HAVANA, Dec 21 — Cuban President Raul Castro urged the US to end a five-decade economic embargo against the Caribbean island, while welcoming an agreement to restore relations.
“We share the idea that this may open a new era between the United States and Cuba, which starts with the re- establishment of diplomatic relations,” Castro said before the Cuban parliament today. “An important step was taken, but the essential problem of the economic embargo still needs to be solved.”
US President Barack Obama and Castro on December 17 said they would begin normalizing relations between the two nations, opening a US embassy in Havana and lifting some of the restrictions on trade and travel that date back to the early days of the Cold War. Castro today said it will be a “long and difficult struggle” to completely lift the embargo, a move the US Congress would have to approve.
Obama said he will engage Congress “in an honest and serious debate” to end the embargo.
Castro, whose older brother Fidel ruled the country until stepping down in 2008, said he welcomes Obama’s decision and is also encouraged with the US revising Cuba’s inclusion on a list of terrorist nations. Castro said Cuba has never violated human rights or engaged in any act of terrorism against the US.
The Cuban leader thanked Pope Francis for his mediation in the agreement and said he’ll attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April.
Castro, 83, also said “Cuba will never give up the ideals it has fought for” and asked the US to respect the nation’s political system.
The Cuban economy is poised to expand 0.8 per cent this year, according to Moody’s Investors Service, less than the 2.2 per cent forecast by the government at the start of 2014. — Bloomberg
