Cuba responded positively to the U.S. proposal to reopen negotiations on Cuban immigration to the United States, halted in 2004 by President George Bush. The U.S. offer was a new gesture of openness of the Obama administration which attempts a cautious and gradual approach with the Castro regime. Cuba also accepts the U.S. proposal to establish direct mail services between the two countries.
Initiated under the Reagan administration, the talks on migration became regular in the 1990s when both countries had sealed agreements to prevent a mass exodus of Cuban refugees to the United States. U.S. President Barack Obama has already expressed his desire to reconnect with the Cuban communist regime and decided in April to curb restrictions on travel and remittances to the Cuban-American community.
Excluded from the talks, in the meantime, is the issue on the lifting of the embargo imposed on Cuba since 1962. Obama has said that he might consider the lifting if it aids the progress of democracy in Cuba. One of these democratic indicators would be democratic elections. Earlier this month, a senior Democrat estimated that the embargo would probably be lifted by the current Congress whose mandate expires at the end of 2010.
Via BBC
