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In an interview with Academy Award-winning actor/activist/citizen diplomat Sean Penn for The Nation, Cuban President Raul Castro said he would like to meet President-elect Barack Obama on "neutral ground," suggesting the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay as an ideal location.
Raul Castro’s main desire is to see the normalizing of trade, something which would certainly improve economic conditions in the island nation.
Obama has already said he is willing to meet with Raul Castro without preconditions, and that after taking office on Jan. 20 he would "immediately" lift all restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba. But, says Obama, lifting the trade restrictions would be contingent on Cuba releasing 219 prisoners of conscience currently behind bars.
Penn asked Castro if he would be willing to meet with Obama in Washington. The Cuban president replied that he "would have to think about it," but that it would not be fair for either leader to go to the other’s territory. Instead he wryly suggested the base at Guantanamo:
We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift … we could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay.
The United States leases Guantanamo from Cuba in an uneasy deal that dates to the Spanish-American war. Cuba insists that Gitmo eventually be returned to their control. As Cuba’s Defense Minister for nearly five decades, Raul Castro is said to have had good relations over the years with U.S. base commanders. Castro commented to Penn about the U. S. military base:
The base is our hostage. As a president, I say the U.S. should go. As a military man, I say let them stay.
Currently United States citizens may travel to Cuba for only for research or humanitarian purposes and must go through significant hurdles to do so. Earlier this month forty-two leading American researchers in the field of cancer and immune system diseases attended a a biannual conference on immunotherapy organized by the internationally respected Havana-based Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM). Among other things, normalization of trade with could expand scientific research into cures and vaccines for cancer, as well as giving Starbucks and McDonalds a whole new market.
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Raul Castro may not be the firebrand speaker compared to his more famous brother – but he is just as savvy. I hope Obama does agree to meet with him – this embargo of Cuba is just insane. I could argue that we should have an embargo with China for all the same reasons and more. So why does China have MFN status and Cuba is completely isolated? Totally dumb IMHO.
“We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting, we could give the president a gift … we could send him home with the American flag that waves over Guantanamo Bay.”
Um.. I’m confused. Is he saying that he might gift us with some sort of permanent cession of the base.. or is he saying he wants us out of there and the persident-elect might as well take the US flag back with him as a souvenir once we’re evicted?
- asw
I hope you know why China is different. Too many mobsters and businesses(like Big Sugar) think land down there belongs to them. They won’t support lifting the barriers until either they die or get what they feel is their due.
I think he was making a pointed joke, but basically saying he’d like Gitmo closed and us off the island as a military presence. And yes, for Obama to tour Gitmo and Cuba itself would be eye opening.
The Castros, and all of Cuba, would welcome normalization of trade )and American tourist dollars). Goodness knows there are plenty of classic car collectors who would love to get their hands on those pre-Revolution Fords and Chevys tooling through the street of Havana!
I think there is a desire to negotiate now, especially since young Cuban Americans in Miami went strong for Obama,and Cuba has much to gain–and to offer: sugar cane and switch grass for example that can be used as bio fuel, scientific research, innovations inner city medical care, along with emerging markets and tourism. To help the country out of poverty would be wonderous…
I think it’s time to move on. I hope they do meet.
Bebe Rebozo?
Regardless of the history and role of the naval base at Guantanamo, what Bush built there has forever tarnished that name. Guantanamo is our Abu Ghraib. The naval base portion can never be thought of separately from the images of the prison there. Obama can never set foot on that soil until that dungeon is fully dismantled, and then only as a way to show the world we are ashamed of what we did.
oh the heads exploding in Miami.
Maybe it will clear their minds once and for all
allo ee n mm
allo tw3kman
LOL!
Sean Penn in quite the ambassador, huh? I’d love to visit Cuba.
Obama could and should set foot on Guantanamo ASAP to face the truth and begin to dismantle and set right the hypocritical restrictions on Cuba.
There are two major obstacles:
1.) Miami Cubans enjoy the status quo (Wet Foot, Dry Foot = Full Medicaid benefits, food stamps, student aid, housing for political asylum seekers, ie: All Cuban refugees and very few others).
2.) The Republican Party who co-opts this arrangement. This includes the right wing media it owns which will attempt to prohibit any such meeting.