One year after Cuba and the United States officially resumed diplomatic relations, Cuban leaders called on US President Barack Obama to take steps to make the countries’ recent progress “irreversible.”
Speaking on July 20 with the Cuban newspaper Granma, Cuba’s top diplomat for US affairs, Josefina Vidal, said Mr. Obama should “use his executive authority to the maximum to continue introducing political changes,” according to Yahoo News.
One of the main policies Mr. Obama should undertake, Ms. Vidal reportedly said, is issuing the go-ahead for Cuba to use the US dollar and transact with American banks.
“The US government has not issued any political statement or legal document explaining to the banks of the world that operations with Cuba are legitimate and will not be sanctioned,” she said.
While Ms. Vidal said that Mr. Obama can and should use his executive power to further strengthen US-Cuba ties, the president’s ultimate goal of lifting the five-decade-old trade embargo on the island nation will require Congressional action.
To that end, not much progress has been made over the last year, the New York Times editorial board wrote on Sunday.
More restrictions?
Moreover, some lawmakers are pushing for the US to impose more restrictions on Cuba.
Yahoo News reported that a group of legislators headed by US Representative John Katko of New York introduced a bill this month that would prohibit commercial flights between the countries until the US Transportation Security Authority certifies Cuban airports.
Though Yahoo News reported that the bill is unlikely to advance in Congress, the action was nevertheless met with criticism from Cuban officials.
“Our airports are safe, and not because we say it, but because the specialists of the TSA say it,” said Armando Garbalosa, the head of security at Cuba’s civil aviation authority.
TSA officials reportedly buttressed Mr. Garbalosa’s claims, saying that the TSA has a “strong, professional relationship” with Cuba’s civil aviation authority, and that the country has been receptive to all of the TSA’s proposals.
US election
Looking forward, the relationship between the two countries could depend heavily on the outcome of the US presidential election in November.
The Democratic Party’s platform states that a Hillary Clinton presidency would continue the progress Mr. Obama made and seek to lift the trade embargo, while the Republican Party’s platform states that a Donald Trump presidency would only lift the embargo if Cuba meets a number of demands, including “legalisation of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally-supervised elections.”
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