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5 Years After Detente With US, Cubans Say Hope Has Dwindled

Associated Press

   HAVANA - At midday on Dec. 17, 2014, the sound of church bells echoed
   in Havana as presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced that the
   United States and Cuba would reestablish diplomatic relations and end
   nearly 60 decades of hostility.

   Five years later, it feels almost as if that historic moment never
   happened, Cubans said in interviews in the capital Tuesday.

   President Donald Trump has spent roughly as much time undoing detente
   as Obama spent constructing it, and relations between the two countries
   are at one of their lowest points since the end of the Cold War.

   Trump has cut back U.S. visits to Cuba -- barring cruise ships, flights
   to most cities and unguided educational travel -- the most popular form
   of American trip to Cuba.

   The U.S. Embassy in Havana has been reduced to skeleton staffing after
   diplomats reported a string of health problems whose source remains a
   mystery. The closure of the embassy's visa section, and end of special
   five-year visas for Cubans this year, means travel to the U.S. has
   become near-impossible for many Cubans who used to fly regularly to
   South Florida to see family and buy supplies for businesses.

   The Cuban economy is stagnant, with tourism numbers flat and aid from
   Venezuela far below its historic peak as Cuba's oil-rich chief ally
   fights through its own long crisis.

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