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                US-Cuba Move Ends Decades of Island's Isolation

   by Sharon Behn

   In a few short minutes Wednesday, President Barack Obama and Cuban
   leader Raul Castro took the first steps toward ending decades of
   hostility and struggle between their two countries.

   Washington's policy toward Cuba since the 1960s has been punctuated by
   economic embargoes, diplomatic isolation and covert efforts to
   undermine the Cuban government.

   For its part, Havana never stepped back from its 1960s socialist
   policies after nationalizing all U.S.-owned businesses, including oil
   refineries, banks and telephone companies.

   In a historic announcement Wednesday, Obama moved to reverse U.S.
   policy by easing travel, financial and other restrictions.

   At the same time, in Havana, Castro announced the release of a number
   of political prisoners, and signaled his willingness to negotiate trade
   and other issues. The policy reversal followed a prisoner swap between
   the two countries.

   Relations between the two countries first soured after Fidel Castro
   seized power in a revolution in 1959, causing then pro-Washington
   dictator President Fulgencio Batista to flee the country.

   Castro swiftly began expropriating international business properties,
   farmland and land owned by foreigners.

   Trade with Soviets

   By the early 1960s, Fidel Castro started reaching out to the Soviet
   Union, reaching a number of trade deals. The United States, under
   President Dwight Eisenhower, reacted by placing embargoes on Cuban
   products.

   Those decisions started decades of antipathy between the two countries,
   separated by only 145 kilometers (90 miles) of water.

   By 1961, Washington had cut diplomatic relations with Havana, and
   desperate Cubans who were seeing their businesses and properties taken
   over by the communist government started trying to escape the country.
   Some 1 million Cubans left.

   A failed CIA-led attempt to overthrow Cuba, known as the Bay of Pigs
   invasion, conducted with the approval of then-U.S. President John
   Kennedy, further deepened the mistrust between the two nations.

   Relations reached an all-time low in 1962, when the U.S. discovered
   that the Soviet Union was planning to build a missile base on Cuba. The
   Cuban missile crisis ended with Moscow pledging to remove the missiles
   and Washington pledging not to invade Cuba and also to remove its
   missiles from Turkey.

   Since the 1960s, successive U.S. presidents have maintained a crippling
   economic and diplomatic blockade on Cuba, driving more people out of
   the island nation. Fidel Castro, who stepped down in favor of his
   brother, Raul, in 2008, recently called for a "civilized" relationship
   with Washington.

   The United Nations has repeatedly condemned the embargo.

   The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to extreme economic
   hardship in Cuba but did not force a change in Fidel Castro's policies.

   Private sector development

   Relations between the two countries started to ease under Obama and
   Raul Castro. Castro has taken steps to allow a private sector to
   develop, including in the agricultural sector.

   Critics say Cuba still has a long way to go to end political
   repression.

   On Wednesday, Obama announced the U.S. intent to move toward restoring
   diplomatic relations, a move echoed by Castro on Cuban television on
   the same day. The deal followed months of secret talks brokered with
   the help of the Vatican and Canada.

   Obama said Wednesday that the past policies had failed to advance U.S.
   interests.

   Travel, remittances and financial transactions have been eased. But the
   U.S. embargo, although eased, stays in place.

   ''
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cuba-move-ends-decades-island-isol
   ation/2563434.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-cuba-move-ends-decades-island-isolation/2563434.html