks, rejected what he called a false choice "between sticking to inflexible policies with regard to Cuba or denying the full human rights that are owed to the Cuban people."

However, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs made clear that while Castro's new openness to change was welcome, the U.S. wasn't abandoning its demand for Cuba to start making concrete moves toward freedom.

"They're certainly free to release political prisoners," he said aboard Air Force One as Mr. Obama flew into Trinidad. "They're certainly free to stop skimming money off the top of remittance payments as they come back to the Cuban island. They're free to institute a greater freedom of the press"

And Castro didn't retreat from his criticism of U.S. policy, recalling Thursday that the United States has long tried to topple the government that he and his brother Fidel have presided over for 50 years.

"That's the sad reality," he said.

Said Peter DeShazo of the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "These are very preliminary steps, but they are significant."

The U.S. severed all diplomatic ties with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961, just three months before exiles launched their disastrous invasion of the Bay of Pigs.

The last significant effort toward talks were secret negotiations between an aide to then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and an emissary from the Cuban Communist Party at a crowded coffee shop at New York's La Guardia Airport on Jan. 11, 1975. Negotiators met in New York hotels and private homes over several months, but the move died when Castro sent troops into Angola.

Mr. Obama was criticized during his campaign for saying he'd meet with Castro without preconditions, and Castro said during a November interview with actor-director Sean Penn that he would meet with Mr. Obama, suggesting the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay as a venue.

Any possible talks are likely to include involvement of senior Cuban diplomat Jorge Bolanos, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Bolanos and Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez greeted members of the Congressional Black Caucus when they visited Havana this month.

Although neither side has set conditions to simply talk, Mr. Obama insists Cuba make another move before the U.S. takes more action. Castro, meanwhile, demands the U.S. trade embargo on the island be abolished, something Mr. Obama has said will not happen without Cuban moves toward democracy.

The U.S. could balk at Castro's offer to free the about 200 political prisoners held on the island, along with their relatives, and send them all to the United States in exchange for five Cubans serving long sentences on espionage charges. On the list are several people convicted of violent acts, including two Salvadorans sentenced to death for Havana hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist. Cuba currently has a moratorium on the death penalty.

The number of political prisoners held on the island has dropped by a third since Raul Castro assumed power from his ailing elder brother in July 2006. The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation then counted 316 prisoners but as of Jan. 30 documented 205 such inmates, including 12 since freed on medical parole.

Another stumbling block toward normalization is the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which forbids U.S. officials from restoring full diplomatic relations with Cuba as long as either Fidel or Raul Castro is in charge.

[bobnjersey]

[I particularly like the photo of our Annointed Appeaser shaking hands "ghetto style" with Chavez. I bet they sized him up in 30 seconds. ]
[Posted by vistavermin1 at 7:03 AM : Apr 18, 2009 ]

i'll bet you don't have a clue ... and wouldn't no matter how much time is allocated.

your so called 'appeaser' has a brain ... used it to get the degree from harvard ... and used that to rise to the presidency of the united states. he's likely to use that position to do other unexpected things.

what do you have besides a bunch of idealogical talking points?

[AJMarine12]

Don't forget the Senate too now! lol

Posted by Stuart2560 at 7:34 AM : Apr 18, 2009



How about all the governments of the World? They are even talking in Europe about this stupid stuff.



"Arla Foods, a huge dairy products company in Denmark and Sweden, has reckoned that a farmer with 120 cows would be looking at approximately 100,000 Danish crowns (US$17,000) in taxes from greenhouse gas emissions each year if the tax, which is part of a new tax package the government is working on, becomes reality".

[AJMarine12]

Well I heard the gov is gonna put something in every home to measure human gas release and tax us just like the cows!!

Posted by Stuart2560 at 7:31 AM : Apr 18, 2009


I think they should start that in Congress first. They could pay for the stimulus package that way.

[AJMarine12]

An interesting claim - so by eliminating between 60-100 million bison in the late nineteent century, America saved the planet from a sweaty end for another 200 years?

Posted by kaylag04 at 7:10 AM : Apr 18, 2009


If you asked the right person, they might tell you that.

I think the government is still thinking about a tax on cows to offset the damage their gases do.

It's a crazy World we live in now a days.

[kaylag04]

"Oil and cow fa*ts are going to kill the planet."
Posted by AJMarine12 at 6:55 AM : Apr 18, 2009

An interesting claim - so by eliminating between 60-100 million bison in the late nineteent century, America saved the planet from a sweaty end for another 200 years?

[AJMarine12]

Why aren't they drilling? Because the government has done everything possible to put up roadblocks to drilling our own oil and supporting ourselves.

Posted by Rowdy106 at 6:53 AM : Apr 18, 2009


They want to save the planet.

Oil and cow fa*ts are going to kill the planet.

[AJMarine12]

I meant "something is wrong with this"

I've been gone to long and am out of practice.

[AJMarine12]

Oh thats great AJ. If you'd like to smoke some pot without going to jail you dont need to move to Amsterdam. Just go to the white house.

Posted by _BagdadsHere at 6:29 AM : Apr 18, 2009

Back in 04, he talked about making it legal, but that was Obama the candidate and not Obama the President.

I can still remember Hillary doing "a shot and a beer" with the boys when she was running for President and no one said a word about it being a bad message to send to the children, but let the Olympic swimmer, he name slips my mind right now, be seen in a picture hitting on a bong and that is a bad message to send to kids.

Some is wrong with this.

[AJMarine12]

Posted by TeabagBandit at 6:25 AM : Apr 18, 2009

Whatever happened to hydrogen cars? I haven't hear anything about them in a long time, seems like they are pushing electric cars now.

[AJMarine12]

I must take my leave.

Good morning all.

As always, a pleasure.

Posted by formrusmcsgt at 6:15 AM : Apr 18, 2009


Good to see you again Sgt.

Have a good day.