<p>Finally!</p>
<p><a href=“Canada helps end half-century U.S. embargo against Cuba”>http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/12/17/ap_sources_cuba_releases_american_alan_gross_after_5_years_in_prison.html</a></p>
<p>Agreed. The U.S. policy toward eastern Europe (as supportive as the Russians allowed) resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism throughout the area. There was no reason not to do the same with Cuba, certainly not after the breakup of the USSR. </p>
<p>Personally, I can’t wait to legally visit Havana and try out those great beaches. </p>
<p>Pope Francis facilitated the negotiations. I’m no longer a Catholic so I don’t count, but I like this pope better than the last one.</p>
<p>Opening up the American market is a good thing for the Cuban people.</p>
<p>It’s long overdue. I don’t smoke, but my understanding is that travelers who prefer Cuban cigars will be able to buy and smoke them without fear of being arrested.</p>
<p>D spent the fall semester at the University of Havana. She just returned to the US on Saturday. She was so excited to hear this news today! </p>
<p>I <em>think</em> she was able to bring cigars home with her. They made it out of Cuba and to Tampa, anyway, though I have not heard after the US customs in Tampa. She stopped in Chicago for a few days and has not been home to ask yet.</p>
<p>ETA: she just told me she made it home with 11. Her dad will get 7 of them as his Christmas present. They other 4 are for friends. I don’t know if she bought 11 or if one has already been given to someone. (Isn’t 12 a more normal number?)</p>
<p>Hallelujah. </p>
<p>I won’t say whether or not I went
went… but it’s well known that people who go on study abroads in Latin America (like I did) visit Cuba without incident. </p>
<p>I understand back in the 1990s boarding flights from Mexico to Cuba was a popular and anonymous way for Americans to avoid the sanctions, until the U.S. pressured (threatened) Mexico to get it to report such travels to the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Finally. It was a 50+ year failure of a foreign policy. </p>
<p>Looking forward to vacationing there. I have friends from Canada & the UK who love vacationing there. </p>
<p>LakeWashington, Americans have travelled to Cuba for years through Canadian airports. Not unusual at all and certainly no pressure has been exerted here by the U.S. government. Also, it has been possible for many Americans to travel to Cuba directly from the U.S. provided their reasons for travel meet certain parameters. </p>
<p>It’s wonderful news for Cuba. There were seven meetings between Cuban and American officials held in Canada over the past 18 months.</p>
<p>Someone made a comment that we have better relations with Iran and North Korea than Cuba.</p>
<p>Ummmmmm – no. </p>
<p>‘Normalizing relations’ is a pretty broad brush. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Hope for the better.</p>
<p>His family is very happy with the news, but saddened that Alan’s mother died a few months ago. She never got to say goodbye.</p>
<p>It’s great, and no doubt important to some people that we will now be able to buy Cuban cigars and experience their beaches.</p>
<p>However, if it helps to prop up and legitimize a repressive, cruel government that imprisons and beats people for political dissident, and in Alan Grosses case, imprisons him for the crime of helping Jewish people obtain internet…maybe the dissidents won’t think the swap of a dream of democracy, human rights, and freedom for cigars and beaches was a good one. Yet part of me thinks it is usually a good thing to bring as much Western contact as possible to repressive governments such as this, as it becomes harder for them to contain and control people. I like the thought of tourism helping to enrich the local people, but not the government. I guess we will see.</p>
<p>Seems like we got very little in return. Unless you’re a cigar lover.</p>
<p>@busdriver11 I would think that it will eventually also help our economy. Cubans will want to buy our cars, our clothes, our computers, etc. Have you seen pictures of the cars they drive? It is like they are stuck in the 50’s and 60’s.</p>
<p>It will take time, of course, before they may be allowed to buy our stuff, but I bet it comes faster than we expect now.</p>
<p>I bet the remnants of communism fall apart as soon as Cuba is exposed to modern business and all the stuff that comes with it. </p>
<p>I found somewhat sad and/or hilarious hearing (and seeing on TV) people arguing we need to demand things like free elections, free press, etc. Are they unaware of all our Arab allies? Or China? Or so many others? Just because some Americans are of Cuban heritage doesn’t give us the right to control their country. I only say this because times have changed dramatically from the days when Cuba actively exported military men, equipment and training in explicit attempts to overthrow governments friendly to us. Whatever one thinks about our doing exactly that, I recognize that Cuba was then defining itself as our enemy just as we defined them as our enemy. Cuba no longer does this and mostly sends out medical teams, something we should be encouraging. </p>
<p>I don’t understand why anyone would want to vacation in dictatorship. I mean some people don’t shop at Walmart because they say they treat their employees badly. Compared to how the Castro opposition is treated…well…</p>
<p>Plenty of people vacation in dictatorships and countries that are much, much worse to their people than Cuba!</p>
<p>“I don’t understand why anyone would want to vacation in dictatorship.”</p>
<p>While not a dictatorship, Mexico is a country where laws exist on paper only. It does not deter Americans from coming there by planeloads.</p>
<p>I’ll bet that many have stopped vacationing in Mexico due to the violence there. We won’t even consider it as a vacation destination anymore.</p>