Cuba’s Foreign Minister Feels Optimistic About Relations with the US

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla told the Associated Press in an interview that he feels “optimistic” that improvements in relations between the United States and Cuba are irreversible despite the harshening of sanctions against the Island.

The Foreign Minister said despite the U.S. blocking communication with Cuba, the progress made by former President Barack Obama cannot be undone.

Rodríguez added, “There’s a historical trend that’s irreversible.”

“There have been levels of communication and mutual familiarity between the peoples of both countries that are irreversible,” he explained.

“I believe it’s proven that the majority of Cubans in Florida support the advances in the normalization of relations and the lifting of the blockade, and the younger they are, the more they support it, regardless, political moments are ephemeral. We have the political will to advance without delay,” Rodríguez said.

In December 2014, the Obama government began easing the limitations of the decades-old embargo, formally restored relations with the Cuban government and both countries. opened up embassies in each other’s capital cities.

However, since entering the office of the president, the Trump administration has imposed new travel restrictions, blocked oil shipments, canceled cruises to Cuba, and placed limits on the remittances sent by Cubans to their families.

The Trump administration also allowed Title III of the Helms-Burton regulations to go forward permitting Americans to sue foreign businesses that operate using property nationalized after the Cuban revolution in 1959.